Justine's Visit

So we have now had our second visitor. Fortunately, most of the activities were new to Karen and I as well as our guest. Justine, Karen's younger aunt came for just over a week from Chicago. We hung in Shanghai for the week and took a one night trip out to Suzhou, a town about an hour west of Shanghai by train. Most Chinese people rave about the beauty of Suzhou, which is famous for small streets and old gardens. Here are the highlights from our time with Justine.

We started with a tour around Shanghai - the fabric market, Yu Garden, and the pearl market. The first picture is kind of a cool representation of Shanghai and China generally. You can see the classic buildings of Yu Garden, with some typical Chinese decorations, and the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center building (still under construction). Old versus new. Jin Mao (left) is one of the tallest buildings in Asia, and the new SWFC (right) will be one of the tallest in the world. Also, the writing on the right edge of the photo says Shanghai.

Justine got her bearings fairly quickly, and didn't allow herself to suffer much from jet lag. Karen and I would go to work and she would take little day trips to various places around town, then we would rendezvous in the evenings.

On Friday evening, we took a train out to Suzhou, famous for lakes, gardens, and hairy crab. We didn't subject her to the pleasure of eating hairy crabs - a relatively small lake crab that is actually hairy, and is considered a rare dining treat by the Chinese. It seems like a lot of work for a small amount of crab to us. Suzhou was nice. It is noticeably less busy than Shanghai, but it is a busy Chinese city nonetheless. We spent the day walking around town, mainly at a couple gardens, observing the architecture, plants, ponds, stone creations, and Chinese visitors. Here is a small collection of some pictures from the two gardens we visited - the Master of Net's and the Humble Administrator's Gardens (not sure why they have those names).

We had the pleasure of taking bicycle buggy carriages to the first garden, including a classic 'the price we established was only for one of the bikes - you owe us twice the amount' argument. Oh well....we didn't pay and I got to practice anger in broken Chinese.

In the end, it was a nice day, we made our train back to Shanghai, and our feet hurt. Before we left, we made a stop at that sacred (predictable at minimum) symbol of Americanism McDonald's, which allowed us to rest our feet and nourish our bodies.

There are a couple extras on this post. First, and I must say that I am quite pleased with this picture, there is a shot that is all too common in China, but is hard to catch in the moment, where a baby's butt is literally hanging out of the back of its pants. The standard practice here is to have your baby wear pants that open vertically at the back and bottom, instead of diapers. Diapers are sold, and obviously someone buys them, but it seems most common to use the open back, pee/poop in the streets system of waste management. When we were rushing to the board the train, we saw a little one doing the splits between Mom's knees, weeing onto the platform. Also, this little guy's USA jacket is a nice touch.

There is also one video below. It is of some random dance routine that was taking place in front of a hair salon we passed on the street in Suzhou - sorry, can't really offer a good explanation. This seemed to be in line with what we see sometimes, which is a sort of group-based outdoor staff meeting / inspiration session, with the employees of the service place - restaurants, stores, etc. - grouped outside facing a supervisor of some kind.

Justine - we hope you had a fun and interesting trip. If nothing else, it was a nice chance to catch up, for us to show you a little of this adventure we're on, and a chance for you to buy some stuff for a lot less than normal. Good luck staying awake at work tomorrow!

Back To Nature - Moganshan

Last weekend, five teachers from Karen's school and us ventured off into the wilderness in the mountains 'just outside' of Shanghai. Although the innkeeper at the place we stayed told us she has made it into Shanghai in just under two hours, our mini-bus ride bumped up against the seven hour mark. We didn't really ever figure out why - traffic, indirect route, getting lost - but we had snacks and drinks and an adventure ahead of us. The most memorable part of the journey was when the driver missed our exit, backed up a ways on the freeway and decided, as backing up was too slow and the darkness and fog made it hard to see, to pull a complete u-turn on the freeway and drive back (in the wrong direction) to our missed exit. In the end, the trip was a great opportunity to get out of the city, smell fresh air, see trees and mountains, and relish a weekend of social conversations in English.

