Samantha Brown's Places to Love

-It's the most populous city in the most populous country in the world, with its own distinct history that's not just racing towards the future but well past it.

A dynamic city that will overwhelm then charm... will engulf, then let breathe... will feel familiar then completely new.

I'm learning how to cha-cha in China.

-Cha-cha-cha!

-An international city that belongs to the world but could only be in one country.

I'm in Shanghai, China.

I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations... the experiences... and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -Europe is a treasure trove of fascinating history, rich culture, and renowned cities.

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-Away... ...is the smell of fresh pine.

It's a place where giants still live.

Away is where the farther down the road you go, the closer you get to the ones you love.

Find Your Away.

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-Where can you possibly start your first morning in Shanghai?

That's easy -- breakfast.

[ Horns honking ] [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Sizzling ] -I'm Jamie Barys.

I'm originally from Tennessee.

And I've lived in Shanghai for 10 years.

-So, why did you bring me here first?

-So, in Shanghai, a lot of these food streets have been moved outside of the city, so this is one of the few places in the city you can still get traditional street-food snacks.

I want to take people out of their comfort zone and show them how amazing and diverse Chinese food can be.

-And we're doing a morning street-food tour, yeah.

-Yes, breakfast tour.

Yes.

-So, is what we're eating only eaten at breakfast?

-So, a lot of these spots serve the same things at breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast and lunch is commonly eaten snack-wise.

You get a lot of dumplings.

You get a lot of noodles.

So we'll get both of those.

-I love the steam that's just, like, coming -- coming through.

My God.

-Yeah, a little facial in the morning.

-This is great.

[ Laughs ] -Ni hao.

[ Speaking Chinese ] -So, we're gonna get a black sesame -- -And we're also gonna get a vegetarian baozi.

Baozi is a steamed bun that is stuffed with something.

So, the vegetarian one will have bok choy, a little bit of shiitake mushrooms.

And then some dry tofu.

It's really flavorful.

And it's only about the equivalent of 50 cents, a little less than 50 cents.

-All right.

-They're gonna be really warm, okay, so be careful.

-Mmm!

-It's good, right?

-Oh, it's so good!

I love my lipstick ring around it, right?

That is beautiful.

-Okay, so, this is called a jianbing.

These are actually becoming really popular.

There's a guy serving them in New York now who learned how to make them in Shanghai.

-Mm-hmm.

-Um, this jianbing is a crepe.

There's four types of flour in this one -- corn, millet, whole wheat, and then a mung bean.

And the mung bean makes it nice and crispy.

So, you can see she spread it out, so it's really nice and thin.

You get little bubbles coming up off it.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then she's gonna crack an egg on top of it.

-Nice.

-And then she puts a little bit of pickled mustard tuber, green onion, and cilantro on there.

-Whoa!

-Then she puts a savory soybean paste, chili oil at the very end, and then this deep-fried wonton cracker, which gives it a crunch.

Like I was telling you before, it's all about the texture in Chinese cuisine.

So you've got the soft outside, the crunchy inside.

This is gonna be very hot, but, again, you don't want to let it sit too long, or else you will lose that crunch.

-All right.

-You ready to dig in there?

-Yeah.

-This is... -That is amazing.

-It's my favorite.

-The first bite -- -Yeah.

-You don't even have to come up to know that that is amazing.

-I eat this so many times a week, at least three or four times a week.

-One thing that has always intimidated me about being anywhere in China is -- is the line situation.

Everyone's, like, getting in front of me.

And so what is your advice?

-Elbows out.

You've got to protect your spot in line.

That was one of the first phrases I learned in Chinese, is, "You should line up."

They're like, "Oh, sorry."

And they run to the back of the line 'cause then it's an embarrassing "losing face" sort of thing.

-Ohh.

"You should line up."

-Yep.

-How do you say that in Chinese?

-Pai dui ba.

-Pai dui bwah.

-Ba.

-Pai dui ba.

-Perfect.

-Pai dui ba.

-Yeah.

Exactly.

-Okay.

I got it.

All right.

-No one's cutting in front of me now!

-[ Laughs ] -One of the joys of Shanghai street food is the fact that everything is being prepared, cooked, and assembled right before your eyes, like these churro-like Chinese doughnuts that you dip into hot soy milk.

-So, we're gonna head on to one more stop, grab some pot stickers, and then we'll go sit down and eat these inside.

-I love it.

We've got a full breakfast now.

-Yes, we do.

-It's getting busy.

-Yeah.

Now is about the time where people are starting to go to work, so this place really crowds out, yeah.

So, you can actually watch them making these in the wok here, so let's stop.

-Ooh, let me see that.

-So, these are guotie.

Guo means "pot" or "wok," and tie means "to stick."

