Saturday, July 21st
Shanghai, China
I woke up this morning all excited to post by first blog entry in China, only to discover I could not access blogger.com. Fortunately, I am able to use my iPhone app (at least for the time being) to post. If you don’t start seeing regular posts from me then you know I’m having trouble or delays getting access. I was even trying to read some articles today online and couldn’t access some of them. For those of you addicted to Facebook, you would be in trouble….you can’t access it at all! It’s so hard to get used to the limited access. I was really frustrated at first, but it is what it is and I'm glad I figured something out so that I could these experiences with you.
We started our morning with a trek to the Propaganda Poster Art Center. I was really hoping that the weather in Shanghai wouldn’t be has humid as it was in Taipei, but it was still pretty oppressive so it didn’t take long for me to be dripping with sweat. Arrgghhh!
On our way to the Propaganda museum, we saw a local market, which was one of the first signs of commercial activity on our walk aside from the area very close to our hotel. The areas I’ve seen thus far of Shanghai remind me a lot of Berlin. However, I still can’t tell if we are on the outskirts so we really don’t get a good sense of urban hub of the city or if it is so spread out. I think the city is quite spread out, but that the Pudong New Area has more of the urban city look and feel to it. That area is home to the financial district and all the skyscrapers. We plan on checking out that neighborhood tomorrow, so I guess I’ll have a better sense then. The market had an array of fresh vegetables and grains, but I must admit the meat didn’t smell so fresh.
Valerie and I made it to the intersection where we anticipated the museum to be and I guess we looked a little lost, because a gentleman from New Zealand saw us and asked us if we were looking for the Propaganda Poster Art Center. He said it happens all the time and walked us to this apartment building and told us that the center was in the basement of the building. There was no sign whatsoever indicating where the museum was. Valerie and I wonder if that is on purpose…..
The center was amazing. As someone who teaches Chinese government and politics, I was fascinated. I am so excited to share the experience with my students and colleagues. I also bought several items from the gift shop that I can’t wait to show my students next year!
After the museum, we headed to the People’s Park and Square area to find the Shanghai Museum. We did stop at a Subway for lunch to fuel up before embarking on our next adventure. As much as I love Chinese food, we both needed a little break.
The Shanghai Museum reminded me a lot of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. That shouldn’t be surprising considering that so many of the pieces from the Palace Museum were brought from China. As usual, I really enjoyed the ceramics section of the museum. I also saw a coin from Genghis Khan’s reign. We also toured sections on calligraphy, bronze, jade, and collections from China’s minority groups.
One of my favorite pieces was a bronze pillow. I don’t know how anyone can call these pillows, but they had them in both the bronze and ceramic sections. I guess this makes sense why many of the pillows I have slept on, on this trip have been rock hard! ;)
I was struggling after the Museum, my feet and body were extremely tired, but we regrouped and decided to head to Tianzifang, a trendy area in the French Concession with a ton of shops and restaurants in little back alleys. This is what I expected more of the city to be like since it has been called the Paris of the East. Valerie and I walked the streets checking out the shops and people watching before finding a restaurant to rest our weary legs.
Several things we’ve noticed in our 30 hours here…..we have seen more foreigners in Shanghai since our plane landed than we had in our whole four weeks in Taiwan. Another interesting tidbit is that we’ve seen at least three different types of security officials since we arrived. I think I may have seen only three police cars in my whole time in Taiwan. Even tonight while we were eating our dinner in Tianzifang, we saw several uniformed types of security walking the alleys.
I thought the drivers and scooters in Taiwan were nuts, but Shanghai is even crazier. I have never heard so much honking. I have never lived in NYC or Boston, but I swear it is worse. I have never seen or heard anything like it. All drivers are maniacs, including bikes and scooters. The drive fast, run red lights, drive through the crosswalks even when it says “walk” for pedestrians and honk all the time! I have never seen anything like it. It seems traffic enforcement is not as stringent in Taiwan or China as it is at home.
Regardless, Valerie and I had a busy but great day. Sorry, I can’t provide any pictures. We have another full day planned for Sunday before we head off to Xi’an early on Monday morning.
