Chinese church and a bamboo sax

Woke up at 5:45am to get to church by 7am. It was about 10 minutes from the hotel and seven of us went—Adam, Katie, Katie M., Maggie, Marie, Victor and I. We got there and found a pew on the main floor, but were asked to move because the service was for 80+ year olds and they were all sitting on the main floor. So, we went to a corner in the balcony. The church filled up quickly and there was 20 minutes of music rehearsal. Recognized Crown Him with Many Crowns, but it was sung in Chinese of course. As we sat down, a Chinese man a few rows ahead of us called out God Bless You. Someone helped get us the Bibles and hymnals (in Chinese). Interestingly, there were no notes in the music book. Each song gave the starting pitch at 1 (e.g. Eb = 1) and then the book listed the words with intervals 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 6 etc. to indicate the tone. We started to wonder if we were in a Catholic Church (though we were previously assured by our tour guide three times the previous day), because the song was a familiar Protestant tune, the cross in the front of the church wasn’t a crucifix, and the minister was a woman. Still, we thought maybe it was an Eastern Orthodox Church. When the sermon lasted 45 minutes, we realized we were probably at a Protestant service rather than Catholic because there was also no Communion. Not that that was bad, but there weren’t any familiar traditions with which we could follow along, and we basically sat through a two-hour service and didn’t understand a thing. Still, it was an interesting experience. The all-Chinese congregation was very welcoming, and even sang a song and clapped for us at the end, which we didn’t realize was for us till the end of the song. There are 140,000 practicing Catholics in Shanghai, based on the Jesuit teaching. Religion can be practiced here, but relations with the Chinese government and Catholic Church in China are strained because the Church recognizes the Pope as its highest leader rather than the Chinese Communist Party.

We returned to the hotel at 9:15am and decided to walk to McDonald’s for breakfast, a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Though our hotel isn’t great (we think it doubles as a brothel, which is not too much of an exaggeration), there is a silver lining in that we are able to witness the everyday life of Chinese people in the city…opening their shops, cooking breakfast to sell from their storefront windows, riding cabs, bikes and buses to work and bringing their kids to school. We stopped at the Post Office (which was open on a Sunday) to get stamps for postcards, but they had run out of stamps! Incredible! Back to the hotel: the reason we think it doubles as a brothel is because 1) there is a 3rd floor “spa” that apparently is only available to men (women cannot leave the elevator) and 2) there are women in red robes and little else that stand by their doors in one wing of the 4th floor, opposite the side where several of my classmates are staying.

Since the infamous knockoff market closed this past June, all the knockoff goods have moved to “warehouse rooms” off the beaten path. Because a majority of us wanted to visit these warehouse rooms, the bus stopped at a non-descript building, we climbed rickety stairs with laundry hanging in the stairwell, passing a scary looking bathroom and walked into 3 rooms. Apparently, there are poor knockoffs, and more expensive, higher quality knockoffs. One room had men’s/women’s clothing with labels of Tommy Hilfiger dress shirts, North Face & Burberry winter jackets and Polo clothing. Another room had handbags, watches, luggage and Mont Blanc pens. Watches were large, ostentatious and ugly. The third room had higher quality knockoffs of the 2nd room. I didn’t buy anything.

Next stop was the Yu Yuan Market/Bazaar, near a Buddhist temple. The market typified the alleys and Chinese architecture that one would expect at a Chinese market/bazaar. I bought a Chinese bamboo saxophone. A man was playing at a portable stand with a case of “saxophones”/recorders and he had made them himself. List price was 188 yuan and he offered 150 yuan and I countered with 120 yuan ($15). This guy has done some PBS appearances and I’m looking forward to trying out the instrument. It’s two pieces with a blue plastic reed.

Back to the hotel and Adam and I made a mad dash to the nearby grocery stores and picked up Skippy chunky peanut butter and because we couldn’t find any bread in two grocery stores, we bought chocolate wafer cookies for dipping and that was our dinner. Next was an acrobatic show. Nearly all 40 of us went. It was a great performance and the Chinese showed incredible strength, flexibility and balance. Show was about 2 hours long and many people were whispering “Oh my God” as one unbelievable formation followed another. After the show, we headed for dinner in the neighborhood. Went to Malone’s American bar, but not before three little tykes tried to latch onto Adam in a park space and presumably were trying to pick our pockets by creating distractions. The bar was GREAT and a popular ex-pat place. They were showing the previous weeks’ American football game. Ordered beer, double cheeseburger with spicy potato wedges and it was incredibly awesome. Just the ticket after all these Chinese meals. Since it was about 11/11:30 when we finished, we just headed back to the hotel.