Last post from Shanghai

My last dinner was at the Whampoa Club at 3 on the Bund. I had this great view from my table.
The food was sort of Chinese nouvelle cuisine.My appetizer was squid stuffed with sweet rice, barbequed pork and mushrooms, and seafood and cheese (!) baked in a hairy crab shell. It was good but I thought the fried vegetable dumpling I had on the street this morning was really great. Some of the street food is amazing. Almost everyday on my way to class I would buy my breakfast from a lady selling fried bread that she smashed into the middle of a ball of rice along with some pickled vegetables. It might not sound that good but combination of the hot rice and the crunchy bread really hit the spot.
If you are seeing my blog for the first time you might want to click on "Archives October 2005" on the right to see the whole blog. Email me at cwoo@svn.net

10/29/05

Above is a welder on Henan Road and early Saturday morning at the fabric market.

Swarovski jeweled dress

10/27/05

Above - street scene in the old city. Below - the famous Bund - the street along the river where so many old buildings from the early 1900's still stand. In the background is Pudong - the new development area.

Today I went to a big yarn expo in Pudong looking for some sources of good knitting yarn. Unfortunately all the exhibits were for textiles. You can't believe how many kinds of distressed denim exist in the world. Anyway, I got this picture instead of yarn.

China Internet

The single light fixture that works in my room uses about a 20 watt bulb. I went to the supermarket and bought a lamp to use by my bed so I could read at night. But the Internet connection is another story. It is incredibly fast - I'll have a hard time adjusting to cable when I get home. I've been able to transfer big photo files to my blog in a second. Here is a picture of the setup in the hallway. The line is split for 2 rooms. The big problem for people here is that several websites are blocked. Blogger is one of them so I haven't been able to view my site although I have heard that the Hotmail blogsite is visible from here. It seems that it would be nearly impossible for the government to keep up with all the new sites that crop up every day on the web.

10/27/05

More food

I thought I'd give the Shanghainese cuisine another try so I went back to Crystal Jade and ordered 3 dishes. The corn soup was just like at home but the poached spinach with 3 kinds of eggs and the fish head and tails were new to me. Well, I'm still not a fan.

Northern Jingan District

I found Yao Ming!

10/26/05

Yesterday I went up to the northern part of the city to see a new complex of artist's studios. It isn't quite finished but it is going to be a great place to see what is going on with the contemporary art scene here. There are already a few artists working there - mainly painters. It looks like they are just getting started because I didn't see anything that looked very accomplished. I was starving and luckily I found a place (a real dive) selling dumplings and buns. So I guess you could say that was my most satisfying meal so far.

Near the Old City

Yesterday I went to the other end of town to the Nanshi district. Some streets still had some small, old houses. Many were really falling apart. It probably is wishful thinking that they would be kept and restored. The bulldozers work night and day tearing down the old. Just on my street in a week some workers took down a beautiful granite storefront and replaced it with some cheap, ugly beige tile. They worked all night. On another corner a brick building was razed and completely removed in a day. There is always someone available to do whatever you want to have done.

!

This attractive pile of junk has been steadily growing. Two weeks ago it barely spilled out the walls of the building. Now it's threatening to block the driveway of the apartment building. I did see an interesting deco-type wood chair at one point but that got hauled away by some lucky guy.

More mall fun

These people were trying to win a flat screen monitor!

10/22/05

I saw a fireworks display from my window just before going to bed. It was a great way to end the day.
These guys are tying up hairy crabs so they don't get away.