Golden Week

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During Golden Week we headed down to Renmin (People's) Square, the main square in Shanghai. I have never seen so many people in one place before. How did we all fit on the ground? We set off down East Nanjing Road, (one of) the main shopping areas, to grab some lunch. I was up for some dumpling action, but we ended up on the wrong floor of the restaurant. We had very good Cantonese food instead! Next stop was the Shanghai Museum. On our way there we walked through Renmin Park, an oasis in the middle of the city. There're always old guys playing chess, cards, chatting, the odd tai chi group... On Sundays there are gaggles of women trying to match up their daughters with eligible young men! The museum is a fantastic circular building and is huge. Great collections of ceramics and sculptures some dating back 8000 years, beautiful painting, overly ornate furniture, jade jewellery. It probably takes a few visits to see everything. Across the road from the museum is the Grand Theatre, another great building with flying wings as its roof. Then there's the rocket-like Tommorow Square building which houses the Marriot Hotel, the gothic Park Hotel and the Raddison Hotel which looks like a UFO has landed on the top of it.

One night, we treated ourselves to pre-dinner cocktails in the Glamour Bar before heading upstairs to M on the Bund, a swank western style restaurant. We had a great table looking out to the patio with views across the Bund. What we spent on one meal could've fed us for a week or more in the local chinese restaurants! But it was great having posh western food - and gorgonzola in my salad! I found out that I really miss good cheese.

Last Friday was a big event in the social calander - Yue Festival. A rare line up of Western bands with Talib Kweli, Ozomatli and Faithless headlining. It was a small gathering of probably no more than a few thousand people, so it felt very friendly and chilled out. Everything was very well organised - a beer token system (though the bar never got crowded), bags to keep your empties in, recycling points. Same old festival toilets though, but no queues! I'm not a big Faithless fan but it was great to see some live music. I even turned into a b-girl for an hour or so with Talib Kweli!

I've been keeping up my yoga practice. I no longer ache for days afterwards, so I must be making some progress. I'm amazed at how bendy some people are! And how inflexible I am! Most of the teachers are really friendly, though I had a scary one the other day. I deceided to try a different class - 'hot yoga', or 'so stifling hot that you won't be able to breathe properly and will probably feel sick yoga'. After 50 mins I'd had enough but thought I'll stick it out for the last 10 mins. No, no, no... it was an hour and a half class. Apparantly I did well but I'll stick to the basics class, thanks!

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