Hello friends and family,
Welcome to my first ever blog!
Heidi, John and I arrived in Shanghai three days ago, for a week of playing tourist. There's been a lot to see, smell and taste so far. On our first full day we walked around a huge garden and then wandered the Bund, the famous riverfront with historic buildings from the Western concessions on one side, and a bizarre futuristic financial district skyline on the other. We went to the natural history museum, and saw a couple old mummies from the Ming dynasty and also dinosaur bones and a big , not so pc exhibit on human evolution.
Then yesterday we went to an artist colony in an old textile mill by the river, with maybe twenty open studios and galleries. Some pretty neat stuff, obviously groomed for the discerning international buyer of art. Then a big temple and the urban planning museum, which is much cooler than it sounds. These guys are very excited about their city, and proud of its development, and have lined out huge plans for the future. The second floor of the museum has an enormous model of the city on the floor, and a cartoon virtual tour where this little green fairy takes you flying over a computerized Shanghai landscape. Much less smog in virtual Shanghai than the real thing.
Now we are in an internet cafe near the bus station waiting to go to Tongli, a "water village" near Suzhou, about an hour and a half away. It's supposed to be like Venice, with canals and gardens and bridges, and tasty pork, according to Min my Chinese tutor. So we'll see.
As for me, I'm happy to be here at last and looking forward to the summer. My Chinese is pretty rough but I have high hopes for improvement and good incentive. John's been a very accomodating translator but it's nice to be able to get around yourself you know? My reading (also very rough) is helping me out more than I expected, which is nice. No photos up yet because of the computer situation, which I hope to sort out soon.
