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This is the short-and-highlight-y version of the trip to Shanghai - not including the last day's tour we took out of town. It's brought to you by sick-induced insomnia, in an attempt to keep myself from hacking my lungs out.
You know it's probably not good when you've coughed yourself raw...
Anyway! Starting with our arrival in Shanghai - flight in, trip aboard the Shanghai Maglev, and then waiting for my stepbrother and his new wife to meet us at the station. (They were late. They usually are.)
I'm not sure if this is a character or icon well-known in Chinese pop culture, or simply a cute little statue, but it was grinning out at me in a corner shop at the Longyang Rd Station, where the Shanghai Maglev train terminates in the city. (The other end is at Shanghai Pudong Airport.)
So were some smaller statues sitting on egg-shaped money-boxes looking all kinds of adorably emo!
The view from my window in the apartment we rented in Dashijie. Excellent location if you want to immerse yourself in Shanghai culture, rather than just sticking to the tourist centres. Close enough to walk to People's Square and East Nanjing Rd, right next to a Shanghai metro shop, with plenty of restaurants at ground level. The parents are going to stay there next time they're in Shanghai.
Phone cover bling! Mum bought this for one of her friends back home. Isn't it precious?
One of the things that the guidebook encourages you to do while in China is to eat of the streetfood. Or the hole-in-the-corner foodie places that westerners would categorise as unhygenic and avoid like the plague. Truthfully? They're probably right - the way the food is kept is, franklly, unhygenic by the standards of most western countries.
But it's part of the experience, and your average stomach is more than capable of dealing with one 'dodgy' meal.
This was a 'window shop' in one of the streets outside our apartment. It was attached to a regular restaurant, which the parentals and I braved during our stay in Shanghai - the food was very good, in fact.
There's red bean curd pork belly, and pork hocks, chilli prawns, and chicken feet in that picture. During the week we were in Shanghai, I'm sure I saw tripe, soy chicken, tofu, and sliced duck being sold there, too!
For me, one of the shortcomings of travelling through any part of China or HK is the fact that they expect me to understand the language. Needless to say, I don't.
My mother speaks Cantonese, but the common argot throughout the land these days is Mandarin - most especially in mainland China. Which meant we had a lot of trouble explaining to the shop assistants that we didn't want to buy these herbal medicines...we just wanted to take a photo of them...
I admit, I was wondering if 'essence of kangaroo' essentially amounted to 'kangaroo testicles'...
And the medicines weren't the only 'odd' things around and about. For instance, I bet you'd never expect to find Princess Leia statues in Shanghai!
Okay, well, they're not specifically Princess Leia...but, yeah, the danish-roll hair caught my eye...
Not exactly 'odd' but certainly 'relevant to the interests of my f-list' was the "Unicorn Enigma Shop", full of non-standards bits and pieces like The Alien skull, a baby dragon skeleton, and an octopus under glass...
And then there's the encouragements not to smoke...
The chinglish:
"Virginal, we care about your health as you do!"
And the unfortunate blending of US politics with Chinese themagery:
I'm reasonably sure that this bag is a compliment in China. Unfortunately, the only westerners likely to sport it would most likely not be Obama supporters...
This scene caught my eye while I was walking back to the apartment one afternoon. Nothing too odd - just a guy fixing an air-conditioner, right?
He just happens to be standing on a truck.
Which is parked in the street.
In such a way as to obstruct traffic in one lane on a two lane road! To say nothing of OH&S concerns!
So that's the very-quick phototour of Shanghai and the bits I thought interesting/unusual/funny enough to capture for posterity. Mostly with my phone, hence the dodgy state of the photography. I have a lot more photos of our tour of Suzhou, but I'll winnow through those so you're not subjected to a Travelogue Of Doom for the one day where we went full-bore Tourist!
You know it's probably not good when you've coughed yourself raw...
