Travel Report: Shanghai Temptations

The past week I was in shanghai for a business trip. It is rather rare for my company to send me to travel, so aside from busy working nearly 12 hours a day I also took advantage of the opportunity to check out various aspects of the city, including the badminton side of it.
My itinerary dictates that I pass through Hong Kong on the way to Shanghai, resulting in a total travel time of a grueling 18 hours. To make matter worse, my outbound flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong was delay by nearly 2 hours and that caused me to miss my Sunday evening connection to Shanghai. They were unable to book any passenger to go to Shanghai that evening and I had to miss my Monday 10am meeting.
When it rains it pours. After getting stuffed into the Hong Kong airport hotel, which was really just so-so, I arrived at Shanghai late Monday morning. And while I was assured that they have forwarded my checked-in luggage, my luggage was nowhere to be found . Now I have to deal with the ordeal of claiming it and not having any clean clothing in the meantime.
But the clothing is really not the most important, I was worried that I might never see my beloved Victor MX80 and MX70 ever again. My suitcase is also quite precious as it has followed me faithfully since I went abroad 23 years ago.
Not having my shoes and a change of badminton clothes resulted in my missing my scheduled Monday night badminton with BC member michaelcool, who has graciously arranged all my badminton sessions in Shanghai for me. Worse is that the Monday night session was schedule to be held in the same complex as the China Open, I missed the chance to check out that stadium.
Being slightly worried I remembered that a BC member whom I have befriended in facebook works for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, a quick message to him had him confirmed from HK side that my luggage was found and will be on the way to Shanghai on the next flight. Needless to say that I was grateful to hear that knowing I will soon be reunited with my MX80/MX70 and a fresh change of clothing the next day.
Aside from Monday, I wasn’t planning to play any badminton until Thursday as I was planning to spend some time on Tuesday reviewing my presentation slides for the next day. But michaelcool informed me that there is a pretty strong and fun group that night, in addition he offered to pick me up from the metro station and driving me there, saving me at least 30mins of travelling time negotiating the local bus system, the temptation was just too high and I soon find myself boarding the metro with my reunited MX70 and MX80.


The badminton session runs from 7-10pm in a city/government built sports complex, the facility is simple with wooden flooring. There are a few halls and the halls that the club was playing had 4 side-by-side courts and sitting around at the end.
There is always a special feeling of playing badminton in an unfamiliar place. There is a familiar feeling of hitting the shuttle, the same unique pack-pack-pack-pack sound of the shuttlecock, and yet at the same time the strange feeling of being in a foreign place.
The strange feeling is compounded because everyone there speaks Mandarin which I am very weak on, while everyone was friendly to this new stranger, trying to strike conversations about rackets and other things, I was only able to converse with michaelcool. Someone did inform me that I paid too my for my MX80 though. Haha.
What I love about badminton though is that there is really no language barrier, badminton is the language and everyone shares the passion and love of it regardless of language, race, religion, class, and even badminton skills. Once we step into the court, the tactics and strategies are the grammar and all communications barriers are taken down. As it turned out I was actually playing at quite decent a level compared to most players, but certainly not the strongest one. Despite my wife telling me that the Chinese players will have my ass handed to me.
Badminton is really very much the same no matter where we are. The courts are the same size, the nets are the same height. This club actually provides shuttlecocks which I have to admit is of a lower quality than what I am used to. But what surprised me that despite inferior in flight, they do last long and it seldom bothers me. And honestly, at a cost of 25RMB (around US$4) for the 3 hours badminton session there isn’t much to complain about.
Aside from the simple facility and shuttles, people play badminton almost the same way. The same tossing up the shuttle in the air to determine who serves first, the same gentlemanly gesture to let the sole lady player serve first, the same 21 points game, the same hitting ceiling is out rule, and the same joking around during the rally. The only difference I see is that people don’t shake hands (or clap/high five) at the end of the game, only a courteous raise of the hand to indicate thank you for the game.
Since the session was reservation based, I was pretty much able to play without much break. On occasion I was able to swap to different partners. There are some strong and weak players that I play with and against and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. So much so that my calves had to remind me of it with an early morning cramps which I haven’t experienced for a long time.
The same happened for Thursday, michaelcool is picking me up outside a metro station near his work place downtown, which turned out to be right next to the famous Shanghai tower landmark. We took the opportunity to snap a few photos and off we go to badminton again.
Thursday badminton was pretty much the same as Tuesday, but without the heat and humidity. We played the full session from 7 till 10pm and winning most of our games.
While michaelcool keep tempting me to join him again to play in the same club on Saturday evening, I very reluctant to have to decline it as I had planned to spend my Saturday going around Shanghai. I have admit that the temptation is high and it is always hard for me to say no to badminton but I only have one free full day and it would be a waste to not explore Shanghai a little.

Bidding farewell to my new friend michaelcool I took the metro back to my hotel. I hope one day we will meet, most likely in the badminton courts again.
Saturday I took off to explore Shanghai a little, aside from the obligatory museums, I ventured out a little further to look up some shops mentioned in some of the BC Shanghai threads . The little detour took me a total of an hour or so. I didn’t have much expectation of the shops, but I was still slightly disappointed. There were 3 shops close by. Two of them are rather small, less than 10 square meters, and another one is maybe around 15 square meters. All of them don’t hold that much stock, and most of the rackets are low end Victor or Flex. The Victors are usually the challenger series which is rather low end. I have never heard of Flex, must be a local brand. Only the larger store has Yonex but it was close when I was there. Overall I wasn’t too impressed with the small selection.

After my little trip to check out these stores, I went off to do some touristy stuff. I visited the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai development museum, then I walked down Nanjing Road which is a very very long pedestrian only shopping street. I am not really into shopping in general until I see a familiar name: Li-Ning. Yes, the Li-Ning official store.

I casually strolled in to check stuff out. They have half of a floor of a 4-5 level store dedicated to badminton. They have the usual high end N series and a little bit of clothing. The clothing is of the newest lines which has rather bold letters all around. Then I saw something shiny: a shiny yellow N80. Played around with it and damn, the temptation was way too much to not succumb to. It was too beautiful, a classy and subtle looking gold frame with a mold that is rather unique. While the list price is very high at RMB1980, there is a 1/3 off sale so in the end, it was an OK price. And of course there is no chance of it being fake!
They also have a couple of Li-Ning stringing machines, some electronics and some crank, all with the Exthree style clamps.
Aside from the N80 I got a shirt and skirt for the Mrs. I hope I got the right size…

I hope someone managed to read this far into this post. J If you came into this thread hoping the temptation I mention is the infamous women who go around looking for / hooking men in the streets, well, you won’t be disappointed in that. After I got out of the Li-Ning store 2 women came up to me asking me for directions, of course I have no clue and thought they were genuinely lost. Then they asked if I am foreigner, then they started being friendly and one of them was asking me about my N80. I then realized what was going on and was instantly turned off and walked away. Look, my brand new N80 is mine, mine and mine only, keep your paws away from it.

 

that's why i just walked away!

 

nah, just walk around the shopping district and wave your US passport. you will have a line following you!

i used to think that's a joke, but now i actually believe there is some truth in that. sadly

 

bottom of the pile B level..

 

depends what you are looking for really. don't do it if you just want a N80!!