tbaroundtheworld

Greetings from this side of the world. I never would have thought that the light snow I mentioned in my previous posting would end up having such profound impact on my travel plans. But it did. We started the day with our final penthouse breakfast, this time loading up on pastries, considering the fact that food in the short term was going to be a challenge. We would be on a plane, after all. Catching a taxi for the trip out the Maglev Train was not a problem. Our final ride was pretty good in a couple of ways. First of all, the car itself had received a coating of sun shade on the windows at some point in its past. My window was completely opaque save for a 10 inch diameter hole in the sun shade, clearly due to generations of taxi riders picking away at it. Secondly, the wet roads really afforded the driver a chance to show off his skills. We went across the town and across the Huangpu for one last time. We arrived at the train with plenty of time to spare. It was freezing in the sta...

Final morning here at the Renaissance and I'm treated to a dusting of snow. The New Town Central Park assumes a tiny frosted appearance. The flakes continue to fall as the city wakes up.

Today's entry covers a day that went from one extreme to another. The first shot - the sublime, another day spent in the New Town Central Park, this time with my Xiangyang Market binoculars. I began the morning practicing the little Chinese necessary to inform the Policeman at the gate to the park that I wanted to look at birds. I've not carried binoculars around Shanghai much so I didn't know whether it was okay or not. So, repeating "jur yun-hsew kahn nyow" over and over, I walked the 2 blocks to the park and found the cop. My resolve flagged a bit at this point and instead of marching up to him and stating my intent, I did a pantomime of a bird with my hands and held the binos up to my eyes. He looked at me and made some noises and waved his hands, not unlike what any policeman in any city of the world might do when faced with someone of obvious mental limitation. It was cold today, and windy, but I did manage to build an impressive Chinese Lifelist of 5 bi...

Shanghai has some incredible architecture. Many, many competing styles crowd the skyline and lower elevations. From modern glass and steel to ancient warrens consisting of limestone two-storey houses with dormers. It's a bit of an assault on the eye, and the sensibilities. One unique feature of many buildings is a modern skyscraper with some oddball item stuck on the top A great place to start is the Bund. This is the colonial waterfront, and all the buildings along it were built in turn of the century Victorian style. These are the original office buildings, banks and customs houses of Britain and the other Sphere of Influence nations. Lots of Opium was traded through here on its way from India. In this shot you see a bit of the contrast - limestone tradition contrasting with the building known as "The Pineapple." Guess why? This is the well known Pearl of the Orient Tower on the Pudong waterfront. Twin earths on the bottom, one at the base and two more up the spire. Ev...

Today was an exercise in cultural extremes. Well, food culture extremes anyway. And some architectural ones too. Began the day with the traditional penthouse breakfast, this time minus the window washers swinging on the side of the building. After that, another cab ride to our first day of business review. Clear your mind for a moment and visualize if you will, the last stab at the Bauhaus aesthetic, dropped down in an Asian development sector with a rotting Communist era concrete monstrosity in the back yard which sports its very own corrugated steel pagoda on the roof. That more or less describes our meeting place. Steel, glass, more glass and more steel formed into a giant inverted ice cream cone and surrounded by sections of giant cylinders and big, square boxes. You get the picture, right? The meetings were interesting, and I was excited to see my first Shanghai kittycat stalking in the privet hedge. Lunch was the first intimation that today was going to be a very special day, on...

Today we took in about all there was to absorb. After breakfast in the penthouse, which was punctuated by the incredible sight of window washers being lowered down on playground swings to wash the side of a 30 story building, we headed out. First stop was The Bund, the former colonial seafront. Architecture was distinctly Victorian and by now, quite eaten away by the caustic air. Speaking of which, while the sun worked hard to burn through the morning fog, it wasn't doing much for the exhaust. Visibility across the Huangpu River was decidedly tinged blue. This is a shot of the Pudong waterfront with a nice emphasis on air quality. Chen Yi, the first communist mayor of Shanghai keeps a close watch on all that he had changed and created. From there, we made our way to Nanjinglu, the upscale shopping district. The sensory overload begins here, every shop is playing some sort of loud music, people are calling to you, the signs are extravagant and it's far more than one should be ex...

Here's a guy watching a BMW 5-series TV ad at the bus stop. The park was quite beautiful considering its location in the middle of the city. It is new, having started in 1999. I made a major miscalculation not bringing binoculars as the birds were quite accessible and plentiful. Saw a couple of Grackle-like birds and of course, hordes of House Sparrows (these being the Eurasian variety.) Many types of bamboo (love it, Dave) and Philodendron everywhere. Left there and did a bit of cruising through the neighboorhoods which are quite a bit like Mexico aside from the signs in Mandarin. More pictures on that later. Next stop - The Bund, Shinyang open market and Old Town.

Had a good night's sleep and managed to stay out until about 6AM when I was awakened by the sound of birds! At first, I thought I'd left the radio on, or that some oddball alarm was going off. But no, it was the common "peter peter peter" of the Tufted Titmouse. Problem - there is no Tufted Titmouse within 6000 miles of here. But clearly there's an asian analogue. The other thing that pulled me out of my slumber was the distinctive smell of exhaust. Went outside at 7:00AM to walk the streets and visit the park arcoss the street (unquestionably the source of the birds.) Many people on the street - cyclists, motorscooterists (new word) and pedestrians. The park was full of people, mainly midde-agers doing Tai Chi, jogging, walking backwards (no lie) and standing in bamboo groves yelling "Awwwwwwww" (again, no lie.) There were two groups of women doing a flag dance to some martial music and several groups of young men playing badminton - without a net. Chin...