Lights, Camera, Acrobats!

Shanghai, October 28, 2007 (Sunday)

Spent the morning at the Yu Yuan (Yu Garden) area. Didn’t actually make it inside because it was so bloody crowded. I vow to return on a weekday, when only the tourists are there, as opposed to tourists and locals. I found another direct bus to the area (Bus 945) which also stopped five minutes from my hotel. The ride lasted about 40 minutes, and took me through a series of streets I hadn’t visited yet. Yu Yuan was the final stop, and the bus emptied directly into the Yu Yuan Tourist Town, a large two block or so square of tourist trap shops and eateries that all feature the same décor as the garden itself, with lots of ornate pagoda facades, old school signage, and statues. The center of the square had some seating and a performance stage, and the various corridors leading to the square were lined with shops selling pretty much the same souvenirs, as well as street food. The street food was presented in a more orderly manner, where you purchase food tickets then hand the tickets to the various vendors. I was drawn by the mesmerizing smell of stinky fried tofu, and bought my first serving of street food, as A) I was not technically on the street; and B) there was a line of at least five locals ahead of me. The hot fried tofu emits a decidedly unappetizing smell (it is fermented in its own juices for a good period of time before it is dropped into sizzling hot oil), but my goodness, the beautiful contrast in textures and aromas when you bit into the fried, smelly goodness. I tried some with spicy chili sauce as well as a sweet sauce, and both went well with the tofu. I took the opportunity to also snag a papaya milk tea, and a warm, fresh, flaky Portuguese-style egg tart, completing my on-the-go lunch.

The food gave me the sustenance to fight my way past the crowds into a narrow street behind the Tourist Town. This street was also lined with shops, many blaring the same recording of “everything in here is 10 yuan”. There were a lot more locals browsing these stores, and I poked my head in a few of the places. For 10 yuan (less than a buck fifty US) you could have some surprisingly presentable handbags, backpacks, totes, or messengers, some even sporting international brand names like Puma, Nike, or Paul Frank. I was tempted a couple of times, but upon closer inspection, the bags showed their cheap construction, especially ones with shoddy plastic zippers. I had to “Just Say No” (or “bu yao le”) and move on.

Yu Yuan is a short walk from the Bund, and I hit it in about 15 minutes or so. I walked my way up the Bund from the south, admiring the beautiful buildings and the waterfront. I found the famous dive named “I Love Shanghai” which is a cool, unpretentious little lounge right on the Bund next to the ferry landing. It was closed, unfortunately, but I made a mental note to return soon for a drink.

It was a crisp day, though slightly muggy, and the visibility across the water was marred by smog-fog. I stopped by the tiny little Bund museum, which is on the first floor of the old signal tower, further up north the Bund from the ferry landing. It’s a dim, intimate space with pictures showing the history and changing landscape of the Bund. If you follow the narrow spiral staircase up to the second floor of the signal tower, you will discover a bar and café, called Atanu, that takes up the rest of the tower’s space. The second floor houses a charming red velvet lounge, and if you continue up the tiny spiral staircase, you will reach the roof patio, which holds about 8 tables. If you continue up the staircase, you will reach the highest point of the signal tower, which houses only a couple of tables. I chose a table on the roof patio, and ordered an obscenely overpriced iced coffee. ($6!!!) But I figured I was paying for the space, as well as the view. I stayed there sipping my coffee for a good hour or so, until it got too chilly. The wind was really whipping strongly, making the wood-planked tables sway.

I continued to make my way up the Bund, intending to finally enter the famous Peace Hotel…but it was packed with tourists. I sighed, vowing to make another special visit another day. It was starting to get dark, and true to all the guidebooks, the Bund’s lights began to transform the already stunning area into a truly wondrous place. Now it really felt like the Bund that a young Chow Yun Fat would stroll along in, clad in his trench and tux. As if he were reading my mind, a vendor hawking souvenir photos on the Bund began singing the theme to the show: “lang bun, lang low….” Hearing that iconic line, albeit in a slight Mandarin accent, at that moment, in that space…it was truly magical, in a super surreal way.

I grabbed a quick dinner of prawns and rice at another café further north up the waterfront before heading back onto Nanjing Road, which is mind-boggling at night. Vegas ain’t got nothing on this street. The neon signs and lights are captivating. Every angle I turned was a new delight, and I wanted to snap a picture of everything, much to the annoyance of the people behind me, I’m sure. I finished my 15-minute picture-snapping trek from the Bund to the People’s Square metro in time to hop a train to Shanghai Circus World Station, which is around the corner from the Shanghai Circus World, a spherical performance space that presents a new show called “Era: A Journey Through Time”, which is very Cirque de Soleil-esque. The theatre is intimate, with a capacity of about 1000 or so. My seat, purchased for $11, was pretty decent. The performance area is state of the art, with amazing lighting and elevated surfaces. I’m told that seeing an acrobat show in Shanghai is a very touristy thing to do. This show, which features acrobats, is definitely not your clichéd acrobat show. While the feats performed are probably quite similar to the “usual” acrobatic feats, this show presented the feats in the context of a story, and complemented the superhuman performances with stunning lighting and graphics on the multiple, oversized screens, beautiful costumes, as well as a live band providing ethereal, Cirque-esque music. Aside from the expected graceful contortionists, gymnasts, tumblers, and aerial artists, one act that really blew me away involved motorcycles in a spherical metal cage. One biker did the gravity-defying revolution along the vertical diameter, and that was amazing…and then they started adding more bikers. The additional bikes raced each other in the cage, along the horizontals and the gravity defying vertical diameters. With the addition of each bike, I found myself shaking my head in disbelief. All in all, seven bikes shared that tiny cage, and they all did the vertical loop, without one falter or pause. Amazing. When the cyclists came out for their bow, the grrl power chick in me was delighted to see that two of the bikers were female. I think all of the acts were very enjoyable, and presented in a charming context or tableau. For example, the tumblers and gymnasts appeared in a sequence modeled after “West Side Story”; two gangs trying to one up each other in their superhuman tumbling and leaping. The aerial artists, a graceful girl, and an athletic man, were presented in the context of a love story, with the two artists falling in love while hanging twenty feet above ground grasping only sheer panels of chiffon. One bizarre sequence involved space cadets powering a huge hamster wheel…three would be inside the wheel, running and making it revolve, while another couple would be outside of the wheel, running on top of it. The balance needed to stay upright must have been superhuman…and of course, what do you do when you see grown men dressed as space cadets struggling to stay upright atop a huge hamster wheel? You throw in some fire batons and a jump rope, and make one cadet juggle fire, and another one jump rope, while atop the hamster wheel. Wacky stuff! I really enjoyed this show, and highly recommend it. My one beef is with some of my fellow audience members. We were asked repeatedly to not take flash photography, as that could put the performers lives in (more) danger. Yet I saw at least a half dozen flashes go off throughout the show. Grrr. One of the flashes went off in the row behind me, from the same old guy who TOOK OFF HIS SHOES and perched his stockinged feet atop the seat back of the guy next to me. Not cool, man…