Woke up, as you do.
Spent a little while revising some Chinese, then went online. Ended up spending an hour writing a list of the 15 most important albums in my life.
Then left, to grab some lunch (well breakfast since I hadn't had that yet).
Saw a bus advertising the Earth Hour. In Shanghai! Good luck with that!
Went to take a photo, and my camera said I had to change the battery.
One of the downsides of my camera (a Canon IXUS 65) is that it doesn't have a battery gauge, so it's either working or it's not.
Of course, I should have charged my battery the night before, but I didn't.
Also couldn't find my spare, so ended up going back to the hotel to let it charge for a bit.
Left around 2.30/3.
Headed South down to Nanjing Road, and then West along it to the middle of town to grab a quick bite of lunch.
Then headed off down past the People's Square to try to find the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Went thru a park. There were some birds tweeting, so I tried to get closer to the trees to take a look. Then a park officer blew his whistle repeatedly and pointed at me.
Guess you're not allowed to walk on the grass.
So much for the peace and tranquility of the park, tho.
A bit further up, there was finally a sign to the CCP, and it was a fair way before it. Google Maps on my phone wasn't much help.
By the time I found it, it was 4 o'clock, and it had closed for the day. The building itself didn't even have any prominent signage, and none in English.
Then tried to find Sun Yatsen's former residence. Again, Google Maps was way off, and it also closed at 4.
Shame, because the tourist things in the inner city were usually open till about 10pm.
Then headed West to try to find the restaurant and bar area on Hengshan Lu, which was called Avenue Petain when it was controlled by the French.
Walked for quite a distance, probably for about half an hour. Mostly along Fuxing Road I think. Quite a few little shopping strips with European style fashion, handbags, and the like. A bit further up, there was also a bit musical instruments shop.
Got to an intersection where there was an American consulate (and an Iranian one), and it started looking a bit more promising for bars.
Walked down what I think was Huaihai Lu (formerly known as Avenue Joffre), before realising Hengshan Lu must have been back a bit to the East, so I took a less busy road East until I got to a corner with a big hotel on it. The street signs said Shaanxi Road, but I think it was actually Hengshan Lu.
Started walking along that street, saw a few bars, but mostly what I think of as American bars: big open sidewalk bars with beer brand umbrellas and lots of neon signs. Walked past the subway station. Decided to start looking for the Paulaner brew house I'd read about in Lonely Planet, so pulled it up on Google Maps.
Should have known the directions weren't very good, but it did get me pretty close this time.
When I was near where I thought I should be, I noticed a weird-looking restaurant. It had a big yet almost anonymous sign at the top. It was in Chinese and English, but I couldn't read either (the English was in some bad cursive). What I could read was a little sign saying:
Happy Hour 5-8pm
2 for the price of 1
Cascade, Pure Blonde, Coopers, Tsing Tao
Hang on!
This is an Australian bar! :-)
Walked inside to have a look. They had big posters of Coopers beer and Wynn's Coonawarra wines.
Otherwise the decor wasn't immediately noticeable as Australian, but definitely an Australian theme.
Thought about it for a bit, and decided I might as well.
Had a Coopers Pale Ale. When I'd finished, the waiter gave me the next one.
The place was pretty empty, and it didn't have any seating at the bar. Then I noticed the barman looked Australian, so I thought stuff it, and went to go hold the bar up and have a yak.
His name was James, and he was from Brisbane. He'd been working there for a little while (three or six months), and the bar was owned by an Australian guy as well.
Interestingly, the Australian beers cost 40 RMB (8 AUD), which is only slightly more expensive than they cost when I buy them at a bar back home. Of course, with the 2 for 1, they were effectively 4 bucks each, so you can't say no to that. :-)
One of the things I learned is that there are in fact several different kinds of Tsing Tao, all of which are called Tsing Tao. There is the obvious difference that the convenience stores and Chinese restaurants sell it in a big green bottle whereas the Western restaurants sell it in a small brown bottle with a gold label. Apparently the former is Tsing Tao, the latter is Tsing Tao Gold. I much prefer the former. It tastes like a nice German lager, and is cheaper. The other one's fine, but doesn't taste as nice I reckon.
He then went on to say that even the green one can be different. Not just by batch, but there is some difference that you can only notice by looking closely at the Chinese characters on the back. Unfortunately he didn't know more than that.
