Hello everybody, the summer is finally here! For whatever
reason, we basically skipped spring and went straight to that. It feels
great... Sky is blue, streets are warm, vibes are alright, and your favorite
blog is right on the fucking deck with some updates on Shanghai... So without
further ado, let’s get to it!
When it comes to new discoveries within the city, I gotta
mention this beer spot at Changle Lu, close to Xiangyang Lu. My friends
discovered it couple of months back but up until last week, I hadn’t tried it out. It’s a perfect spot for doing a cold one
when it’s warm outside. Some chairs
thrown out on the sidewalk, cheap beer, lotta people chilling... Feels like it’s gonna become one of our go to
places throughout the following weeks. I ended up going there last Monday and
Sunday. Definitely can recommend.
On Thursday, I met some of my peers at Abbey Road again for
a trivia night. Even though we didn’t win
shit this time around, I totally killed the “shots-for-the-whole-table” question. They asked about animals
involved in the Big 5 hunting game popular in Africa back in the day. Since I
got them all tatted up on my left hand, that shit was a piece of cake....
Friday was a state holiday. Some of my veggie
friends invited me to join them for a two days trip to Shaoxiang to do some
hiking. There was 5 of us, we met up after lunch at Hongqiao Railway Station,
hopped on a train, and in less than two hours ended up in the city. Shaoxiang
is one of the “smaller” Chinese cities with population
around 4 million. And man, the construction is going on there heavy... It
almost feels as the city has to grow into all of that. The roads have way more
lanes that needed, there’s lots
of residential areas being built... Shit, they even construct their first metro
lines over there. There’s no
doubt that in couple of years, the whole thing is gonna look totally different.
We checked into our hotel and went out to find a spot for a
dinner. Gotta say, it’s
pretty cool traveling with vegans. I mean, you don’t have to explain anything to anybody, you are on the same
page as far as food goes... And even though we did not have any Chinese among
us, basically everyone but me speaks Chinese which made getting around super easy.
There’s this Wechat app for
vegetarians with restaurant tips all over China (similar to Happy Cow, but with
way more spots listed), so we used that one and ended up at a Buddhist
veggie spot. 17 RMB for all you can eat buffet. I’m
talking like 30 options (noodles, potatoes, dumplings, all kinds of veggies,
tofu, fruits, pancakes, cakes...), We did dinner over there both days... The
food was absolutely amazing but it’s
impossible not to take it too far. You just wanna taste everything so you end
up stuffed as hell. Gotta give it up to them. For the price, it doesn’t even make any sense.
On Saturday, we got up around 6, did a coffee and some
fruits, and hopped in a cab to get to the start of Rizhuling trail. The whole
shit was absolutely amazing. The summer finally kicked in so it was super warm
and sunny, the nature was amazing and the trail took us through fields,
meadows, forests, hills and tiny villages. And the best part – there was
barely anyone around. I was a bit worried about that as it was holiday...
Apparently, there’s a bamboo season going on
these days so in the villages we got to see people drying out bamboo along with
picked veggies out there in the sun. We even stopped got us some hot soy milk
in this small restaurant at one point, and they didn’t even charge us. You could tell that most of people over
there don’t get to see laowais very
often... Oh yeah, and the whole team brought way more awesome vegan snacks than
needed. Sandwiches, cakes, cookies, fruits. It was just awesome shit on awesome
shit on some more awesome shit.
Around 4pm, we wrapped our hike up at another village. The
whole thing could be around 15-20km but the most challenging part was
elevation. Lotta stairs, lotta hills. Felt good as hell tho. Since bus connections
are not very frequent over there and take crazy amount of time, we seeked for an
alternative solution back to town. Fortunately, there was (literally) one cab parked
close to the bus station (Didi did not fly and the bus wouldn't go in another hour, and would take like 2 and a half hours), and the driver eventually showed
up. The motherfucker didn’t mind
taking 5 people aboard so in less than an hour, we were back in our restaurant.
Did another awesome dinner, grabbed a coffee and headed to the railway station.
By 11pm, I was back home. Grabbed a cold beer on the way to make sure I sleep
like a baby. Which is exactly what happened. Since everyone had a great time,
there’s a good chance we will try
to make this a thing and do more hikes around Shanghai in the following weeks.
I’m all for it. Oh yeah, and I brought
a pack of dried bamboo and some oranges from there. Could not resist.
So yeah, got some new rnb in my headphones, I’m writing this shit at 7am with my
window wide open, feeling good... I hope you got summer kicking in too wherever
you at, I hope y’all good, and thanks for wasting
your time reading this.... One!
Highlights:
- R.I.P. Nipsey. I hate still hate that shit. The legacy lives on.
- The whole hiking thing. Nuff said.
- Wearing short sleeves in Shanghai again. God, I missed that!
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