It has been a while since I had visited this City of mish mash, full of modernity and technology, yet a place of vintage and nostalgic charm. I had been wanting my annual break from work, having bad health recently and recently finishing a busy part of my work life. So yeah, I planned for this trip back to Shanghai, in the glorious month of May, where the temperature was lovely at around 20ish degrees C. It was also a great time to catch up with old friends; colleagues current and previous ones but that would be for another story. As usual, my partner in crime is my red hot B.
So here I am, back to the city that I visited 4 or 5 years ago. I paid my dues getting myself lodging at Rachel's place through AirBnB, the 3rd time I placed my trust on this platform. I was not disappointed once again, as Rachel is a very lovely lady whom had been very helpful throughout my trip to provide places of interests that I can visit. We even had a lunch "eat in" via the very convenient Wechat App or known as 微信 to the local folks here, which helped us to make cashless payments. There are various recommendations through a local app called "Dianping" 大众点评 , trust me, it looks more friendly on the phone as an app than on a web browser.
So here is Rachel's link, doing some promo for her, in case any friends would like to stay in the heart of Shanghai City. link here: Rachel's Airbnb apartment
Rachel's living room
With my lodging taken care of , the next thing would be to account for any modern man's concern, having internet connectivity on your mobile phone. Thanks to the convenience of Shanghai life for anything with your mobile (you can really get complacent in this city) , I bought myself a SIM card for my mobile, a Xiaomi Note 3, which is really great as I can have dual SIM cards on it, and the China based card complemented with the ability to make local calls and 4G internet connectivity. I went to a nearby China Unicom phone store but the cards are also available at most convenience stores and I bought a Chinese SIM card for 120rmb,(Renminbi) for 1GB of data. If this is not enough the recharge card for China Unicom can be purchased quite conveniently. I used the data quite extensively for a week and I am still left with 400mb end of the week. This guy provides great details of this Sim card purchase here: The Mad Traveller Online
So with some plans on this trip to discover the coffee culture here in Shanghai on my red Brompton, which had been to Taipei notoriously last year in April, having broken down most parts of the trip. I was skeptical it would behave well this trip. But very fortunately it did, the whole trip was fabulous with my B.
the red B who loves to travel
After getting some research done on the area which I stayed, which incidentally was really great , as it was in the "JingAn" district, which is very convenient to the the coffee belts. Some Chinese websites really had this all planned out for you, if you are into coffee. See here , but the one that really got on my mind was this little small cafe called "Manner Cafe" on Nanyang road, which is really small and yet reportedly churns out profits of around 100k per month (RMB) for the owner. See here (in Chinese, so you need Google translate for non Chinese reader)
On a lovely morning, I decided to start my discovery ride. I rode my B with the help of Baidu Maps, oh yeah, nothing works here Google related, or Facebook related, unless you can tunnel a small hole using VPN through the great Firewall of China.
The stretch of my discovery in Jingan district for coffee are in particular to 2 popular stretches , along Yuyuan East Road and Nanyang Road. See below for illustration
Yuyuan East Road and to Nanyang Road
My ride will take me down towards Changde road, from Changping Road near to where I was staying and towards Yuyuan Road. My first destination was stopped temporarily with the waft of a nice morning scent of a 烧饼，(pancakes) which reminded me of our local Roti Prata , without curry though. Her stall is strategically located at the start of the stretch of cafes.
big "Sister" making the pancakes, which you can add eggs , lettuce and bacon to it. She accepts "cashless payments" through Wechat or Alipay QR code...how high tech :)
Yuyuan East Road
I walked thru this stretch of cafes, and even a pretty fancy barber shop that looks more like a cafe.
a very fancy Barber shop
However, I decided to leave my taste-buds for "Manner" cafe, which is just a left turn into Nanyang Road. Along the way , there are even more cafes.
another cafe along Nanyang Road
The "famed" coffee place was still awakening from the morning crowd, hence I managed to chat with the young and very polite boss. He was quite happy to see me with my Brompton, known as 小布 to the Chinese community. I wanted to try their Americano and Flat White, which was known to be pretty good. I also saw a "Yunnan" 云南 coffee on the daily menu board, but decided to stay safe.
Manner Coffee
The place is really really small, with just an opening for the Barista to hand you the coffee.
But you get really all the folks who swear by their good coffee, locals and foreigners as well.
Prices of a small cuppa starts at 15RMB, lovely
There are folks who wanted the flasks filled with their morning coffee, some just like me on plastic cups and people who will buy packets of their coffee beans for home consumption. Looking at the occasional break in between a singular row of customers, I am not surprised they are selling a lot of coffee, daily.
and Of course ,everything can be paid through QR codes :)
Me? I am just happy sitting on the bench outside the stall having my pancake and my cuppa..watching the Shanghai workforce in action ^=^
watching the world go by...
The morning crew had a female rider who just reported to work on a pretty cool "Pigeon" bike, known as 凤凰 , a new version of the Classical Chinese bicycle which used to roam China by the thousands, before cars became their symbol of status.
a Pigeon with "faux Brooks" looking saddle
En route back after my morning cuppa, I chanced upon some lovely wall art along a small corner of the streets, and took a vanity shot of my B once again.
I just love this old charm of Shanghai life, mixed with sophistication and lovely May weather.
to be continued...on my ride along the river....
