Saturday the 12th

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It is now Saturday evening and I am soon going to sleep. The earthquake in Japan has been big news here and the United States. In Shanghai there were no noticeable effects from it and my daily life was not affected. The tsunami from the quake did hit the shore near Shanghai but it was very small. That would mean here it wasn’t a tsunami, correct? On the news there were reports of locals in Shanghai saying they could feel tremors. I did not notice anything and had no knowledge of the event until the evening news.
There was also a smaller earthquake in southwest China. On the 10th an earthquake cause a lot of damage in Yingjiang county. This is a long way from where I am and didn’t affect us at all. There are a lot of people in Asia now that need prayers and everyone at home doesn’t need to worry about me.
Friday the 11th I got out of the office for awhile to sit in on a government meeting. I went with a couple architects from our team and they presented our design progress to the government representatives. These meetings are in all Mandarin and I understood very little of what was being discussed. There were people there who could translate for us and one of our team members is Chinese. The main purpose was for the city to discuss regulations and zoning requirements for the area we are planning to build. The meeting was very close to where our designed building will actually be constructed. Afterwards we walked around the area to observe what is directly around the buildings we are working on. As you can see from the photos, our current building site is an empty space waiting to be developed.
Today I went out to see more of Shanghai. I got to see a special district of the city that is known for its traditional style. It is now a popular tourist area full of many shops and local food vendors. There were many people on the street that were offering to sell me things. I would simply say “wo bu yao” and keep walking. This directly translates as “I no want” which is correct even though it may sound weird in English. Life is going well and I am enjoying exploring the city.

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Photos

Project Neighborhood
Right after government meeting.

Building Site
Currently a vacant lot.

Building Site
Taken from rooftop of building accross the street.

New Building Across the Street
Our building lot is accross the street to the right.

Street Food
North Western Shanghai

Local Shop
Very active street with many vendors.

Yuyuan Garden
Evening in Traditional Shanghai

Comments

[Jeff Schober]

Nice video. Good to hear you weren't affected by the tsunami. I Like the pictures. Sounds like your doing a lot of good work in the office.

[Diana]

The Garden looks pretty at night also. It prob will look funny if you put a Starbucks-in-Yuyuan picture :)