Steelers fan, Chinese style

7 AM at the Pickled Pelican

Leather pants, check.

Steelers jersey, check.

Steelers hat, check.

Steelers tie, check.

Non-stop screaming and obnoxious towel waving, obviously.

Kung Fu Fighting

Paris of the East

With that nickname, I knew Shanghai was going to be a fave! Euro-Asian design, lots of deco influence, food fusion, friendly people...the list goes on.  This is one of our many strolls through Xintiandi, a perfect example of the way China should be designing all their cities!  This spot, Visage and DR Bar were our favorites.  Sorry for all the scenery photos!

Love the cobblestone streets--no cars!

Our coffee (and chocolate) knook

The Olympic torch

Alleys of Xintiandi

Wwwwatch out

The Open House Musuem--an old Xintiandi residence kept intact with beautiful antiques, felt like I was in an old movie

Xintiandi at night

One of the coolest spots was restaurant TMSK, upstairs

R.I.P.

My hot rollers, the ones that I've had since the 6th grade, could not withstand the electrical forces of Shanghai, and so here they were laid to rest.

First night out on the town--the staff at our hotel, Lapis Casa, was the sweetest--we loved our stay here!  It was a small boutique hotel, each room different and furnished with all sorts of deco antiques (that can all be purchased), right between Xintiandi and a beautiful little park...quite perfect!

Our little gem

Leaving our first favorite restaurant of the trip, Lost Heaven, which was Yunnanese food--very tasty and exceptional ambiance--red glow, dark wood, bi-level, with buddhist statues everywhere.  Mask Bar downstair was a cozy little lounge with antique masks decorating the walls, highly recommend both! All the photographs of Shangri-La got us psyched to visit at the end of our trip!

The walk from our little park to People's Square.  After a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art, we headed for the Shanghai Museum in the middle of the square.  There was a chinese couple about our age that asked us to take a picture of them, which we were happy to do.  Then they wanted a picture with US, so we did that too.  And then in their eyes, we were best friends.  And I'm talking you would have thought we went way back and hadn't seen each other in years kind of best friends.  Baby pictures started flying out of wallets, Ted was interrogated on the subject of school and job, and within five minutes they were insisting that we go tour a market with them.  It was so endearing and so friendly at first, but it quickly became more of a demand, and when Ted kept trying to explain that we had planned out our two short days in the city and we had to see the museum, they would interrupt--"No! You enjoy us first!  Then you see museum." Ted finally got them to agree to just take our phone numbers and "call us later"...and then he got busted giving the wrong number...

Another recommendation!  A little francais--does it get better than a croque monsieur and a bowl of soup when its freezing outside? Don't think so.  This is the Hamilton House, chic restaurant/bar/lounge.  Not hoppin when we were there because we were eating lunch around 3:30, but apparently the place to be at night.  Right by the Bund, and around the corner from an especially good bootlegger of DVDs.  

We purchased about 12 DVDs for $5 and while having a movie selection has been such a treat, the big bonus has been reading the back of the covers for the synopsis of the movie plot...while they are all good for a laugh, this one, from the movie "Body of Lies" (the Leo and Russell Crowe thriller) is my favorite:

"U.S Central Intelligence Agency, a senior member of the Dehoufuman love in the bedroom mobile home in the suburbs of computer command the overall situation.  Roger Ferris control every move at any time.  At the same time, leaders of terrorist organization are plotting to bypass the most intelligence sophisticated network, to launch a global bomb attacks."

On the Bund, ugly hats and all.  The architecture of Pudong, on the other side of the river, is a bit Jetson-like while the architecture we are facing is all Eastern European.

Jetsons...

...and Eastern European. Under construction sadly, but the plan is to beautify and plant trees lining the river and street--bravo!

Couldn't resist  

My favorite of the lounge/bar scene--M on the Bund's Glamour Bar.  Colored, etched glasses, beautiful architecture, Kelley Wearstler-ish decor, and spectacular views!

Loved the mix of furniture and painted screens that pull down from different ceiling beams giving the option to create room divisions--lots of little candle lit vignettes, yummy!

De-thawing.  Shanghai was just as cold as Beijing, with wind like Chicago--yikes!

And impossible to get a cab (it really IS the Paris of the East!  Remember that Hammer??)

From our window

Lights at night

Sadly, my picture fails here, but I posted so I could mention the coolest Japanese restaurant to exist--Shintori.  Once we found the address (which was hard!) we made our way down an alley of bamboo 12 feet tall until we reached a huge metal door  that slid open as soon as we neared.  It opened onto a huge warehouse with 2 stories of seating all looking down onto the large open kitchen, where you could see the chefs working away.  Authentic Japanese cuisine, so there were some crazy fish and eel that ended up in front of these ignorant patrons, but the experience was tops!

My favorite touch--the sake is served in hand made pottery; they bring you a tray of options and you pick your favorite ceramic sake cup--all about the details!  The pottery is sold a couple doors down, next to hot spot watering hole Peoples.

Shanghai is to host the World Expo 2010--this is a PART of their city model at the Museum of Urban Planning.  Having built models before for interior design, this to me was incredible...the time, the detail, the magnitude...woah.  While this might sound boring to some, it was by far the most interesting exhibit we saw in Shanghai, especially the virtual reality part.  Being that they have a year to complete all these proposed new buildings, I wish them luck!

