Shanghai sky-high and down-low

The main tourist destination in Shanghai is The Bund for skyline peeping. It's pretty impressive day and night.

Two yuan (about 30 cents) will get you across the Huangpu River to the modern 
Pudong District.

Another two yuan will get you back to the old-school Huangpu District.

Part of the nightly light-show includes a non-stop parade of highly-decorated tour boats. 

Art deco peeping is also big along The Bund. The best example is inside the Peace Hotel, formerly the Cathay before the revolution. Now it's the Fairmont Peace Hotel. 

I managed to get a few pictures before the guard stopped me.

There are plenty of mildly amusing sites around the older part of town. Such as young scam artists. The fresh-faced gang that targeted me as I entered People's Square sounded like they had read Lonely Planet as a how-to. Just like the guide said, they told me they were students, they took my picture and invited me to a one-of-kind traditional tea ceremony.

Me and my scammers.

Ah-ha, I said to myself. That's right -- ah-ha! But I played along so I could get the photo. The girl on my left did all the talking and she delivered her lines in monotone without taking a breath. I think they must have been new to the scam game. When I said no thank you, they just melted away and didn't even try to give a hard sell. Anyway, the scam involves stiffing the tourist with a large bill after they stuff themselves at a local hotel.

Chinese tourists wear matching hats. Red is the most popular color.

In the the tree-lined French Concession is where you can experience the well preserved, east-meets-west Shikumen architecture that is now home to upscale cafes and boutiques. You can also line up with local tourists and visit the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on July 21, 1923. A young Mao Zedong was in attendance. The red-hatted tourists above had to pay to get in, but a uniformed guard intervened when I tried to pay and said it was free. I wonder if he thought I could use a little re-education. Honestly, even at free it's over-priced. The exhibits are mainly old photos and everything is in Chinese. Go figure.

This time I only got off one shot inside before I was told to knock it off.

One can just imagine Mao and some of the boys discussing dialectical materialism
at The Coffee Bean.

Old Town is worth a look if only to see what a Chinatown in China looks like. You'll know you're there when you reach Old Street.

Classic Chinatown entry on Old Street.

Classic Chinatown trinkets and trash.

But wander down any of the side streets and you can still find, uh, rustic Shanghai. Stick 
with this unpromising lane and you come to Yuyuan Gardens founded in the 16th century.

May in China is wonderfully colorful. 

 Time to move on to Hong Kong. But first, a few parting shots:

Only in Shanghai did we see two-wheel vehicles (motorized or other) rule some streets and
all sidewalks.  

Break time outside the mannequin outlet. You can only imagine what those guys stuck
inside might do for a cigarette.

It's almost like Ray Kroc knew that someday China would be the Big Mac's largest market.

 Zaijian Shanghai!

Overwhelming, glorious Beijing!

Your correspondent with a portrait of the original Hair Club for Men model.

Singapore Post Cards is not dead. My computer had a near-death experience and I had a bad cold, but Post Cards lives! We recently returned from a 10-day tour of China's big three metropolises -- half of which felt like it was spent in airports and on airplanes, but all for a good cause. Margaret got to meet with her teams in the country's three main offices and I got to do what I do best, goof around in a strange place. Not even the marriage of our good friends Will and Kate could derail this express, though it did delay dinner one evening. So sit back -- as much as you can at a keyboard -- and try to enjoy the next few postings. 

We learned over the next couple of days that it's always rush hour on the rails beneath Beijing.

Within two hours of landing in Beijing, we had ditched our bags at the hotel and headed to the nearest subway station to embrace rush hour on a Friday evening. First stop was the lowering of the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square, which occurs every single night precisely at sunset with almost supernatural precision by the Red Guard. 

Due to overcast skies, we can't vouch for the precision of the precise sunset timing, but we did get a first-hand look at the precision with which the Red Guard cleared Tiananmen Square after the ceremony. That was impressive.

We spent most of the next day at the Forbidden City. Aside from the spectacle of seeing perhaps the world's best preserved example of gracious emperor-style living, was the spectacle of seeing it overrun with Chinese tourists. We had heard that domestic tourism was one of the hot new industries on the mainland due to the magic of planned capitalism, but we weren't ready for the borderline desperate enthusiasm of the local tourists. To get a peek inside one of the main halls and forbidden thrones,  you have to fight your up the steps to the open door. 

