Shanghai, a Lowei description

Lowei in Chinese means foreigner. It is like Gaijin in Japanese.

My Shanghainese colleague explained this to me as we were being given a foot massage.
No! This post will not be a description of a Chinese foot massage. All I can say is that you should go and try it by yourself. Quite surprising!
When my colleague proposed this idea (instead of karaoke), I was not very enthusiast at first (I wanted to go karaoke) but in the end, it was worth giving a shot…enough on that subject!

The food
Every day, I asked my colleagues to bring me to a new restaurant, from a different province. There were ups and downs of course but I had some great food experiences. Sylvain took me to a Cantonese place where I had a Dim Sum feast (thanks again for that!). Another memorable dinner was in a restaurant making food from the province of Chairman Mao! Turtle and frogs on the menu. My colleagues were super proud to explain to me that turtle is famous for making people “healthy” (what they meant was excited and horny). The waiters brought us the live animals in a little bag to show us that the food was fresh. Next thing you see is that turtle chopped up in sauce in front of you.


Another option is to stop at one of the many food vendors on the streets. While eating you can also shop for your 1euro Rolex and bargain it down to 50cents with the street seller.

The city
I spent quite some time wandering around the streets of the old town. Quite a contrast in comparison with the modern Shanghai and its skyscrapers.
I eventually got lost and very wet walking around the town but got to see some pretty authentic looking parts and scenes.

My impressions

Beside the very scary taxi rides (it is really dangerous!), the city was pretty nice and fun crazy. Construction sites everywhere turning parts of the town into giant construction sites. Crowds walking where cars are also driving, modern and old buildings make it another one of these cities full of contrast. I felt that the best way to visit it was to simply walk around and spend some time there. Don’t rush to the touristy bits (you’d get so ripped off), simply enjoy it (and have some dim sum!!!)

-Nico

PS: I bought there an amazing book on Dim Sum, Karin and I are going to seriously work on it!