The Yuan Gardens.  Once a beautiful serene garden, now overrun with pushy tourists and tons of booths selling fake jade, pearls, calligraphy.  Had reached a breaking point with all the shoves and elbows, so we stopped in to relax and have some authentic chinese tea at an old tea house, free of the hussle and bussle. The tea was delish and the art of it so interesting.  The soft quail eggs, not so much, preesh!

The BDE

Our trip to Ocean Park on the south east side of Hong Kong Island; having read many places that it is a "must see" we were surprised to arrive and find ourselves at more of an amusement park, where we were definitely the oldest ones there without kids.  We managed to have a blast...not too hard when you have pandas, roller coasters, and adults mauling cartoon character mascots for pictures.  It's so interesting how animated characters here are true celebrities...I think the key to international super-stardome here may just involve me sporting a  costume...some sort of recognizable cartoon character.  I'm up for suggestions, but I'm thinking of going old school with Grimace. 

The ride over to the park is in a little tiny gondola--so fun!  Ted got his hair did.

The view's pretty nice!!  Pretttty, pretttty nice.

My favorite animal of all time--have you ever seen the cubs?!!! You may have caught a glimpse of  recent headlines about the Beijing panda who attacked a human for the third time.  First I would like to say in the panda's defense--Beijing is whack, who wouldn't be freaking out if trapped there??  My favorite part of the story was the victim #3's accounts (none of the 3 was seriously injured); the first two were pretty reasonable stories--fell into the pen, etc--the last one was about a drunken European tourist that jumped into the pen to try to hug the panda. The panda wasn't feelin the love, so he bit, and in a wierd twist, the tourist bit back.

Hoping to make it to Chengdu, the location of the infamous panda center where you can actually pet them and also where to see pandas in the wild.

I think this is quite possibly the best roller coaster ever--amazing to ride at sunset and see the outer islands.

Just your regular Thursday afternoon

Pretty cute little guy!

Jellyfish!  I ate one!  And yes, I'm still bragging about it

More jellies; these were my favorite...along with the pink glittery ones I used to wear with socks in pre-k.

This is as close as I EVER hope to get to a shark...while I love shark week more than any other week of TV, I remain convinced that swimming in the ocean is a gamble with your life.  Still, it has been very sad to learn about the abuse of sharks in Asian waters and see the disturbing footage; because shark fin soup is considered a delicacy (once only enjoyed by the emperors), it is of course a popular status symbol these days for the chinese diner. Because there are laws about how many sharks you can kill and the bodies have to be accounted for, hunters just cut the fins off while the shark is alive and throw it back into the water to drown--so cruel.  No shark fin soup for this one...that's just upping the odds for bad karma if I were ever to have a run in!

Coolest aquarium ever

From our rooftop at night

Out With the Rat, In With The Ox

The temples around town are all buzzing.  The one above is the Man Mo temple right up the street from us.  At the new year, people pay homage to different deities & relatives, though not so much religious.  They believe that the more you show gratitude, the more $$ you will gain in the coming year.  It is difficult to explain, but there seems to be a general feeling of a "gotta get mine" mentality--gotta get the most money, gotta be the first one in the line to get on the subway (even though it doesn't mean that you are going to get there any quicker!) gotta have the coolest liscence plate....little sidebar:  people pay oodles for personalized liscense plates, like "cool" or especially for the luckiest number to the chinese, 8.  Most paid for a liscence plate to date is 13 million.

Inauguration night; we stayed up to make it to the only bar close by showing the inauguration, at 1 am...and we were on CNN!  

The Chinese Perm

Michael Bolton, Jessie Spano, (Colletta Jones?).  Not setting any fashion trends these days in the west perhaps, but still showing strong influence in the east.

BBQ, Babes, & Ground Hurkeys

The hospitality of the students at Ted's school (and in Hong Kong in general) has been  exceptional.  This was the chinese barbecue we were invited to, given at the apartment of a classmate, Isabella, self proclaimed babe and former model.  The modeling photos pasted about the apartment would keep me from putting her in the "modest" category, but she was a wonderful hostess!

Here we go with the food again...I know I tend to write a lot about it, but it really never ceases to amaze me.  When we arrived at the apartment, we were first surprised to find that we had entered a gateway into 3rd world living conditions...apparently, this water-covering-the-floor, grease-spattered walls, and animal carcass left overs in the kitchen is pretty much the norm for a student our age.  This did not bode well for the dinner we were about to have, and as we stepped out onto the balcony patio (sigh of relief there was outdoor space) it became evident this was going to be an adventurous night of eating once again.  First up, baby chicks on a stick. See below--Ted, so brave, ate one of course.  Our friend Salvadore wasn't so sure...
Close up, you can see these babies are fresh from the egg, and you are supposed to eat them head, bones, and all.  Some chose to stick with a liquid diet...that would be me.

Another crowd pleaser was the duck tongue

Ted and I are discussing how the Chinese assign themselves American names, and how entertaining their choices can be; we've got an Ace, a Calvin, and I just heard of a Cinderella. Notice the exterior of the building here; although this building wasn't particularly nice anyway,  even the nice ones in central are very poorly cared for on the exterior.  You could have 5 star restaurants on the first two floors and then from there up the building looks like it is corroding.  Lots of laundry hanging out the windows too.  We got a warning that if we were too loud, neighbors would start throwing things out the windows at us...this was a titch worrisome, because it was a 22 story building. 
Liquid diet eventually lead to model posing and ground hurkeys.  Thank you Elise for your introduction of that move...while it was the hit of the night, my knee was not so grateful.