Having just left the train, we enjoyed the fact of sleeping in real beds. Enjoyed so much, in fact, that we both woke up much later than expected, and found ourselves rushing out the door. We met our two friends at people's square （人民广场）, from which we took a bus to Zhujiajiao (朱家角). While we were waiting for the bus, we grabbed some buns as breakfast from the small stand nearby (which were so good we went back for them the next day!). The bus itself was an experience. Instead of swiping your card (they have a system much like the octopus card) or paying when you got on the bus, once it started moving, and every time a passenger embarked, a lady would come by with a card reader and scan the card (make work job?). Aside from the usual seating arrangements, there were also fold-up seats located in the middles of the aisles (probably a safety hazard in the event of an evacuation), and so the bus was crammed. It's also worth noting that quite a few people were shocked to see foreigners on this bus, but a friendly wave or smile usually got the same result in return, especially with older people.
From the bus we had our first lengthy (about an hour) view of traffic and freeway driving in China. As amazed both of us foreigners, traffic was chaotic, yet we didn't witness any collisions (infact, in our whole time in the mainland, the only time we saw an accident was after the fact, as they were talking to the police). People were routinely passing on the inside, speeding, nudging into lanes, and even parking on the shoulder next to exit ramps (the shoulder on the rest of the highway was used as for yet more inside passing). As my friend pointed out "If I drove like this at home, I'd be arrested." Yet, it seemed as though everyone must have been paying a lot more attention driving than they do in our home countries. True, people would pass on congested streets, nudge into spaces much smaller than their cars, and honk their horns more often than I've ever heard in my life, but they also seemed to have little anger about it, and I never saw anyone run a red light (although I think I saw every other traffic law systematically broken).
When we arrived at the end of the busroute, our friends, who had never been to this village before, weren't certain as to how to get there. We were instantly surrounded by motorcycles offering rides and tours, but we opted for a cab instead. This was probably the easiest 12 Kuai (2 Dollars) the driver ever made ,since he took us across the street!
Zhujiajiao is an old village on the water. It's definitely looking to become touristy, but isn't too bad just yet. One of the first places we went was to eat: the food was easily some of the best I've ever had, and we tried what appeared to be bootleg Chinese wine (which tasted like Sprite). We were the only foreigners in the place, although I gather that all of the others were tourists from other parts of China (some, who probably don't see many foreigners, were taking pictures, although they probably didn't think we noticed).
Following the food, we ventured around the village. I really liked it; it was just at the right point where it was touristy enough to have some souvenir shops and guided boat rides, but not so touristy to make you not want to go. We did follow the village outside of the more touristy areas, where we saw ladies selling produce beside the road. We also saw what looked to be a playground, but was actually an outdoor exercise area for senior citizens (our friends tell us that these are funded through the lottery). These are appearantly found around China, and I have seen them in Hong Kong. We followed this up with a snack (candy glazed crab apples on a stick), and a boat ride through the waterways. Our Chinese friends and the man rowing the boat found it hilarious when, after the man told us that a bridge was around 450 years old, I replied that it was older than my country (by which I mean Canada in the form it is today).
As I said, the village had souvenir shops. The one souvenir we saw and instantly fell in love with was a hat made to look like the PLA (People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces), hat. Of course, showing that you love something is not good leverage when trying to bargain on the price, and the lady asked for some large amount of money for two. At this point, our two Chinese friends start having a shouting match with her in Mandarin, which ended in us leaving, as they felt we should only pay 50 yuan (7 dollars) for two. We looked through the whole village, and eventually came to the realization that that was the only place with the hats. We returned and resumed the shouting match (later, we were told she was saying to them "You're Chinese, you should be on my side!"), and eventually we paid 80 (11 Dollars) for two.
As we learned, one never goes hungry when spending time with Chinese friends, and upon return to the city centre we proceeded directly to a restaurant. Our friends were quite excited about this place, and for good reason: it was weird. Rather than a door, there are 9 holes, which must be pushed in the right combination (available by making a reservation) in order to open the door. The lighting is dim, the decor post-modern, and the bathroom doors are trick doors to open. The food was pretty good too, what we in Canada call "Fusion".
After a great dinner, we headed to the riverfront. We had wanted to take a ferry accross, and found one, for the price of half a yuan (7 cents), which I think is the cheapest thing I've ever paid for in my entire life. Turns out that it was cheap because it wasn't really meant for walk-on passengers, but rather motorcycles. It was fine though, and on the other end we followed a nice walkway up to the tall buildings of PuDong, reported to have some of the world's tallest buildings. We went up one of the Hyatt hotels, but couldn't really get a good view, since the weather was quite foggy. We also went to go see the crazy looking Pearl TV tower, but didn't bother going up for the same reason. Finally, we returned to "the Bund", an area of early 1900's colonial architecture. Being made up of architecture from British and American colonists, it was perhaps less exciting for us, a Brit and a Canadian. For me, it reminded me alot of Wellington Street in Ottawa, but perhaps longer and nicer. After this, we waved goodbye to our friends, who had classes to attend the next day, and headed in.
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