Day 10: back to Shanghai

One of my favorite ShaanXi food is “Ruo Jia Mo” (Meat-in-a bun or Chinese pork burger). Although it’s quite simple to make, many places can’t get the bun right since it needs a clay oven and freshly made before serving. In my last NYC trip, I found one small restaurant in Flushing and it’s the mostly authentic in America. Now that I’m in ShaanXi, this is something I definitely need to have before leaving town. I went on the Internet found a place near the hotel so I can get in and get out within an hour.  It’s the “Fan’s Ruojiamo” about.  So instead of $30 breakfast at the Shangri-La, I took a 10 minutes’ walk over and ordered two. Unfortunately, it’s not as good.  The bun was cooked too hard, obviously not freshly made and just reheated. If I want that, I can have it in a dozen of places in the States.

At least it’s close by and I went back to the hotel in time.

The ride to the airport was pretty quick and we arrived about 1.5hr earlier than my scheduled departure time and a good 2.5 hr before MJ. I sent him off to the international terminal and found out mine was an hour late.  The VIP lounge was very hot so I waited in the general boarding area.  When boarded the plane, the flight attendant knew we are Gold card holders and put in a different sets of newspapers for us.  They also repeatedly coming over to apologize for the delay and gave us useless updates.

Once taking off, the flight was okay and arrived Shanghai more or less an hour late. A hotel has been reserved by the host. I plan to go meet an old neighbor’s family in Pudong, so chose to take the Maglev (magnetic levitation train) then taxi. The Maglev is amazing. It only took less than 8 minutes to cover the 30km with a top speed of 431km/h.  Part of the trip is parallel to a high way and it’s like driving at 400km/h.  It’s a shame that they can’t finish the original plan to connect the two airports in Shanghai by the Maglev. The LongYangLu station is kind of in the middle of nowhere in Shanghai. To build a Maglev line to Hangzhou is also a joke since the G-line will only take 45 minutes, which is not much longer over the 30 minutes Maglev. Will take the G-line to Hangzhou on Friday.

Although I waited for half an hour, finally saw XK’s family.  All of us are very happy to see each other.  I’ve seen XK in 2009 but not his parents for 24 years. Now he also has a son as tall as him and a business. We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner and walked around the mall afterward.  The weather was around 24 degrees, quite good for Shanghai around this time.

XK dropped me off at the hotel. My room is on a newly renovated floor which is much better than before.