Weekend in Shanghai

After living in Hangzhou for almost a month, we decided to take a short weekend trip to Shanghai.  We went by high speed train, so the trip to Shanghai from Hangzhou was less than an hour.  If you include getting from our apt to the train station and getting through Shanghai to the hotel, it took about 2 hours.  The first day we wandered the Bund, and the shopping street which leads down to it, Nanjing Road.  We stopped in Peoples Park, where there are parents of unmarried older children, who are looking for mates for their children.   It was kind of a surreal environment, all of these people basically advertising the age, gender, and other information about their children, hoping to find a mate for them.  I do wonder a bit what the children think of this.  I was amused because I also ran across a party which was taking wedding or engagement photos in the same park, not far away from all of the searching parents.

After this, we wandered down Nanjing Road to the Bund and just took in the sights-- the river, the old buildings along one side and the new sky scrapers on the Pudong side, and the couples who dress alike.  I had to think of the story my mother told about my Grandfather who was a scholar in Chinese, but who wasn't allowed entry to China.  He apparently got permission to spend one day in Shanghai when he was taking a boat to Japan and stopped there on the way.  I wonder how different it was then from now, I suppose it has changed a lot in many areas.


  There were many chinese, and a few foreign, tourists taking pictures all along the river, especially in front of this flower wall.

On the second day, we took a tour of the old town.  We had a walking tour with "Noodle Tours".  We saw many of the alleys and byways of the old town, the part where the Chinese were allowed to live when the English controlled the port.  Actually there are many different areas of Shanghai which have different "flavors" or feel, because they are old districts which were run by different countries.  The Bund was English, the French quarter was oddly enough French...  Some photos from the old town, which is still walled in.   It may give way to high rises sometime in the next decade, which would be a shame for tourists, but understandable for people who live there.  If you live there, you likely live in one room, bathroom is down the street, kitchen is a sink outside the door with a cooking area where you bring all of your supplies out when you cook, and bring them back in when you are done.  All your neighbors know what you are eating for dinner, and may come to share if you have something good.


Apparently if you own a room (and the policy after Communism started was one room-one family), every member of every living generation gets an apartment in a new building if the building is taken over and redeveloped, so it can be an expensive thing to rebuild in this location.
Room rental adverts:


Here's an old opera stage, which was used during the cultural revolution for telling people how to behave, but now stands abandoned.  There used to be a variety of opera typical to Shanghai, but it seems to be dying out because many people cannot understand it, or don't want to devote time to listening. 

Buy your dinner right on the street.


Just a weekend away, but a fun trip to see a different city from Hangzhou, which has less foreign influence and character.  Shanghai really deserves more than a short weekend to explore, but that was all the time we had then.  We'll have to go back as it is so close.  More photos on Flickr

Side Trip to Macau

In the beginning of May, we moved from the Philippines to Hangzhou, China.  On our way, we stopped for a couple of days in Hong Kong.   Since we had been to Hong Kong several times, we decided that a day trip to Macau was in order.  What we had heard about Macau, is that it is mostly a gambling center, and not much else.  Fortunately to our surprise, we discovered that there is a charming side to Macau in addition to the gambling.  It has a rich heritage as a Portuguese port of call, and a fun set of cultural combinations to try to figure out.  For instance we really enjoyed some small custards (obviously of Portuguese origin) we bought as a snack on our way down the hill.  But I get ahead of myself.

We took the fast ferry from Hong Kong (Kowloon side) to Macau.  It was a very smooth ride despite the weather being a bit grey and gloomy and threatening rain.  We arrived at the ferry terminal and took a taxi up to the old fort, which is now a museum.  It sits next to the old cathedral.  The fort was to protect Macau from various parties who might wish to conquer or plunder it.    It seemed that everyone wanted to pose with the canons, and some even tried sexy poses.   We saw several people posing in various "alluring" poses around the fort.

Inside is a nice small museum about the history and culture of Macau, complete with a mock street showing the various kinds of architecture.   I would highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting for the first time and who wants to know a little more about the history of the place.

The iconic Cathedral ruins, were mobbed, and visible from many locations.    It's a great place to do some people watching.   This is from down the shopping street below, where we had those custard tarts I mentioned earlier.  The street was an interesting mix of Chinese, Portuguese, and a few random other (i.e. British) shops thrown in.  There were great little streets and alley ways to explore, unfortunately we were getting hungry for lunch, so we decided to eat.   We stopped in at Restaurante Vela Latina, and had a delicious lunch, while it rained outside.

We also happend on a house, I cannot remember whose it was in the past, but it was open as a museum, and there was a concert inside.   A delightful rest from the busy hustle and bustle of tourists outside.
It also showed the architecture of the building off nicely. 

We finished up our day by returning by fast ferry again to Hong Kong.   I'm certain we didn't see all there is to see in Macau, but we are willing to go back and explore some more if we have the chance.   An utterly delightful side trip.  But since there is so much to see in China, I expect it may be a while before we get back here.

Hangzhou China, early 2013

I guess it is about time I posted something about Hangzhou since I'm already on my third trip here since the new year.  I've been coming to this city for a number of years now, but always on business trips of 5 days or less, so I've really never had a chance to explore much till now.   This time I've been here over several weekends, and had a chance to experience some of the other parts of Hangzhou than then office and the hotel.

