Saturday, October 17, 2009

Xintiandi

After a long week of work, Carrie and I were excited to get out and have a relaxing night away.  We decided to check out Xintiandi, a car-free shopping, eating, and entertainment district in the French Concession.  It's made up of restored traditional shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants, and shopping malls. Xintiandi means "New Heaven and Earth" and is considered one of the first "lifestyle centers" in China.  Our night included: an iced coffee at the most popular Starbucks in Shanghai; a free drink at a bar/club that was way too cool, and too incredibly awkward for us to ever visit again (we were way under-dressed and were there so early in the night that there were at least five employees for each customer - about ten to welcome and escort us in and then another thirty or so inside the club, standing alertly in each section, making us nervous - it felt like a bad kung fu movie); a wonderful stroll around the neighborhood, the shops, the dreamy back alleys; and, finally, a glass of Vietnamese wine with a delicious mango/vegetable spring roll that was truly delicious. Check out the pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/1233.

5 comments:

  1. Underdressed? ... You look pretty hip to me ...

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  2. I feel like I've been here before. Are you sure you're not really hanging out in Old Town Pasadena? I have to say this would be my choice for a relaxing day or night on the town. Just a note - you two look GREAT!! Very Metro! So how was the wine? I leave for Julia's baby shower on TH. 10-22. I will send pics :) Love to you both. XOXO Mom

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  3. Nice use of your Welsh necklace, Carrie. Looks like a fabulous night!

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  4. It actually reminded me of Old Town Pasadena, too - I kept mentioning that to Jeff. The wine was, sadly... not great. For the Vietnamese wine, we had a choice between "Strong Wine" and syrah. We'd expected to go with the syrah until we tasted both and noticed that it had a strong meaty aftertaste. So, Strong Wine it was! Good wine and good beer at decent prices are hard to come by here... especially after two years in Milwaukee (and a year in Sonoma County for Jeff.)

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