Thursday night included an outint to Nanjing road. This is me on Nanjing road at night. It's sort of like Time's Square, but a bit more upscale.
Me and two other female profs went to the fabric market on Friday (the hatted woman in front of me is Marianne). Unfortunately, I forgot to change my camera's settings and so it's pretty blurry. This market is 5 floors of stalls full of fabric and women who will sew whatever you want out of it. It is a bit overwhelming. I ended up ordering a shirt and a skirt -- hopefully they will fit and look good! I'll find out next Monday, when they are delivered to my hotel. Our fearless translator (Marianne's TA) negotiated free delivery for us.
More blurry fabric.
The SISU campus is right next to LuXian Park. I don't remember the details, but Lu Xian was a famous and influential author. The park is pretty impressive. It's all around a small lake with many trees and courtyards, and even a mini amusement park. In the morning (especially on the weekend), the place is packed with retired people who are doing exercise of various forms, including tai chi and syncronized dancing. There are also many people making music -- either solo, or as part of a group.
More Lu Xian Park. You can't really see it, but this is the largest artificial waterfall in Shanghai. It's about 5 meters tall. Apparently the Shanghainese are not in great competition over artificial waterfalls.
These are Xialongbou (spelled wrong) makers. These are the dumplings that Shanghai is famous for -- or perhaps the other way around. The idea is that you end up with a little dough sealed purse full of a lump of pork floating in soup. They are pretty tasty, but I don't really understand why people swoon over them. Unfortunately, I think that the shop where these chefs are working tried to kill me with bad fish ball soup. Two weeks in Shanghai -- two bouts of illness. Neither serious, though, so I think I'm doing petty well. I am becoming more adventurous in my food sampling, so I assumed that I'd fall ill sooner or later. I was surprised that it was the well-established shop in the mall that did me in.
This is at the Carrefour -- the local grocdery. I'm not sure what would constitute an emergency in a grocery check-out, but apparently these folks were experiencing it.
Today (Sunday) I ventured to south Jing'an -- the West part of Nanjing Road. This part is lined with high-end stores, one after another. I had a hard time finding lunch for a reasonable price. The big attraction here is the Jing'An Temple -- an active Buddhist temple in this unlikely place. During the Cultural Revolution, the place was turned into a plastics factory and the whole thing burnt to the ground in 1972. It was re-dedicated in the 80s, and the restoration is apparently quite impressive. Much of the temple is now teak (which I assume burnt away). The photo is a pillar in front of the temple that provides an interesting juxtaposition to the steel and glass all round.
More context for Jing'an temple.
More Jing'an Temple in the midst of modern Shanghai.
There were pretty many people practicing their religion. Just like at the temple in Hangzhou, the people buy and light insense, then bow in four directions while holding it in front of them. The whole place is wreathed in incense and smells pretty good.
This huge pagoda? is in the courtyard in front of the main temple. If you throw a coin into the structure, you will get good luck. Action shot later. I didn't manage to get one in - but I also didn't hit anyone with a coin, so I consider it a success. Occationally someone will throw a coin right through and surprise someone on the other side!
The amount of teak and detail are both amazing.
Even monks have to dry their laundry.
There are bells everywhere -- on all of the roof corners, as well as all over the "pagoda" in the courtyard. Thanks to Typhoon Soulik, they were producing a downright racket. (Also, much to the groundskeeper's chagrin, the wind blew over a potted tree in the courtyard.)
I really enjoyed how the artist distorted the circles as they went down the steps.
Bells on every eave.
I really enjoyed the oversized Bonsai tree.
Notice that some people put the incense at their forehead. When I get back to the US, I'll have to learn about why. (Or if one of you tells me, I'll update the "blog".)
Action shot -- the coin didn't go in.
Me in front of the main temple. Of course, no photos are allowed inside the sanctuaries. But, inside this building is another large Buddha made of camphor. It was pretty impressive -- even in the face of my recent visit to the largest seated Buddha in China in Hangzhou.
Better picture of the temple -- worse picture of me.
This is the "Children's Palace", which is the former home of Elly Kadoorie, who was a prominent Jewish businessman, who worked in banking and rubber. My guidebook says that this monstrocity of a mansion was the result of poor oversight of an unreliable architect while living abroad. Today it seems to house something like a Children's museum, although I didn't go in so I'm not sure.
More Children's Palace.
Statue in the yard of the Children's Palace. It reminds me of the statues we saw in Budapest.
I don't know what this is (will have to look it up later), but I have become intrigued with the proletariat style of some of the statues here. Inceidentally, I can't read about proletariats on Wikipedia in China.
A statue in the nearby Jing'an park. It is not Mr. Jing'an (if there even is one). It turns out this is Cai Yuanpei, who was president of Peking Univesity. He was apparently known for critical evaluation of Chinese Culture and the synthesis of Chinese and western thinking -- including anarchism.
More statues at Jian'an park. I wonder if this is part of a Jewish Memorial, as this part of town seemed to be a Jewish neighborhood during WWII.
This was my favorite part of the day. It is the "Shanghai Exhibition Centre", which was built as the "Palace of Sino-Soviet Friendship". Though the guidebook says that the architecture has "bold Bolshevik strokes", it was surprisingly opulent. Perhaps I don't understand what Bolshevik means. The giant star-stopped spire was a breathtaking display of government oversight.
More soviet-style art of the people. I assume this statue is something to do with the cooperation between the Soviets and the Chinese, but I don't understand what.
One of the most striking parts of the Centre is that it was totally empty. The only other people there were this nice couple and their photographer. Apparently the columns make for a nice backdrop, but no one else is interested in looking at the architecture. As a result -- the cleanest public restroom in Shanghai. Highly recommended.
This glass and metalwork was quite pretty -- located above the main door. Islamic influence?
The whole place is pretty much empty and undergoing significant renovation.
I really enjoyed this statue on the back side of the Exhibition Centre. The "slices" of horse becoming other horses created a surprising sense of movement. The statue is "Cavallaria Eroica" by Arman.
Don't know what this is for sure, but I suspect it's the remnants of another Jewish home from pre-WWII.
This is the former Ohel Rachel Synagogue. It's no longer in use as a synagogue, and is now part of the grounds of what seems to be the department of higher education.
These people are making my lunch at Din Tai Fung -- an upscale Taiwanese chain. The mushroom dumplings I had were tasty, but it seemed overpriced.
A gift from the chef? It's a tower of shaved ginger. I did confirm by eating some -- thankfully far enough before my food came that I could again taste when it arrived. I later learned that you are supposed to include this in the "dip" for the dumplings by pouring on a bunch of vinegar (2 parts) and soy sauce (1 part). I did manage to get those right, but missed out on the ginger part.
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