Guitexpat

Happy Birthday, Mary!

2009-05-29T03:09:00.000-07:00

Have a great birthday in the NYC! Can't wait to see you soon!

Taj from River Bank

2009-05-25T01:41:00.000-07:00

The tour of the Taj Mahal is, course, amazing. But even better is to see it from the bank of the Jamuna river, outside the Taj complex. You can do fun things there like try to catch the perfect reflection on camera, or pretend to jump over the dome, or maybe a camel will walk up to you when you are taking pictures of the building.

Music from Rajasthan

2009-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Had the great experience of getting to see live Rajasthani music at an outdoor amphitheater and took video. The two women dancers up front were cool, but the star of the show was the guy to the far left who would stand up and go into a trance while playing his hand percussion instrument, kind of like castanets. Definite showman who really had the crowd captivated.

(Click for videos)

Pics From the Neighborhood

2009-05-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

A few shots from my neighborhood taken on a 110-degree Sunday afternoon.

The fruit stand.

The barber shop.

The neighborhood card game.

Sign for the neighborhood restaurant.

The chicken is indeed very fresh. Didn't see where the mutton came from though.

Kahn-I-Khana: Statesman, Poet, My Neighbor

2009-05-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

There's an enormous tomb few blocks from my apartment that was built in 1598. No one really seems to take care of it, and you are free to walk around, in and over every inch of it. Local kids even use one of the walls as a soccer goal.

Anyway, the plaque at the entrance says the tomb belongs to a guy named Khan-I-Khana Mirza Abdul Rahim Khan, son of Bairam Khan. His dad was a regent to the famous Mughal King Akbhar, and Khan-I-Khana became a favorite of the emporer's and was eventually rewarded with riches and governerships. I Googled his name and it turns out that Khan-I-Khana was also a Hindi poet noted for his couplets. He wrote under the name Rahim and his Confucius-like nuggets of wisdom are pretty cool. Here are three that I enjoy:

"Says Rahim, the truly great never reveal their worth. Nor do those who are truly worthy of praise, praise themselves."

"Says Rahim, people will find many many ways to be related to fortune. But only he is a true friend, who stands by you in misfortune"

"To cure a bitter cucumber, we cut its head off and rub in salt. Says Rahim, to cure a bitter mouth we should apply the same remedy"

Palace Life

2009-05-04T04:33:00.000-07:00

Did an overnight stay at a hillside palace in Rajasthan. A few rules I learned about palace life:

Drop breadcrumbs or something when exploring the premises. It's easy to get lost.
Don't try to do anything except sit by the pool if the temperature climbs above 110.
Be on the lookout for monkeys and peacocks invading your balcony.

Cow Paths

2009-04-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

One of Delhi's unique features is the cows in the street. I can't imagine there are many other cities of 20 million people where livestock are a common site almost anywhere in town. I've read that the city has a brigade of cow police trying to remove all of the animals by 2010, which a very optimistic goal. First, the cow police can't simply turn the cows into hamburger. Because cows are sacred, they have to be removed to farms outside the city. Second, there's a black market for the cow's milk, so the cow catchers are often attacked by small mobs.

Most foreigners get used to the cows after a week or two. But not me. While I'm no longer surprised to see a cow in the city, I have discovered that I am terrified by them. Cows are scary animals. Quiet, expressionless, enormous. Willing to eat trash. Good at staring. Some have horns, some don't (which is weird -- and I'm talking cows, not bulls). I don't think cows in a field are scary, but a cow in a dark, narrow, city alley is a terrifying creature.

Anyway, there's arachnaphobia, ophidiophobia and lots of other phobias. Does anyone know if there's a word for the fear of city cows?

Qutub Minar

2009-04-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

I can officially check another UNESCO World Heritage site off the life list. The Qutub Minar is the world's tallest brick minaret and in a city like Delhi that has no skyscrapers, it seems even more impressively huge.

A Muslim ruler started building the base of the tower in 1193, but the structure wasn't completed until almost 200 years later. It's about 238 feet tall so they were averaging a little over a foot a year. Slow but steady.

How I ended up holding a cobra

2009-04-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

Step 1: I spot a snake charmer and ask him to play his flute.

Step 2: The snake pokes its head out. It's a definitely a cobra.

Step 3: The charmer asks me to have a seat.

Step 4: Next thing I know, he's handing me a venomous snake.

Step 5: I can't really say no.

Delhi hits 100

2009-04-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

102 degrees on April 14 and getting warmer... it's going to be a long summer.

Weekend Destination

2009-04-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Samode Bagh Garden Resort. Described on its website:

"Relive the splendour of the bygone age recreated in a tented encampment- unique experience in royal living."

