By Andrea As I mentioned previously, my brother had been living in Shanghai with his girlfriend Ana for the past six months. As a bar manager, Ana had zero chance of getting NYE off, especially when she had just started working at the bar. Being the supportive boyfriend, Jonathan had no interest in abandoning her on the first NYE they would spend together. And I had no interest in breaking my tradition of spending the holiday abroad with my brother (to be honest, it’s still a pretty new tradition; the inaugural event was two years ago in London at the bar Happiness Forgets, and year #2 was spent with our dad and stepmom watching fireworks over Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik).
So that’s how 2018 became the holiday season that we spent Christmas in a Buddhist country that didn’t celebrate Christmas and we rang in the new year in a country that celebrated its own new year a couple months later.
Back to my final hours in Thailand. In an effort to maximize my beach time, I had booked a red eye from Bangkok to Shanghai on the 30th of December. My flight from Samui to Bangkok was originally scheduled for 9:50pm, but because of more delays, I ended up on an earlier flight and landed back at Bangkok around 10pm. My flight to Shanghai wasn’t until 2:15am, so I was in for a long night at Suvarnabhumi. The place was becoming my home away from home.
As much as I love to travel, there are times when it can really be exhausting and test your patience. I had already experienced multiple trying moments on this trip (flight change getting out of NYC, arrival at The Athenee in Bangkok) and I was in for my third test. I hate red eyes just as much as anybody and the flight from Bangkok to Shanghai was approximately four hours, so I was pretty much guaranteed some serious sleep deprivation. Why did I do this to myself?? Well, at this point in life, I knew that one needed to endure challenges to learn and become a stronger person (cue cheesy pop ballad). I also know that one needs to experience bad times to truly appreciate the good times. So, I guess sometimes I need to torture myself with things like four hour red eyes to fully enjoy life?!
I was also testing out a new airline: Juneyao, a low cost Chinese carrier. After I had booked the flight, my brother had scared me with stories about other Chinese airlines, so I had some anxiety going into this leg of my journey. At least I was in business class, even if it was low cost Chinese business class.
Well, the flight ended up being fine and it was also the first time on the trip that I didn’t encounter any delays (in fact, we landed early). The service was decent, the aircraft was new and clean, and my fellow passengers were polite. There were three Chinese kids seated in front of me, but they were probably the best-behaved kids I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying with. Instead of rolling my eyes and trying to picture myself back on the beach, I found myself smiling at how cute they were. All in, I probably got about 2.5 hours of sleep, so I was pretty much a walking zombie by the time we landed at 7am, but that was my own fault for choosing the schedule that I did. If I was more awake and alert, I would’ve taken some pictures, but I did entertain myself listening to the pre-recorded announcements from Juneyao, thanking passengers for enjoying this special journey together and wishing us the best in continuing to follow our dreams. LOL. Not exactly the warm wishes I’ve gotten from Delta in all of the hundreds of thousands of miles I’ve flown with the airline.
I’ve discovered that one of my personal forms of torture includes waiting in a very long, slow-moving immigration line after getting minimal sleep on an overnight flight. Forget all my Zen thoughts above about enduring pain to appreciate pleasure; I really do not know why I subject myself to this stuff. Because I was spending only two days in Shanghai, I qualified for the 144 hour visa-free entry into China. This meant that I did not have to spend the time or money getting a visa in advance, but it did mean that I ended up in an extremely slow immigration line upon arrival. Jonathan had set my expectations that there would be very few people in the special short stay line, but it turned out that everyone with a connection through Shanghai also needed to wait in the same line (about 50 people total). And there was only one immigration officer working. And he was averaging at least two minutes per person. You do the math.
