meh

Parks and boats

July 2nd, 2009

The third day of Shanghai. It was far better than the first couple days, as the places were more cultural and we weren’t inundated with museums.

Mid shake

Went to a park in the morning. Everyone was out and about doing tai-chi and dancing and all sorts of fun stuff that just doesn’t really exist in most of the US.

Jessica (classmate) found a dance partner, heh

Max, another classmate. Hat and video camera at all times.

A peak at a slum. See that McDonald’s umbrella? Classy.

Quite a look he gave me there.

And this, quite possibly, the worst thing. Ever. High School Musical has made it to China. Game over man. Game over.

Had the most delicious chicken dumplings (8 heaping dumplings) from a hole-in-the-wall along the market street here.

The cat is holding a newborn kitten.

We went boating on the river at night. Front row seats. Prerequisite “I’m on a boat” reference.

They really know how to advertise. A giant LED video screen on what was more or less a small barge. 3 stories high I’d say.

Mix of pretty much everything on the 700.

Tags: china, culture, d700, nikkor 85mm f/1.4D, nikon, nikon 20-35mm f/2.8, nikon 70-300mm VR, shanghai, sigma 28mm f/1.8, travel
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Shanghai was a mixed bag in terms of favorite places I’ve been to. It’s a giant city - second largest in the world - but once you get past the surface, which looks like a culturally vibrant and crazy place, it’s really all about business. The arts scene was highly commercial, in a bad way, though it did have its gems. I’ll get to that even more in a later post. Architecturally though, it’s far and ahead one of the more interesting, in China and worldwide. The World Expo (aka World’s Fair) is being held there next year, so a lot of construction is going on to get these ridiculous projects built. What I also liked was in the mornings, people would be out and about right outside the hotel doing tai-chi and dance aerobics, even playing badminton. There was a pedestrian only boulevard / plaza in front of the hotel where all this took place.

That would be the boulevard. Behind me was where all the morning activities would go on.

Specifically, this is what was behind me.

Visited a museum of Chinese artifacts - this is outside of it. At this point in the trip, I was tired of museums - I would have much preferred to actually be out and seeing the sites.

The expo center, where we went to next.

They had this giant model of the entire city taking up most of the floor. I’d say close to 1000 square feet if not more.

A modern arts museum. This piece I quite liked - apocalypse hits the Chinese cities.

This is the start of the second day - we went to a temple. The light was bland and overcast - I don’t think we had seen the sun for 4 or 5 days at this point. It’s supposedly the rainy season, but I’m pretty sure it was also just smog galore.

Hey, that’s me . . .

A scuplture park. I have no idea why Albert was there.

Get it? See, it’s Rodin’s “Thinker,” but fat! Clever, huh?

Everyone’s a photographer. Actually, I saw lots of photogs whenever we were in these sorts of areas. Wedding shoots, fashion shoots, what have you.

Mix of the 20-35, 50 1.4, and 85 1.4.

Tags: china, d700, nikkor 50mm f/1.4D, nikkor 85mm f/1.4D, nikon 20-35mm f/2.8, people, temple, travel
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Hangzhou

June 25th, 2009

One entry for Hangzhou. The least culturally vibrant of the places we visited in China. I’d associate it with the equivalent of the American upper middle class suburb, in the sense the architecture and environment reflected a concern with money and artificial beauty, rather than quirkiness and the embrace of organic culture. The temple area was rather pretty, but the city in general had that kind of vibe going for it.

People sure do like getting their pictures with Westerners.

She was taking a picture of me. I just shot off from the hip.

Oh Steve.

Our eats for lunch.

This area was a sort of sanctuary. Had a rock path up into the hills and a Buddhist temple.

We climbed a big ol’ rock.

So glad the light held - more than half the days in China were cursed by boring, flat, overcast light. Didn’t see the sun all that much.

For burning incense.

Those monks like their basketball.

Got caught up in a 3 way.

I’m on a boat!

The body of water is called West Lake.

More meta.

Was at a pond where you could feed the koi. People would pour out bags of popcorn and the fish would go nuts.

I unfortunately couldn’t take my exploding briefcase under the subterranean crosswalk. Which is another point of confusion, they use underground tunnels to cross the road, but call ‘em subways, so I’m always half expecting a subway entrance somewhere . . . but no.