It's in the state of Rajasthan, about 4 hours from Delhi and a short drive from Jaipur. We're close to the Samode Palace, and actually these gardens were built for members of the Samode royal family as a weekend retreat (I guess living in a palace isn't all it's cracked up to be).

http://www.samode.com/home/garden/index.htm

Anyway, should be a good holiday weekend. Happy Easter everyone!

HEELS!

2009-04-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

I wonder how you say CHAMPS in Hindi?!?

My Camel

2009-04-01T03:55:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges of life in Delhi is transportation. The city is very spread out so a bicycle isn't practical, and there's so much traffic that cabs, although cheap, are frustrating (plus you have to bargain down to the cent for every single fair).

So after weighing my options and deeming a motorcycle to be too dangerous, I decided it was time to get a camel. The price of 10,000 rupees includes a harness, a seat and a week's worth of instruction from the camel's previous owner (the guy holding the rope in the picture), who says that's all the time it will take for me to have perfect command of my steed.

My camel is about 8 and a half feet tall and weighs over 1,000 pounds. She's 18 years old and was born in the northwestern part of rural India -- a country girl. I'm still trying to think of a name for her.

It's about a 20 minute ride into work... will have my first ride tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes!

Jama Masjid

2009-03-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the religious theme, I also checked out Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, which is India's biggest Mosque. I think the picture pretty much describes it: massive red stone courtyard facing the large temple. It's framed by two minarets -- the one on the left is where they make the call for prayer. The lines you see on the ground are where the worshippers kneel for their prayers.

Sikh Temple

2009-03-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Checked out the Gurdwara Bangla Seikh Temple this weekend… interesting stuff. The temple is open for worship all day and open to everyone, so long as you take your shoes off and wear a turban to cover your hair (which, luckily, the temple will lend you if you don’t happen to have one.)

Once you get your turban, you walk up a stairway that has a trickle of water flowing down it. The worshippers touch their hand to the water on their way up and brush it against their forehead, a few even doing it on each step.

Inside the large prayer hall, you find a place to sit on the ground, facing a brightly lit glass shrine (no idea what was in it, appeared to be a book and some robes) while three men play drums and sing. There was no centrally led prayer, just people sitting and rocking to the music.

After taking this scene in for about 20 minutes, I decided to head for the door. People exiting were routed to the front, past the main shrine and then down some steps to another smaller shrine, where they would touch their hands to the glass and saying prayers until an usher told them that they needed to move forward. Then it was back down the water steps to the exit, where you were given a handful of grain on the way out.

Nayabas

2009-03-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

The town I went to last weekend in rural India was called Nayabas, in the state of Rajasthan. Two vanloads of us from work took off from New Delhi traveling East and South along a highway, and the towns and villages became smaller and smaller, as did the roads until we finally ran out of road and were driving on farmland paths.

None of us knew where Nayabas was and no map could tell you exactly how to get there so navigation was a bit more like sailing than driving. We'd try to keep an East-Southeast bearing, and as we got closer we would ask people if they knew of a road/path that would take us to Nayabas.

No one in the village had been told we were coming so there was an explosion of curiousity when the vans rolled up. After about 2 minutes of shyness, the kids wanted to start playing or having their pictures taken, and the grownups would invite us into their homes for tea or a smoke. Most of the homes were three-walls with a celing and a few of the buildings had a second story. There was also a central courtyard with about 10 buffalo for milk.

After dinner in one of the homes (and a wolf search that only turned up a few foxes), we slept on the front poarch of one of the houses under the stars. The villagers watched us fall asleep and were still there watching us when we woke up in the morning.

In the morning, the kids took us on a 10 minute walk past the town's wheat fields and we went swimming in the nearby river until a bunch of the buffalo showed up for their turn to wallow in the water.

Watch Me Dance

2009-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

From the Holi party I went to. Impossible not to dance to these drummers.

Elephant vs. Camel

2009-03-17T20:49:00.001-07:00

So as previously noted, I've had the opportunity to ride both a camel and an elephant in the same weekend. Who knew that riding these two beasts of burden could be such opposite experiences?

1) Boarding: Both animals kneel down so you can climb on, but you board an elephant from the front, stepping on it's neck and the riding on the very top of its back. You board a camel from the back, riding behind it's hump (at least that's wht you do with a single hump camel,).

2) Liftoff. Once aboard a camel or an elephant, there is a moment of sheer terror at the beginning of the ride. An elephant rises on its front legs so that its back becomes sloped at a severe angle. You grab on and pray to holy god that you don't fall off the back. With a camel, its the opposite. The animal rises from its back legs so you think you're going to topple forward.

3) Ride: Both rides are very bumpy. I couldn't imagine trekking across a vast desert or jungle aboard either animal. The motion sickness would kill. but again there's a difference: An elephant has a rumbling gait that rocks you from side to side, while a camel lurches forward and back.