So these are literally pot stickers.

That's where we get the word from in English.

-That is an amazing pot he's got.

I've never seen one of those.

So, you notice it has no handles, but he's got pliers to do the spinning of it.

So, what they do is they pour in oil first, then put the dumplings in.

And then they actually pour in water and spin it around and put the top on.

So, it's a bamboo lid, and, that way, the bottom of it is nice and crunchy 'cause it's been fried, but the top and the meat are steamed.

So you get this really nice textural difference, 'cause Chinese food is so much about texture.

They'll take about three to five minutes to steam, and we can go sit down, and they'll bring them to us.

-Great.

-All right.

-Ah.

Xi xi.

-Xi xi.

So, when you eat these, you have to bite very a small hole out of either the side or the top, and then you slurp really loudly to get all of that cool air in with the hot liquid, so, that way, you won't burn your tongue.

-You're making me very nervous.

-It's gonna be fine.

-I just thought I was gonna eat a nice little pot sticker.

-It's not rude.

It's just how you eat things while they're still hot.

-Got it.

-[ Slurping ] -Okay.

I got the opening.

That's a big hole.

[ Slurping ] -Nice!

That's great.

-And now -- And now... -Yep.

-Is it ever rude for me just to pick this up with my hands and put it in my mouth?

-So, you're fine 'cause you're a foreigner.

-Okay.

-But Chinese people don't ever touch their food.

-Interesting.

-Even if you go to -- -You can slurp all you want here... -But you don't touch your food with your hands.

So even when you're eating something like a burger -- you know how a burger will come wrapped?

-Yeah.

-You actually peel, kind of like a burrito, where you just slowly peel the paper off of it and take a bite.

Yeah, you never, ever touch food with your hands.

-All right.

So, basically, what you're saying is I can look as ridiculous as I want eating with chopsticks, as long as I'm eating with chopsticks?

-Yeah, no, Chinese people will always just be really impressed that you're even trying.

-Okay.

-Yeah.

-Impressive.

-[ Laughs ] [ Horn beeping ] -What I love most about being in China is spending time in the parks.

There's just a different level of personal and physical expression here.

They meet here every day?

-Every day.

In the morning.

-In the morning.

-In the morning.

8:00 until about 11:00.

-8:00 to 11:00, you dance?

-Mm.

-For three hours?

-Very tiring.

-[ Laughs ] That's tiring.

-Don't go to the hospital.

[ Both laugh ] -Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

-Sure.

Why not?

Huh?

Oh, this way, yeah.

-Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

-Ooh!

-Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

-Cha-cha-cha.

I'm learning how to cha-cha in China.

-Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

Cha-cha-cha.

-[ Laughs ] Whoo!

[ Clapping ] Shanghai is a busy, crowded city, very focused on its future.

[ Motors buzzing ] [ Horns honking ] But it also has these peaceful, lazy, utterly charming spaces.

This is the French Concession, and it's known for being tree-lined and full of cafs and boutiques and little restaurants.

And it has been this way for 170 years.

In the mid 1800s, Britain, France, and America all occupied territories in Shanghai known as concessions.

The French Concession saw its height in the '20s and '30s and was the home of artists, intellectuals, and revolutionaries from China and all over the world.

This is the building where, in 1921, the very first meeting of the founders of the Communist Party in China took place.

Present at that meeting -- a young Mao Zedong, who would later become a central figure in the founding of modern China.

[ Thunder rumbling ] I've been told this is the "plum rain."

-It is indeed.

Every summer, it rains for maybe two or three weeks, and that marks the beginning of the hot season thereafter.

I'm Patrick Cranley, and I've been living in Shanghai for 20 years.

-All right, well, I'd rather have the rain season than the hot season.

-Well, you have it.

[ Laughs ] I'm a founder of Historic Shanghai, a community group that is dedicated to helping people understand Shanghai's complicated story.

-The rain isn't stopping Patrick from giving me an overview of Shanghai architecture on the Bund, an historic walkway along the Huangpu River.

-Most of the buildings that we see along the Bund now are what I call the third-generation Bund buildings, built between 1910 and 1925.

-Okay.

-The first- and second-generation buildings are almost all gone.

And then we've got the fourth generation, which include these two buildings, which are both examples of Art Deco architecture.

The one on the left was built as the Cathay Hotel -- we now know it as the Peace Hotel -- in 1929.

And it was one of the first major Art Deco buildings built in Asia.

A few years later, the Bank of China Building was built, also in Art Deco style, but a little bit different this time.

-Yeah.

-This is a great example of Chinese Art Deco.

During this period, in the 1930s, the government of China, under Chiang Kai-shek, the so-called Nationalist government, wanted to accentuate their Chinese pride.

