Former TV TOKYO correspondent Miyu Iketani experiences a state-of-the-art hotel in China where a robot delivers food to your room.

After a long winter break, school life will resume on February 25. I returned to China a little before that. I returned to China shortly before that in order to travel around Shanghai.

One of the reasons I came to China to study was a trip I took with friends seven years ago to Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Nanjing. This time, it will be my first time in Shanghai in 7 years. Last time I was impressed by the size of the commercial facilities and the beautiful night view of the Bund, but living in Tianjin as an international student has given me a different perspective.

The first thing that impressed me was the beautifully maintained roads. In Tianjin, I often travel by bicycle, and the roads can be bumpy. At night, it is difficult to see the road clearly, and sometimes the tires get stuck in holes and I almost fall down. In Shanghai, however, bicycles go smoothly. It was a pleasant touring experience.

Like Tianjin, Shanghai, which was once a concession, has many brick buildings that remind me of European countries. Shanghai is similar to Tianjin in this respect, but it is also positioned as one of the most fashionable cities in China, with many small stores lining the alleys, selling nice sundries and secondhand clothes. Compared to Tianjin, there is a lot of greenery, with small parks, plazas, and lawns planted even under high-rise buildings, creating a sophisticated atmosphere of greenery in the city.

On the Bund, a tourist spot, police and security guards were patrolling every few meters, warning people sleeping on benches. In Tianjin, we sometimes see police at major intersections on main streets, but I was surprised to see so many police standing around in a tourist spot.

I was glad that Shanghai food is not spicy!

Shanghai cuisine is what I wanted to eat in Shanghai. In Japan, Chinese food is often lumped together as “Chinese,” but it is interesting to note that in the real China, the flavors of the dishes are completely different depending on the region. Shanghai food is sweet and sour, which is very good for people like me who do not like spicy food.

When I first came to Shanghai, I was captivated by the very delicious Lu Lohan I had on Nanjing Road, but I later learned that Lu Lohan is Taiwanese cuisine. I later learned that it was Taiwanese cuisine and not Shanghai cuisine. So I decided, “Next time I go to Shanghai, I will eat Shanghai food!” I decided.

I went to a restaurant recommended by an acquaintance from Shanghai. Among the various dishes, I liked the eggplant the best!

The sweet and sour taste with a hint of scallion oil is the best. It was a strange dish that somehow felt refreshing despite the use of oil, and I finished it in no time. The Shanghai crab rice cooked in stone was also very tasty. The rice soaked in the delicious extract and broth of the Shanghai crab was so good that I am drooling even now when I think back on it.

The dishes were full of seafood, which is characteristic of a port town, and above all, the “spicy or not spicy?　Not too spicy? I was happy to be able to eat as much as I wanted without having to ask “is it spicy or not?

Japanese-style toilets at Disney

I also came to Shanghai Disneyland for the second time in seven years. Last time I was surprised that there were not so many people and that there were more “daughter and father” or “grandson and grandmother” than whole families. I was surprised to see more “daughters and fathers” and “grandkids and grandmothers” than families. I also often saw people dressed in costumes taking pictures.

At Disneyland in Shanghai, many people paid professional photographers to take their pictures, and in front of the castle, there were people waiting in line at equal intervals for their turn. This is a scene that is hard to see in Japan.

If you pay a fee, you can ride popular attractions with almost no line up, but I was surprised to learn that it costs about 4,000 yen per person per attraction at Disneyland in Shanghai. The Dantotsu popular area is the Zootopia area.’ It was the most crowded area because it had just opened in 23 years.

I was surprised to see that there were still many Japanese-style toilets in Disneyland, although I thought they were indeed no longer available. Maybe it is easier for those who are used to Japanese-style toilets.

At the hotel, I took delivery of my favorite “Chinese Starbucks,” luckin coffee, and the delivery robot picked up the items from the delivery person at the entrance of the hotel and brought them to my room. Amazing!

I was even more surprised when I rode in the elevator with the catering robot and he said, ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you. The hotel itself is an old building from 1929, but the service was state-of-the-art.

When I first arrived in China, I was worried about getting to my destination safely and did not have time to enjoy different cultures, but I got used to the Chinese map apps and services and had a relaxing time. I joined in ballroom dancing with my aunts and uncles in the square and bought a hat at a fashionable thrift store.

On the cab ride to the airport, I enjoyed conversing in Chinese with the kind driver. When he learned that I was Japanese, he said, “You are from Japan, aren’t you?　Tokyo is a nice place, isn’t it? Are you living in Tianjin?　Shanghai is different from Tianjin, isn’t it! The man who proudly told me “Shanghai is different from Tianjin, isn’t it?” was cute and we had a good time until the very end.

See you again, Shanghai!

The paid version of “FRIDAY GOLD” carries the first eight installments of “Female Graduate Student Miyu Iketani’s ‘Unusual Study Abroad in Japan'”. In Part 8, she discusses her experiences in China regarding the issue of “Chinese people’s bad manners! I discussed the problem based on my experience in China.