nanamoose

10 reasons not to visit Lapis Casa in Shanghai

1. I was trying to find my way to Lapis Casa from the northern end of Xintiandi on the corner of Taicang Road and Huangpi West Road. I called up and reported my location, asking for directions to the hotel. The staff on duty said, “We are located on the north of Xintiandi near 企業天地, where Bellagio (the Taiwanese restaurant) is.”

“Ok, but I am now at the corner of Xintiandi on the junction of Taicang Road and Huangpi West Road. Is your hotel located on the other corner of Xintiandi along Taicang Road?”

“Yes”. But when I walked over to the other side there was nothing but Paul’s (and what joy the sight of Paul’s brought me! I had been waiting for years for the arrival of Paul’s in HK and who would have thought that Shanghai would beat us to it in bringing this famed French bakery to the city? Favourite pickup at Paul: palmier – unfortunately, or fortunately, they don’t sell it here in Shanghai) and Starbucks. So I called again, this time giving them names of all streets enclosing Xintiandi plus my exact location. Still, they gave me the standardized answer. It was only after about 5 minutes down the conversation was I finally able to squeeze some useful information out of his confusing directions which led me to finally find the hotel.

2. The door did not open when I tried to insert my key card into the door. My mother had arrived earlier & had complained of the same problem with her keys, after which they claimed to have been caused by a mechanical failure of the locks, and which they supposedly later fixed. The same problem repeated itself after checkout. Total failures at attempts to open door – 3.

3. It was written in the hotel literature that the rooms are equipped with DVD players. However, I turned the room upside down and found no DVD player. I called reception and was told that they would bring a DVD player to the room. However, the TV was installed on a blank wall with no cabinet whatsoever underneath. The DVD player had to sit on a chair moved over from the dressing table. It took the staff half an hour to figure out how to connect the DVD player to the TV.

4. The sink was leaking water. The bathroom went wet before anyone took a shower.

5. The rainforest shower head was about 5 inches from the top of my head.

6. The temperature adjuster is super sensitive yet super slow at sending signals. The slightest movement in the adjuster turns the water super hot or super cold, about five minutes after the knob is turned. Water pressure is also low.

7. Towels are small and thin, amenities meager.

8. Breakfast is served at the adjacent River Seine French Restaurant. Food was already disappointing, but the biggest joke came when the toaster did not work. A manager came to fix the problem but burnt our toast. I asked a second member of staff to come take a look, “Your toaster is broken. Can you fix the problem?”

“Oh, it’s not broken, there’s just a little malfunction.”

9. When we complained about the various problems above to the reception during check out, our initial response was – no response at all. Zilch. Not a word of apology, not even, “Oh really?”Just an embarrassing glance. After persistent complaints they finally mumbled, “But we’ve had a lot of customers from overseas. They all like our place very much and return to us. If you return next time we will give you an upgrade.”

10. Jia just opened not far from here. Who needs Lapis when we have Jia?

Staying at Lapis Casa is like staying at a mediocre bed and breakfast in Europe, with a price tag of RMB1,700. Sure there is some “old Shanghai charm”like its predecessor, restaurant Lapis Lazuii on Dong Ping Lu. But like Lapis Lazuii Lapis Casa is a meretricious place.

Farewell Lapis Casa! Looks like will not be seeing you for a long while.

If you want to visit Tenya, my favourite all you can eat Japanese toro restaurant in Shanghai, however, the restaurant is located right inside Lapis Casa and you can find it on 68 Taicang Road, near Shun Chang Road (Tenya tel: 021-53836886, Lapis Casa tel: 021-53821600)

The Keanu Reeves in Shanghai Cabbies

Funny thing I noticed about cabbies in Shanghai, perhaps throughout China, is how, despite all their rudeness, crassness, loudness, amazing driving skills and admirable spitting habits (I always wondered, what is the cause of this spitting habit? I have tried oh so hard to cough up the mucus but try as I might I never succeeded in producing them, unless I was sick of course. Nothing comes out! Is this then a result of years of practice since childhood or this is a sad result of air pollution in China? The act of spitting itself is clearly not pleasurable at all so it is hard to imagine that it could be addictive and hence a habit. I then search deep down my memory to think whether people in the supposedly smoke-free environment of Kunming spit – and they do! So what have we got left? Spitting is neither a habit nor a result of air pollution. So what else can it be? Can someone enlighten me here?) , they are in fact remarkably honest. If you give them the benefit of the doubt they might turn out to be quite charming in some cases, and the most important thing is, they are by any standard far more polite than your average Hong Kong cabby.