Finally, note the coloring from Holi on the elephant's trunk and face. Even the animals get in on the Holi fun!

Holi Photos

2009-03-17T05:10:00.001-07:00

A few before and after shots from the Holi festival last week. I'm a nice, clean young man in flowing traditional garb on the way in. A mess on the way out.

The party was at a farm and a bit Woodstockish in feel, with peole drinking a marijuana-laced fruit drink called bhang while dancing to Indian music and throwing dye all over each other. A very good vibe and fun time:

2009-03-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

Add riding an elephant to the list. And going on a night-time search for a wolf on a wheat farm. And eating a dish called Raabv that's just like grits with an Indian farm family.

Quick update

2009-03-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

A few things I did rural India today:

Rode: A camel.

Drank: Buffalo milk.

Saw: In addition to the aforementioned camel, a monkey and an elephant.

Holi Holiday

2009-03-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today is Holi, which is India's spring festival. Apparently I will not be able to walk down the street without getting doused in colorful paint. We'll see what happens... pictures to come!

Call to prayer

2009-03-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

Just heard my first ever call to prayer from the Mosque near our office. Exactly at 5pm. Pretty cool.

WK from Satellite Photo

2009-03-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a satellite image of the intersection where the office is located. We're in the building that's just south of the words "Adhchini Crossing".The hotel where I'm staying this week is about half a mile away from here. I walk into work along the road called Saheed Jeet Singh Marg.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=india&sll=42.358544,-142.646484&sspn=28.568463,56.337891&ie=UTF8&ll=28.536364,77.197661&spn=0.002078,0.003439&t=h&z=18

Flickr Photos

2009-03-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a photostream that I think illustrates what I was trying to say about the poverty here being so striking, but that there's also an amazing vibrancy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meanestindian/

Made it to Delhi

2009-03-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Delhi at 2:30 am and got a cab to my hotel. As I exited the airport, I immediately got hustled by a few men offering to carry my bags to the taxi.

In Delhi, it's impossible for a foreigner not to be struck immediately by the poverty and lack of infrastructure. From the airport's gravel parking lot, we took a patchy two lane road into the city. Dirt seemed to be the main roadside feature, along with the shanties and dilapidated buildings that ran along the street. As we drove past one cluster I could see a family sleeping on a mattress that lay on the floor of their three-wall shelter.

But there are several charming things about Delhi, especially after living in Shanghai for four months. First, even though both cities have more than 20 million people, Delhi seems smaller. The area where I'm staying doesn't have many high rise buildings and there are nice patches of trees and grass with birds chirping throughout the streets. In Shanghai, there's never a moment where you aren't aware that you're living in a mega-city, whereas my neighborhood in Delhi could just as easily be in a much smaller town.

It's also very colorful. The buildings, the cars, the clothing, and the jewelry are all vibrant. This probably has to do with the weather: sunny and warm. Perfect conditions for city explorations this weekend!

China Goodbye

2009-03-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Had a farewell to China dinner last night. It was actually at the same restaurant where I had my very first China meal. Full circle. The menu included pig's ears and jellyfish. I also successfully ate tofu with chopsticks, which isn't easy to do.

Next Blog post will be from India!

Car Crash

2009-02-24T00:55:00.000-08:00

Walking out of a convenience store over the weekend, I witnessed two taxis get in a head-on collision. No one was hurt and the damage was minimal, so I (and the group of friends I was with) didn't feel guilty rubbernecking the scene. In fact, we decided that we might was well open the beverages we'd gotten and make ourselves comfortable. It turned out to be a pretty interesting show. A few things that happened:

1) After the wreck, passengers from both taxis got out and started hailing other cabs. The drivers of the wrecked taxis immediately turned on their "taxi available" lights.

2) Even though there was little damage, both drivers kept their cars right in the middle of the intersection at the exact spot impact. Apparently this is a rule in China. You are not to move your vehicle until the police come. This even extends to bike-car wrecks, and not just the bike but also the biker. If you are knocked of your bike, you are supposed to stay on the ground until officers arrive.

3) The drivers didn't seem angry at all. They both got in one of the wrecked cabs and were sharing cigarettes and talking.

4)When the police showed up, the men came over to the sidewalk and talked to them. They agreed that the driver of the red taxi was at fault. The police told the men to go around the corner and settle it. Apparently the driver at fault was to pay the other driver whatever amount they agreed to.

5) After a short minute, the men came back and nodded to the police that they had reached an agreement. The taxis drove away and the policemen left. Problem solved.

