Day 17: Shanghai Art and Shuttlecocks

As far as Saturdays in Shanghai go, this one was pretty awesome. Much better than my last Saturday in Shanghai (2 weeks ago) during which I was pretty sure I would be happier anywhere in the U.S. than in China. Anyways, today was awesome. Basically twelve straight hours of good, clean fun.
So first this morning I headed out to People’s Park and the Shanghai Art Museum. The museum building is gorgeous- really European looking with a beautiful clock tower and English ivy growing up the walls. Unfortunately, it was raining, so I didn’t get to study it as well as I would have liked, but I did get a few pictures. The art inside the building was mediocre, I am sorry to say. They were remodeling for a new exhibition that starts TOMORROW (nice timing of my visit, huh) that is showing some of the art from the Ufizzi gallery in Italy (which I happen to have been to and love) so they only had some stuff open. The first room had this really bizarre modern stuff- I said, “I could have done that when I was four,” and moved to the next room. This was more traditional Chinese artwork and some more modern Chinese stuff. There were some pretty paintings, but overall I would say that Shanghai needs to step it up in the art department.
Then I walked about People’s park for about an hour. This place was gorgeous and even though I got probably a trillion mosquito bites, the flowers and forest bits and ponds and such were very worth seeing. Probably the best part of the park (and maybe my day, the jury’s still out) was seeing rows and rows of papers attached to trees and rocks along the main path of the park. Each one had some handwritten Chinese writing on it, and I couldn’t quite tell what it was. It looked like it could have been some kind of memorial or something because people seemed pretty involved in reading the papers, so I snapped a few pictures and figured I’d ask someone later. Meanwhile, I walked over to one of the ponds and sat and read some of the information from my very touristy book on Shanghai. I got to a part that described what went on in the park and finished with “and clusters of old folks on the weekends putting up listings for their single children and grandchildren who are too busy to date or find mates.” Mystery solved. So, of course, I had to go back to observe what I now recognized as matchmaking and boy am I glad I did. I could not stop laughing. Interested in a Chinese husband who was born in November of 1984 and stands at 1.75 meters? I’ve totally got you covered. I can even get you his phone number. (Note: probably the best two pictures I took were of a man writing down notes in a little notepad off one of the advertisements and a girl entering a phone number right into her cell phone). So I guess those Shanghainese know how to get things done.
After this amusing episode, I walked over to Nanjing Road (this may or may not have been the third time I was there this week) and discovered two things: a really old, nice looking church that was the first to open after the Cultural Revoulation in the late 70’s (pretty significant, I’d say) and the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory!!! I was so shocked to see this, so of course I had to check it out. I felt immediately at home and yes I did succumb to buying some chocolate.
So the rest of the afternoon I spent doing some shopping at the labyrinth-like underground markets. I made a good haul too, but I won’t say exactly what because they are mostly presents for you devoted blog readers. (I will say, though, that if you’ve always wanted a custom made pearl necklace with a design of your own choosing, let me know. Pearls are delightfully cheap here and they make the necklaces right in front of you which is cool.) Unfortunately, I did not find any postcard stamps, so you will be getting any and all postcards I would have sent you after August 21st. Sorry.
So after I got home from shopping, laid out all my purchases on my bed and heaved a sigh of relief at not having anything stolen out of my purse today, I ran out the door to play badminton at one of Shanghai’s very own badminton clubs! Evan, James and I were invited to come by our coworker/intern mentor named Fred (who we agree is very similar to Kermit the frog in all the good ways) and we were very excited to experience something truly unique, but I don’t think any of us guessed how much fun it would be. We took the metro over to the French concession area of Shanghai and to a famous music conservatory that happens to have a badminton court/gym set up in it. Really random, but whatever. We had a blast (a little shout out to the Creers who introduced me to badminton last summer) and it felt so good to get some exercise while not destroying my lungs with acid air. Fred is now the coolest Shanghainese person I know. We stayed for almost three hours and played pretty much the whole time. By the end we were exhausted, but I think we’ll definitely go back a few more times in the next few weeks.
So on our way back to the metro, we passed the quaintest little square and about 20 older couples dancing to jazz music. It was so adorable. The best part was we would have missed it if Evan hadn’t noticed and made us go check it out and take a picture. So we saw a little bit of Evan’s soft side which was refreshing. It’s James’ turn now, though I think it’s going to take a little more for him.