Moganshan is basically a mountain with some village areas. It was apparently a place where the expats of raging Shanghai back in the 1920s and 1930s would have summer homes away from the city. It was me and six ladies (named in order, per the group photo): Karen, Jo (England), Paula (England), Laura (Canada), Mary Catherine (Canada), and Nicola (Scotland). This picture is at the top of a mountain, part of the way through our 'short' hike through the bamboo forest. You wouldn't know it, but we are standing at the scenic overlook next to the Queer Stone, where instead of seeing a beautiful sea of bamboo from a mountaintop, we were lucky to see then feet in front of our face due to the dense mist.

The mountain is more or less covered in bamboo. The mist was really pretty nice; it kept us cool and provided a kind of eerie shroud over the forest that made us feel like we were even further from the bustle of Shanghai. The hike was supposed to be just a couple hours, but after 2.5 hours or so, we walked past a temple (picture at the top) and a pig farm, and found ourselves confusedly studying our tiny map and wandering down a road that may or may not have been on the wrong side of the mountain.

Here is the pig farm. The pig rearing area is to the right (the big part) and the pig farmer's house is to the left (the small part). The two structures were attached. An old woman who walked by told us that there were 80 pigs in there. This and most of the other homes and structures we passed on the walk were quite modest - a nice glimpse of a different side of China - rural, quiet and simple.

We kept walking and were fortunate enough to wander into the tail end of a Chinese wedding that was going on in the town. We, as a group of gawky, lost westerners wandering around the countryside were an interesting sight for the wedding guests. We met the groom, shook his hand, and attempted to make small talk. They wanted to know where we were from and were generally very nice and helpful. If you could imagine a group of seven random Chinese people wandering down the road and interrupting a wedding we might attend - the cheerful welcome might unfortunately be missing. After several attempts at map drawing, pointing, repeating apparently unintelligible Chinese, we figured out we weren't going to figure anything out, called the hotel, and they sent a mini-bus to pick us up.

While we waited, we made it into the wedding video, saw the bride come out, and watched the fireworks go off. It appeared the family had rented (or owned) a lot of shiny, black and expensive cars, which are used in a sort of symbolic procession to somewhere with the bride and groom in the front car. The bride and groom drove a nice BMW decorated with flowers. Here are a few pictures - the groom, the bride, and the firecracker haze.

A $10 mini-bus ride and 30 minutes later, we were back in the lodge, ordering up a late lunch and preparing for an evening of wine, Marks and Spencer biscuits, Scrabble and cards. Plus, I had the pleasure of watching both Sweet Home Alabama and Bridget Jones' Diary - just me and the girls. It was a good little trip; hopefully we'll make it back sometime. Thanks to Mary Catherine and Jo for organizing!

3 Singletons in Shanghai - Julie's Visit

It's been a while since the last update (sorry), but we seem to have gotten busier and we have now had our first visitor in China. Matt's mother came for a few weeks in October. We were able to show her around Shanghai and take two fast weekend trips - one to Hangzhou and one to Beijing. It was a good time and I think we were able to give her a good taste of Chinese life, culture, and history. Here are some of the best photos (and one little video) from her visit.

Julie's Introduction to Shanghai
Mom arrived on the Sunday afternoon before the national Autumn Holiday here in China. It worked out well because our sea shipment finally showed up that weekend (3.5 months after we shipped it!). Karen and I both had the week off of work, so it was a good time for us to put things away, for Mom to try to get used to the time change, and for us to get her acquainted with Shanghai. As it was a national holiday and many Chinese people do not have to work, the general advice given by expats to expats is to either stay in your home or leave the country that week, because everything is so busy. We weren't sure what to believe, plus we had good reasons to stick around for the week.

One of the first stops on our tour of Shanghai for Mom was a place called Yu Garden, which has lots of shops, food, and more traditional Chinese buildings. It is usually crowded, but true to rumor, it was very crowded that week. There is a shot above of Mom and I and then another one just to show the level of crowded we are talking about.