Haircut

2009-02-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

When it comes to immersing oneself in a foreign culture, even the most seasoned of world travelers has his limits. My time in China has and will change many things about me. My hair will not be one of those things. The chasm between Chinese tastes in hairstyle and my personal tastes are even greater than the difference between the languages we speak. By my standards, many young Chinese men have hair that is overly-styled and ridiculous. (They probably think my haircut is something that even a scarecrow would be ashamed of. That's okay. It is possible to hate the pilus but love the person.) A fairly common China 'do features closely shorn sides with huge, swooping bangs across the front and a bed-head look at the top. I badly needed a haircut this week but were I to just show up and have a seat, I would almost certainly get something along these lines.

So I needed an interpreter. Luckily (after a bit of persuasion) my friend Dan was a good sport and agreed to help. We walked in and she started talking to the receptionist. I thought I could hear her saying something about "average American male" and "yes, as a matter of fact, he is kind of boring." This was a good start. I was then handed a menu, which except for a few numbers, was entirely in Chinese characters. There was a range of options having to do with how long they spent on my hair and whether I wanted a more experienced stylist. I chose the shortest option from the least experienced stylist, thinking that a novice would be more likely to take instruction and that speed is the bedfellow of simplicity when it comes to haircutting.

So we were ready to go. Here's my before picture.

And one with Dan:

I was led back to a chair that reclined into a sink and given a lengthy wash in lukewarm water. Rinse. Shampoo. Condition. Repeat. Very soothing except the man in the chair next to mine was smoking a cigarette.

Then, I was led to my novice stylist. His name was Wing. He looked to be about twenty years old and his hairstyle channeled David Bowie. The beginning was bad. He pinned the hair from the top of my head into red hairclips and began working on the sides with an electric clipper. This wasn't a promising start, but Dan was long gone and there wasn't much I could do. After carefully trimming the sides and back he took the clips out and started working on the top. He was very meticulous, much more so than an other haircutter I've had. He would pinch out small tufts of hair, no more than 15 strands at a time and give them a measured cut. He worked in careful rows from front to back and then across the side with a different set of clippers.

It took perhaps half an hour. I was actually quite pleased with the results and thought we were all finished, but I was directed back to the washing station for another double round of rinse, shampoo and condition. Then I was led back to Wing's chair for a final styling session. I could have done without the wax, but didn't know how to say no so I just went with it. Again, he was quite meticulous arranging each lock of hair across the front until it was just how he wanted it. Then he kind of ruffled the back and sides, and we were finished. Here's the result:

Just kidding. That's Kei and me at the office messing around. People thought we looked alike when I wore that wig.

Here's the real result. Too much styling, but not bad for about $10.

Wen Miao Rd Confucian Temple

2009-02-16T03:25:00.000-08:00

Visited the Wen Miao Rd Confucian Temple, which dates back to the 13th century, though it has been in its current location "only" since 1855. It was a very quiet and peaceful escape from the noisy din of Shanghai.

The first courtyard was a busy book market (at least it looked like it was busy earlier in the day, but was closing when I walked in). The temple pathways led to other courtyards, a pond, study and lecture halls, a library, and a display of traditional Chinese and Japanese teapots. The teapots were impressive. Some were big enough that you could bathe a small child in them, which I guess means that Confucian scholars drank a lot of tea. My favorite was bright yellow with a giant green flying dragon painted across the front.

Lantern Festival

2009-02-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

Office had a special Lantern Festival breakfast earlier this week. The very interesting menu included rice glue balls, black rice, and goulash-like dishes with corn, peas, tomatoes and pork... a great way to start the day. Food was all prepared by our aiyee (auntie). I really didn't see that many lanterns around the city, but there were plenty more fireworks.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2009-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Dad! Hope you and Mom are having a good time in Charleston!

Bike Culture

2009-02-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

A few action shots from my bike on the way in to work. Biking kind of sums up my China experience: I'm glad I did it even if it was stressful and borderline insane.

Hugeness

2009-02-02T04:50:00.000-08:00

My apartment is a 37-storey building that is part of a complex of about ten 37-storey buildings called The Summit Celebrity Garden. Most of the tenants are like me: people here on business assignments from other countries. Across the street there is another complex that's about the same size, and down the road there are two others that are even larger. So within a two block perimeter, I would estimate there are close to 10,000 people who are here just for work.

If you've seen my fireworks video, you also know that there are also enough locals on the block to make New Years celebrations seem like an earthquake-firestorm-meteor stike. I haven't spotted any celebrities here, but The Summit Celebrity Garden has made me think about how enormous China is.

Back to my fellow tenants: About half are from Western countries and the rest from other parts of Asia. Most of them can identify me immediately as an American and love practicing their English if they catch me in the elevator -- "Haallo! What floor you go to? Sirty-fiveh! OK!"

It gets even more insane

2009-01-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

One minute and twenty-five seconds of firework insanity. Note the building to the left with the balcony on fire and the people below shooting more fireworks at it.

