Weekend No12 - Shanghai

Four hours and twenty minutes after leaving my desk at work, I was knocking on Divya's Shanghai apartment door, screaming, "let me in, it's frickin' cold!" I was shocked at how quick the journey was... so shocked, we had to go have a drink.

The Jazz Bar at the Peace Hotel on The Bund was our first historic sip of Shanghai. I later found out that Sun Yat-Sun stayed here in 1911 after the Xinjin revolution. We'd visited Doctor Sun Yat-Sun's mausoleum in the Purple Mountains around Nanjing the month before - this is a man held in much revere by communist China as the father of the Chinese revolution.

Maybe it's because I've spent too much time in hotel bars, but Asians really love their jazz. I'm not the biggest fan of big band, but I did enjoy the music and atmosphere at the Peace Hotel. It smacked of Rick's Cafe and the buzz that would have been pre-1949 Shanghai - The Whore of the Orient.

Moving on, Divya and I took in another, more "jazzy", jazz bar in Shin Tien Dee before heading home. We spent most of the next day recovering - we're showing our age, I know. On Saturday, we managed a leisurely walk through People's Square to the Maroccan Barbarosa for lunch, before pushing our way past the hordes of happy shoppers along Nanjing Lu down to the Huangpu River. The Bund can make you forget where you are sometime. In such a young city like Shanghai, the Bund is a real marvel if you unravel the historical associations that surround it. (For example J.G. Ballard's fictional Empire of the Sun).

We met up with some friends for dinner at The Times' 9th best restraunt in the world (in 1993). Admitedly the Taiwanese dumpling place may have slipped a little in the wold rankings, but it was still pretty damn good. (I maintain the best dumplings are to be found in Sheung Wan).

The night was spent flirting between bars around the city. Two in particular had some spectacular views across sprawling Shanghai that resembled and maybe rivaled Tokyo. Divya and I managed to hop our way through 4 bars before calling it quits at 4am..... Richard, Jeff, Ed and Kevin (the design engineers from Dyson) went for double or nothing.... We didn't see them again.

Photos are on their way.