-Being on the Bund, you wanted to make a statement, right?

-Oh, absolutely.

-Is there an ego going on here?

Is there like, you know, "Oh, this one was built, so I'm gonna build this one," and that sort of thing?

-They definitely wanted to make a statement, and they spared no expense.

-So, how long did it take to build all these buildings along the Bund?

-There are buildings from the 19th century all the way up until the late 1940s on this side.

-And then this changes everything!

-Well, that's right.

You know, Shanghai was under a deep freeze for about 40 years, between 1950 and 1990.

Very little was built, and very little was torn down.

But as soon as Shanghai got the green light to go ahead and be Shanghai again, well, that's what you got.

Because Shanghai has always been about being the most modern, the fastest, the tallest.

You see the building with the red globes there?

-Yeah.

-That was the first modern building to be completed over there, and it was finished in 1995.

So every other building over there is less than 20 years old.

-My goodness.

-And that pace of building is probably unprecedented in the history of mankind.

-The rain wasn't going to let up for a while, so Patrick wanted to show me something I never would've expected to see in China.

[ Gasps ] Oh, wow!

-Yeah, not what you -- -It's a bright sunny day in here.

-It's gorgeous.

And this was the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank.

-To me, this looks like it's brand-new.

It's so pristine.

How old is this?

-When you build right, it lasts.

-[ Laughs ] Yes.

-This building was completed in 1923.

-Ohh.

-Yeah.

They were a very powerful financial institution, and they wanted to make a statement as to their status, so they spared no expense, and they brought all of these materials in from abroad, including the Cararra marble.

And they brought in the craftsmen who created these mosaics, which depict some of the cities where Hong Kong Shanghai Bank had branches back in the 1920s.

And then the central figures -- that's Cornucopia, the goddess of plenty.

-All right.

-Right?

Appropriate for a bank.

-So, these cities depicted in this rotunda here just represent some of the most exciting cities in the world, and you live in one of them, Shanghai.

And that was a choice.

Why did you want to live here?

-Well, my academic background was in China studies, and I've lived in some of these cities around the world, but Shanghai is special to me.

It's a place where East and West meet, a place where history is in the streets all around us.

The people are friendly.

It's a wonderful place to do business.

So I learn something new every day, and it's very stimulating.

-On the busy cosmopolitan shopping street Nanjing Road, there's a business that has been forging steel since the Qing dynasty.

That would be the mid 1600s to you and me.

And while this shop is known for its scissors and its teapots of all sizes, I'm here to buy one of my favorite souvenirs.

So, whenever I'm in an Asian country, Japan, or China, I love to buy the knives there, and I bring them as gifts.

And when you're in China, you buy a cleaver.

Like, in every household in China, it's just about the cleaver.

And these are phenomenal.

I'm gonna try Chinese right now.

Ready?

[ Conversing in Chinese ] -Yes.

Can I see one?

-Okay.

And this for meat.

Vegetable.

-For meat.

Oh, okay, meat and vegetables.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Right?

Oh, see?

What's really great about a cleaver is it's actually lighter than you think.

This one is beautiful.

Oh, see?

Look at that.

And just...beautiful.

And the other thing I love about the cleaver is that you can then scoop up, right, and then put, you know, into your pot.

And so you can cut things as thin as, like, ginger, and then you can chop some -- You were saying meat, as well?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-And then the handle really goes down on the meat.

So this is a great knife to have.

And I know people are really intimidated.

It's usually just for butchers and used in horror films, but it really is a beautiful knife.

So, great.

Uh, may I try, um... Let's see one of the bigger ones.

-Okay.

-[ Laughing ] I mean, come on, right?

This is the kind of cleaver that makes husbands nervous.

And then this one down here.

This is like a $10 cleaver.

-For the "boom."

Bigger bones.

-Bigger bones!

[ Laughs ] -Bigger ones there.

Too heavy.

Big bones.

-Ohh!

Oh, my gosh.

Wow!

That's like -- This is like two pounds right here.

That is a solid piece of steel.

-Bigger pig.

Bigger pig there for booms.

-This is for the pig?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Okay.

-Bigger.

Bigger pig booms.

-[ Laughs ] Since I didn't really need a two-pound cleaver for bigger pigs, I went with my first choice, that cai dao.

And for only $22, it was a steal.

[ Bell clanging ] A few hours away from the fast pace of Shanghai and several hundred years apart is the ancient water town of Fengjing.

Fengjing was established over 700 years ago, and even though it's now been reconstructed and it's really a tourist destination, it does give you an idea of what things looked like back in ancient times.

And, of course, Shanghai is this modern city, and it looks Western in a lot of its parts, and so this is where you can come and get your "ancient Chinese scenery" fix.

I mean, come on!

