Zhouzhuang

Last Sunday, we took a day trip to Zhouzhuang, one of the many nearby water towns. The area surrounding Shanghai is very flat lowland, just a few feet above sea level so there is water everywhere. Centuries ago, several towns were built in and on the water. Many of them still exist today and are promoted as historical attractions. Zhouzhuang bills itself as "Venice of the Orient" but that might be stretching things a little. While it is neat to see this, the primary focus of these towns is tourism and shopping, not history. Still, it was a fun day that we wrapped up with some good Mexican food at a place called Zappata's. Here is a link to more info about the town http://english.people.com.cn/english/200004/26/eng20000426_39741.html.

And here is a link to some pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/Zhouzhuang

Rain Video

It started raining as the storm approaced this afternoon. Here is a link to a short video taken looking out our back porch. It's not all that impressive - just some wind and rain. We've had a couple of downpours but now it's settled into a steady rain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKrZKiUBcG8

Women's Soccer World Cup

The 2007 World Cup tournament is being held in China this month. The US played Nigeria last night and we had already bought tickets so we weren't going to let a little rain keep us away. We suited up in our rain gear and headed out for Hongkou Football Stadium. One a good day, the stadium is usually about a 20 minute drive from our house. Last night, it took 45 minutes, which really isn't that bad considering the rain and increased traffic as people scurried around getting ready for the storm. The stadium seats 30,000 people and last night was technically a sell-out but the rain kept a lot of people away. Official attendance was 6,100. We had great seats on the third row but you could pretty much sit anywhere. Kristi and Kate headed for shelter in the upper rows but Emily and I toughed it out. The US started out strong, scoring a goal in the first minute. It turned out that that was all they needed as they went on to a 1-0 victory.

Typhoon Wipha

I don't know if this is making the news back in the States but there is a typhoon heading for Shanghai. Typhoon Wipha made landfall south of here as a Category 4 storm. It appears that it will weaken to a Cat 1 or even a tropical storm before it gets here. It rained all day yesterday but today we're just getting some pretty good gusts of wind. Just to be safe, all schools in the city are closed today and many people are stying home from work - including me (can't be too safe, you know).

The Story of the Dragon

If you look at the pictures taken at Yu Yuan, you'll see several of the dragon that sits atop the wall surrounding the garden. This is one of the key features of the garden and it pretty neat to see but didn't really seem all that special. But then we overheard one of the guides telling the dragon's story. I can't remember all of it but will try to hit the main points.

This is no ordinary dragon. This one has the mane of a lion, the horns of goat, the teeth of some other critter, etc, etc. If you look closely at some of the pictures, you can see a ball in the dragon's mouth. This is his pearl and it is the source of his power. The only catch is that the dragon has to hold the pearl in his mouth and if he loses it, he loses all his strength. Now as you can imagine, doing this makes him slobber a lot. Or as the guide said, "He makes lots of saliver." She meant saliva but saliver is a whole lot funnier. Anyway, the slaiver runs down his chin whiskers and tickles him, which makes it even more difficult to hold on to his pearl. This is where the toad comes in.

Looking at the pictures, you can see a toad under the dragon's chin. The toad lives there and spends the day lapping up the dragon's saliver. This relieves the tickling for the dragon, while the toad absorbs some of the dragon's power. I have no idea what the toad does with this power as he never leaves his spot under the dragon's chin.

Another interesting fact the guide pointed out is that this dragon has only three claws. However, the imperial dragon, which represents the emperor, has four claws. The designer of this one wanted to make it clear that this was a lesser dragon so as not to offend the emperor.

Yu Yuan Pictures

Here are some pictures taken at Yu Yuan a couple of weeks ago.

http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/YuYuan

And you complain about the lines at Wal-Mart

This is the line to checkout at the local Carrefour. This is pretty typical for a weeknight and it's even worse on weekends. You just don't go unless you really need something. On this particular night, we thought we really needed something (I can't even remember what it was now) but when we got to the line, we realized that we didn't "need" it so badly after all.