Shanghai, China
I woke up this morning all excited to post by first blog entry in China, only to discover I could not access blogger.com. Fortunately, I am able to use my iPhone app (at least for the time being) to post. If you don’t start seeing regular posts from me then you know I’m having trouble or delays getting access. I was even trying to read some articles today online and couldn’t access some of them. For those of you addicted to Facebook, you would be in trouble….you can’t access it at all! It’s so hard to get used to the limited access. I was really frustrated at first, but it is what it is and I'm glad I figured something out so that I could these experiences with you.
We started our morning with a trek to the Propaganda Poster Art Center. I was really hoping that the weather in Shanghai wouldn’t be has humid as it was in Taipei, but it was still pretty oppressive so it didn’t take long for me to be dripping with sweat. Arrgghhh!
On our way to the Propaganda museum, we saw a local market, which was one of the first signs of commercial activity on our walk aside from the area very close to our hotel. The areas I’ve seen thus far of Shanghai remind me a lot of Berlin. However, I still can’t tell if we are on the outskirts so we really don’t get a good sense of urban hub of the city or if it is so spread out. I think the city is quite spread out, but that the Pudong New Area has more of the urban city look and feel to it. That area is home to the financial district and all the skyscrapers. We plan on checking out that neighborhood tomorrow, so I guess I’ll have a better sense then. The market had an array of fresh vegetables and grains, but I must admit the meat didn’t smell so fresh.
Valerie and I made it to the intersection where we anticipated the museum to be and I guess we looked a little lost, because a gentleman from New Zealand saw us and asked us if we were looking for the Propaganda Poster Art Center. He said it happens all the time and walked us to this apartment building and told us that the center was in the basement of the building. There was no sign whatsoever indicating where the museum was. Valerie and I wonder if that is on purpose…..
The center was amazing. As someone who teaches Chinese government and politics, I was fascinated. I am so excited to share the experience with my students and colleagues. I also bought several items from the gift shop that I can’t wait to show my students next year!
After the museum, we headed to the People’s Park and Square area to find the Shanghai Museum. We did stop at a Subway for lunch to fuel up before embarking on our next adventure. As much as I love Chinese food, we both needed a little break.
The Shanghai Museum reminded me a lot of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. That shouldn’t be surprising considering that so many of the pieces from the Palace Museum were brought from China. As usual, I really enjoyed the ceramics section of the museum. I also saw a coin from Genghis Khan’s reign. We also toured sections on calligraphy, bronze, jade, and collections from China’s minority groups.
One of my favorite pieces was a bronze pillow. I don’t know how anyone can call these pillows, but they had them in both the bronze and ceramic sections. I guess this makes sense why many of the pillows I have slept on, on this trip have been rock hard! ;)
I was struggling after the Museum, my feet and body were extremely tired, but we regrouped and decided to head to Tianzifang, a trendy area in the French Concession with a ton of shops and restaurants in little back alleys. This is what I expected more of the city to be like since it has been called the Paris of the East. Valerie and I walked the streets checking out the shops and people watching before finding a restaurant to rest our weary legs.
Several things we’ve noticed in our 30 hours here…..we have seen more foreigners in Shanghai since our plane landed than we had in our whole four weeks in Taiwan. Another interesting tidbit is that we’ve seen at least three different types of security officials since we arrived. I think I may have seen only three police cars in my whole time in Taiwan. Even tonight while we were eating our dinner in Tianzifang, we saw several uniformed types of security walking the alleys.
I thought the drivers and scooters in Taiwan were nuts, but Shanghai is even crazier. I have never heard so much honking. I have never lived in NYC or Boston, but I swear it is worse. I have never seen or heard anything like it. All drivers are maniacs, including bikes and scooters. The drive fast, run red lights, drive through the crosswalks even when it says “walk” for pedestrians and honk all the time! I have never seen anything like it. It seems traffic enforcement is not as stringent in Taiwan or China as it is at home.
Regardless, Valerie and I had a busy but great day. Sorry, I can’t provide any pictures. We have another full day planned for Sunday before we head off to Xi’an early on Monday morning.
When I visited Beijing a number of years ago and saw how they drove there, I just could not believe my eyes!
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