How Gay is Shanghai?

Exploring a Massive, Modern & Magical Mega City with my Friend Chenxi

Pictured above is my friend Chenxi who asked me to take pictures of him when we first arrived at my hotel, the Central Hotel Shanghai 王宝和大酒店. I think this picture turned out the best. 

I went to Shanghai to visit my friend Chenxi, who I met in San Francisco last year on Jack'd. He was in San Francisco on a temporary work visa, working as a teacher for a Palo Alto-based educational company, which also has offices in Shanghai. When he went back to Shanghai he asked me repeatedly to visit him, so I thought since I was going to Songkran in Bangkok, I would stop by Shanghai for a few days first and I’m so glad I did. After the 13-hour flight from San Francisco, I landed at Shanghai Pudong (PVG) airport on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 5:30 PM in the evening. Upon getting off the plane it felt very warm and humid, I wished I had worn less clothes. I soon found Chenxi after getting through immigration and we took the metro into the city. The metro was very crowded, yet it felt spacious enough to accommodate the big crowds. We arrived at my hotel, the Central Hotel Shanghai 王宝和大酒店, close to The Bund within about an hour. I left my luggage, showered, changed, and then we headed out for dinner. I felt a little disoriented at first because I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane, but was also very excited to be in China for the first time. I could definitely feel the energetic, dynamic energy of the city. After dinner, we went to The Bund, which is somewhat like San Francisco’s Embarcadero. It feels very grand with its spectacular views – the bright lights of all the buildings and the way they reflect off the water. It’s also very crowded with a lot of people. It was a Tuesday night and I asked Chenxi, "is it always this crowded here?" He said yes because The Bund is Shanghai’s number one tourist site. I felt as though it would be more enjoyable if there weren’t so many people – everyone trying to get the perfect picture with the futuristic skyline in the background. The crowd at The Bund seemed to be all Asian people, except there was diversity in age and gender. I definitely felt like the outsider. In the crowd, I kept trying to identify the more handsome men – then wonder if they were gay... And the question lingered in my mind, how gay is Shanghai? 

4/10/18: Chenxi was so nice to meet me at the airport. I hadn't seen him since June 2017. 

I was very impressed with the Shanghai Metro Network. It has 16 lines and 393 stations - it is the world's largest rapid transit system by route length. 

Upon arrive at the hotel... a selfie in the bathroom lol :) 

On The Bund with the futuristic Pudong skyline in the background. 

My first dinner had to include this absolutely amazing pork belly! Yummy yummy! 

This is Nanjing Road, Shanghai's main shopping street, which is also one of the world's busiest shopping streets. I took this picture after dinner around 9pm and there were still so many people out. 

We had hot pot for lunch the day after - here is Chenxi ordering from an iPad. Hot pot is Chenxi's favorite and I learned a lot about it. There's a tradition of eating hot pot throughout China, except different regions use different ingredients. 

Having hot pot, Chenxi's favorite. 

Here we are at a tea house. The tea is so delicious that you don't need to sweeten it with honey or sugar. Chenxi had advised me in advance to not ask for honey or sugar because one time that we went to Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, he noticed that I put honey in my tea, which I guess is unheard of to do that in China. 

Our tea and cute little snacks. 

We came across this really cute bamboo forest behind the tea house. It felt very Japanese to me. 

I had to have the Famous Shanghai Dumpling, which Chenxi told me actually originated in his home provence of Wuxi, however Shanghainese people stole it and called it the Famous Shanghai Dumpling. It's very delicious but I didn't think it was all that impressive. 

We stumbled upon Gucheng Park, I believe this is one of the entrance gates into the park. I love the ornate design. 

I noticed these public restrooms throughout Shanghai and I couldn't help it think that we really need a solution perhaps similar to this in San Francisco. Chenxi would call me a pooping machine because I always needed to use the restroom LOL. I think Shanghai is overall very clean and I didn't see a single homeless person. I asked Chenxi about this and he said that people wouldn't come to Shanghai unless they have somewhere to live. I imagined that it's probably illegal to be homeless in cities like Shanghai. 

This is at the Yu Garden in Old Shanghai. It's very interesting how the city has so many different layers of architectural styles from different periods. The Yu Garden definitely has an older feel. 

Me beside the Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower, located in the new area, Pudong along the Huangpu River opposite of The Bund.  

Behind me in the center is the Shanghai Tower, which is owned by the Shanghai city government. On either side are the Shanghai International Finance Centre Towers. 

Shanghai definitely has all the shopping you could possibly want. I was amazed by how huge the Sephora is - 5 stories! 

I was amazed to learn that there are 16 Cartier locations in Shanghai - the one behind me here is one of the flagship locations at Hong Kong Plaza, Shanghai 

Here I am on the roof deck of the Fosun Foundation Centre building, which is a vast contemporary art museum and event space - the Lujiazui skyline in the background. 

(Above) This is a description of the current exhibit at the Fosun Foundation. I thought it was very interesting how it says that the artists work "asks us to imagine how, in this age of unprecedented human connection and interaction, can we work together to build a more ethical relationship with our planet, one whose development is sustainable in the long term." - I think this is a very important question. 