When I came here in the end of January, Cindy came with me for part of the trip.  One of my colleagues, Harry, who had spent some time in Manila, and his wife Chris took us around to the Hangzhou Food Museum, afterwards we did a bit of walking around the 8 sided field, and up to some caves on the hills above Hangzhou.  Along the way we found a small temple.
At the top of the hill we found a cave which had been used for some sort of religious purposes.  There are statues inside, which are hard to see without additional light.  

At the end of the day they took us to He Fung street, which is modeled after an old fashioned shopping street, and is now a tourist attraction.  Here we saw a number of things, including these fruits which were candied and on sale all over the place.

Shortly before Spring Festival, I went to West Lake, and took some photos around the lake.  
I thought the trees were beginning to bloom, but then I realized that the flowers were fake and wired onto the tree.  Later next month, the flowers really came out and were even more beautiful.  There were many people around the lake, even though the weather wasn't very warm, and many tourists taking photos.


I climbed one of the hills and visited the pagoda at the top.   I thought it a bit odd to have this rather childish looking emblem for some city campaign in front of the classical building.   but the view was spectacular.  I noticed some smoke coming from behind a building next door.  Later I realized they were burning the offerings from the temple there.     

Towards the end of that trip, it snowed   Notice the flying saucers on the bridge, this is just next to my hotel.

On my second trip it started out very cold again.  And again it snowed in the first few days.   On the weekend I went to westlake and ran into someone who invited me to "English Corner" which happens on Sundays.   I decided to go that Sunday.  Here I met a variety of people--young and old, who wanted to practice their English.  This lady is a Chemistry Professor.  And this is Mr. Yu who is over 90, and organizes the English Corner.   And of course there are younger people as well.  These young ladies wanted a picture with me, so I insisted I get one as well.

 I went to a couple of pagodas-- Leifung pagoda sits close to the lake on the southeast side, and commands a beautiful view of the lake.  The day I went was a bit cold and hazy, but very nice.   Most of my pictures of the actual pagoda didn't come out very well, so I'll have to go back again.

I also visited a Buddhist temple north of west lake on another day.   It was really interesting to see, as it was possible to discern the South Indian/ Sri Lankan influence in some of the carvings.    This guy was close to the entrance.   By now the flowers were truly out on the trees everywhere.    Spring definitely had come to Hangzhou.

I also took one day and made a long walk from Binjiang, where my hotel is, over the number 1 bridge, up to Tiger Spring     and then on to West Lake.  There was a tulip show going on at the north west corner of the lake, complete with simulated Dutch windmill.   It was so jammed with people, you could hardly walk down the path.   And people were picnicking all over the park.   It was a lot of fun in a way.

Then I walked across the causeway going across the north part of the lake, and stopped from time to time to rest.   Here you can see Leifung pagoda in the distance.

I ended up going all the way around the lake-- stopping for a late lunch somewhere in a little Chinese restaurant where I managed to order some vegetables by picking them out in pictures on the menu.  That has to be one of the hardest things for me, I haven't learned enough words to order anything yet.  I'm trying but the language isn't easy for me to pick up.  All in all that day I walked 18Km or more, and was exhausted by the time I got back to the hotel.

Since I have visited the Zhejiang Museum and seen a couple of exhibits

The first of these is a local painter, with some interesting paintings.  But the second was fascinating.  It was prints from the 50s to current times.  They looked like they could have been silk screens, or lithographs, I'm not sure.  But the earlier ones were very definitely a sort of propaganda art.  Always scenes of workers, in the fields, factories, road work or whatever.  Beautifully done, but very definitely "celebrating" the communist ideals.  As time progressed, the what I would call propaganda themes slowly dissipated, and the scenes were more just artistic.   It was a real study in how the art was reflected by the times.  I hope it is still there when Cindy next comes to Hangzhou as I'd love to visit it again with her.

On my most recent trip, my co-worker Tony took me and his son Tony for a hike.  We went just west of the number 1 bridge, and into the mountains.   From there we walked up a very steep trail--actually stone steps set into the hillside, up to the top of the range.   Then we walked along for a while till we got to a view out over the tea plantations there.  Here you see the two Tonys resting on our way down. 

So as you can see I've really been enjoying Hangzhou, and intend to do so much more after moving here later this spring.

Boracay

Cindy and I had a weekend trip to Boracay, one of the places to vacation in the Philippines.  We really had no big preconceptions about the place, other than we heard that there are several "stations" along the beach--places where the boats used to come in.  Station one is quieter, station 3 can get pretty raucous during high season.  Fortunately we went during the off season and it was all pretty quiet.  We stayed at Fridays because we had gotten a weekend stay through a silent auction for charity.   It is one of the older resorts at Station 1.

We arrived Friday at Fridays, and it started to rain.  It rained off and on all day, sometimes very hard.  Also the wind was pretty strong--see the picture I took of Cindy at sunset.


The second day we just relaxed and enjoyed probably the best massage I've ever had at Mandala Spa.  In the afternoon and evening we wandered the "D Mall" and the beach again, had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, and rode the ferris wheel.







We also saw Fire Dancers a couple of times.



The last day it turned absolutely gorgeous. We definitely want to go back and do some of the more sporty activities, possibly sailing, kite surfing, or snorkeling. As it was we just enjoyed the down time.