There is also a picture of some tantalizing and interestingly presented street food - roasted goat. Those five yellow things upright on that table that appear to be munching grass are cooked goats. I think the guy (note his unique hat) is from the west/northwest area of China where Muslims are common. I guess we could have walked up and ordered a slice of goat, but we decided to pass.

After Yu Garden, we made our first stop at the pearl market, a place we would return to several times during Mom's visit. I became the designated negotiator, talking with vendors and placing late night calls to Lynn (the 'approver' back in the States). Mom left China with a nice south sea pearl ring, pendant, and pair of earrings sourced from all around Shanghai (and even Hong Kong for one piece). No doubt the set would have been considerably more expensive at home. Check her out - those are big pearls!

Hangzhou - Human Paradise

Before Mom arrived, I asked my colleagues at work what the nicest place within a reasonable train distance from Shanghai was. The consensus was that we should take her to a place called Hangzhou, which must mean something like human paradise in direct translation.

Considering the name, we were expecting some idyllic little village on the most beautiful lake ever. What we found was a characteristically busy and commercialized Chinese city, that happened to be on a lake. Fortunately, you can take little junk boats out to a group of islands with gardens, fish ponds, and temples - away from the city and there are several historic temples around the city. Even these areas were fairly crowded and touristy, as Hangzhou is a very popular weekend destination from Shanghai. Here is a picture of a little girl whose parents paid some vendor to loan them the 'authentic' clothes to be photographed in the garden. Seemingly not that authentic, but kind of cute and cool anyhow. We also went to a place called Feilai Feng, which has hundreds of ancient stone-carved buddhas, as well as one of the largest buddhist temple complexes in China - Lingyin Si (Temple of the Soul's Retreat). Here is a picture of the three of us in front of a big incense burning pot. It was a nice weekend, although we were left hoping our trip to Beijing the following weekend would be better.

Beijing

Beijing, home to about 15 million people, is the polititcal and cultural capital of China. It is home to the capitol, as well as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, many other temples and historic sights, and is near the Great Wall. We left on Friday night and came back to Shanghai late on Sunday night - a quick trip.

The first day, we strolled through Tiananmen Square, which sits opposite the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is huge with the giant mausoleum of General Mao in the middle of it, in which his preserved corpse is on display (we opted to skip a viewing). It is a cultural hub in China and was very crowded. People were flying kites, strolling around, taking pictures, and buying junk. There are huge, imposing government buildings around the square, which were apparently commissioned as a part of the Communist takeover and were all built in 10 months. It was a little difficult to imagine the scene of protest and violence that took place back in 1989, but apparently the square was a place selected protest and demonstration as early as 1919.

Next, we crossed the street and entered the Forbidden City (China's Imperial Palace). This was at one time the cultural and governmental capital, as it was home to 24 emperors, from around 1400 through to the early 1900s. The place was called 'forbidden' because it was forbidden for common Chinese people to even approach the outer walls. The place is absolutely enormous and includes countless buildings, symmetrically arranged, all with traditional Chinese architecture. Here is a picture from within the palace complex.

Next, we went to a place called the Temple of Heaven. We expected to find an old temple, but ended up finding a great cultural experience instead. The temple grounds are very large and fairly well-kept. There are trees, fields, and miscellaneous buildings. It is apparently a popular gathering point for socializing, singing, making music, playing games, and relaxing on the weekend. Check out the video of the people playing and watching music.
There were many groups of people doing similar things, with substantial variety in sound and skill. Some large groups were singing, almost shouting, en masse, with some central person in the crowd acting as conductor. Others were more organized with instruments, singing, and dancing. It was really neat.