Noisy New Year

2009-01-25T02:26:00.000-08:00

The fireworks are constant. Rockets, mortars, bombs, streamers, screamers, whistlers, and flares reverberate through the city creating hours and hours of rolling thunder throughout the night. There are no rules about where or when fireworks can be ignited so even the most crowded streets will be disrupted with deafening booms. During dinner at a restaurant last night, a patron lighted one while still in the restaurant and opened the door to toss it grenade style into the street.

I had assumed that the fireworks were simply to celebrate the New Year, but there's more to it than that. Apparently evil ghosts and spirits are scared of loud noises, so the fireworks keep them at bay for the year.

Year of the Ox

2009-01-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Starting to feel like Chinese New Years around here. Even though we're more than a week away from the actual New Year, fireworks erupt from random corners of the city almost every hour and everyone is wishing everyone else a "xin nian kuai le".

This will be the Year of the Ox and giant golden statues are up in many parts of Shanghai, like this one near our office. The ox is a symbol of prosperity achieved through fortitude and hard work... we could all use a little of that these days!

Western Names

2009-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Not sure why, but many Chinese have a custom of adopting Western names. The majority choose run-of-the-mill names like James or Kevin, although sometimes they make unfortunate choices: I've met a man named Lucy.

The fun really starts when they get creative and pick something that's still an English word, but unusual as a name. As I meet more people, a few name genre's are beginning to emerge.

The heroic: Achilles; Aeneas

The simple object: Rock, Stone, Hammer,

The complex object: Radio, Lamp

The feature: Dimple, Small

The action: Howl, Run,

But the best is the animal. In my office, we have:
Bear, Elephant, Fish, Horse and Zebra.

Chinese Warrior

2009-01-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Enough of the swan pictures at the top of the blog. After the performance I got to wear a Chinese warrior suit. Pretty manly.

Swan Dance Pictures

2009-01-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

I can only hope these pictures don't appear elsewhere on the internet.

THE CAST

Female Swans:
Lily Li
Zebra Hua
Yu Si
Sally Zou

Male Swans:
Elephant Xiang
James Li
Andy Wilcox
Me

Director:
Wendy Yu

Swan Dance Update

2009-01-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight's the big swan dance. We've had a few rehearsals this week and the dance keeps getting longer as our choreographer, Wendy, adds new flourishes to the routine.

Our dance has a nice little narrative arc of young romance, heartbreak, emotional recovery, and then finding happiness where you'd least expect it. It's quite a stirring performance. The basic structure is this:

The male swans begin with a flock dance. We then pose at the back of the stage while our female swans dance across the stage and eventually find us. Then there's a group line dance in which my female swan, Sally, and I break off and perform a circular dance-and-spin routine. Sally then leaves me for another swan, and I am heartbroken. But then, out of nowhere, another female swan (Lily) swoops in and we dance happily ever after.

I'll have pictures from the final performance. My costume looks an awful lot like a tutu, although Wendy says that's not what it is.

I'm a Male Swan

2009-01-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

With Chinese New Years approaching, I've been asked to play the role of male swan in our office's traditional Chinese dance performance. It's an honor too great to decline.

I'm told the performance will last 3-4 minutes and combine elements of jazz and ballet. Rehearsal is this Sunday and the performance will be on Thursday.

The choreographer sent this video as reference. It leaves me a bit curious, though, as it doesn't seem very Chinese and there are no males in it.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Qhe8z5T194g/

Happy New Years!

2008-12-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

The calendar New Years here seems to be the calm before the Chinese New Year storm. For a city of 20 million people, I have to say that Shanghai was rather subdued last night.

We went to a restaurant that overlooked the Pudong River for appetizers and drinks, and then went onto the rooftop to watch the city fireworks at midnight. The fireworks show was impressive in terms of sheer number of rockets ignited, but lacked the passion of Dad's Hatch Road displays.

Christmas Shopping

2008-12-29T12:52:00.000-08:00

Now that the holidays are over, I can reveal a few of my shopping secrets. The DVD's almost came from a place called Movie World, but then I looked right next door and saw a video store that was called Move Star: Even Better Than Movie World. And I have to say the advertising was true -- it was better than Movie World.

Maglev Ride

2008-12-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

After 48 hours of travel time, I got to take the Maglev train from Pudong airport in outer Shanghai back into town. Maglev, of course, is short for magnetic levitation -- that's right, the train floats and is also one of the fastest trains in the world.

The ride reminded me of Thomas Friedman saying that going from an airport in the US to an airport in China is like traveling from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. We entered through a futurisic looking terminal and there were large luggage racks at the entrances where you could store all your bags. The train hit a high speed of 430kph, or about 270mph, and the ride was smooth and quiet the whole way. For the final quater of the trip it slowed to about 200kph, and at that speed it seemed like were were crawling at a snail's pace. The entire 19-mile trip lasted just about 7 minutes.

