Day 7 The Bund, Microbreweries and a very interesting taxi ride

Today we headed out into the Bund district just south of our hotel. It’s right on the river and the architecture is quite interesting. We took the advice of the guidebook and found this quaint little café in the middle of an office building and had our morning cappuccino. A cappuccino costs more than most purses, but is SO worth it. Then we walked down to the People’s Square and the Shanghai Museum. Both were very nice. We toured the jade, bronze, furniture, and currency exhibitions at the Museum. The People’s Square had a central park type of feel. Shanghai is very different than Beijing. It has a higher population, more bikes, and was developed by foreign interests. The British began the invasion winning what was called the British concession – a section of Shanghai that was controlled by the British. Many countries followed with their own concessions. The French concession is still the name of a popular neighborhood even though the Chinese are back in control.

After the museum, we headed over to the Bund Brewery – a micro brewery in the Bund area. They had three types of beer: light, wheat and dark. We had a nice lunch of dark beer, chicken wings and fish and chips. Then we headed to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. This Tunnel was hilarious! It’s a cheap Disney ride that transports tourists from one side of the river to the other. You board single train cars that go on a track through the tunnel passing through paradise, hell, the sky and the underwater world – all designated by different colors of lights. So funny! On the other side of the river, we set off looking for the Chinese Sexual Culture Museum – which we couldn’t believe actually existed. Well, after looking high and low we learned it had closed. Big surprise. The trip was still worth it as we had a lovely walk down the Riverside Promenade. Back through the Sightseeing Tunnel and to Nan Jing Road – the Mecca of shopping. It’s neon-upped just like Times Square and just as busy. It was fun to walk through all the shops and I got a few bargains.

Then we bravely figured out the metro and headed into the French Concession in search of another micro-brewery: Boxing Cat Brewery. We found it pretty easily. I guess our navigation skills are getting better. We tried the four beers on tap: Stout, IPA, Vienna Lager, and the Light Lager. The IPA and Vienna Lager were very hoppy. We got a chance to meet the brew master and he was fascinating. He is originally from Houston and has been in Shanghai for three years. He has to import all his ingredients. The hops are the most difficult to get and he resorts to having friends who are coming to visit bring the hops in their luggage. He has to tailor his beer to the ingredients on hand which can be quite a challenge. We also had dinner there – a shrimp po’boy and a hamburger. We definitely needed a break from the Chinese spinner dinner.

After dinner, we grabbed a taxi, showed him our hotel card which has the hotel address and map in Chinese. Our taxi driver had NO IDEA where he was going. He drove the wrong way down one way streets. We definitely saw areas of Shanghai we would have never seen otherwise. He even tried to drop us off at a place called the Spicy Horse in one of the neighborhoods down by the dock. He finally made it to a place where we recognized where we were and we had him let us off. We headed to the Hotel’s British Bar for a drink. The décor was British, but the music was very loud Dr. Dre. After an overpriced round of drinks, we just decided to head back to the room and chill. We have hired a private guide for tomorrow. It’s less than the cost of the optional city tour with our tour company and we’ll get to see more. We both are pretty excited.