The other thing we (Karen and Mom) found at the Temple of Heaven was that it is apparently a good place to buy "Coochie" purses. Check out the series of three pictures that document the escapades of my innocent wife and mother in a frenzied and giddy state while the scarfed up multiple 'authentic' wares from people with bulging sweatshirts, while security-type people literally chased the sellers away. The security seemed more like fly-swatting than a true crackdown. The girls went a little crazy, and then we had to find a way to carry a whole bunch of purses of questionable legality around for the rest of the afternoon. The shopping didn't stop there; we had more to do in terms of finding some warmer clothes and great deals in preparation for the next day's adventure. Here are the shop-mongers in utter joy, decked out in their new stuff - China style. Here are our purchases:

3 Hats - about $2 each

4 Gucci Purses - about $7.33/ea

3 North Face jackets - about $20/ea

The next day, we took an arranged trip to the Great Wall of China. We were prepared to see a beautiful and ancient cultural relic in the mountains adjacent to Beijing. What we found, partially due to our selection of the closest viewing place for the Great Wall and partially due to the Chinese government's shameless commercializing of one of its greatest cultural assets, was more like a carnival visit than a lesson in history. It was certainly cool, but the crowds and cheesey nature of the attraction were a bit much for me. Nonetheless, we can all now say that we have been to and hiked on The Great Wall of China.

When we arrived at the entrance, the concrete tree and fake log sign that looked like something from Wally World was just a bit of foreshadowing. As we walked past the junk stalls and bear cages, it got worse. The almost pinncale was the neon-sporting, uphill, rickety roller-coaster ride we took to get to the wall area. We learned that we could have hiked instead, but our guide decided to lie to us and tell us that we had to take the multi-colored, chain-driven death trap up the hill because we were one group.

The worst part was probably the insane and aggressive crowds of people walking in every direction on the wall. Generally, in public gathering formats, the Chinese have essentially no regard for personal space, politeness, order, or anything we expect in public spaces. They will grab your arm and pull you out of the way, rush to cut you off, spit in your close proximity (not maliciously), and have no problem making a crowd bottleneck situation worse by pushing or lunging. It was horrible and amazing. So we fought our way up the hill to the highest tower on that part of the wall, which apparently enables you to call yourself a hero in Chinese lore. Once we reached the top, we found an especially dense crowd, and too many opportunities to buy customized keychains, shirts, certificates, and other crap with your picture on them at the Great Wall. Not 10 feet from the most sought after and conceptually important part of that section of the great wall - the highest wall where people climb up to and touch - was a stand selling these and other junk items. This of course made the crowd flow even worse. It was just disastrous planning, historical integrity, etc. Here is a picture of the crowd just near the top. I do have to say that the Chinese people are considerably more mobile (and thin) than we might be used to. There were lots of people - old and young - scrambling up a sometimes slippery and steep stone structure. It is impressive and really makes you think about our society.

The views from the top are very nice. You just have to watch where you look. Much of the sections of the wall that were in sight (it is something like 3600 miles long) were covered in people. I did get a shot of the wall meandering off into the distance, set among the hills and mountains and the color-changing autumn trees. Also, there was a really great, 'typical' (at least in my mind) old Chinese guy we passed. Check him out with the Mao coat, hat, beard, and funny glasses.

On the way down, after being blatantly cut in front of by two Chinese jerks and taking the same frightening roller coaster thing down the hill (it was driven by a guy who slowed it with a hand break in the front car!), we spotted a two-hump Asian camel for hire (we didn't take a ride). Sidenote: The camels in the middle east are less hairy and only have one hump. We also stopped for long enough to be saddened and mildly disgusted by the collection of sun bears that were kept in concrete pens along either side of the walk-path, so that locals could sell small plates of cut fruit to tourists for throwing to the bears. The bears were dirty, the pens were sparse, and the situation was depressing.

After a few hours in the shuttle bus, a forced stop-off at a silk factory, some last minute shopping, and a quick buffet meal at Voodoo Pizza, we caught our plane back to Shanghai. Between Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing, we had a great time. Mom became an instant expert at getting around Shanghai with Taxis, shuttles, and the subway, by pointing at books, papers, and name cards and smiling. After 3+ weeks of running around, we were definitely all very tired. A couple days after we got back from Beijing, Mom took the mag-lev train (368mph average speed) out to the Shanghai airport, and started the marathon journey back to the States with her silks, pearls, purses, scarves, and memories . It was an exhausting, but fun and interesting experience for all of us. Thanks for coming Mom!

