I recently attended a cooking class at Shanghai’s Chinese Cooking Workshop, which has been teaching expats to cook since 2003. The nondescript entrance, on Dongping Lu, would be easy to miss without knowing what to look for. Our class was held in a glass-enclosed room in the courtyard, hidden behind the thick stone walls. The […]
Shanghai
Revisiting the Jazz Age at a Shanghai House Museum
I am fascinated by the 1920s and 1930s. The Jazz Age, the Great Depression, prohibition and the romantic musings of F. Scott Fitzgerald make up some of my favorite reading material. But lately I’ve been learning about the history of my adopted home. Shanghai was then known as the “Paris of the East” and was […]
Tea Tasting in Shanghai’s Yu Gardens Bazaar
There is an infamous scam in Shanghai where seemingly nice Chinese “college students” invite hapless tourists to practice English with them at a tea house. There are variations to the set up, but the result is always the same: the tourists are forced to pay outrageous sums of money. But not all tea tastings are […]
Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple
Founded in 1882 and rebuilt in 1912, Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple is an active place of worship for Shanghai’s practicing Buddhists and one of the city’s premier historical attractions. The temple was built to house two Buddhist relics that were bestowed on a Chinese abbot when he visited Burma centuries ago. The centerpiece of the temple is […]
Red Velvet Afternoon Tea at the Waldorf Astoria, Shanghai
The mere mention of the Waldorf Astoria evokes a sense of exclusivity, elegance and grandeur. With only 20 hotels worldwide, this legendary brand is able to maintain an impeccable degree of service. Their aim is to be the standard by which all other hotels are measured. So it should be no surprise that the Waldorf Astoria […]