A couple of weeks ago I went on a business trip to Beijing - to take advantage of the opportunity I brought Jen, and we extended our stay for several days after my meetings so we could see the city and all it has to offer. We left Shanghai out of Hongqiao Airport, which is about a 20 minute cab ride from our hotel...a much closer drive than Pudong Airport, which was where we arrived when we first entered China (about an hour away). It certainly didn't have the more modern feel of Pudong but Hongqiao was reasonably clean and easy to navigate. While waiting for our Air China flight we stopped at several book/magazine shops to find a newspaper - unfortunately the only papers being sold were China Daily and Shanghai Daily. These are the ... read more

I've successfully completed week 1 in my new job, and weekend 3 in Shanghai. I even learned two new things, just on the walk to work! Lesson 1: if you choose to wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer, make sure you bring a towel. Alternatively phrased, don't wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer. The temperature might feel fine when you first walk out the door but the humidity really wears you down and you get very sweaty, very quickly. Lesson 2: Umbrellas are a mandatory accessory, regardless of the weather. On Monday of last week there was a torrential rainstorm, which I'm told was the worst they've seen in 100 years. So you can imagine how I felt when I arrived at the building where my office is ... read more

Saturday we went to the Jade Buddha Temple, which was built in the early 1900s according to the architectural style of the Song dynasty. It's a fully-functioning temple, complete with resident Buddhist monks who conduct services and otherwise go about their business with the tourists watching. We went at a good time - in the morning - when there weren't so many tourists and we were given the full attention of the staff. For those wondering, by "staff" I'm referring to the people who check your tickets when you enter, and avail themselves to tourists who have any questions. Before we entered we had to pay an entry fee of 20 yuan each, which is equivalent to about $3.10. We were also faced with a large sign in English and Chinese at the entrance that stipulated ... read more

Despite the heat of Thursday we decided to venture a bit outside our immediate neighbourhood and check out the Yuyuan Gardens. The gardens were built about 500 years ago by an aristocrat from Sichuan Province. It was an amazing collection of traditional Chinese architecture, art, water-eroded rock sculptures (which seem to be very popular decorative pieces here) and peaceful pools of koi (who I swear go into a feeding frenzy as soon as they see a human approaching the water). It was an interesting contrast with the modernity of today's Shanghai, and you're constantly reminded of when and where you are by the buildings on the horizon. You can probably see that in some of the pictures that are attached. We were dropped off by the taxi in the old city of Shanghai, which has a ... read more

Tuesday was a day of getting to know our neighbourhood. Before leaving though we checked out the gym in our building....and decided we definitely need to join a local external gym. Check out the photos. So firstly we walked down to the People’s Square - also known as Renmin Square - which is just a couple of blocks south of our hotel. By now we’re starting to be able to walk slightly longer distances in the heat - keeping in mind that at any given time with the humidity the temperature is in the mid-40s. So we filled our water bottles and walked to this area, which was actually fairly large. I don’t even think we covered the entire place but we came across what looked like some amusement park rides as well as a large ... read more