You kind of can't believe you're actually there until you climb onto the top and begin to walk along it. Awe-inspiring.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha
At the Summer Palace. Got rained out of Great Wall trip. Hopefully will do that tomorrow, rain or shine.
At Mao's Mausoleum
It was closed when we arrived, but Bob wasn't too keen to see his remains. Still, gotta love the revolutionary art.
The Source
Bob found Du Jiang Yuan (The Source) in a guide book. Located in Beijing's Dongcheng district on Bonchang Hutong (Bonchang Alley), it is actually a part of the 798 Dashanzi Art District, but located in Downtown Beijing and it was an amazing nouvelle Sichuan restaurant in what can only be described as Beijing's East Village.
You can't argue with a 13-dish meal that cost $40 per person that includes, and I'm not making this up: Saute' ed prawns with asparagus, steamed fish with chilies, BBQ'd pork ribs with chili sauce, preserved goose and fresh corn with green and red chilies, fried fish, tree fungus and cucumber soup (a chicken and ginger broth), saute' ed pea shoots, grilled beef and cucumbers in chili sauce, steamed ginger chicken served with soy and chili dipping sauces, chicken and noodles in spicy sauce, roast duck with soy sauce and yam cake and fresh honeydew and water melon. $40 per person. I kid you not.Tian'an Men Square
Giant digital screens facing the gate to the Forbidden City replay a kind of video omnibus of the history of People's Republic of China.
A weird combination of '50s/60s propaganda films and contemporary tourism clips (Olympics, Shanghai Expo) it's interesting, if a little incongruous at times ("Oh the fun we had during The Great Leap Forward!" "Collectivist farms are GREAT!").Nine Dragon Screen Wall
Or at least two of the dragons. Since ghosts in the Chinese tradition can only go in a straight line, the giant wall o' dragons basically ran interference for the Emperor in his digs.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Bob made a new friend
More than once either Bob or I looked up from whatever we were doing to find a native-Chinese person hovering right beside us while their companion took a photo. Now Bob and I just smile and pose. We figure they are tourists from other parts of China visiting either Shanghai for the Expo or Beijing for the first time.
This was a statue in a shopping mall not far from our hotel.Peking Duck in Beijing
Everything was perfect, the sauté ed eggplant with garlic and star anise, bean sprouts with roasted garlic and water chestnuts, raw oysters on the half shell served with lime, soy sauce and a wasabi based cocktail sauce. Followed by Da Dong's signature dish, roasted duck served with either thin rice pancakes or crispy sesame poofs. We had it with a prosecco and it was the perfect compliment, bright with a mild acidity to cut the sweetness. We'll be back Saturday before we leave Beijing.
No apologies for ...
... the following food porn.
Grilled prawns in spicy sauce. The perfect balance of heat, sweetness and crunch (blanched peanuts) with the prawns cooked to perfection. Damn you, Gene Kim!!!!Dinner at Da Dong
Contemporary take on traditional Chinese food. Oxtail soup with Sea Horse? I'll pass, thanks. What would Aquaman say?
ATM ate Bob's ATM card
A trip abroad wouldn't be the same without at least one mini-crisis. The Agriculture Bank of China's ATM at the Intime Lotte Department store on Wangfujing Avenue is evil. Evil, I tell you!!!!
Thank you, HSBC. Now that's customer service!All the conveniences of home ...
Pringles, condoms, Absolut and Johnny Walker ... Welcome to Beijing.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
From the wine refineries of Modesto ...
... to the departure terminal of Shanghai's Hong Qiao Airport.
Checked out, in a cab ...
... stuck in Shanghai morning rush hour traffic. Ah, the perils of progress and economic growth: everyone has a car and everyone is in a hurry.
We're on the way to Beijing. Hopefully no delays and tentative plans to spend the afternoon in the 798 Art Zone. Fingers crossed. Then tomorrow the Forbidden City and Friday the Great Wall.Shanghai afternoon
Shanghai is a pleasant enough city with amenities to keep even the most jaded Westerner and tourist busy, but there is something about the place that, despite Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney's smiling faces schilling Tag Heuer and Omega watches along ritzy Nanjing Road, is not quite right.
This pic was a complete accident. I have no idea how I got the sun to do that. But it's cool. This is the Shanghai Grand Theater located at the People's Park. We have no idea what the name of the tower behind it is, but Bob says it looks like Sauron's tower from the Lord of the Rings and at night when it's illuminated, it actually does!South Korean flag hoisted in Shanghai's People's Park
Weird scene of the day: PLA soldiers hoisting South Korean flag in Shanghai's People's Park. Pic's a little warped because PLA soldiers don't take kindly to photographers. I was waved off seconds after I took this shot. I think China's government is trying to show solidarity with South Korea in the wake of the boat sinking incident.
