Hi there folks...if you have been paying close attention, you will notice i skipped update #23 to get the update about myanmar out (#24)....so now i need to back track....and cover my time in shanghai for this year's chinese new year...year of the horse...xin nian kuai le!!!! (that means happy new year!)...i decided to stick around in shanghai for this holiday, as i had just done a big trip to israel and jordan...and needed some down time and to save money....so i stayed...and had a great time!!!!!
chinese new year is the one time when shanghai is not as crowded, because all of the people who have moved here to make their fortune head home for two to three weeks....so except for the fireworks....of which there are many....the place is quieter than normal....and it was fun being here with a bunch of cool folks....even after three years, i really do love this town...and at the moment i am running around like a crazy person trying to get everything in one last time before i leave next month....but enough about leaving....let me show you what i experienced....
this was the sign i saw in the chinese compound located next to where i live....it's where i buy fruits and vegetables, as well as tasty chinese style burrito breakfasts...with tofu and egg fried into a crepe style burrito...i loved that one of the residents created this using chalk and after a few days of rain it had disappeared....
during the first weekend, i went with friends to the famed westin brunch here in shanghai...two floors of international buffet styled food...indian, italian, greek, thai, seafood, caviar, mexican and of course chinese...the amount of food is mind blowing...and you are there for four hours or so....plus, how can you beat a make-your-own bloody mary bar....yummy....this piece of art is in the center of the buffet, very chihuly-esce in my opinion...i loved it
of course entertainment is provided....and some of the folks we had that day were acrobats...funnily enough we had just seen this guy at our school a few days before at our own chinese new year celebration....yes...he is doing a handstand on bricks...which he then knocks out from under himself and falls downward toward the floor, catching himself on the first set of wooden blocks at the bottom...really impressive stuff and i wonder if he has ever broken his nose with this trick....
one of the things i also did with a bunch of friends was a "stay-cation"...meaning we stayed downtown here in shanghai at a nice hotel with a pool and saw things in our city that we had not seen before...we stayed really close to the bund and yu garden...where "chinatown" is located...and hundreds of visiting people were there...shanghai is also a place chinese people take a trip to during chinese new year to see the "big and modern city"....so lots of country folks were down in this area....you can see how crowded the streets were with people and cars....
we also went into yu garden to wander around...and it was packed....they set up lots of things like the one you see above with signs of good luck and of course horses....yu garden is also where the lantern festival, which takes place the last night of chinese new year (the 15th night), happens....so there are lots of different styled lanterns and floats in the water for people to wander around and see....
the float above was probably the strangest one we saw...as it is adam and eve and moses and animals and a horse (of course for good luck)....why you ask??? i have no idea, as there are not a ton of christians in china....and it's not a christian holiday....and it doesn't seem to go with the theme year of the horse....but when in china...you just never know what you will see....
throughout out all of shanghai, and china, the red lanterns were everywhere...red is a color of good luck in china...and lanterns are also said to bring good luck and prosperity...plus, you can see the chinese horoscope style image of the horse in this set of lanterns....this was actually hanging in chinatown here in shanghai....funny to say there is a chinatown here, as we are in china...i did like this one piece of lantern art, as it was not too gaudy or overdone....
but of course there were others that were just plain overwhelming....like the one above....we were trying to figure out if this was a mystical one...as it had the horse and a dragon (last years animal for chinese new year)...but then we realized that all of the animals for the chinese horoscope were part of this presentation....but it was bright and bold and had tons of people admiring it...
after escaping from the crowds of yu garden, we started wandering the back streets behind it, where we came across a street devoted to street food....such as seafood....the lobsters were huge (who knows where they got them from), as were the crabs...there was tons of seafood you could buy....
plus there were the many different styles of noodle bowls you could have prepared....they take these bowls of stuff....put them into soup that is boiling away, add in some noodles and call it a meal...you can see hotdog style meat, and fake crab, bean sprouts, bok choy, mushrooms and who knows what else....you can always find people making food on the streets here in shanghai....and i love it...although many times i only get to watch people cook things, due to not eating meat....the noodle folks...they are rockstars in my opinion :)
this was the view from my window of the hotel we stayed at downtown....i loved waking up to this after a crazy night of fireworks....as we stayed there the night dedicated to the money god....and this particular town is all about money....i love it, but it is obsessed...in this shot you can see some of my favorite buildings in the city....
but in this shot above, from the same window, you can see my second favorite - the westin....the one with the crown on the top of it...and will you look at that blue sky....we have not had a day like that in quite awhile...as it seems at the moment, many days are grey and rainy...in the past 6 weeks, every weekend it has rained or been cloudy....just bleh....i guess i should be happy we see some sun on the weekdays and at least it is not super hot yet....
