the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I know to avoid:

1. 'Traditional' tea ceremonies
2. Art Shows
3. Massage offers from folks on Nanjing Road

Going to visit some parks with folks connected with Ma Yueh-liang, anyone else fun to meet with?

The place I stayed at in 2010 is now the Pullman Shanghai Jing'an and pricey-er. Any decent/inexpensive spots to stay, ideally near the metro?

I would suggest also asking on both

https://www.reddit.com/r/China

and

https://www.reddit.com/r/shanghai

Thanks!

I scanned through those boards already, and got some info I might use.

Go spar with Ramsey Dewey

I didn't know he was based in Shanghai!

I definitely will see about visiting.

haha, yes the art shows. in 03 i was charmed by two young(art studend)ladies at Wangfujing(beijing) they said i looked just as "that" famous American actor, although which one i never found out, but a told them that actor actually looks as me. i bought a painting for 100RMB because it actually look good......A year after i met a lady from germany who had been quite forcefully made to pay a 1000RMB for a tea cermony event. now this was all in Beijing, but happened in all the big cities

M50, old factory complex turned into artists quarters. Most of them have both of their studios and stores here. Great place to walk around in and lots of fascinating modern art to fall in love with. My favorite place to visit in Shanghai.

And of course you have the newly opened Disneyland....

yes absolutely, if into art theres a lot of ineteresting art modern and old here in china, a lot of highly skilled artists around

Unfortunately, I recommend that you don't do push hands in public. Even in the SF bay area I don't bother doing push hands mostly because it becomes a game of face and I find people just cheat anyway both foreigners and the Chinese. Now if I do push with anyone I let it end with them getting the same amount of pushes on me so that person who goes to that park every day for decades doesn't lose face. I don't make a living from martial arts so I don't mind.

What to see? When I was there I always sought out the old sections of the city before modern Shanghai. For me they are much more interesting.

Go to the Silk Road Xing Jiang restaurant, it has live music and live dancing and is must. In fact seek out all Muslim food. I can find great Chinese food outside of China but not from the Muslims of China. Xinjiang restaurants also serve black beer.

Unfortunately, I recommend that you don't do push hands in public

That's all I did in 2010, and it went fine. One does have to be careful to give the locals face.

As long as you know...

I had a few incidences. One where someone attmpted to break my wrist after getting pushed and I have heard of other foreigners getting jacked but the same thing happens here too when strangers cross hands.

After seeing people play tricks like staying front weighted and so on I rarely bother. I would rather just grapple or spar if given the choice at least then the ground rules are set. But good times! Enjoy yourself.

Would second what grzegorz said about the Xinjiang restaurants, for me that was one of the highlights about China, Xinjiang food is an amazing mix of East (noodles, dumplings) and West (kebabs, heavy on tomatoes + lamb), and incredibly difficult to find outside of China.

I know a group of taiji people in Shanghai whose push hands I rate v highly - of course great peng / song / tingjin, but can also demonstrate higher level stuff like na jin (seizing where u can't move) and using emptiness. PM me if you'd like details.

(There are some Uygher restaurants in Tokyo - but they tend to be far from central Tokyo. I had some things like meat pies that I did not eat when I was in the Uygher street of Beijing.)

...now back to the scheduled programming...

CheapBastid wrote:I know to avoid:

3. Massage offers from folks on Nanjing Road

why? Just remember this first mantra I learned living in China and you'll be fine: "wo men qu wai mian gan shen me, hui lai bu gao xu bie ren".

There's no shame in experiencing the finer things in life...

there's no shame in experiencing the finer things in life...

I'm not against a massage in principle, I just have heard that offers to yáng guǐzi on Nanjing can lead to a injury and a lighter wallet instead of an empty sack.