Your Typical Shanghai Cab Ride

Cabby: Hello, where do you want to go?
Passenger: Junction of Huashan Road and Zhenning Road please.
Cabby: Let me make a U-turn. It is easier this way.
(Cabby makes U-turn and does not start the meter until he has fully completed the turn, is out of the vicinity of the deadlocked traffic and actually on the move)
Cabby: Are you Korean? (rolls down window and “tu!”)
Passenger: No. Do I look Korean?
Cabby: You don’t look Chinese, but your Chinese is very good! Where are you from?
Passenger: Well I was raised in Taiwan and…
Cabby: (Cabby jumped in without waiting for passenger to finish her sentence) Oh, Taiwan, I know Taiwan very well, my grandfather used to work alongside General Jiang Jieshi! Do you know xxx? (Cabby brushes past a biker, the distance between them a mere five centimeter. Both biker and driver continued his way as if nothing happened) He is very famous in Taiwan!
Passenger: (stiff and holding on to handle. She has not heard of xxx, but nods her head ferociously anyway) Yes of course.

Shanghai Finds - Ferguson Lane

Mum called me up few days ago to ask me whether I have been to Ferguson Lane in Shanghai. Apparently it is billed in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao as the new 蒲点“pu dian”, or, unless anyone comes up with a better translation of the term, “place to hang out”. I told mum, of course I have been! Heard about it, read about it, bought flowers there for the apartment and sat at Coffee Tree for a cup of tea.

Ming Pao or my mum may have used the wrong term for it (as the term 蒲点 usually refers to bars or clubs), but Ferguson Lane is quite rightly the upcoming place to hang out. A lifestyle hub with loft-style trendy office spaces, cafes, art galleries and artsy shops, Ferguson Lane is like a smaller Xintiandi without the gaggle of tourists and instead a touch of history. Doing some research on the internet I realized that Ferguson Lane takes its name from the small street it is on. Today's Wukang Lu was formerly named Ferguson Route, in honour of John Calvin Ferguson, a young American missionary sent to China at the turn of last century who was a prominent foreign figure in successive Chinese governments and who founded Nan King University, today's Jiao Tong University.

Once you enter the quite alleyway off leafy pleasant Wukang Road there is a small flower shop selling fresh flowers and indoor plants. You then walk through two newly renovated French concession buildings with exposed brick walls on your left (I love brick walls) right before you reach the main building which is apparently a former hospital. There is a Coffee Tree on your left, Globus Wines right next to it, an interesting looking homeware store further right, then you see Franck, a highly rated French restaurant.

Being on Ferguson Lane is like being back in Europe, with a twist. The clientele is largely foreign, both Coffee Tree and Franck has al fresco tables to transport you back to Paris, and then you bend round to the back of the hospital building and you see the clothing store D.I.S – Dutch In Shanghai – we are in China after all. But this is what makes Ferguson Lane an even more special place.

Ferguson Road is at 376 Wukang Road (junction of Wukang Road and Taian Road)

Shanghai Finds - Dagu Road

This is absolutely hilarious. Walking down Dagu Road today, apart from the numerous new cafes, restaurants and massage parlours (you have the best in Shanghai all within walking distance from each other, Dragonfly, Taipan and Peony amongst other lesser known names), I came upon two DVD stores that look exactly the same and right across the street from each other. To be exact, I did not come upon them just like that. In fact I had heard about these two stores on Dagu Road but this was the first time I saw them ‘in person’ – and what a hilarious sight it was.