Coffee at noon
The French Concession is a quiet island of narrow streets in Shanghai very reminiscent in look and feel to a Parisian neighborhood. For almost a century, 1849 to 1946, the area was basically a miniature French beachhead in China so many of the buildings carry with them the character of France during the Belle Epoch. It's always been a big expat neighborhood and in the 1950s the local expats opened the Old China Hand Reading Room where they could meet, have tea, mingle. It's nice, one side is like the drawing room in a country home somewhere in England or France, though there is a wing that's very cafeteria-like and not as charming.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Excess baggage
Across the street from our hotel on Nanjing Lu or Avenue is one of the many luxury good malls that have sprouted up in China's first tier cities.
Not only does it have a Dior, but as you can see in this picture, someone felt a five-story Louis Vutton steamer trunk would really compliment the neighborhood.The Bull on the Bund
Designed by the same man who gave us the brass-balled Bull doing time on Wall Street, Shanghai's city fathers naturally decided theirs just HAD to be bigger (hmmm, insecurity issues?) and, of course, it's tinted an auspicious red.
The Bund only recently reopened (just in time for the Expo) after huge gentrification project and it's a beautiful promenade along the Huangpu River where the old Customs House and numerous wonderful old Beaux Art bank buildings reside. Most are still banks, though some have been sacrificed to new money (Dolce & Gabbana's Martini Bar, anyone?) Still, their colonial prestige still exudes European empire despite the flags of the PRC waving on top.
Pavilion of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
They had a big gold statue that looked like it belonged on a ship's bow and then I remembered the principality is landlocked and Bob and I wandered away confused.
Leave it to the Irish ...
In a tableau of how the Irish lived, from a century ago to the present at the Ireland Pavilion, they had to include the poteen still by the farmhouse. Nice touch ...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
A lesson in patience
Waiting in lines, even if you do have a reservation, is part of the
whole Shanghai Expo experience. It's not so bad. We saw the Turkey
Pavilion and are now in line for the Ireland Pavilion. Next, the UK. A nice volunteer recommended we come back at 5 pm to the China
Pavilion and sneak in through the group reservation line, which we
might try if we decide to stay that late. Beautiful day, though, mid-70s, a light haze. It's funny, Facebook, Blogger, Posterous are all blocked when I use my
laptop and the hotel's internet link, but I can access all the sites
with my Blackberry, must be because I am on a foreign (Hong Kong)
phone service. Alas, lack of Flash on Blackberry browser makes editing
blog posts impossible.
whole Shanghai Expo experience. It's not so bad. We saw the Turkey
Pavilion and are now in line for the Ireland Pavilion. Next, the UK. A nice volunteer recommended we come back at 5 pm to the China
Pavilion and sneak in through the group reservation line, which we
might try if we decide to stay that late. Beautiful day, though, mid-70s, a light haze. It's funny, Facebook, Blogger, Posterous are all blocked when I use my
laptop and the hotel's internet link, but I can access all the sites
with my Blackberry, must be because I am on a foreign (Hong Kong)
phone service. Alas, lack of Flash on Blackberry browser makes editing
blog posts impossible.
Bog at Shanghai Expo
The last time Bob was at a World's Fair he was working the Wisconsin pavilion at what is now Flushing Meadow in Queens.
Good morning, Shanghai
We're up early and off to the Shanghai Expo this morning. Cabs are cheap and plentiful in this town which makes it easy to get around. Will probably take public transit back from the Expo later today just to see what it's like. Attempts to feel good and healthy almost thwarted this morning by hotel gym treadmill which wouldn't run while I was standing on it. Ouch.
Grand Hyatt & WFC
Impressive from a distance, though ground level is vacant, utilitarian and not people-friendly at all. A lot like downtown Los Angeles in that way.
View from M on the Bund
3:30 pm Sunday in Shanghai. Nice day, cool breeze, about 70-degrees Fahrenheit. Ate too much (what else is new?) and resisting urge to go back to hotel for a nap.
Next stop: viewing deck of Shanghai World Financial Center.Finally. Daddy's medicine done right
Bombay Sapphire, very dry with a twist. M on the Bund.
I know, I know, sounds pretentious, but it's taken me five cities in Asia and numerous bars and restaurants in all of them to finally get a decent dry, gin martini. Perfection.The City of Tomorrow
Looking across the Huangpu River from the Bund at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the Pudong District.
Wedding dress photo shoot
In front of the British Consulate building.
Western-style weddings are HUGE in Hong Kong and it seems the same here in Shanghai. We had only been on the Bund an hour and we saw two separate shoots.Lucky Lions
Outside of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank on The Bund. There are two bronze lions on either side of the main entrance. Their noses and paws are shiny from people rubbing them for good luck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Search This Blog
About this blog
Posts
