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August 20 Back AgainSorry haven't written in a while . Met some great people and taking tons of photos, which have to be edited down and uploaded at some point. Going to keep this short. melora is going to an offsite in Tonglu, where I'll be sightseeing. Love to all and will be more forthecoming on adventures and photos soon. This weeks Itinerary below (sounds pretty cool):
Tonglu One Day Tour:
Aug 22nd:
"After the breakfast, the tour bus will take us to the precious Lin fairyland -- the ornamental limestone cave landscape, known as “the top tourist site of limestone cave landscape in China” and among the best 40 tourism sites in China. It would be around 30 minutes bus driving for the trip, and around 2 hours tour. After the lunch on the site, the group will take the Dragon Boat for the day drifting along the rive. After that, we will reach the Eastern Han Dynasty historical site -- Yan Ziling, the fishing post. At the same time, we will have the chance to explore the Small Three Gorges on Fuchun River, one of the four most beautiful landscapes in China.
After those activities, we will set off to Hotel with tour bus provided." Sounds fun, huh? Lots of photos... peace out-MG July 20 Zero's Weekend ExcursionsWe had quite a weekend last week that I will never forget. Several People were in town for Microsoft. Marcella from Redmond, Reiko and Kenji From Tokyo, and Maggie from Beijing.
Our friend Zero, who works in the Shanghai office planned and organized 2 great days of sightseeing. The places we went on Saturday were The Shanghai Museum: http://www.shanghaimuseum.net/, located in the People’s Square & amp; Oriental Pearl TV Tower http://www.opg.cn/ Located in Lujiazui, Pudong (This is Where the big action scenes in MI3 were filmed, btw).
We saw incredible paintings and artifacts in our quick run through the museum, and plan on going back to make a more leisurely visit.
Sunday we went to this beautiful city/village south of here on the river that was 1700 years old. Its name is Zhujiajiao. there were tributaries and canals running through this still vibrant city that are used for transportation.
For more info Its home page is: http://www.zhujiajiao.com/
The photos and snapshots of our trip should tell a better story. July 04 Hey Baby! It's the 4th of July!...I was just sitting on our balcony, in our shiny skyscraper overlooking the Shanghai skyline. Cool drink in my hand, menthol smoke in my lungs and blasting X on the ipod boombox. Waxing nostalgic.
For those of you who are too young or don't know any better, X was and is the greatest American rock band of all time. I downloaded their song "4th of July", and 16 other X songs in honor of our nations birthday. The ironies abound. At least that's something no other nation or people can export as good as the ol' USA!
Happy 4th! June 30 mexican food in shanghai!Well folks,
The last 2 days have been interesting. No deep insights here, but pure visceral experience. Yesterday we went to the outdoor open market (the fake market), which has been described as a sport. More like a contact sport fun but exhausting. More on that later.
Across the street was an action figure shop- spawn toys & and custom figures. A 3 foot tall Hellboy in the window -pure heaven!
The Cable King was around the corner. all kinds of elecrtric cables, including custum audio and guitar cables, very cool.
Today we got our residence visas -so I guess oour health and criminal backgrounds were checked out. Our liason Jill was an invaluable help. She lived in London for 8 years and speaks flawless English with the English accent. Very sweet and cute -see photo above.
Now we are home after eating at one of the finest Mexican restaurants we've ever been to. Not Tex-Mex or any american taco/burrito hybrid joint (which I also love-including Taco Bell), but real Central Mexico cuisine, ending with a flawless flan. Just ask Melora. Pictures above.
Until next time, Take care people.
Michael June 25 grocery shoppingHey folks,
Put up the pics of the place we are staying in. pretty swank.
We went to stock up on groceries at this place called "Carrefore".
It was a 4 story Wal-Mart on steroids. Quite the shopping experience.
Found some great bookstores today too.
Tired and signing off. Miss you all, but having a blast!
June 24 sightseeing in Old TownThanks everyone for your comments!
The energy here is crazy cool. I feel more at home here than Seattle or Redmond. Met a couple of nice people on the Bund (see pictures in a few days_non digital) practicing their english. One young man was an artist who will be coming to Virginia to go to school. We went to his gallery and met his teacher. I think I will see if she will give me calligraphy lessons. She wrote our names in chinese, very lovely. We bought a painting from the young man, his name is Merrick-he chose an American sounding name.
We went to Old Town and the Rock Gardens / Yuan Temple-built in the 1500's. see the photos.
The Bund is like wall street, an old financial district with massive European style banks and hotels.
Across the river You can see Pudong_new Shanghai, where the wild new skyscrapers are ( they are all over the city actually).
until next time... June 23 Lost in ShanghaiIt's 5:30 am, and I can't wait to get the day started. Still working out some tech issues with the internet, and getting international calling set up. We should be able to call you next week. I'll have a link so you all can see photos, and news of our daily activities. Going to the photo and music shopping districts to get some deals on film, tripods, etc. this weekend. There are some incredible things outside our window I want to shoot with my large camera, not just digital shots. The old Shanghai is being torn down around us, and replaced by shiny skyscrapers. I would like to document the change and the juxtoposition of these buildings-the old european colonial and traditional chinese making way for the new. It is sad, and exciting. I'm sure it brings about some strong and ambiguous reactions..
The people here are friendly and I think I can take some good shots of them as we wander about. They love their kids and the ones I meet on the street don't mind if you stop and tell them how cute they are and make a fuss over them. We saw a large group of children excitedly heading into the theatre across the way to see ICE AGE 2.
We are in the middle of one of the major shopping districts. The buildings hi tech and quite impressive with massive mall areas The teens are are decked out the way teens express themselves through dress. hard to believe less than a generation has passed since the protest in the square. Still lots of changes needed and growing pains. Exciting to be here!
Melora's office is great. Her people have a game room with ping pong, a fancy pool table, and xbox with a huge wall screen projection and surround sound! They are helpful and sweet.
I'm going to get another cup of coffee and plan the day. |
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