Pete in Shanghai

The Keyframe Manager from Brookings, Pete, came to visit Shanghai for the first time. He was only here for 2 days before we went to Macau, but we got to show him a few things.

Pete and Abe at the Bridge of Nine Turns in Yuyuan Gardens.

The view from Le Meridian (also known as "The Taser") down Nanjing Lu.

Yuyuan Gardens

Some photos from Yuyuan Gardens when Holly was here. I can just imagine when it was a private garden. I can imagine myself being a lady of leisure and reading or doing crafts in many different areas of the garden, watching the kids run around the ponds and climb the rocks.

Yuyuan Gardens Part 2

Around Yuyuan Gardens

Traditional red lanterns on the "street of small commodities."

Street food - grilled chicken and squid.

Making bouzi... (steamed dumpling.) Very famous and tasty!

Looking out from Yuyuan Garden

There is one spot in Yuyuan Garden that you can climb up on some rocks and stand over the wall, looking down to the street below. I took a few photos and noticed a guy was watching everything, including me, below. I looked at him, smiled and waved a few times, then finally smiled and pointed to my camera. He gave me the thumbs up sign, so I snapped a photo of him.



I am not sure why I like to take photos of laundry so much. Probably because back home, everyone has dryers and you'd never see someone's underwear outside of their house. It is so cold to leave clothes outside now!

Yuyuan Garden

Perk wanted to go into the gardens during his visit so I joined him. We've taken many guests to the outer part, with all of the old buildings, but never have been inside the gardens. It was the kind of place I'd like to have as a yard; tons of nooks and crannies that would be great places to relax with a book.





Then we walked to the Bund, and up Nanjing Lu to People's Square. Naning Lu is pretty much all neon - lots of opportunities for LED displays!

Lane's trip - July 15th

Lane Munson was at Dak Shanghai for about a week. On this day we took him to Yuyuan Gardens, which has lots of traditional architecture and tons of little shops selling mostly to tourists. We had some jiaozi for lunch. They have beer girls that walk around with a cart of beer too. The girl is always covered head to toe in that beer's brand.

Unfortunately, about 3 days before he left, he got food poisoning. Really bad. After an IV and multiple shots and pills of antibiotics at the Worldlink clinic, he was doing a bit better. He is pretty sure it was from some chicken. I've noticed they don't cook chicken here like we do at home. If you are eating a leg, there is almost always red meat by the bone. (I've stopped eating chicken if it is still on the bone.) Poor Lane. What a way to end his trip.

Jon and Dan could probably live on jiaozi. They are steamed dumplings and there are many different kinds. It's the food that had the big story about how someone was making them from chemicals and cardboard in Beijing. The government jailed him for false reporting.

Dan thought we should attempt a Chairman Mao pose. I think we just look silly. But - Dan is the chairman, if you had forgotten. Scroll down to July 13th for that post!

Chinese guys playing a game, probably Mahjong. Very common. (photo credit belongs to Lane)

Shopping with Mike and Mike

Mike Hyde and Mike Cooper (Jon's boss before Dan) came to Shanghai last week. They have a Vortec project at an American high school in Pudong. Thursday the girls took them shopping and out for supper at a Cantonese restaurant. We went to Yuyuan Gardens, which is old but totally redone. Pretty touristy but OK. Mina taught them to bargin well - one lady told Cooper he must have lived here a long time.

Mina (my Chinese teacher too!) me, Mike H, Shelly, Cooper and Sheena.

Street scenes. I just had the point-and-shoot, so had to set it on a garbage bin to get these shots. I used my business card holder to prop the camera up at an angle.