Back in the States

2008-12-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

This is supposed to be a blog about me in China but I didn't want people to think I'd abandoned my writing so here's a quick shot of the log cabin I've been helping Dad reconstruct. Putting floor joists in at right angles has gotten the best of the Guiteras men.

Street Vendors

2008-12-13T00:53:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of Shanghai is the city street vendors you can find on so many corners around here. Once you become accustomed to the sidewalk crowd/chaos they cause and find a few you like, they're actually a great thing to have around. My favorite is the orange cart right outside our office. The owner sells her bags of Mandarin oranges for 10 RMB (about $1.30). Many of the neighborhood shops open right onto the sidewalks, so they essentially operate as open-air sidewalk stores as well and add to the hum of commerce.

Other things sold by vendors within a 3 block walk of work:

Fake nike, adidas and puma jackets
winter hats, mittens and gloves
sweet potatoes (cooked on the spot over a metal drum)
cooked chestnuts
Ginko nuts
live frogs and fish
bike parts
handbags

Interesting culinary experiences

2008-12-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

Tried yakitori for the first time the other night. Yakitori is actually a style of Japanese barbecue, but it seems to be pretty popular in Shanghai. The restaurant we went to was a hole in the wall type place with only four tables and a few seats at a bar. All the food came out on skewers, prepared by a single chef behind the bar with a tiny grill (as you can see). Menu included:

beef tongue (delicious)
quail eggs (pretty good)
bacon-wrapped asparagus (incredible)
chicken hearts (terrible)
chicken liver (blech)
grilled ginseng nuts (amazing, why haven't these caught on in the states?)

Balcony Picture

2008-11-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

I recently moved to a new apartment. I'm way up on the 35th floor. Here's the view looking north.

Propaganda Poster Art Centre

2008-11-29T00:43:00.000-08:00

I visited the Propaganda Poster Art Centre today. Easily the most interesting place I've been to so far in Shanghai. The centre was in the basement of an apartment complex and was very small: just a few rooms loaded with posters and a gift shop. When I got there, a woman said hello and asked how I'd heard of it (it's listed in Lonely Planet). When I asked if she worked there, she said was just signing a few copies of her book for the gift shop. Turns out she was Chun Yu, author of Little Green -- a book about growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Pretty cool!

Anyway, here's a few words from the brochure that I thought were interesting:

For those thirty years (1949-1979) there was one man always shone in the sky like the sun from the east. Chairman Mao Zedong directed the stage of China as a drama master of his political movements, one after another. His last but worst piece is the Culture Revolution that remains in the minds of the Chinese people as a nightmare. The main task of the propaganda poster is to carry out Mao's voice far and wide throughout the country. All these posters were cultivated by the tears and blood of people and have witnessed the happines and bitterness of China.

Today, China is back on the right track towards prosperity again. Shame will it be to forget the recent history. The art center is proud to be the only place in China to have all these posters gathered together here as a part of culture heritage as well as an art treasure to feast the eyes of our audience.

The Pie Contest

2008-11-27T07:15:00.001-08:00

So it's Thanksgiving. Here's what I did today... The office held a pie contest today to celebrate the holiday. A few photos:

The pie spread. Mmmmm.... pie.

The judges deliberate.

And declare a winner!

It's Jing's peanut butter pie with graham cracker crust. (Pie looked a lot better before it was mutilated)

Kung Pao chicken pie... something you don't see in the States.

I went for the classic... good old apple.

Happy Thanksgiving family and friends. I miss you all and hope you are having a wonderful holiday!

Strangest Taxi Ride of My Life

2008-11-25T19:18:00.001-08:00

Leaving work, I flagged down a taxi and got in. In my bad Chinese, I gave my cross streets to the driver, he nodded, and we were off.

After about three blocks, the driver pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped. He said something to me in Chinese. I motioned that I couldn't understand. He repeated whatever he said, this time shouting, and then got out of the cab, crossed the street and started sprinting into a public park.

Alone in the cab, I waited for a minute or two to see if he'd come back. He never did. I guess I'll never know...

Word of the Day

2008-11-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

Gan en jie kuai le -- Happy Thanksgiving!

Ask Benny

2008-11-25T00:15:00.000-08:00

Apologies, dear readers, for going almost a week without posting. Should be able to make it up to you soon when work calms down a bit.

Here's a video of my Mandarin teacher, Benny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7j1b_CKjLI&feature=related

Badminton in China

2008-11-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

If there's a national pastime in China, it's probably badminton. I went on Tuesday night to a massive gymnasium with dozens of badminton courts and nets. (There's also a basketball court, but you have to get permission to play because it might disturb the badminton players.)

Like at a tennis club, players reserve the court for an hour and bring all of their own equipment. There were singles games, doubles games and mixed doubles games. Chinese proficiency in ping-pong is well-known and documented, but their badminton skill is no less impressive. Rallies would last up to a minute with forehands, backhands, drop shots and overhead spikes all employed.

