Blogs from Jing An, Shanghai, China, Asia - page 4

Our national guide has taken the English name of "Snow". He comes from the south of China where there is not snow. He figured the name would make him stand out -- ane be "cool". Nick is our city guide. He is from Suzhou. I think I butchered the pronunciation of his home town -- probably akin to turning Kanata into Kapiskasing. At the Jing An temple I watched everyone else and then bought incense. I prayed in all 4 directions for an auspicious journey. However, when placing my stack of sticks on the appointed stone pit, my bundle broke. Fearing it was bad luck to leave them on the ground, I picked them up -- burning my thumb when in my panic I touched the business end. I may have erased all the good I ... read more

Where should I begin? Much has happened since leaving the States last week. I arrived in Shanghai following my 14 hour flight ordeal to find that my luggage did not arrive with me despite repeated assurances from the airlines that this would not be the case. Bummed out, but determined not to let my China experience start on a negative note, I put the luggage out of my mind, telling myself that it would arrive in the near future. I continued out the airport gate to meet with Kelvin, my enthusiastic and somewhat scatter-brained orientation leader from CIEE. Despite the many Kelvin jokes that my group-mates and I would make over the coming week, the reality was that Kelvin was invaluable in helping us adjust to life in such a strange new environment. After a short ... read more

Construction everywhere in Shanghai. Displaced people (the old folks, usually) living on the edge of rubble yards that used to be their low-rise apt. blocks. Sunday, on my morning walk, I saw masses of peasant-migrant men crouched in a line waiting for possible work at a construction project. Huge migration from the countryside to the jobs the construction boom is fueling. Workers live in hastily built dorms on construction job-sites and tumble out of their bunks into the next shift running round-the-clock. Wednesday night (8-8-07) a colorful TV extravaganza to celebrate the 1 yr countdown to Olympic Games. They're great with televised pageantry, but out on the streets people are still holding out against the razing of their homes in the Beijing zones where officials want to put up Olympics offices. Could it be those areas ... read more

It's not because there are no new blog entries that we've stop to travel. Over December, it was twice for a long day trip to Hong Kong, evening in Bangkok, as well as week-end in Saigon...just to keep us busy. But it was a lot more of Shanghai. Time to celebrate Christmas at Leslie school, time to celebrate my 34th birthday. The best one for years...easy to do it compare to last year...the party lasted four days...and I'm still recovering. But the most important thing, it will soon be one year that Leslie is in Shanghai, he simply loves it and has become such a fine guy. Christmas was a great one, first time to have the all family re-united in Luxembourg with Leslie, Tiffany and Alexiane...a wonderful Christmas to remember. Happy New Year...can't wait for ... read more

A black carpet 4 ft high in the metro? A 15-minute/95-degrees transfer at People's Square? No thanks. A bus 'system' with no English translation, no discernible order and seemingly no forethought? I'll pass. A city that looks manageable on a map only to have your 3 block stroll turn into a marathon? F' that S'. Sure cabs are great, but what am I going to do, spend 11元 on a cab to go to a noodle house just to eat a 10元 meal? My bike is all I need to conquer Le Tour De Shanghai (except Pudong, but who wants to go to Pudong anyway). I now own this city. I once even managed a 45-minute ride home in rush hour, bobbing and weaving my way through traffic, getting a great string of green lights and ... read more