To your left on 378 Dagu Road (if you are coming in from all the massage parlours that is) is Movie World. On your right hand side is Movie Star on 407 Dagu Road. So which one should I go into? Pondering hard (I know I should not be using the words “ponder” and “hard” together, but somehow, I just love the sound of the combination) and starting to feel helpless I saw under Movie Star’s store sign a banner that reads “EVEN BETTER THAN MOVIE WORLD”. Voila! So Movie Star is better than Movie World – and not just better, its EVEN BETTER, implying that Movie Star actually harbours at least respect for Movie World.

Easy choice then. Movie World it is: 1. Movie Star is even better, so Movie World must be pretty good to start off with. 2. Never liked comparative advertising to begin with. If you have to compare, it means you have nothing better to say about yourself.

So for those of you on a weekend spree to Shanghai & short on time, head to Dagu Road for a one-stop cure to all (or some) of your Shanghai cravings – good massage, nice coffee shops to regenerate in between, and not one, but two, good DVD stores.

Shanghai Finds - Taikang Road

Never intended to walk into a little piece of Provence in the middle of Shanghai at Bohemia Café. In fact, never intended to walk into a little piece of Europe in the middle of Shanghai in the form of Taikang Road.

Once again, although I have long heard of Taikang Road, it having made a name as an artist and designer’s enclave with lazy, loungy cafes, for some reason (again one too elusive to expound upon here) it was only recently that I had the chance to visit. I was bought ten seconds walking down Lane 210 (i.e.田子坊) in the middle of Taikang Road. Once down the alley you are surrounded by one off shops selling mostly Chinese or ethnic inspired pieces, from homeware to jewelry to stuffed toys and dressing gowns. Allow yourself to get lost in this labyrinth of alleyways (if you insist on not being lost, at the end of the main alley look for the sign to Ginger Café on your left. You will come across Japanese Antique Clothes on your left. Continue to the end of the courtyard and dog-leg left down the tiny alley) to find cafés with al fresco tables and an interesting, bohemian crowd nestled amongst the charm of old Shanghai. Here local residents go about their daily lives, hanging their washing above your heads and rubbing shoulders with tourists and local foreigners alike in their pajamas.

Amongst the many stores in this lost alleyway you will find Nuzi, a furniture shop from New Zealand selling bespoke wooden wares, Amidu, a gallery selling original Tibetan tangkas, and best of all Bohemia Café.

My best Shanghai find of the year, Bohemia Café spells rustic chic in Provencal terms. With unpolished wooden furniture, exposed brick walls from which sits dainty tea candles, fresh flowers and a team of expatriate staff, Bohemia Café is the ideal place is waste an afternoon in a book or on your laptop (like I was doing today). The banana cake was a bit on the dry side but the friendly staff and sweet airy environment pretty much made up for any shortcoming in terms of food.

Love for thy Neighbourhood (Part I of III) - Shanghai's Le Passage Fuxing

I have a tendency to love all things ‘neighbourly’. The same kind of shop or restaurant, one in my neck of the woods and another in a fancy district some 15-minute cab ride away and I will vouch for the one in my neighbourhood any day. I believe this is the same kind of love attributed to the ‘girl next door’, or 邻家女孩, a phenomenon I have in fact yet to understand (according to wikipedia, the girl next door is someone who exudes “wholesome, unassuming, or ‘average’ femininity…”).

Places, however, as opposed to girls, I understand, and in Shanghai the best example of my neighbourly love is Le Passage Fuxing on Fuxing West Road near Huashan Road. Le Passage Fuxing may indeed be unassuming thanks to its modest exterior but take a stroll down its small alleyway and you will see that it is far from average.

Housed over two floors in an old colonial building, Le Passage Fuxing boasts Cha Gang (edgy Japanese unisex separates) on the ground floor, stylish sino-chic yoga studio Y+ above, cosy and airy café Ginger (with free Wi-Fi – you will often find me here in lazy afternoon writing blogs and reading the papers) at the back and Rouge Baiser (pretty embroidered table and bed linen) near the exit. I guess there goes your girl next door at a neighbourly joint.