Weekend Recap

2008-11-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

A few highlights from the weekend:

1) I founded the WK Shanghai Jogging Club and organized the first run (approx. 5k) this weekend at Century Park. Our group is novice but committed and gave an excellent effort. We ran around the park for about half an hour, decided we were hungry and went for a late lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant.

Running for exercise apparently is uncommon in Shanghai. In a public park about the size of Central Park on a nice autumn Saturday, we saw no other runners. Zero.

2) Purchased pirated DVD's. There's a store right across the street from my apartment. An Inconvenient Truth and No Country for Old Men set me back 20RMB or about $3. Quality was perfect... I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I'd gotten them from Best Buy at home.

3) Went to the South Bund Soft Spinning Material Market on Sunday. Shopping at a fabric market sounds like a stop that Mom might make on her way to the pottery stores in Sanford, but I I got my arm twisted into going with a few friends. The market is housed inside a mall in a busy part of town. Outside, vendors sold all kinds of goods including fighting crickets and medicinal worms (see pictures above). Inside the three-story market, there were dozens of shops, some specializing in coats and jackets, others in suits, others in dresses, others in shirts and so on.

To my surprise, I ended up purchasing two tailored shirts. I picked out the pattern and style (open Windsor collar, French cuffs), had my measurements taken and the shirts will be ready next week. Paid about $16 today and will pay another $16 at pickup. I'm told I could've done better. The market also had belts, scarves, hats, cufflinks, and gloves. I see some Christmas presents in a few people's futures. (Mom, which cousin did I draw?)

Fireworks for sale (Dad will love this)

2008-11-14T00:47:00.000-08:00

From a blog in Beijing...

Remember those smiley faces and the controversial footprint fireworks that appeared as part of Cai Guoqiang's impressive pyrotechnic display at the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games? Well, this Spring Festival Beijing residents will have the chance to let off a few of their own. According to reports in today's Beijing News, not only will pyromaniacs across the city be able to let off Smiley Faces and Footprints to their hearts content, but they'll also be able to set off all the car alarms in the xiaoqu with the Blossoming Flower. Kids on the other hand are encouraged to play with a Kungfu Panda-inspired rocket. The fireworks will be available at 200 outlets around town in the lead-up to Spring Festival. Though those sold as part of the Bird’s Nest series will not as big as the ones used in the opening ceremony - they've been scaled down for use by individuals.

Karaoke

2008-11-12T05:34:00.000-08:00

I got my first taste of Shanghai nightlife on Saturday. First stop was a club called Richy where an American DJ called Shadow was performing. It quickly became apparent that the venue had done nothing to limit the size of the crowd. Packed in with probably 1,000 others in a bar that was built for about 300, we tried to get close to the stage. Wondering what would happen if there were a fire, we reversed course and headed for the exit. "No crowd contol. That's very Chinese," one of my friends said (Chinese nationality, and had grown up in both countries).

Nearby, there was a karaoke bar called Party World. Despite the amusement park name, Party World was actually on the second floor of a luxury hotel (marble floor lobby). Groups could rent private karaoke suites (think Lost in Translation) for the evening and hotel staff would hustle in monitors, speakers and microphones. Most songs were American favorites although there were a couple of Asian selections.

Word of the Day

2008-11-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

"mei guo ren" -- "American" literally, "beautiful country"

Shanghai Construction

2008-11-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

The amount of construction in Shanghai is astounding and apparently the speed of this construction is equally incredible, although I haven't been here long enough to see this first hand.

Just outside my apartment is a large construction site where they are building, I've been told, a new Metro line for the 2010 World Expo (to be hosted by Shanghai -- this will be a topic of a future entry). It's the view I have from the treadmill in the building's gym so I'm going to engage in a bit of an documentary project here. Every morning, I'm going to take a picture from the gym and track the construction's progress. Above my the first picture, taken this morning. I'll post new pictures every week or so. (Hopefully the quality of the photos improves -- something to work on.)

The Black Market

2008-11-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

The Metro stop below the the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is home to the city's largest "black market" of knock-off western brands. Dozens of stores display shirts, jeans, jackets, leather goods, shoes, watches, electronics, DVDs, luggage -- just about everything you could find at a mall in the States.

When you are ready to make a purchase, the store keeper will produce a pocket calculator, spend a few seconds pressing some buttons and then hand you the calculator with a price. You then look at the number in disbelief and punch in a counter offer (helps if you take a few moments to press a lot of buttons and and pretend like you're actually calculating something). After a few rounds of this, you'll finally settle on a number that's around 1/4 of her original offer.

Above are the items I bought. Two sweatshirts and a pair of Chuck's for around$35. Probably could have done better, but not bad for a first-timer.