Then James mentioned that there was another Australian bar where they had a barbie on a Wednesday night. Tonight being Wednesday, and Australian Lifestyle being pretty quiet, that sounded like a really good idea.
I got directions from James, said goodbye, and headed off with a hand-drawn map.
It was a little difficult to find...
At one point, I was looking for number 155, and the numbers went 135 then 210. Asked at a local hairdressers (which was still open this late, as many shops are), and they said yes, go towards 210.
Which was totally wrong.
Turns out I was at the wrong Zhongshan Er Lu. I think maybe I was at Zhongshan Xi (West) rather than Zhongshan Dong (East).
Called James to check. Eventually found my way to a tiny alleyway.
Inside the alleyway were maybe 20 different bars. Again, nobody knew where it was. Or more likely, the owners thought I'd stay at their bar if they didn't tell me where the Australian bar was.
Finally found it. A place called Kommune.
They had mostly non-Aussies, and mostly groups. Struck up a conversation with the bloke cooking the barbie. Had a few VBs. Spoke to another group from America. Wish I could remember their names.
Then I ended up in another room with a group of Germans who were working for a German naval company in Shanghai. One of the girls had a birthday.
When they left, I ended up chatting to the two managers and one of the barflies. Had a long and argumentative conversation about visa regulations in China that didn't make any sense to me.
Somehow the only other recollection of the night is that I should watch the movie Human Traffic. Also that Bob Hawke would supposedly be cooking the barbie some time in April!
One of the guys offered me a lift part way home on his scooter, but I declined as he was going the other way and had already had quite a few drinks. (By the end of the night, we were all drinking free VBs that were past their use-by-day.)
Ended up walking home along Huihuai Road, a huge concrete viaduct (i.e. elevated road), then Beijing Road, over the creek using a different bridge, then Tiantong Road, past a big shopping that looked like it was vacated for major renovations, and finally crept into bed. The whole walk took about an hour.
What a night!
Spent a little while revising some Chinese, then went online. Ended up spending an hour writing a list of the 15 most important albums in my life.
Then left, to grab some lunch (well breakfast since I hadn't had that yet).
Saw a bus advertising the Earth Hour. In Shanghai! Good luck with that!
Went to take a photo, and my camera said I had to change the battery.
One of the downsides of my camera (a Canon IXUS 65) is that it doesn't have a battery gauge, so it's either working or it's not.
Of course, I should have charged my battery the night before, but I didn't.
Also couldn't find my spare, so ended up going back to the hotel to let it charge for a bit.
The narrow sidewalks
Ad for Earth Hour
Kedi, the most numerous convenience store
Left around 2.30/3.
Headed South down to Nanjing Road, and then West along it to the middle of town to grab a quick bite of lunch.
Then headed off down past the People's Square to try to find the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Went thru a park. There were some birds tweeting, so I tried to get closer to the trees to take a look. Then a park officer blew his whistle repeatedly and pointed at me.
Guess you're not allowed to walk on the grass.
So much for the peace and tranquility of the park, tho.
A bit further up, there was finally a sign to the CCP, and it was a fair way before it. Google Maps on my phone wasn't much help.
By the time I found it, it was 4 o'clock, and it had closed for the day. The building itself didn't even have any prominent signage, and none in English.
Then tried to find Sun Yatsen's former residence. Again, Google Maps was way off, and it also closed at 4.
Shame, because the tourist things in the inner city were usually open till about 10pm.
Hershey's chocolate store on the Southern side of the People's Park
Park where I walked on the grass and got told off
A lot of cars have the Transformers logo on them
A poor-looking area, mixed in nearby new, tall apartment buildings
The site of the First People's Congress (Yi Da) - Closed
Then headed West to try to find the restaurant and bar area on Hengshan Lu, which was called Avenue Petain when it was controlled by the French.
Walked for quite a distance, probably for about half an hour. Mostly along Fuxing Road I think. Quite a few little shopping strips with European style fashion, handbags, and the like. A bit further up, there was also a bit musical instruments shop.
Got to an intersection where there was an American consulate (and an Iranian one), and it started looking a bit more promising for bars.
Walked down what I think was Huaihai Lu (formerly known as Avenue Joffre), before realising Hengshan Lu must have been back a bit to the East, so I took a less busy road East until I got to a corner with a big hotel on it. The street signs said Shaanxi Road, but I think it was actually Hengshan Lu.