Shanghai: A Few Days in Our Lives [September 23, 2007]

Supercuts
We've been here for about two months, meaning we have had to figure out how and where to get our hair tended to. Mine was perhaps a little more daring - an unexpected stop at a barber shop we passed when searching for a hardware store. Once we saw the oversized spinning red thing (I guess its a universal symbol), we had to stop. After confirming that no one in the place spoke English, I sat in a chair, made a few hand gestures, and waited to see what happened. That blue stuff in the bottle, with all the combs in it that supposedly sanitizes them - it doesn't exist in China. It is somehow gross when it is there, but missed when its not. Anyhow, after a few passes with the clippers, a mumbled and tardy comment from Karen that it looked pretty short, me declining a close shave with a seemingly unsantitized straight edge razor, and parting with the equivalent of $1.32, I walked out with a fresh buzz to deal with the Shanghai heat.

Karen's hair experience was a little more polished - a visit to the gay Malaysian hairdresser in the clubhouse of our apartment complex. She went shorter, got some highlights, and came out looking good. I think she payed a bit more than $1.32, but clearly it was worth it.

How Big Is It?
Last weekend, we went down to Shanghai City Planning, which is essentially a museum dedicated to the relatively amazing scale of urban planning and deliberate growth that is modern Shanghai. The most impressive part of this museum is a huge scale model of Shanghai, including what seems to be every building that currently exists, as well as those that are planned for construction between now and 2010 in the central part of the city. It is pretty amazing.

The first picture is of the model, taken from the perspective of our apartment. If you can see it, look at our actual apartment building in the red oval at the bottom/middle of the photograph. The picture is looking northwest across this miniature Shanghai. The next picture is of the Huangpu River, more or less looking north. The area to the left is Puxi and the area to the right is Pudong. The red arrow points to the direction of our home. Lastly, the other picture is of my hand and a closer shot of the model, just to show the ridiculous detail of this creation.

Is It Crowded?
I have been asked, with good reason, if it is really that crowded in the country with the largest population in the world. The land area is comparable to that of the US, but China's population, at about 1.3 billion people, is over four times that of the US meaning the density is quite a bit higher. The density in Shanghai (and other eastern cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzen) is even more impressive as 70 or more percent of the population lives along the eastern coast of China. Here are a few pictures to show what it looks like when we wander around in Shanghai on the weekends.

It is insanely crowded almost everywhere we go. People are out, walking in every direction, smoking, arguing, trying to sell their wares, buying stuff, spitting, spoiling their only child, and trying, next to us, to hail a cab. There is a distinct and noticable shortage of taxis in Shanghai, although (in my non-scientific estimation) they constitute about 40% of the four-wheeled vehicles on the road. In busy locations, they attempt to go off meter with negotiated and inflated fares, but there is a way to deal with this. It goes like this: 1) when you can, jump in the backseat, even if the guy is trying to ask you where you are going before you get in; 2) play dumb, like you don't understand any Chinese (not that much of an act); 3) tell him where to go and ask for the meter; 4) when he says no and tells you to get out, don't and start dialing the number on the back of the seat to report the driver's misconduct; and 5) wait for him to grunt and give you a disgruntled ride wherever you are going, on meter. A short ride costs about $1.40 and a 30 minute ride across town costs $4 to $7.

These pictures are from last Sunday on a shopping trip to Puxi. The top one is simply of a crosswalk on a busy street and the second one is of the entrance to some relatively non-descript shopping mall. Next, we have a shot of Nanjing Road (Nanjing Lu), supposedly and likely the busiest shopping street in all of China. This is a normal day - nothing special is going on here.

