Oct 9th - Shanghai Day 1

Reached Shanghai today to visit one of the trade show and suppliers. This is my first time visiting Mainland China. Thought it would be quite different as I have been hearing quite a lot about this place, surprisingly it's just like another big city to me. Maybe it's because I grow up in a city and all my life are spent in CITY up to now. So it's just ANOTHER city. However, this city is very similar to my hometown, Taiwan. Some of you might be aware that there is a huge number of Taiwanese living in Shanghai. I guess that's the reason why I can see so many Taiwan brands here, especially the food industry. These three are one of the best examples.



I really enjoy the Soya bean drink from the shop above. The Soya bean drink in Taiwan is very different from those in Singapore. It's thicker and you can really taste the Soya. Those in Singapore are more like Soya Bean Milk. The texture is really quite different. Good that I can try some home town food in Shanghai.

This is also something interesting that I saw on the roadside. It's made what we call new year cake that Chinese normally have during the Chinese New Year Period. However, this didn't taste as good as what I expected. Anyway, just try some local food then.

I was very shocked to see this shop as I just watched a old movie, 花橋榮記 (My Rice Noodle Shop), adapted from a famous novel by the contemporary writer, 白先勇. It's about a lady from this famous noodle shop in 桂林. I thought it's just one shop inside the story, but I realized that there is really such a famous rice noodle shop back there. So I decided to try this famous food as they seem to have chain stores.

The rice noodle is like the fish thick rice noodle we have back in Singapore. The taste is ok only but seems the business is quite good as that shop is full around 3 pm plus which is not the lunch hour.

After that, I just walked around the city and realized that there are quite a number of this traditional garden in Shanghai as this is one of the historical city. I didn't plan to visit this one but just come across it on the road.

After that, I started my city adventure by BUS. The bus is kind of old and the chair is very different though I always like to experience the life local people have. This is definitely a good way to experience as I totally understand how "aggressive" people here are when they are in bus or any other public transportations.