Well, another worker finally showed up about 30 minutes in. And then two more workers showed up 60 minutes in. When I was next in line. Of course. At least now I know to schedule a very long layover in Shanghai if I ever need to make a connection through Pudong airport. On second thought, maybe I should avoid a layover in Shanghai altogether. After a mini drama where I couldn’t find my checked bag since I had been stuck in immigration for so long, my luggage finally turned up and I got to wait in another line for Customs. Thank god this line moved a lot more quickly. And another amen that the taxi queue was nonexistent. Just about two hours after landing, I was in a smoke-scented van en route to my hotel: the Jing’an Shangri-La.
My brother and Ana live in Jing’an, hence the reason I was staying in the neighborhood. I had originally intended to stay at a Marriott/Starwood and had even booked the Portman Ritz-Carlton initially, but decided to cancel after Jonathan visited the hotel bar for a friend’s bartending guest shift and declared it a “shit hole.” Not the adjective I wanted to use to describe my accommodations for my first visit to mainland China. I ended up selecting the Shangri-La for the following reasons: 1) Ana managed the cocktail bar at the hotel and we’d be spending New Year’s Eve there, so it would be very convenient, 2) Jonathan used favorable adjectives to describe the property and 3) It was part of American Express Travel’s Fine Hotels & Resorts program, so I could book with my Platinum AmEx and get a range of benefits.
Thankfully, my room was ready when I arrived at 10am. I headed straight up to the 36th floor, texted Jonathan that I had made it to town safely and snuggled into my HUGE warm bed for a nap. We had planned to meet for a boozy brunch at one of his go-to bars, Tacolicious, and then hit the town. I figured I would nap for a couple hours, hit the gym, take a shower and meet him around 2pm. Well, next thing I knew, it was 2pm and I was just waking up. I had slept for almost four hours, which I’m pretty sure sets a record for nap length in my adult life. I also had multiple texts from Jonathan, wondering where I was. OOPS. On a positive note, I felt very well-rested and it probably wasn’t a bad thing that we were starting a bit later than expected. It turned out that he had quite the itinerary in mind for us.
After a shower and some quick unpacking, I was ready to go. I booked my first Didi ride (China’s version of Uber) and was greeted by another smoke-scented car. Just lovely. I was pretty proud of how I was handling myself in a country that didn’t support any of the American apps that I rely on so heavily now when traveling and where very few of the locals spoke English. Well, silly me, I hadn’t set up a credit card as payment in the Didi app and assumed that my driver would have change. After some awkward back and forth, my brother finally just ran out of Tacolicious to find me and paid the driver with WePay so I didn’t have to tip like 6x what the ride actually cost. First mistake in China.
Tacolicious was a small bar/restaurant owned by an expat from San Francisco named Logan. When I lived in San Francisco, I used to frequent a restaurant named Tacolicious, but there was no relation. Jonathan had warned me that Logan was a big fan of Fernet shots, so our brunch was likely going to be very boozy. Again, not a bad thing that we were getting started a couple hours later than expected. Also hanging out at the bar was a British expat named Sarah and Ana’s adorable Yorkie, Tails (Ana had left earlier to go to work and prepare for her bar’s big NYE party). Tails was bundled up in not one but two sweaters and chilling in a Louis Vuitton bag when I arrived.
One hot toddy, two tacos and four shots later, we needed to get going before things got too crazy. Our next stop was The Rooster, which Jonathan had described as an expat bar going for a “Cheers” vibe (essentially, a bunch of regulars that all know each other’s names). We brought Tails along with us; I have to say it was pretty entertaining watching my little brother carry around a tiny Yorkie in a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Apparently, mulled wine was a big thing in Shanghai, and Jonathan said that the mulled wine at The Rooster wasn’t very sweet, so I figured it was a good idea to try it out. The bar did in fact live up to its vision; I got to meet a number of the people that Jonathan had told me about, including a Swedish couple named Emma and Johann. Sarah also showed up. I will say that I felt pretty sober compared to most of the other people, even after four shots. Ana was able to get a break from work for a bit and also stopped by to say hi. Sunday was trivia night at the bar, which we just observed. It was easy to forget that we were in China.
