Spring!

Spring in Shanghai is easily my favorite season, and I've almost been here long enough to have experienced all four. These are just some photos from around Shanghai. I loved the two weeks when all of the Magnolia trees were in bloom. My friend Lucie says it's even better in Beijing, I'll have to get up there next year in the Spring. I've noticed a trend as I go back through all of my photos, we have a few places that we frequent in our free time: Taikang Lu, the bird and flower market, and the fabric market. We have been branching out more lately but this Spring had a pretty predictable routine! Anyway, we went to Taikang Lu and some other places with Lucie, Dorian, Kathy and Chris. While we were waiting at Starbucks we noticed a handsome man in a ridiculous vest to help him carry around all of his super important, expensive, professional camera gear. I'm not sure who it was that suggested that Dorian go and inquire about said vest, probably me, but Dorian did. Much to our amusement the avid photographer was very pleased to discuss his vest, which it turned out was a fishing vest hence the fishing gesture he is making while Dorian considers trying the vest on. So very entertaining, as always, when Dorian and Lucie are around! We did branch out another weekend, and took the ferry across the river. It's pretty awesome to be out on the HuangPu with all of the barges and ships, it is also cool because you can use your metro card to pay the 2 kuai to get across. My photos are not flat due to lack of contrast, that is the beautiful Shanghai haze that hangs in the air most days. You can see on the skyline the building going up next to the can opener, it is going to be the tallest building in Shanghai, Asia, and I think the world upon completion. Architect gurus feel free to correct me if you know. You can also see from the close up of the construction, it is going to have this really cool spiral around look to it when it is finished. I'm not sure if we'll still be here, I think it is supposed to be done in 2014. I am also in love with these white flowering trees that bloom in April. They blooms have that trumpet shape and the trees are huge! If any botanists, master gardeners or tree enthusiasts know the name I would love to learn more about them.

Tourists in our own town...still

One Sunday back in March Trent and I met up with our friends Todd and Rebecca for brunch at Taikang Lu, which is a major tourist area and one of the last remaining truly "old" areas in Shanghai. You can check out Todd and Rebecca's musings on their awesome blog Knee How Shanghai. We were smart and got there early so there were no crowds just some locals hanging out and doing awesome things like kissing their pet birds. We browsed around some shops because the place we wanted to eat brunch wasn't open yet, and that is when someone thought they had a celebrity sighting. Really it was just Rebecca. Even though we live in a city of 24 million people, for some Chinese people it is still exciting to see foreigners, and not just any foreigners blonde foreigners. Luckily, if Trent and I head to the Bund we get the same treatment and I can only imagine how many vacation photos we have ended up in. Secretly, I imagine that we end up in their family newsletter and Christmas Cards but that's just silly. After brunch we headed over to the Yu Yuan Garden area and went to a bird/pet market which was mostly cool and a little depressing. Then we went to the "antique" street which had an amazing amount of mostly crap. A lot of it was cool, but totally overpriced. Most of it was new made to look old and then there were the thousands of statues of Mao. I bought a small wooden jewelry box and I am still thinking about purchasing some statues I'll go back again I'm sure! We rounded out our day with a trip to the Museum of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party near Xintiandi. Xintiandi is the fancy part of Shanghai that is made to look old but is really brand new. The museum is free and they frequently have different exhibits on display, when we were there they had an exhibit solely on the life of Zhou Enlai the first Premier of the PRC from 1949-1976 when he died. You're not allowed to take any pictures inside of the museum but I did manage to sneak one in the courtyard between buildings.