Finally, in terms of crowds, there is a picture of the ever faithful McDonalds, which, as you can see draws crowds and sells ice cream even here. Actually, I think the people that work at McDonalds here are considerably less miserable and grumpy than the people in the same jobs in the US - it is probably regarded as a pretty decent job to have here. Also, McDonalds sells green bean pies for dessert, offers a spicy cucumber cheeseburger, and won't sell you a cheeseburger meal because only the double cheeseburger comes in meal form (not even for the same price). Customization and substitutions are almost too challenging and unlikely to try in China.

What Does It Look Like?
Shanghai looks busy, dirty, interesting, modern, old, and chaotic. It often smells, and grosses you out by dripping on you, bumping into you, or splashing you somehow. As I've said before, we live in the newer and more western (although it is east) part of Shanghai. Here are some shots of the other side - Puxi. Here is what essentially every taxi in Shanghai looks like - they are all Volkswagen Santanas - more or less like an old Jetta. Interestingly enough, all the cabs in Beijing are Hyundai Elantras, as it is much closer to and developed some automotive technology partnership with Korea. Above the taxi, you should take note of the crazy number of power lines, the messily installed exterior condensing units (for air conditioners), and the laundry flapping in the wind. These things, especially hanging laundry are ubiquitous here - no one really has or uses clothes dryers (except us, I guess). The apartment building itself is typical - fairly run down and generally not a place you would eagerly enter, but certainly functional and probably home to more than you would guess. There are bikes everywhere - pedal bikes, electric bikes, cargo bikes, etc. Here is a picture of a guy maneuvering his cargo-bike with a huge piece of pipe through traffic. Things like this, although scary, are not really surprising - you just get used to it. Next there is a very typical row of junky old single-speed bicycles on the sidewalk, with people walking everywhere, and clothes hanging from a ragged apartment building overhead.

This story wouldn't be complete without including something on street vendors and food. Pirated DVDs and, less so, CDs are for sale everywhere. In the back of shops, out of boxes on the ground or mounted to the back of bicycles, in giant stores - it doesn't really matter. The quality ranges from perfect to a handheld recording in some other language in a movie theatre, during which people actually get up and walk around in the the theatre - you can see their silhouettes! The prices go from about $0.80 to maybe $3 for a good quality one, which is always a gamble. You haggle hard and see what happens when you pop it in the player. I guess its illegal here, but you wouldn't really know it.

This guy has a hot-plate cart with skewered squid or something on it. The air around this cart stank, but obviously someone buys these snacks. And finally, an amusing food advertisement we passed the other night - when you come to visit us, maybe we'll take you to dinner at The Farmyard - we've heard good things.

Who's Getting Old?
We are. The unsettling reality of turning 30 has hit us, here in Shanghai. This past weekend was our big birthday weekend. Scattered thunderstorms (per the internationally incorrect weather resource of weather.com) kept us from having our celebratory BBQ on Saturday. Nonetheless, it was a weekend of worthwhile reflection about getting old and being in this funny place. The primary objective of the weekend was to have some fun and avoid my greatest fear at a time like this - becoming old losers.

Fortunately, we narrowly escaped this curse (maybe next year) and took care of each other on "our" days. There was the Friday morning fresh fruit and pastry breakfast, during which Karen was presented with her latest addition to her global jewelry collection - a set of pearl earrings and a pendant from the South Seas (China is a good place to buy pearls!). I think she liked it. We went out that night and had some good Thai food and a bottle of Australian red, followed by some Starbucks.

Then it was my turn. First, an all I could eat 'hot pot' and sushi and all I could drink (Chinese beer) dinner - the deal of the year at $13. This was followed by vastly overpriced beers at a cheesy German brauhaus rip-off in the ultra-trendy tourist trap of Xintiandi. See that giant beer in my hand? It honestly cost $16. And Karen's cost $10 - ridiculous and not worthy of a second round. The next morning (my real birthday, China time) - Karen made me a nice breakfast which included blowing out the "3" and the "0" candles stabbed into a fried egg sandwich (check out the blurry picture). Not exactly a birthday cake (I guess that fell apart - literally), but a good birthday meal nonetheless. Today we wandered around and had ice cream sundaes to top off the inaugural weekend for our fourth decade of life. Cheers!