Started walking along that street, saw a few bars, but mostly what I think of as American bars: big open sidewalk bars with beer brand umbrellas and lots of neon signs. Walked past the subway station. Decided to start looking for the Paulaner brew house I'd read about in Lonely Planet, so pulled it up on Google Maps.
Should have known the directions weren't very good, but it did get me pretty close this time.
When I was near where I thought I should be, I noticed a weird-looking restaurant. It had a big yet almost anonymous sign at the top. It was in Chinese and English, but I couldn't read either (the English was in some bad cursive). What I could read was a little sign saying:
Happy Hour 5-8pm
2 for the price of 1
Cascade, Pure Blonde, Coopers, Tsing Tao
Hang on!
This is an Australian bar! :-)
Walked inside to have a look. They had big posters of Coopers beer and Wynn's Coonawarra wines.
Otherwise the decor wasn't immediately noticeable as Australian, but definitely an Australian theme.
Thought about it for a bit, and decided I might as well.
Had a Coopers Pale Ale. When I'd finished, the waiter gave me the next one.
The place was pretty empty, and it didn't have any seating at the bar. Then I noticed the barman looked Australian, so I thought stuff it, and went to go hold the bar up and have a yak.
His name was James, and he was from Brisbane. He'd been working there for a little while (three or six months), and the bar was owned by an Australian guy as well.
Interestingly, the Australian beers cost 40 RMB (8 AUD), which is only slightly more expensive than they cost when I buy them at a bar back home. Of course, with the 2 for 1, they were effectively 4 bucks each, so you can't say no to that. :-)
One of the things I learned is that there are in fact several different kinds of Tsing Tao, all of which are called Tsing Tao. There is the obvious difference that the convenience stores and Chinese restaurants sell it in a big green bottle whereas the Western restaurants sell it in a small brown bottle with a gold label. Apparently the former is Tsing Tao, the latter is Tsing Tao Gold. I much prefer the former. It tastes like a nice German lager, and is cheaper. The other one's fine, but doesn't taste as nice I reckon.
He then went on to say that even the green one can be different. Not just by batch, but there is some difference that you can only notice by looking closely at the Chinese characters on the back. Unfortunately he didn't know more than that.
Ah! Now there's a sight for sore eyes!
Me and James at "Australian Lifestyle" in the French Concession
Then James mentioned that there was another Australian bar where they had a barbie on a Wednesday night. Tonight being Wednesday, and Australian Lifestyle being pretty quiet, that sounded like a really good idea.
I got directions from James, said goodbye, and headed off with a hand-drawn map.
It was a little difficult to find...
At one point, I was looking for number 155, and the numbers went 135 then 210. Asked at a local hairdressers (which was still open this late, as many shops are), and they said yes, go towards 210.
Which was totally wrong.
Turns out I was at the wrong Zhongshan Er Lu. I think maybe I was at Zhongshan Xi (West) rather than Zhongshan Dong (East).
Called James to check. Eventually found my way to a tiny alleyway.
Inside the alleyway were maybe 20 different bars. Again, nobody knew where it was. Or more likely, the owners thought I'd stay at their bar if they didn't tell me where the Australian bar was.
Finally found it. A place called Kommune.
They had mostly non-Aussies, and mostly groups. Struck up a conversation with the bloke cooking the barbie. Had a few VBs. Spoke to another group from America. Wish I could remember their names.
Then I ended up in another room with a group of Germans who were working for a German naval company in Shanghai. One of the girls had a birthday.
When they left, I ended up chatting to the two managers and one of the barflies. Had a long and argumentative conversation about visa regulations in China that didn't make any sense to me.
Somehow the only other recollection of the night is that I should watch the movie Human Traffic. Also that Bob Hawke would supposedly be cooking the barbie some time in April!
One of the guys offered me a lift part way home on his scooter, but I declined as he was going the other way and had already had quite a few drinks. (By the end of the night, we were all drinking free VBs that were past their use-by-day.)
Ended up walking home along Huihuai Road, a huge concrete viaduct (i.e. elevated road), then Beijing Road, over the creek using a different bridge, then Tiantong Road, past a big shopping that looked like it was vacated for major renovations, and finally crept into bed. The whole walk took about an hour.
The alleyway with all the bars
Some of the crew at Kommune
The long walk home
What a night!
Post a Comment