Congratulations! You've made it to the rail for a view the throne inside the Hall of Central Harmony.

The building has also been known  as Hall of Overwhelming Glory and Hall of Central Extremity over the centuries. We're thinking of renaming our throne room the Hall of Necessary Evil.

Now try getting out.  

Hard to believe an empty chair could be such a draw. What would have happened if somebody important like Stephen Tyler or Charlie Sheen had been sitting there? Side note: Can you find Waldo, I mean Margaret, in the above scene of overwhelming extremity? Sadly, this great human wall defeated her best efforts to bask in harmony and glory.

Margaret got her revenge by pulling up some of the the peonies (the unofficial national flower) growing in the Imperial Garden.

I jest, of course. The Forbidden City is well worth seeing. Truly overwhelming and glorious in every way, except for the Hall of Restrooms. Squatting is hard on the legs. If you're coming here, start the deep-knee bends now.

One of several large plazas and throne halls inside the compound.

Attention to detail that would make any real estate agent's job easy.

Margaret's co-workers and the hotel staff advised us against trying to see the Great Wall during our two-and-half-day visit. They all said we would waste an entire day on a bus or in a car and the weekend crush would be too much. At least it gives us a good reason to return. Instead we headed out to see the Temple of Heaven and beautiful park. On the way we stopped at the nearby Pearl Market -- five floors of shops and stalls all selling pearls.

Margaret praying for a good deal at the entrance to the Pearl Market.

Before going inside, why not stop at this Starbuck's copycat. Too lame? They also sell beer. Nothing lame about that!

While Margaret shopped until the vendors dropped, I went to see the temple. It burned down in the 1800s and was reconstructed entirely from Oregon pine without a single nail. Behold.

The emperor came here annually to make sacrifices to the God of Heaven in hopes of securing a good grain harvest.

That night we went to a restaurant operated by Buddhist monks. As if to prove how versatile vegetarian cuisine can be, they offered the biggest menu we'd ever seen. It was all good -- very classy dining room and lovely presentation of each dish. But the most memorable part of the evening  was our trip back to the hotel. When we asked the folks at the restaurant about getting a taxi, they sent a boy in his flowing robes out to hail us a car. He managed to stop one, but the driver didn't seem to want to take us. But the boy gestured for us to get in as he held the door for us. So far so good. We drove about 100 yards around the first corner and the driver stopped the car and starting yelling at us, waving for us to get out. That wasn't going to happen. We had no idea where we were. So we had a stand-off for several minutes. He kept yelling and grousing. After making a big deal about writing down his I.D. number and showing him I wasn't fooling about reporting him to authorities, he got on the phone and started yelling at someone else. Eventually, apparently shouted out. He drove us to the hotel. Whew!


One of the things that surprised us about China was how easily people in general both laughed and argued on the streets, in the parks and on the subway. You never see that kind of emotion in our new-found hometown. There is a reserve among the Chinese in Singapore that we didn't see in mainland Chinese. Anyway, as we leave Beijing, here are a few random shots of people enjoying one of their favorite pastimes -- hanging out in their truly beautiful parks.

Just outside Behai Park near the Forbidden City.

Ritan Park, near embassy row.

Ritan Park.

Temple of Heaven Park.

Beijing Zoo.

Jingshan Park from just inside the Divine Military Genius Gate at the Forbidden City.

Zaijian, Beijing!

Ramayana Glimpsed

If you happen to stumble in here wondering what's up with the blog, it's currently on hiatus. To hold you over, I give you two photos taken at the "Ramayana Revisited" show that recently wrapped up at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. What's a Peranakan? Click here for a very brief explanation. Really, it's brief. 

The first picture shows masks of Hanuman and two of his monkey soldiers. Hanuman is a Hindu deity who was given the face of a monkey by either Lord Shiva or Vishnu, depending on your interpretation of the epic poem "Ramayana" in which Hanuman battles the demon king Ravana. Need more information? You could get the book. Of course, there's always Wikipedia.  

The second photo depicts Hanuman battling Indrajit, son of Ravana, king of the Lankas. Seriously, get the book. Amazon has the shortened version, which is surely shorter than the Wikipedia entry.  

Taking vintage to another level

There is nothing particularly unusual about old shophouses being renovated like these two just down the street from us on Kim Yam Road. You see it all over Singapore as the city strives to preserve its remaining architectural heritage that has been largely lost to rampant development. What's different here is the scaffolding. Yes, those are sticks. 