Notice that this is at register #54. Unlike Wal-Mart in the US, this store actually opens more than 4 registers. I didn't bother counting but I would guess that there were probably at least 30 registers open. There is no express lane or self checkout, which is probably a good thing as these people would only screw it up.

I doubt we'll ever see a self checkout lane here as this would eliminate jobs. And China is all about maximum employment. It's not uncommon to go to a store or restaurant that has more employees than customers. McDonalds even has a person whose only job is to tell you which line to get in to order. This is probably a good thing though as the Chinese people have no concept of what a line is for.

What did the necktie say to the hat?

You go ahead. I'll just hang around.

Any man with a tie like this must be compensating for other shortcomings.

Hungry now?

This is on Nanjing Road in Puxi. You know, I have no desire to eat squid on a stick but if I ever did, I would want it to be cooked by this guy. How many people do you know who could be this happy doing this kind of work. I have no way of knowing but I doubt he makes more than $1/hour - maybe $1.50 tops.

Anyone hungry?

The window of a restaurant in the bazaaar at Yu Yuan.

Where else would you put the bathroom?

Traffic leaving Yu Yuan

Here is a short video I shot out the car window as we left Yu Yuan last Saturday. I was using my little digital camera so the quality is not that great and there is really nothing amazing in the video. However, it does give you some idea of the traffic we deal with everyday here. Actually, this was pretty light for a Saturday.

This is the first time I've tried posting a video on YouTube so email me if it doesn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgIPm8O5e6M

Puzzle Progress 4

We finally finished the 2000-piece puzzle. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it before Kristi took it apart. Actually she took it apart in big chunks so we can take it back to the shop where we bought it and have it mounted. I'll get a picture as soon as we get it back. I'm sure you all have spent many sleepless nights wondering how the puzzle was coming along so you can rest peacefully now.

Finally

We finally received our air shipment Monday. We've been living for the last month with only 4 forks, four spoons, four plates, etc. It is so nice to have pots and pans and dishes. I actually made coffee this morning. I had a coffee press coming in my shipment so I refused to go out and buy a coffee maker here. Instead I went to Starbucks everyday and spent $3 on a cup of coffee. I probably could have bought three coffee makers with the money I spent doing that.

We also got our new van Monday. Up til now, we'd been riding around in a loaner that had seen its better days. It was nice and served its purpose but it's always fun to have a new car. The best thing about the loaner was that it was white. All the other vans here are dark blue or silver (like ours). The white van made it easy to pick ours out of a crowd. Now we have to memorize the license plate number so we don't try to get in the wrong car.

Apologies...

for the lack of activity here on the blog. Things have been pretty busy since the last update. Kate and Emily are getting settled in at school. We've had two back-to-school nights to attend where we go in and meet their teachers and get a feel for what their normal school day is like. Kristi is still busy getting our apartment set up. She has also joined a women's Bible study and has started taking Mandarin lessons. And I've been putting in some hours at work and even spent a couple of days in Seoul, Korea, last week.

Don't get me wrong - it's not all work here. We've also found time to have some fun. On Sunday before last (Aug 26?) we went to the airport and picked up a friend coming in from the US. Alan Batman (yes, that's his real name) came to Shanghai for a short business trip. We brought him over to our place, gave him a tour of the neighborhood, then headed out for a little sightseeing. We wrapped up the evening with dinner and a stroll down Nanjing Road, which is a huge pedestrian mall.

Last Saturday we visited Yu Yuan, or Yu Garden, in the Old Town section of Shanghai. The garden was built in the 1500's during the Ming dynasty. It covers about five acres and was originally intended to be a place for rest and meditation. It also has several buildings, or pavilions, that were used for public meetings. We took plenty of pictures that I will try to post here in the next few days. In the meantime, if you're interested, you can read more about the garden's history here.

Yu Yuan is a big tourist attraction so of course it has to have a tourist trap associated with it. Here it is the bazaar. We also have pictures of this and will try to get them up soon.