China Part 1: Beijing & Shanghai

China Introduction

A couple of months ago, Brandon, his mom, my mom and I all decided to do a mini-tour of China together. It would be East meets West in more ways than one! It would also mark the first time our mom’s would meet and the first time Brandon and his mom have been to China. Rather than just dipping our toe into the introductions as is normally done over dinner or a drink, we would have our mom’s hang out continuously for two weeks! In order to arrange the tours, my mom worked directly with the tour groups in China to organize our trip, which would be spoken entirely in Chinese. Kudos to Brandon and his mom for their patience and willingness to participate 100% regardless of the language barrier. Over the next two weeks, we would be visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Zhangjiajie (inspiration behind the floating mountains in Avatar) in Hunan Province.

Beijing

Brandon, his mom and I landed in Beijing from San Francisco on October 15th after a 12.5 hour flight. Out of luck and the connection of my dad working at United, Brandon and my standby seats turned out to be in global first class from SF to Beijing. Unfortunately we weren’t able to upgrade Brandon’s mom, Diane, to global first as she booked an actual economy class ticket – that said, the head steward on our flight hooked up Diane with glasses of fine wine and champagne throughout the long flight! Once we arrived in Beijing, we were immediately picked up by the pre-planned tour guide at the airport. From there, we were escorted by a van to the simultaneously elegant and kitschy King Wing International Hot Spring Hotel, which would be our home for the next three nights.

 

The following two days would be jam packed with Beijing tourist activities. The first day, Brandon, his mom and I (as jetlagged as we were) received our 6am wake-up call to start the day. After an enormous buffet breakfast consisting of both East and West style foods, and several cups of coffee,  we were loaded onto our tour bus and headed off to check out our first stop: Tian An Men Square. That same day, we visited the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.

 

On day two, Diane and I went to visit a small section of the Great Wall about that was an hour drive outside Beijing. Diane and I climbed to the top of one section of the Great Wall and received personalized medals to prove it! We both agreed that heading down was much harder than walking up. China has a famous saying about the Great Wall: 不到长城非好汉 (He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man). Brandon did not make it to the Great Wall with us that day 😉 He had prior obligations to meet his friend, Roger, who has been running a Chinese peer to peer lending business in Beijing. Brandon’s friend, Colin, also joined us in Beijing. The boys spent the afternoon nerding out and discussing the potential for business opportunities in China before an epic dinner of Beijing’s famous, Peking Duck.

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a fun and eye opening trip to Beijing. We were lucky with the weather – the first two days were blue skies! The pollution skyrocketed on the fourth and last day we were there (411 on a scale of 1000 – extremely hazardous). It also happened to be the day of the Beijing marathon… turned out that 80% of the runners didn’t finish the race. Although Beijing has a lot of character and thousands of years of history, the pollution makes it difficult to live there. However, it’s certainly worth a visit if you haven’t been before!

Shanghai:

Our next stop along the tour de China was Shanghai. This place was my jam. After having spent three and a half weeks in a future INSEAD classmate’s centrally located Shanghai apartment earlier this summer, it was the one city in China I sort of knew. I had only scratched the surface of the city in that time period, but I liked what I saw. I had made great friends there who showed me the ropes and gave me a chance to experience the real Shanghai from the perspective of a young adult. These guys knew how to have a good time and it was my turn to show Brandon, his mom, Colin and my mom, who I was most excited to show the new Shanghai!

 

My mom was born and raised in Shanghai from the mid 50’s – late 70’s before moving to Hong Kong and ultimately New York with her family. It goes without saying, her city has undergone such massive changes over those years that, were it not for street names remaining the same, she wouldn’t have recognized her childhood neighborhood! It was a strange feeling to know more about my mom’s hometown than she did, but that simply shows how rapidly Shanghai has developed in the last couple of decades. It’s now considered the business capital of China with a population growth rate of 20% per year. At that rate, it’s no surprise that high rises and retail shops can be seen for miles on end in every direction you look in Shanghai.

 

We lucked out on our Airbnb accomodations in Shanghai, staying in a 4 bedroom luxury apartment overlooking the famous skyscape, The Bund. Every morning my mom picked up hot Chinese breakfasts for us all before we went exploring the city. We took pictures along The Bund, rode a ferry across the river to Pudong, walked through Old Shanghai, and checked out an aggressive fake market where you could buy everything from faux-(ro)lexes and drones to iPhones and chopsticks. At one point, we found Brandon getting chased down the aisle by a fake rolex merchant after a negotiation went wrong. The price started at 600rmb ($100), but Brandon asked for 150rmb ($25), at which point the chase commenced. Brandon won the negotiation, but ultimately lost in the end when two out of four of his fake rolexes stopped ticking under 30 minutes after the purchase. Luckily he was able to get a refund for the two broken Rolexes!

 

 

 

 

 

Other highlights of Shanghai include an impressive acrobatics show after dinner at the famous Old Jessie restaurant. My mom also made a Chinese feast of epic proportions for us all one night at the apartment. It was then that Brandon realized I should be a good cook given my roots, but I haven’t yet shown him my capabilities. Thanks to my mom, the bar is now set quite high! On one of our final nights in Shanghai, my uncles Jack and Franck, treated us to a delicious dinner at Jade Garden restaurant in Xin Tian Di, which is a very trendy area of Shanghai. The entire family was together to enjoy each other’s company over good Shanghai-style food and wine that I had brought from California. It was great to see Jack and Franck. Brandon and I will be seeing more of them next year in Paris as they spend quite a bit of time in France.

 

 

We left Shanghai for Zhangjiajie with many wonderful memories of the city and of the time we spent with family there!