Mainland Mania

I'm just back to Hong Kong following my annual trek to mainland China. As you probably have come to expect by now, once a year, I journey north to Shanghai and Beijing, visiting clients on a work trip while also getting a chance to catch up with old friends, eat delicious local food and explore a bit in my free time.

I have been to Shanghai four times as of this trip, and Beijing three. These are places I now know fairly well, but they are still hiding heaps of surprises within their bounds. The journey is something I look forward to as the summer approaches and I start planning, and I'm happy to say the 2019 installment was another grand addition to my China adventures.

For the first time, I actually reversed the order this trip, landing in Beijing and then making my way down to Shanghai a few days later. So last Sunday, fresh off my moon landing anniversary high, I touched down at Capital Airport and hopped in a cab to Qianmen, near Tiananmen Square, to check in to my lodging, the Emperor Hotel.

I was previously unfamiliar with this area, and it was great to wander the pedestrian-only streets that surround the place. There are dumpling shops a-plenty, intriguing architecture and very friendly Chinese tourists from all corners of the country proud to explore the historic core of their capital city.

The Emperor is also blessed with a rooftop pool, a rare treat in Beijing and most welcome in the 98.6 degree heat that greeted me upon arrival! From the small but inviting deck, there is a view out in all directions. To the north, you see the Qianmen Gate, Chairman Mao's Mausoleum, Tiananmen Gate and even a faraway glimpse of the Forbidden City. To the south, you'll spot the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests of the famous Temple of Heaven.

Just before 8pm, as the lights outlining many of these famous icons suddenly illuminated while I feasted on my first dumplings of the trip, I was reminded of exactly why I love to visit magical Beijing. It's so different from any other place I know, and while it's broad avenues and charmless business district might not immediately reveal the secrets of the city, a quick hutong stroll and a meander through the ancient vestiges that have weathered the centuries is an "only in Beijing" kind of experience.

Sadly, this was a bit of a lopsided trip, with only two nights in historic Peking followed by four in bustling Shanghai. You can bet both Monday and Tuesday were crammed full of meetings, but all went well, in spite of the distances, pollution and traffic than can complicate an otherwise pleasant day there.

After completing all my official duties that afternoon, I met my buddy Clement at the Slow Boat Brewery in Sanlitun. I tasted my first Slow Boat brew two years ago on my inaugural trip to Beijing and have been a fan ever since.

Sampling several of their varieties, chowing down on delicious burgers (conveniently split down the middle, allowing Clem and me to share a few), and catching up with an old friend, it was a wonderful evening, and the closest I came this trip to having a night on the town.

Of course, as comfortable as I was at the Emperor, and as enamored as I was with its fabled location, there was a downside. Nestled up a few pedestrian-only cobblestone passages, it's a fair walk from the nearest subway exit and even from the closest spot a taxi can drop you off. It was easy enough to find, but, alas, I had to be in Beijing for one of its rare rainy evenings. So as I umbrella-less-ly ran home that night, I couldn't avoid the deluge. I was soaked by the time I entered the lobby, but it was a small price to pay for all the perks. 

One of the world's fastest passenger locomotives links Beijing to Shanghai about forty times a day in each direction. These bullet trains travel eight-hundred-and-twenty miles in just about four-and-a-half hours, with a top speed of about two-hundred-and-seventeen miles per hour! You can take your own food and drinks aboard, and the seats are extremely comfortable. And in three trips now, the trains have never been even a minute behind schedule. Since flights are known to be delayed for hours (or even outright cancelled) on this route, I never consider flying between the two cities. I'm a firm train fan, all the way.

It was a great feeling setting foot in Shanghai again. You may remember that on last year's trip, I found the Shanghai hotel of my dreams, the Metropole, and declared on the pages of this blog that I'd never stay anywhere else on a future visit. But because I didn't get my hotel-booking-act together until the last minute, I could only secure a room at the Metropole for the last three nights of my Shanghai powwow. That first night, I stayed at another historic hotel managed by the same brand, in the 1930s-built YMCA building near People's Square. 

I knew I would like this new hotel when I saw its graceful floodlit exterior, and my pulse quickened when I entered the gorgeous, intricately-decorated lobby. But when I spied an old time photo of a Shanghai cinema advertising M-G-M's 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard (complete with a rickshaw driver and his charge) in my actual room, I was in seventh heaven.

My feet carried me back to Yang's without even having to look at a map. And I was soon stuffing myself with what I still claim to be the best dumplings on earth. A little kid and his mother sat down at my table after I'd ordered, and he offered me a dried blueberry while I waited for my pork buns to cool down. It was a lovely little moment. No English besides a "Hello," but unplannable interludes like this add so much to business trips.

The days were unsurprisingly filled with meetings, but my nights were my own. One evening, I met up with my friend Jean, who has never steered me wrong in terms of drinking or dining establishments. I met her at a hushed and secluded bar appropriately called Keep It Quiet, and then we took a taxi to a Yunnan-style restaurant called Lotus Eatery, where we enjoyed a veritable feast. My timing could not have been better. Jean is moving to Los Angeles in a few weeks, so I'm oh-so glad we got one final Shanghai evening to savor!

An insurance company treated me to an utterly delightful lunch on Thursday, in an old mansion now masquerading as a luxury restaurant: Maison de l'Hui. Every course was sumptuous, from the soup poured from a tea kettle and placed over billowing smoke to the beef served with fluffy egg white and pear. Everybody treats me so darn well when I'm up here, and I love sampling all the local foods I can get my chopsticks into.

I also returned to Jia Jia Tang Bao, the unbelievably delicious (and unbelievably cheap) xiao long bao mecca a few steps off People's Square. Literally across the street from Yang's Dumplings, I had actually only intended to re-visit that old favorite (for the second time this trip). You see, Jia Jia Tang Bao is normally either packed to the rafters with a line out the door, or firmly shuttered. They close their doors when their daily supply of soupy morsels has run out, and before then, people are literally queuing around the block to tuck in. But, through some sheer grace of happenstance, when I turned up around twenty to six on a Friday evening, there was stock to spare and no wait! Twelve crab and pork xiao long bao, it is!

Of course, I duly crossed the street to Yang's for a second helping of their legendary buns, as well. And I then tracked down a Dippin' Dots cart in a nearby shopping mall before settling back in to my hotel room. It being my last evening in town, of course, I popped out for a final moonlit stroll along the Bund before calling it a night.

And before I flew back home on Saturday, I got a chance to reconnect with my old pal Dora, who moved from Hong Kong to China over a year ago! We'd seen each other at Jay and Dave's wedding in Chiang Mai back in December. But to meet her in her element, and to catch up over all the major changes in our lives since that last encounter, was fantastic. Our reunion took place at the Saint Regis, where she and a colleague were representing their firm at a job fair, and we took the opportunity to sneak in a cheeky bottle of white in the lobby restaurant before they had to head back.

Later that afternoon, Shanghai's zippy Maglev train took me from downtown to Pudong Airport in what felt like seconds. It's a trippy ride, knowing you're on the world's fastest passenger train. I shot a timelapse of the screen indicating our current speed, which zooms from zero to three hundred kilometers per hour in a matter of seconds.

By the time I settled into my Cathay Dragon flight later that evening, I was certainly fatter than I had been a mere six days earlier. But what great memories! I hope I'm back again soon, Beijing and Shanghai. I love spending time revisiting old haunts and discovering the secrets that lie lurking beneath your surface. Until next time!