Shanghai-Another Day

Daybreak starts here about 6:00 am…there are not many lights left on in buildings and on the streets overnight, I’d guess in an effort to save power. Like much of Europe, the hotels have a card key that activates the power. This stops excess usage if people leave their rooms with lights on, because you have to take the card to get back in again.

I bought a special adapter for my computer (the black one), but it doesn’t stay in the wall plugs properly. For some reason it bounces back out again. The only way I can use it is if I borrow a hotel adapter, which goes in between the two. Even so, the prongs from my adapter barely stay in, though it works. When I try to push it in farther, I don’t get any power. Very strange, but also looks precariously dangerous to me (coming from a background household of electricians and technicians.) I think I’ll end up buying an adapter locally. They are in little shops all over here as there are at least five universities in this area, many with foreign students.

The smog is heavy in Shanghai today. To quote from a couple of Web sites:
“Most mornings smog hangs low over Shanghai's imposing skyline — the result of using low-grade coal as the primary fuel for cooking, heating and running factories. Lately, the air is becoming even more polluted as bicycles are replaced by automobiles and buses. To ease the problem there are limitations on the ownership of cars and stricter air quality regulations for factories. The city is also slowly rebuilding its infrastructure, beginning with a public transportation network and new subway system. Above ground, new highways ease traffic congestion as well as link Shanghai with surrounding industrial and bedroom communities.” Excerpt from http://www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth/hope/shanghai.html

“Coal fired power generators contribute to the smog overcasting Shanghai. Presently China burns more coal than US and India combined, ... http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20051129_polution_in_shanghai_part_ii.htm

So my suspicions were right! It’s not fog! Some days it reminds me of the smog in Toronto on bad days, other days it’s much worse here. Yesterday afternoon was one of the better days, and I actually saw blue sky.

This morning I started my day early – 2:00 am again…had to wait for breakfast until 7:00 am though. I realize I’ve been going on about the food conditions here, and I’ll try to make my breakfast the last one for awhile. It’s just that it’s such a major change from what I’m used to, even from my other travels. And there are some very intriguing things available.

I’ll have other things to talk about soon, once I start my training and do a little more sightseeing…I’ve been warned that I need to take a cab to get around here, otherwise I might become hopelessly lost…I can see why they say this though I’m more confident now that I have a map. Either way travel takes forever because the city is enormous and I’m not sure how to get to the highlights. If I wasn’t still getting over jetlag and trying to work on my novel, I might be a little more adventurous too. So far I’ve just done walking tours around the hotels I’ve been in. It’s been enough to absorb for the time being.

It’s definitely Monday today and the traffic here is amazing…the streets are clogged with vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists…..

And on to breakfast: Chinese buffet style.

Hot Items included (with English names as they were printed on cards), plus my take on them follows (pics are from left to right where there are two items in one shot):

Gruel – rice cooked mushy in lots of water. It has little flavour…perhaps not even salt, because it is so bland.

Stir Fry Vegetables - more of the water spinach stalks with strips of mushrooms, I think – tasty (water spinach is known as a noxious weed in the U.S.)

“Also known as water convolvulus and swamp cabbage” (http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_2.cfm?wordid=3322)

“Water Spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) is a member of the Convolvulaceae (Morning glory) family and the same genus as the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)” http://www.worldcrops.org/crops/Water-Spinach.cfm

(French Fries-no card for it) – pre-packaged frozen N. American kind

Egg Fried Rice – straightforward and tasty

Boil The Egg – typical brown-shelled boiled eggs – no surprises here

Steamed Roll – tasty with bits of colourful veggies in them - kind of like a boiled perogie, but solid

Meat Bun – the dough was again like a boiled perogie, but had a dab of ground meat inside that was boiled with the entire thing. (I had two of those.)


Cold items:
Preserved Egg – this had a strange jellied kind of texture, but not a great deal of flavour, kind of like jellied hocks or something, but a gruesome look to it or beautiful colours, depending on how you saw it.

“Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and thousand-year-old egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient...” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg

“Preserved duck eggs are a traditional Chinese delicacy, and although known as "1000-year-old eggs" they are rarely more than 100 days old. According to radio-show host Chef Meng, it's a common dish, sometimes known as pidan, that is made by coating duck or chicken eggs in a clay-like plaster of red earth, garden lime, salt, wood ash, and tea. To prevent the eggs from sticking, and for an attractive presentation, the chef advises layering and wrapping individual eggs in rice husks and packing them into an airtight container.” http://ask.yahoo.com/20011114.html

Pot Herb Mustard and Green Soy Beans – I’d definitely eat more of this mixture

Mushroom – sliced and cooked – these were good too. I suspect they were Shitake mushrooms – “Long a symbol of longevity in Asia because of their health-promoting properties, shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally by the Chinese for more than 6,000 years.” http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=122

Red Salad?? – this one didn’t have a name beside it and I don’t know what it was, but as soon as I saw the red sauce on this mix of veggies I knew it would be hot and it was, but good. I ate it in small amounts.

Cake – a light white cake that tasted like a sponge cake with a subtle flavour

Toast – not your regular white wheat flour toast, I suspect it was a rice flour bread as the texture sure tasted like it. They had small pats of butter, which I spread with my chopstick…no other utensils. (There was an amusing notice on the toaster, but I couldn’t make any sense to it…someone got carried away with translating…)

Juice – one flavour, which had a mix of fruits in it…orange for sure, but something more mellow too.

I tried a little of everything! (Well, except for the obvious - French fries, and condiments like strawberry jam, cane sugar, soy sauce, and the tea – I thought it was coffee so didn’t bother, then realized later it was tea. Tea is quite good here, of course.)

Now it’s raining, and I haven’t planned on doing much except writing this suits me fine! Maybe I’ll even take a late morning nap and see if I can’t get on track with my sleeping to align with time here.

I'm in a warm hotel room now, so nothing much else matters.