We had an 8:30pm dinner reservation and had to drop Tails off at home, so we weren’t able to stay for long. As we left, we got to enjoy the snow outside: very small, dry flakes that weren’t sticking but weren’t rain and still provided the magical joy high that snow can provide… basically, the best kind of snow when you actually want to do things with your evening. Next, I got to see Jonathan and Ana’s apartment, a third floor walkup in a row house. We bid our farewells to Tails, then got in another Didi and headed to the Shanghai Edition. Dinner was at Canton Disco, a Hong Kong-inspired restaurant in the hotel. I probably would’ve stayed at the Edition if it weren’t for the aforementioned reasons that I opted for the Shangri-La. It was beautiful, smelled lovely, and Ias just a short walk to the Bund, the waterfront area of Shanghai that is a big tourist destination. The food & beverage options were also plentiful and quite nice. Maybe next time.
We had a couple more stops to make after dinner: The Odd Couple and Speak Low. The Odd Couple was an 80s-themed bar from Steve Schneider of Employees Only fame and Shingo Gokan of Speak Low fame. They are apparently opposites in many ways, hence the name “the odd couple.” Jonathan was friendly with the bartender on duty that night: Dawn, another expat from the States. Dawn was blonde, young and had been living in Shanghai for a year. I felt like I had more in common with her than most of the other expats I had met, so I enjoyed speaking with her. Before we left, she asked us to bring a “boomerang” to her friends at Speak Low (essentially a roadie gift from one bartender to another) on our way out.
Last stop of the evening: Speak Low. A Japanese speakeasy with multiple floors, Speak Low was the only bar in Shanghai currently on the World’s 50 Best list (#20). Shingo also had a couple other bars, including Angel’s Share in NYC. Jonathan has been to all but a few of the bars on the top 50 list, and he always find it entertaining to assess how far I’ve made it through the list when we get together. With the addition of Speak Low, we determined that I was at 26, which is greater than the number of countries that I had visited in my life thus far (23). Well, that was kind of embarrassing. I looked to change that statistic in 2019 (New Year’s resolution, LOL), although I’d likely be adding to my bar number pretty quickly with my first trips to Singapore and Tokyo the following April.
Anyway, we finished our drinks, dropped off the boomerang and took a quick tour of the other floors before wrapping up the night with a quick stop at 1515 West (Ana’s bar) to say hello. Had to keep it relatively calm since the next day was…
New Year’s Eve
First of all, let me be clear that this wasn’t a sightseeing visit to Shanghai. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed that I’m basically just sharing stories about bars and restaurants, without much in the way of historical monuments or museums or, well, culture (although I’d argue that bars and restaurants are culture!) I only had two days in the city and I really just wanted to hang out with my brother and get a sense for what his life in China was like.
So, here are a handful of my very deep insights on Shanghai:
- The bar scene was legit and seemed to offer something for everyone. I noted that a number of places had outdoor/rooftop seating, so it would be even more fun to visit when the weather was warmer (but not too warm – apparently summer gets very hot and sticky).
- That being said, the city did a good job of making winter appealing. Bluish-white-hued lights were strung all over the place and added a lot of charm to what may otherwise be a dark and dreary setting.
- Every taxi or Didi I got in smelled like smoke. Gross.
- I noted that a lot of the streets we walked down seemed very European: cobblestones and tree-lined streets. Well, it turns out that we were in the French Concession, which ended in 1943 (I had to Google that). However, the area still retained the character, which again made it easy to forget I was in China.
- The lack of access to American internet wasn’t THAT much of a challenge. Since I was roaming using my US SIM card, I could still access everything I needed/wanted on my iPhone. And I had pre-installed the important Chinese apps (Didi and Baidu), plus a VPN app on both my phone and laptop.