Tomás Saraceno: Aerographies

Exhibit Description from the Fosun Foundation website: 

A visionary artist whose work combines science, technology, and art, Tomás Saraceno’s first solo exhibition in China, organized by Fosun Foundation Shanghai, brings together many of the artist’s most important and iconic works that embody his utopian view of the future. Born in Tucumán, Argentina, in 1973, Saraceno now lives and works in Berlin. His artistic method, bridges across the fields of art and science to create self-contained ecological spaces that link the natural environment with our social conditions. This exhibition concentrates on the space above the Earth’s surface, inviting viewers to travel together on an imagined journey from the micro- to the macrocosmic. The artist centers his explorations and constructions around the spaces above the surface of Earth, located in air, outside the realm of extant human habitations.

The President of the Fosun Foundation Ms. Jenny Jinyuan Wang notes, “In today’s China, as society, the economy, science, and technology are all developing apace, we are honored to present the art of Tomás Saraceno to audiences in Shanghai and all over China. His works are replete with considerations of life in the future, both imaginary and practical. They ask us to imagine how, in this age of unprecedented human connection and interaction, we can work together to build a more beautiful future world, one whose development is sustainable in the long term.” 

Here I am on The Bund again except this time during the day. 

I was extremely happy to discover that there are Starbucks all over Shanghai, this one was located just across the street from my hotel. :)

Shanghai actually has the largest Starbucks in the world, which was on my list to visit, but we ran out of time... Next time... 

I would work out in the mornings at the gym in the hotel. I had planned to explore a few of the more popular gyms in Shanghai because I wanted to see Chinese muscle boys, but Chenxi said, "No. You see enough Chinese muscle boys in San Francisco." Lol... 

As we were walking through Nanjing Road in front of a gym, this guy handed me his business card (above). I asked Chenxi if he was a prostitute and he said no, he's a sales manager for the gym trying to sell gym memberships, but when I scanned the QR code in WeChat his profile said "TOP" (see below) so that made me think he was a gay prostitute trying to get business from me... which I would have been open to trying, but since prostitution is officially illegal in China, I didn't want to get in trouble in a Communist country and end up like Richard Gere in the movie Red Corner LOL.  

Later, as Chenxi took a closer look at the business card, he said the guy in the picture is Aaron Kwok, a Hong Kong-based celebrity singer, dancer and actor and not the actually guy who gave me the business card on the street. 

After a quick Google search, I found similar pictures from what was on the business card on a Singaporean website.  

Overall, I had an amazing time in Shanghai – primarily thanks to my friend Chenxi who very patiently showed me around and would explain things to me in great detail. On two occasions he argued with the taxi driver about how to get to specific locations and he explained that the driver probably thought we were foreigners because he was with me and could thus take advantage of us. Also many restaurants will have a separate menu for foreigners with higher pricing and Chenxi would ask to look at both. Had Chenxi not been there with me, I probably would have ended up over paying for a lot of things.

Even though the metro is so vast, I think it can be challenging to find your way with all the different directions and levels, so I had a very easy time just following Chenxi. He also ended up paying for everything using Alipay and WeChat apps and I later sent him money on Venmo. However places that catered to more foreigners would often accept my American credit card, like at the Fosun Foundation museum or some of the more upscale restaurants we went to. For next time, I will make sure to setup Alipay and WeChat pay on my phone in advance.

One thing I regret is that we did not explore the gay nightlife. I really wanted to go to Angel Shanghai, but then learned it was only a once-monthly event and it was not happening while I was there. In the three days I was there, each night we would be so tired from being out all day that by the end of the day we just wanted to go to bed. I had checked the latest 2017 print edition of Spartacus International Gay Guide and about Shanghai and it said, “Shanghai is home to a growing gay crowd from around China, Asia and the rest of the world. There are still a limited number of gay venues to choose from, despite the strides made since 1995. The scene changes rapidly, and the best way to find out what’s happening is to get out there and talk to the locals and foreign residents at the bars.” It lists a few gay bars, dance clubs and saunas – however several friends had told me to not even bother going to the saunas. We did go to a regular straight massage parlor that was very nice and professional. I really enjoyed the massage, which was about USD 45 for 90 minutes. I think in San Francisco, a massage like that would go for around USD 160 to 200. 

Shanghai is definitely a city I would like to come back to. I might stay in the same area, near The Bund and Nanjing Road because it’s very centrally accessible – close proximity to everything. However, coming back to my initial question, how gay is Shanghai? – I don’t think I can fairly answer that with just three days of being there, and we didn’t explore the gay nightlife… Chenxi would often criticize me for wanting to do gay things and he said that Shanghai has a lot more to offer that I can appreciate – which I did – such as the shopping, food, art, sites and the massiveness of it all. I’ve never been to Texas, but I imagined that maybe Shanghai is to China as Texas is to the US, where everything is bigger. 

I would regularly check Jack’d, Grind and Scruff just to see who was online. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t very popular. I hardly got any real messages – I did get a lot of messages from “massage boys” or “money boys” who are prostitutes looking for business. I often feel like I need to be more muscular to get the attention from the more muscular guys I saw online – But then Chenxi explained that there's a lot of guys who use fake pictures... I would also like to know a  more basic Mandarin for the next time I go to China. All I know now is xièxiè, which means thank you. Big xièxiè to Chenxi for being so generous to me during my time there. :)