火鍋 a.k.a Huǒ Guō a.k.a Hot Pot

Had dinner at my sister's place.

Everyone needs a little huǒ guō in their life!

Shanghai Maglev love

SO easy to use and CHEAP for Americans ! ($5+) I'm never taking the crazy Chinese bus again! hahaha.


It goes faster later in the day






Zaijian, Shanghai. Until next time.

Dynasty dinner

The last dinner before I go back home. We dined at...


kidding!


Fancy schmancy


We are on the reservation list!


I liked this statue


My mother ordering Shanghainese delicacies




Tofu skin + veg


Delicious squid


River shrimp - very famous here, very tasty


This chicken was so good!!! I wish I knew what the sauce was.


I LOVE this dish


These are noodles with special type of Chinese mushrooms.


Fish


Niangao or rice cake, also something very Shanghainese.




Those aren't worms, it's a type of vegetable. haha


Shanghainese noodle soup


Pumpkin rice cake with red bean


Good stuff


My aunt and cousin were there too but I didn't take enough pictures of people (as usual).

Me and mom


Jojo and mom =)


Thanks mom for the wonderful hospitality and last meal!

An eventful family day

Stopped by to lunch with my grandma and grandpa. Despite a heavy breakfast of dianxing, we managed to munch on some goodies that their maid cooked up.



Afterwards, we went to the American Embassy. This was really important to my mom because it was the house of her great grandpa. She used to go there as a child.

Well guess what, the Chinese guards were really rude to us and told us we weren't allowed even with our American passports. They even yelled at Raf for trying to take a photo. Raf yelled back "I'M AMERICAN."

We saw a bunch of people in there and the guards lied and said they were workers. It was all BS because they looked like a tour group. They gave us the address of another visa office for Americans to "schedule a tour." Gotta love communist China running the embassies.

Now I know that if we are in any kind of trouble in Shanghai, the Chinese won't let us into the American Embassy. Raf took a quick snap of the place when we were in the taxi. hahah.


We went to the other office - the Chinese guy there was really nice and helpful - wasn't sure if he was American but he was working for the American visa office and sporting American uniform. He called the other place and received mixed messages and really wasn't sure what the heck was going on with them. Oh well, no access to the American embassy.

In other news, stopped by my mom's grandpa's brothers house. It is now a historical site.


A brief history about them - businessmen of flour/cotton, considered the biggest Chinese capitalists before the communists took over. I wish I could have seen what it was like here before communism.

World Expo 2010

From the World Expo center where you can see all the tiny models of what's being built.


A somewhat sketchy part of town outside of Shanghai (which will change soon, I am sure). Pretty cool, huh?


A really flexible old man doing some serious stretching. People thought I was the weirdo...

Opera House near People's Park

Passed by Raf's favorite building






A model or "preserved" area of how the streets were in the 1920's


ha ha

Getting thai in China

Went to the French concession for dinner. It's so clean in this district. And I can miraculously breathe better.

Dined at a "fancy" Thai resto.



Oodles of noodles (sooo good)


Chicken curry (delicious!)


Mango + sticky rice.


Free rice cake and watermelon since one of the busgirls spilled water all over my mom.


Way better than what I've had in the states thus far...

Dumplings... and more dumplings.

Went to another great, local, xiao long bao place near my mom's apt for "breakfast." Also famous for the soup dumplings and egg rolls. Pleasantly surprised by the egg rolls. I would say that up to now, every egg roll I have tried has failed miserably in taste compared to my mom's. These are fabulous, however, very different from my mom's since it is a mix of meat with turnips. My mom's is lotsa meat, bamboo, and onions.







Totally diggin' the local eats.

Can't get enough jianbao @ Yang's

Went to Raf's favorite street thus far to eat one of Raf's favorite things.

Wujiang Lu (Metro 2: Nanjing Shi Lu).



Pro




Ordering jianbao


Only a couple stops from home. Our metro stop.


Dinner!