It unnerves me to think about standing two or three floors up on a structure that looks like it could be taken out by a large dog with a frisky tail. I'm sure it's stronger than it looks, but it seems to take the concept of vintage a bit far. It's not like better tools aren't available. All over the city, contractors are using modern equipment to build high-rise condos and office towers. 

This picture was taken just a little further up Kim Yam Road just outside our condo. You can find similar scenes of new bumping up against old all across the city as developers try to keep up with what seems like limitless demand in Singapore's sizzling economy. More to the point at hand, the builders of these condos appear to be using the best tools and materials money can buy. It makes me wonder if the luddites using the wooden scaffolding deserve kudos for authenticity or a visit from the Singapore Building & Construction Authority.

Post Script
Speaking of new crowding old, I was walking home today after a visit to the Chinese Visa Centre and took this photo. It's perhaps the most photographed view of the city. It's located at Boat Quay on the Singapore River.

Margaret gets her desk blessed... maybe

Woe be to those who thought lunch was more important.

As part of the Chinese New Year festivities, Margaret's company brought this character into the office to bless cubes and desks for all who were interested. As a rooster, Margaret was definitely interested. Her horoscope, as published in the Strait Times, specifically said roosters are in for a challenging year at work. She didn't want to miss out on this opportunity to improve her prospects. Luckily for us, she managed to get a couple of pictures with her BlackBerry so we could all get a peek inside this unique aspect of modern corporate culture. Here's a picture of her desk getting the the karma applied.

Probably not as creepy as it looks.

With this blessing, Margaret should be able to enjoy some good fortune at work this year. There's just one caveat. Tradition calls for giving $8 in a red envelope to the lion. Margaret explains: "The red envelopes are called ang pow and this is left on top of two oranges on the desk. The tradition is $8 because it's considered lucky. I guess eight in Chinese sounds similar to the word for wealth. Apparently, $6 is also okay because six sounds like smooth and can imply a smooth year ahead." 

And yet, she only had four dollars. Her colleagues said that was out of the question. Four is an unlucky number and would be bad form. Better to leave an empty envelope, they advised. So Margaret, based on this local knowledge, stiffed the lion. All he got were a couple of oranges and an empty red envelope. Is this bad? No one knows. But it seems a little dicey. Perhaps she should rely on skill at work in 2011 and wait for 2012 to count on luck.

Fascinating trivia: Blessings usually are performed by someone in a dragon costume, but in Singapore it's a lion. Why? Because the island's original name was Singapura, which means lion city. Possibly a merlion?

Appeasing the gods

Sincere Year of the Rabbit offering.

Last weekend was Chinese New Year and like most expats we got out of town. We landed at a beach resort on Pulau Penang, an island off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia. As Margaret's first non-work trip since arriving in August, the focus was on spa treatments and umbrella drinks, not so much sight-seeing. This picture was taken at one of the many, many, many temples in and around the city of Georgetown, once the dominant trading center in these parts until Singapore big-footed the region. 

This young woman was making an offering of oranges and flowers, two traditional New Year's gifts. The ritual was lost on me, but it was out of the ordinary. Everyone else just lit candles and donated cash. However, you don't need a temple to appease the gods. I was on my way to the grocery store when we got home and I came upon this shrine on our street -- a street that's been torn up for months by utility workers.

Makeshift Year of the Rabbit offering, but surely no less sincere.

My guess is whoever left this roadside attraction, complete with candles, oranges, smoking joss sticks and smoldering paper was praying for a safe and, more importantly, swift completion of this seemingly endless task.

Are you a wabbit?

This bunny was caught frolicking outside of Paragon Mall on Orchard Road.

The Year of the Rabbit is upon us. Is this your year? Find out using the handy gadget I've provided on this post. Most businesses will be closed for some or all of next week, but the celebration goes on for three full weeks -- parades, greeting cards and lanterns. More lanterns! Sure, there was India Day last week and the week before there was Australia Day, but that just meant a little less noise one day as most construction workers are Indian and that you couldn't get into Boomarang the weekend before. It's now safe to return for the peppered kangaroo loin with beet relish and sweet potato mash. So, what are you? Pig, goat, cow -- wabbit? Sorry, no kangaroo in the Chinese Zodiac.

No surprise, Elmer is a dragon.