The Metro

2008-11-09T02:04:00.000-08:00

I had my first encounter with the Shanghai Metro this weekend. Took Line 1 to People's Square and transferred to Line 2, which I took out to the Science and Technology Museum for a shopping trip (written about above).

My impressions: First, it was almost disappointingly easy for an English speaker to figure out how to pay and where to go. All ticket kiosks and signage had directions in English, and stop announcements were made in both Chinese and English.

Second, the Metro has the cleanest, smoothest and quietest ride I've ever been on. Though the stations and trains are so shiny-clean that they lack soul, the Shanghai system absolutely out-classes every subway or L system I've seen in the United States.

Third, it was quite crowded on a Saturday afternoon. Standing room only in all of the cars. Makes me wonder what weekday rush hour is like.

Fourth, riders enter and exit the cars in one mad rush, rather than allowing people to exit first. Only a mild annoyance when I was riding but it must be chaos when the trains are truly packed.

Finally, a cool fact: daily ridership of the Metro is about 2.2 million. That's bigger than the populations of all but 3 cities in the US.

Word of the Day

2008-11-08T03:27:00.000-08:00

"Ma" -- "Mother" or "To scold"

New Bike

2008-11-08T03:26:00.001-08:00

I'll be joining the city's 8 million bikers next week. Here's a look at the trusty bike and basket combo I bought brand new for about $80.

Word of the Day

2008-11-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

jiao zi -- dumpling

"xi huan jiao zi" -- "I like dumplings"

"All Things Are Possible"

2008-11-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

Asians, Europeans and Americans stop the workday and watch Obama's victory speech in our office. Interesting how many foreigners were so interested in our election.

Giant Toy Statue

2008-11-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

A giant toy-like statue near work. It's very tall and very creepy. I haven't been able to find out who made it and how it got there.

Traffic

2008-11-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Until I can buy a bike, I'll be taking a cab to work every morning. This means dealing with rush hour in Shanghai.

The streets are a loosely organized throng of cars, scooters and bicycles. Generally, cars occupy the middle areas of the streets, while scooters and bikes stay to the right or veer onto sidewalks when the roadway becomes clogged. Pedestrians must keep their heads on a swivel.

The mass of bikes and cars lined up and waiting for a green light.

Here they come.

An intersection gets jammed up.

Perk of the Job

2008-11-03T05:18:00.000-08:00

Homemade dumpling breakfast served every morning at the dining table.

SWFC Tower

2008-11-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

On my first full day in China I took a cab with a co-worker to the SWFC Tower. It's the world's second tallest building, but unlike many skyscrapers it doesn't have a needle top so the actual observatory at 1,555 is the tallest by a few hundred feet.

After waiting in a long line outside, we were led to a small room in the building's dark bottom floor by uniformed ushers with a group of about 20. The ushers circled the group around a glass encased model of the tower which stood about 5 feet high. A few words were spoken in Mandarin, the ceiling lights dimmed and futuristic music began to play. The model then lit up and began spinning. As the pace of the music quicked, the spinning accelerated and LED colorful lights shined off the model building in patterns while holograms of black bats, pastel colored bees and Nemo-like fishes swirled around the display. After about 3 minutes of this, the music and spinning stopped and the lights brightened. The usher uttered a few words in Mandarin and then in English said: "This way to the observatory elevator."

When we go to the top a fairly thick fog and rain had settled in over the city, so it wasn't the best day for viewing. Still, what we could see was impressive. Endless seas of buildings and a bustling river all well below us. The nearby Pearl Tower and Jin Mau Building, also some of the world's tallest structures, seemed short. The observatory floor had rows of glass tiles in the center that you could step on and look directly down to the sidewalk and square a quarter mile below.

More Pictures from SWFC

2008-11-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Feet on the glass walkway, the Jin Mao Building, the Pearl Tower, SWFC from below.

Things that are Different

2008-11-02T05:13:00.001-08:00

8-packs of AA batteries come with a bonus pocket knife.

Word of the Day

2008-11-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

Waigouren: foreigner; outsider

The Flight

2008-11-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

UA Flight 857 departs San Francisco at 12:40. The attendants ask that we lower our shades to reduce glare for those watching the movie (Swing Vote, Kevin Costner). Readers have to turn on their overhead light. It's very dark in the cabin and most people are sleeping.

Four hours into the flight I open the window shade for a quick peek at the Pacific. Nope, it's snow-covered mountain tops that plunge into a huge body of water. Siberia. The Bering Sea. This is an unexpected turn of events. Apparently from the west coast, you fly to China via Russia.

(You can just make out the mountains from this photo. Wish I had a better one. Left my camera in the overhead bin and had to wait for the guy in the aisle seat to wake up before I could get it.)