I'm in China!

Part of the magic of coming to these ancient water towns is of course getting on a boat and just sort of floating around through the canals here.

And it gives you this dreamy perspective.

I just realized something.

I'm on a slow boat in China.

So, this is a really special area here in Shanghai, very popular, especially on a weekend.

It's Tian Zi Fang, and it's this little district of narrow lanes.

And it's known for its arts-and-crafts stores, but, looking around, it's got just about every store you can imagine here.

And it used to be a residential area at the turn of the century and the beginning of the 20th, and you can still see the traditional Shanghainese architecture of homes before it became all apartment buildings, so it's got a little bit of everything.

It's got history, it's got shopping, and it's got shopping.

[ Laughs ] After seeing those beautiful scissors in the knife shop, I jumped at the chance to see them in action in a gallery here in Tian Zi Fang.

Paper was invented in China, so it seems only natural that there would be an art form based on cutting it.

In the United States, every child in probably second grade does a snowflake.

-Oh, yes, the snowflake.

-That's what we know.

-Yeah.

-And that's where we peak, and that's where we fall off.

We don't do it anymore.

-Yeah, but the snowflake is also, like, one of the -- It's not called easiest, but it's, like, effective way to learn paper cutting.

-Yeah.

-I'm Lucy Li.

I'm third generation of Shanghai paper-cutting artist.

-Lucy's father is the revered Shanghai artist Li Shoubai, a painter and master paper cutter.

-So, right now I'm demonstrating.

Maybe you can guess what I'm cutting.

-Oh, okay.

-Yeah?

After years and years of practicing, basically we can have the images of all the patterns in mind, so you don't have to paint it first.

You're just using the scissors, like, instead of the pens and painting on the paper.

-When did your father put that first pair of scissors in your hand?

-When I was 6.

-6, okay.

-To me, it's like a family legacy, which I have the responsibility to carry the legacy on.

My grandfather is also a paper-cutting artist.

-Is this an art form in China that is still vibrant?

A lot of artists are doing this?

Or this sort of endangered?

-It's not that popular right now, because it's not quite useful, we say.

It's not quite useful in our lives.

-Mm-hmm.

-But, as for myself, I love paper cutting.

It's like a very beautiful technique in our lives, and it should not be forgotten by our contemporary, high-speed, fast life.

Finished, and if we open it, you'll find...

This is like a pair of the mouse.

-[ Gasps ] That's amazing.

-And specially, this is why we say the negative part is also useful, just like this.

-Oh, of course.

-This is the negative part, and that is the positive part.

I think paper cutting is not only skills.

It's memories.

It holds the dreams that related to the Chinese thousands of years history.

-[ Speaking Chinese ] -The Peace Hotel, which we saw earlier on the Bund, founded its jazz band in 1929.

At the time, it was the hottest ticket in town and one of the places that made the city of Shanghai the place to hear jazz in all of Asia.

So, have you ever been here to hear the oldest jazz band?

-Of course.

They're fantastic.

They're so much fun.

-Yeah, it's something you have to do while you're here.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Most of the band has been playing together since the 1980s, and although some of the songs feel a little...scrappy, they're played with love and joy.

And the Old Jazz Band is a unique slice of Shanghai lore that we can all be a part of.

May I ask you how old you are?

Is that rude?

-78 or 79.

[ Both laugh ] -See, when I tell my age, I go down.

-Not as clear to me.

-So, you play classical piano... -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-...and jazz.

-Yeah.

-Why did you want to play jazz piano?

-I'm fond of -- just fond of it.

-You liked it?

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

-I love Shanghai because it's a crazy, hectic city, and no two days are ever the same.

It's always fun.

-[ Speaking Chinese ] -Seeing Shanghai is the first city in China to open its doors to the foreign cultures, it is an international city.

And this is a dynamic space.

It can let you meet more different people from different culture.

-As a foreigner here, you'll often get a lot of stares, but as soon as you turn to those people and give them a big smile, they'll start smiling back and talking to you.

-And they like to engage with visitors, so be prepared.

-When we look up at architecture that speaks to a people's unstoppable ambition, when we enjoy on one small street corner a dynamic experience of both food and culture, when we are invited to join in on the dance, that is when we share a love of travel.

And that's why Shanghai, China, is a place to love.

-For more information about this and other episodes, extra scenes, or links to follow me on social media, log on to PlacesToLove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -Away... ...is the smell of fresh pine.

It's a place where giants still live.

Away is where the farther down the road you go, the closer you get to the ones you love.

Find Your Away.

GoRVing.com.

-Europe is a treasure trove of fascinating history, rich culture, and renowned cities.

AmaWaterways River Cruises offers a way to see all this wonder in person.

You can discover more at AmaWaterways.com.