Zhu Jia Jiao

My friends were here for the weekend so I brought them to Zhu Jia Jiao, a bus ride away from Shanghai

Here's how to go from Wikipedia:

The most affordable way to get to Zhujiajiao is to take a bus from the bus station at the Puanlu（Chinese: 普安路）bus station near People's Square.
Be aware, People's Square is a very large metro station with twenty different exits! To get to the bus stop at Puanlu, exit the metro from Exit #1 and follow the street (Xizang South Rd.) toward the Yan'an Elevated Road. Cross the street going under the elevated road and turn right. Walk underneath the elevated road as it runs along a park (housing the Shanghai Concert Hall) on the left side. At the first street crossing, you should see bus stops on your left. The bus to Zhujiajiao is one of the first ones on the left after crossing the street. Make sure you take the bus line called Hùzhū Gāosù Kuàixiàn (Chinese: 沪朱高速快线) - they usually use pink buses.

This should take around 1 hour and the fare is about 12 yuan. The buses each way leave every 15-30 minutes. There are other bus lines, but they can sometimes take up to 2 hours. These cheaper options do not take the main highway, are much more crowded at peak hours and stop at every stop, filling the bus to absolute standing capacity. Don't worry about where to get off, Zhujiajiao is the end terminal. Also, make sure you don't miss the last bus back to Puanlu, which departs at about 9 PM.

you actually don't need a ticket to get into the town (unlike Xitang), but u could get enterances to some attractions with the purchase of tickets.

The Qing Dynasty post office looks vey interesting.

Using dianping app, we found a restaurant for lunch.
Most restaurant sells the same stuff, seafood.. meat.. vege.. etc. so its just a matter of taste and price.

We walked around the ancient river town, its very similar to xitang but the river is much closer to the walkways and its smaller.
Its really a lot like venice (athough I haven't been to venice before) with the river by the side and some riverside dining or coffee sipping would be perfect in this weather.

You can see these everywhere, most of the shops sell the same old things but we didn't buy it because it looks too fattening.

you actually need less than 5 hours to finish the entire town so it could be a half-day trip and then head back to shanghai for more exploring.

Red Ruby

Have you heard of Red Ruby?

If you were not local, you would probably not. Me neither.

One fine day when my colleague brought this cake back and somebody asked if it was 红宝石 (Red Ruby). My colleague explained to me that Red Ruby is a famous old-school Shanghai bakery, very popular among the locals.

My first thought was, the cake looks very average and normal. It should be like those traditional cake, dry and oily.

I didn't expect it when I took the first bite.
The freshness of the butter and milk filled my mouth instantly, first layer was the milk from the cream, secondly the butter from the sponge cake. The sponge was very moist and not overly sweet and the cream was just nice, not too oily or sweet or thick. There were bits of crunchy and chewy bits (Nata de Coco, i think) in between the sponge cake layers which added extra surprise for me.
Overall, the cake looks ancient but the taste was very modern.

It was so good I finished it instantly, indulging in my wonderful world of cows, milk and butter and forgetting my belly woes.

2 pieces of goodness for 13RMB!
Red Ruby outlets can be found all around Shanghai. Exact locations can be found in dianping.com