XinTiandi

Upon recommendation from Patrick, Traci and I hit up Shanghai's XinTiandi area last night. It was definitely worth it. The pictures don't really do the atmosphere justice:

There were stylish bars and lounges (along with a few stores and bakeries, a cineplex, and a Coldstone) with alfresco seating on both sides of a narrow alleyway: classy, deliberately trendy, and a little romantic at times. There were quite a few awkward dates in progress, so we did some quality people watching and body language analyzing. The prices were, well, pricey, but there was an interesting crowd. There seemed to be a lot of wealthy businesspeople milling about from place to place. Traci and I stopped in a German restaurant, Paulaner, and were seated with three older men from Switzerland and Germany. They were in town for a textile conference, and were pretty insightful on topics like U.S. politics and travel. One spoke English, German, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Italian. His mother was from Peru, so he mopped the floor with my bad Spanish. There was a Chinese cover band playing songs from Abba and Shakira; that was entertaining as well. 

Today I have to find the Pudong airport. I may talk to someone from the hostel to get directions and figure out where the subway stop is around here, because I want to take the maglev. The gentlemen from last night (and a random person sitting nearby in the hostel lounge) recommended it. It's a magnetically levitating train that goes up to 300 miles per hour and takes you directly to the airport. I'm down for that.