Blogs from Xujiahui, Shanghai, China, Asia

Beijing er en kæmpe by med meget trafik. At tage fra syd-banegården til den centrale togstation med taxa tog 45-60 min. Solen skinnede og i byen fløj små fnug som lignede bommuld og gav en stemning af snevejr midt i forårsvarmen (25-30°C). Gående langs en af hovedgaderne ser det ikke umiddelbart meget anderledes ud end Shanghai men der er til gengæld mange små sidegader med små huse og træer. Hyggelige små ’alleys’ eller ’hutong’. Disse varierer også i standard og det lader til at nogle af de dyreste boliger findes i sådanne små områder. Efter ankomst i Beijing om eftermiddagen var første punkt på dagsordenen at hente togbilletten inden CITS’ kontorer lukkede. Da det var gjort gik gåturen videre til den forbudte by som tilsyneladende lukkede kl 17 lige som jeg ankom . I stedet blev ... read more

The Chinese New Year began on February 14, 2010. We learned that the Chinese LOVE fireworks! And obviously can easily buy them! We were amazed at the sheer volume of fireworks going off constantly. We were able to watch out either of our apartment windows and see a show. On Chinese New Years morning, we woke up to a covering of snow on the ground! On the fourth day of the New Year, we went to stay for a few days in the Xujiahui area of Shanghai. The best I can tell you how to pronounce "Xujiahui" is shoo-jee-ah-way, but I'm sure you won't ending up saying it anywhere close to how the Chinese say it! We stayed in the Courtyard Marriott where we were in easy walking distance of all the big shopping malls - ... read more

Hi all, This blog is about one big Yin (look for part 2 shortly on the yins AND the yangs of two years in Asia) as we’ve devoted this entire penultimate blog to an homage and revisiting, if you like, of our visitors. For the visitors, we hope you enjoy…for the rest, please read on too…and plan to visit Shanghai at some time on your own. You won’t be sorry! Christmas! For our first Christmas when Chris visited, we were still getting the hang of the place, so we really appreciated his help at navigating the city with his excellent Chinese. As a result, it was sheer fun discovering new restaurants, museums and landmarks, and our introduction to Cotton’s, Sasha’s, Dagu Lu, and many museums, including the Art’s and Crafts Museum, were all with Chris. We ... read more

Finally found some time to hit up the Caster Studio again. I practiced some powermove transitions and freezes - only had 50 minutes there. While I was there, I saw another bboy in the larger room and didn't feel like really talking to him since I only had a few minutes until he started pulling out some airflares to flares to mills transitions, ha! He had decent style too...only problem was that he spoke very very little English, like my Chinese, ha. So we just exchanged names and then I kept solo training....I really need to learn how speak Chinese better now!! Oh and I was so sore from working out yesterday, guess the protein I bought doesn't have much potassium....... read more

It's Tuesday and Dragon Boat Festival is on Thursday! See (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat_festival). And as a part of the SSP program we get the amazing opportunity to share the festival with a local family and absorb some culture! But we do need to buy a gift for the host family to show our appreciation and the most suggested item was a bottle of wine or chocolates. So my group - Sam and Sae Young - decided to go with both a bottle of wine and a cake. Ethan and few other students had come across an extensive wine store in the French Concession of Shanghai (3 stops up Line 1) the other day where we could buy a good wine even if we didn't know what to look for because the shop attendant knew just about EVERYTHING there ... read more