Brazilian Bustle : A short cut through a warren of lane homes.

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What a beautiful day, sunny with a breeze, perfect for finding the new and elusive Mr.V's a sandwich stall. Mr. V's opened about 4 months ago and the review tempted me with memories of the most perfect of flavors I have only enjoyed in Vietnam. Bright fresh vegetables with a squeeze of lime, a dash of Vietnamese hot sauce and some pork stuffed into a crispy baguette. Yes, here would the place to buy a bánh mì sandwich in Shanghai! One of my favorite places in Asia is Vietnam, the people, the sights, the perfect coffee and the food, oh the food. I have been twice and would happily go again and again.

With address in hand and a quick look at google maps I decided to take what looked like a shortcut, a new adventure, through some traditional Chinese neighborhoods.

I love walking through these old neighborhoods of crowded lane homes. Lane homes were built in 1920 or 1930 as cheap tract homes and are now considered prized architecture. A lane home is a two story unit, connected to a number of other two story units which extends from a main lane (branch) which is connect to a major street sometimes and offers a great shortcut if you know what you are doing and where you are going.

There is a whole community of services offered inside these neighborhoods, here you can see the barber pole mounted on the right side of the picture, must be a barber shop down this lane and center is a fellow with a sign mounted to his bike offering some sort of service I imagine. Probably knife sharpening as that is MY most pressing need and every time I pass a guy on the street who is sharpening knives I don't have mine on me. I feel uncomfortable just carrying a backpack full of dull knives but I should do it till I find the knife sharpening man. The knife sharpening man is a mobile shop and he doesn't seem to go to the same spot on the same day and time of the week. Sneaky guy, which is why I should carry my knives, but that seems so wrong.

So back to the lane homes. This is the main branch (Lane) of the neighborhood and runs straight from YanAn Highway to Julu Lu, both major roads. From the main branch are the smaller lanes which are quaint, quiet and beautiful. I noticed a seamstress, a vegetable stall, and a shop to buy drinks.You may wonder, as I do, who are these people are and what are they doing.

I have only seen old seemingly retired people in the neighborhoods. The young people (spoken as a generalization) do not like the old homes, typical Chinese mentality, if it's new it's good. Old is not good. I also found out that Chinese women must retire between the age of 50 - 55 and men at the age of 60. In addition you must surrender your drivers license (if you are so wealthy to have one) at the age of 60. I kind of like this law, no drivers over the age of 60 and you must be 21 before you can take the test to get a drivers license. Seems it would make the highways and byways safer, yet having been here now for 4 years I know this is not true, drivers here are nuts!

There is wonderful greenery lining the lanes and even a lovely outdoor table to enjoy the cool shade.

Then I saw this.....a large... what I am assuming is a pet rabbit. Although it could be dinner...??

So how does one find these great short cuts? Which gate do you go through?

Well on YanAn Road you go through this gate, pay no mind to the guard he lets everyone through. The gate is next to a very tasty Uyghur restaurant known for it's grilled lamb kebabs and the shiny bass structure in the right had corner of the picture is the BBQ that they cook them on. I do wonder how often they have to polish it as it always looks so bright and clean. I took Dad here last time he came for a visit and he liked it a lot!

The other gate is on Julu Lu (Lu means road) and it's my favorite street name to say; go ahead say it nice and fast...Julu Lu Julu Lu, see fun!

Here is the gate on Julu Lu, you would never know that it connects with the other main road.

Out the gate, on to Julu Lu and I ran smack into the cantaloupe man. Could the knife sharpening man be close by? But we are looking for Mr. V's and a tasty sandwich for lunch, perhaps I'll buy a cantaloupe on the way home.

According to the google map I am to walk down this road to number 93. You can see on the street sign that this section of Xiangyang Lu runs from 1 - 55. I am getting close to my lunch!

I think it's kind of funny how the hair sticks up on the sign for Mr. V's under the Tao Hair Salon sign.

We have arrived at the sandwich stall and it is a tiny little alcove offering Vietnamese coffee, fresh squeezed lime soda drink and the coveted Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich! I ordered the lime soda and a sandwich.

Bright flavors, a little spicy and a wonderful crunch from the veggies and crisp bread. All in all a good lunch.
As I turned around to retraced my steps I immediately saw the top of our apartment complex!

I knew I was close and now that I know the short cut I really am close!

As you can see here there is a locked gate guarding these apartments, I would not be able to get inside this neighborhood.

Back down the main lane toward YanAn Lu my home in sight!

A few snaps of more lanes in the neighborhood, nice cars everywhere. Maybe they belong to their kids? Maybe the young people do live here too(with their folks) and they are at work.