Anyway! Starting with our arrival in Shanghai - flight in, trip aboard the Shanghai Maglev, and then waiting for my stepbrother and his new wife to meet us at the station. (They were late. They usually are.)
I'm not sure if this is a character or icon well-known in Chinese pop culture, or simply a cute little statue, but it was grinning out at me in a corner shop at the Longyang Rd Station, where the Shanghai Maglev train terminates in the city. (The other end is at Shanghai Pudong Airport.)
So were some smaller statues sitting on egg-shaped money-boxes looking all kinds of adorably emo!
The view from my window in the apartment we rented in Dashijie. Excellent location if you want to immerse yourself in Shanghai culture, rather than just sticking to the tourist centres. Close enough to walk to People's Square and East Nanjing Rd, right next to a Shanghai metro shop, with plenty of restaurants at ground level. The parents are going to stay there next time they're in Shanghai.
Phone cover bling! Mum bought this for one of her friends back home. Isn't it precious?
One of the things that the guidebook encourages you to do while in China is to eat of the streetfood. Or the hole-in-the-corner foodie places that westerners would categorise as unhygenic and avoid like the plague. Truthfully? They're probably right - the way the food is kept is, franklly, unhygenic by the standards of most western countries.
But it's part of the experience, and your average stomach is more than capable of dealing with one 'dodgy' meal.
This was a 'window shop' in one of the streets outside our apartment. It was attached to a regular restaurant, which the parentals and I braved during our stay in Shanghai - the food was very good, in fact.
There's red bean curd pork belly, and pork hocks, chilli prawns, and chicken feet in that picture. During the week we were in Shanghai, I'm sure I saw tripe, soy chicken, tofu, and sliced duck being sold there, too!
For me, one of the shortcomings of travelling through any part of China or HK is the fact that they expect me to understand the language. Needless to say, I don't.
My mother speaks Cantonese, but the common argot throughout the land these days is Mandarin - most especially in mainland China. Which meant we had a lot of trouble explaining to the shop assistants that we didn't want to buy these herbal medicines...we just wanted to take a photo of them...
I admit, I was wondering if 'essence of kangaroo' essentially amounted to 'kangaroo testicles'...
And the medicines weren't the only 'odd' things around and about. For instance, I bet you'd never expect to find Princess Leia statues in Shanghai!
Okay, well, they're not specifically Princess Leia...but, yeah, the danish-roll hair caught my eye...
Not exactly 'odd' but certainly 'relevant to the interests of my f-list' was the "Unicorn Enigma Shop", full of non-standards bits and pieces like The Alien skull, a baby dragon skeleton, and an octopus under glass...
And then there's the encouragements not to smoke...
The chinglish:
"Virginal, we care about your health as you do!"
And the unfortunate blending of US politics with Chinese themagery:
I'm reasonably sure that this bag is a compliment in China. Unfortunately, the only westerners likely to sport it would most likely not be Obama supporters...
This scene caught my eye while I was walking back to the apartment one afternoon. Nothing too odd - just a guy fixing an air-conditioner, right?
He just happens to be standing on a truck.
Which is parked in the street.
In such a way as to obstruct traffic in one lane on a two lane road! To say nothing of OH&S concerns!
So that's the very-quick phototour of Shanghai and the bits I thought interesting/unusual/funny enough to capture for posterity. Mostly with my phone, hence the dodgy state of the photography. I have a lot more photos of our tour of Suzhou, but I'll winnow through those so you're not subjected to a Travelogue Of Doom for the one day where we went full-bore Tourist!
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Still, I'm a major fan of cross cultural oddities, and if I had been out shopping with you, I definitely would have come home with an Oba Mao bag, and carried it with pride and amusement at home, even though it would end up getting me the heart-felt approval of every right wing Republican extremist in the area!
Thank you for the fascinating glimpse. It would appear that in Mainland China virginity can be re-achieved with plenty of soap, hot water, and some plastic. Good to know.