#shanghai15

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Odds n’ Ends: An “antique” seller in Zhouzhuang, China

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A temple in Hangzhou, China

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蟹汤包：GIANT crab soup dumpling from Shanghai. Funny story: it was my first time having one of these bad boys. To tackle this you’re supposed to take a little nibble on the side and suck out the soup first before eating the whole thing. However, I was too impatient and stabbed my chopsticks in gun ho...suffice to say I never saw a sadder deflation process in my life. The skin of the dumpling is so thin and delicate, yet elastic and strong enough to hold a brimming amount of soup. Ahh...Chinese culinary delights. 

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Xi’An Bell Tower lit at night

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Story time： This is 人民大厦, the hotel that my travel buddies and myself (6 gals 1 dude) ended staying against our will. I mean, yes it was luxe as fu#K but we were (and still am）broke college students on a budget. What happened was my friend T booked a hotel that was offering rooms supposedly for cheap. Key word supposedly because when we landed from our 20 hour (yes, that’s not a typo, it was 20 hours) cross country train ride bonding experience, we found out from a kindly local gentleman that it didn’t exist (yet). 

Well that’s a doozy because we’re grimy, exhausted, and suddenly in the homeless danger-zone. So, dragging our suitcases and after grabbing a quick bite of dumplings, we went door-to-door (true girl scout style) asking for vacancies in hotels. Weirdly enough, they were ALL full, until the fourth one took pity on us and told me (resident unpaid and unofficial translator) that there was a policy that forbade any hotel less than four stars from taking foreigners. She recommended the five star hotel right across the street. So, with our skinny wallets, we went out and looked across the street, to this sight (pictured above)

...it was a thing of great beauty and terror

It LOOKED like a place that needed a stable salary to afford. When we went in to ask, the asking rate per night was...700-1200 RMB (a range bc I don’t exactly remember, and for the record that’s about $100-$200). Not baaad perse but we were shooting more for the very affordable (and very common) 50 RMB per night (<$10/night). But we were dead on our feet and out of options. 

So this is how it went down. M, T, and I went to the front desk to order a room, under the guise of couple and translator (guess who I was). With great acting skills, (eg. none bc our US vibe did the talking) we got a room. Where are the other four in the equation? Adorably waiting out back...in which case we sneaked them in through a side elevator.

So we essentially fit 7 peeps in a double-sized room. At least the amenities were 5 star top notch. Justified the fact that we slept sardine style, head to feet, feet to head. Ahhhh....cheers to travel.

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Zhouzhuang, China: various 小吃 , steamed street food sweets