On the last day of 2018, I slept in and was pretty lazy all morning/early afternoon. Not ashamed to admit it. I finally motivated to hit the gym and was pleased to see that the facilities were excellent at the Shangri-La. Very large, floor-to-ceiling windows, all the equipment you could want, and not crowded. Given the size of the space, I’m pretty sure it was also a club (as in, a gym that locals pay to join). I managed to get a solid workout in, which made me feel better about my plans for the rest of the day/year.
Back in my hotel room, housekeeping really wanted to clean, despite the fact that I had my “do not disturb” light on. Guess that didn’t mean much. After a couple awkward encounters with lots of gestures, I convinced the housekeeper that I needed to shower and then needed to get dressed and made up before she could come in. I still had some time to kill before meeting up with Jonathan, but housekeeping was adamant about cleaning my room, so it was time to leave.
I had grand intentions of actually going outside (!), but once I got downstairs I realized I didn’t know where to go. And they were serving tea in the lobby lounge. And a nice piano player was playing, um, piano music. And it was cold outside. So, I found a cozy seat for one and ordered some oolong tea while strategizing my next move.
Turns out my next move was not moving. The original plan was for me to meet Jonathan at his apartment after some sightseeing, but Ana needed turmeric for some reason, so instead he was coming to me. I drank more tea. And when I got sick of tea, I switched to prosecco. Finally, Jonathan showed up. We delivered the goods to Ana and started on our final bar crawl of the trip. Highlights included:
New Year’s Day
Several people had questioned my decision to book an 11:40am flight home from Shanghai to New York on New Year’s Day (approximately 18 hours in total travel time, including a layover in Detroit), but I stand by my plan. First of all, I had splurged on first class (Delta One Suite for the long PVG>DTW leg). Secondly, if I was going to be hungover and hanging out in bed watching movies, I may as well do it on a plane home vs. in a hotel room. Why spend a throwaway day in Shanghai when I had to get back to work?
All worked out. I woke up in a decent state considering the previous night’s events, packed up my remaining items, checked out, and settled into my final smoky Didi. I still had plenty of time once arriving at Pudong airport, so I was able to finally order a Cheese Latte from Starbucks before checking in for my flight. I still have no idea what the hell is in a Cheese Latte, but my brother had told me it was a thing in China and I was curious to try it.
Fortunately, immigration departing China was much more efficient than arriving. And my flight had been moved up 15 minutes! This was a great way to start the new year. When we started boarding, my NYC friends still had two hours until 2018 was over. And my friends on the west coast still had five hours to go. Nothing like a 37 hour day to make me feel like I had a head start on 2019.
And it was a great head start. Notable accomplishments on 1/1:
- I watched the entire first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- I read over 100 pages of The Sympathizer
- I acquired 11,274 MQMs and $2,393 MQDs to kick-start my 2020 Delta Diamond re-qualification efforts (although the MQMs won’t be a problem due to Delta’s rollover policy)
All this with a hangover! LOL.
At one point in the flight, the flight attendant servicing my side of the cabin mentioned to me, “I noticed that you travel a lot. What do you do?” I sheepishly admitted that the vast majority of my travel these days was for personal reasons (my work travel in 2018 amounted to two flights to Seattle, one flight to Louisville and one flight to London… definitely not enough to earn my Delta Diamond status). Then I wondered exactly what information she had access to that made her aware of how much I travel. I know that the Delta flight attendants can see passengers’ Medallion status level, but do they have access to other information as well?? Back at the Shangri-La, Anna had alerted me that I was on her VIP list. I’ve never stayed at a Shangri-La property before, so my best guess is that this was because I had booked through AmEx? I felt special for about two seconds, but then got a little creeped out when she showed me that she was provided with both my birthdate and my home address. Anyway, I’ll be paying more attention to this in the future. I’m all for being acknowledged as a VIP (even if I feel like an impostor because I’m really not very important), but I don’t necessarily want my personal information shared with strangers…
I guess that’s a fitting end to the post on my first trip to mainland China. Next time I will be sure to experience more culture. Until then, I have a lot of other exploring to do.