so the one mistake we made during the chinese new year week was that we went to the pearl tower...this was a nightmare of people...i think everyone who was in shanghai was there the same day as us, because the sun was out.....we should have known better when we were waiting for tickets and i literally had to shove people out of my way to get some...we also made the mistake of not only going there to go up, but all the way up...totally not worth it...and the line was ridiculous...i think we were in lines for four hours and looking at things for 20 minutes in total....it was not fun....but they had some cool lanterns and dragons in the main lobby....this is where we think we have now finished our waiting of 1 hour to get to the tower itself...silly us....
i did like that they had a glass floor we could stand on....but of course it was hard to get the shot with no one else in it....but i managed...the foot you see is mine....
i think this picture is owned by at least 20 of my closest chinese friends....as they were so excited when i did this...talk about strange...but that is one of the funny things in china...you are in other people's pictures....why you ask??? because i am white, female, have short hair, am heavy and obviously am not chinese....believe me....i am sure i am on at least 20,000 chinese people's rolls of digital shots....i know, i know....its hard to be famous ;) it is just something that comes with the territory....
after the hell of the pearl tower, we decided to head to the shanghai world financial center to get a much needed drink and a snack before dinner...this was the view from the 97th floor of the hyatt in that building....we should have just skipped the pearl tower and come here for the peaceful afternoon...but at least it was a good way to finish....
i made the decision that people should see what the pearl tower looks like again from the outside...it is an icon on the waterfront of shanghai...and really pretty at night...if you have been following the updates you know that i love this building and the ones around it when i am down on the bund at night..futuristic and wonderful....but really, you don't need to go inside...especially over chinese new year....duh!!!!!
i took a picture of the other tall buildings over in pudong, near the pearl tower...the farthest to the left is the financial building, where i took this picture from high up and had a drink....then we have the jin mao building...which has a great bar on the top of it...and last but not leat is the new shanghai tower they are still building....this is one the crazy russians climbed...you may have seen their video on youtube...this building will be the second tallest in the world when they finish it...its amazing how fast it has gone up....but unfortunately it will not be finished before i leave....cool building though, maybe i will need to come back ;)
one of the last things that week my friend darby and i did, was go to a cool art exhibit of the japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama....she has an obsession with polka dots and is 84....for the piece above, they sent you into what was a completely white room at the start of the show and asked you to add colored polka dots wherever you could find space....
darby took this cool shot with her phone of the room as it stands now....we have no idea how she did it...but it came out well...i am sure the artist would have loved this interpretation....
of course the main thing that happens during this particular room is that people start putting dots on themselves and their friends....we even added some to ourselves....
but i loved this guy....he let is daughter take care of him and the dots....and then let us take his picture...the exhibit was extremely playful and cool...and if you get the chance, you should see some of her work...it is wild and crazy and colorful and bizarre....just like her, even at 84....go girl, go!
i wanted to include one more shot just to show you want i mean....this was done using mirrors and was actually inside of a HUGE polka dot on the floor....i loved the way it turned out....can you see the space where everything started and where the camera is??? kind of like a where's waldo search....good luck :)
this was the page of dots they gave you on the walk into the room and you can see how covered the room is behind me...and that is only one small portion....i loved this exhibit...very cool, polka dot lady...
so this was my chinese new year break this year of the horse....we did other stuff and i realize i have not included any of the myriad of fireworks i saw and heard...but i'll leave that up to your imagination...i can say though that i don't think any country will ever top the fireworks i have been a part of here in china...they happen all the time for many different occasions and really chinese new year is obnoxious by the time 15 days have passed, as they happen every day and every night....its overwhelming and exciting in my opinion......so there you have it...update #23....
my time here in asia is starting to come to an end and i am desperately trying to fit everything into the time i have remaining....i actually have one more trip...in two weeks to seoul, korea for the weekend with my friends greg & di....i am so excited...we are taking a trip to the DMZ...demilitarized zone between north and south korea....but i am not going into north korea....don't worry...i am not dennis rodman....i will hopefully get an update out after the trip with info....and then the goal is one more about the city i love....shanghai...its hard to see the end so near, and yet so exciting to know i am moving onto my next continent....asia has been a great place to be for the past three years....and i know i have learned much about the area and myself from coming here....if you haven't been, there are so many choices of amazing places, i don't even know where to tell you where to start :)
i will be in the states for a VERY short period of time this summer...but places you might spot me include seattle, alaska with my folks on a cruise, north carolina for a wedding, virginia beach, philadelphia (of course), washington DC and maybe NJ/NYC....we'll see what happens....let me know if you are in one of those places and maybe we can meet up....but its a tight schedule this year....hope everyone understands....hope all is well and happy spring...hope your weekends have been sunnier than mine recently!!!!!!
have a fab day :)
dani
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