Shanghai - November 2009

New corners of Shanghai, it is always so easy to find some so bizarre places here. For example at some moment people in Shanghai got excited about England and made a very own London in suburbs of Shanghai, place is called Thames Town, same aswell could have been called Ghost Town. Life there is very clean and lifeless, or at other times finishing up on streets where live chickens are sold and to be killed in front of your eyes and get cleaned from feathers in less that a minute... voila, ready for the cooking pot at home. All nice and "sterile": the neck gets cracked in black bucket, slightly bloody from outside, you can see nothing only bucket will be shaking and jumping for a moment or two.



The place where nobody lives, but seems every weds dreams of getting their picture taken. Got the same feeling as in summer in Qhingdao, some massive wedding factory working here. Thames town in Shanghai







Only permanent inhabitants - plastic bears







Thames town - finally Fish&Chips! Or not, just a facade, the house is actually empty, even not a single piece of furniture in there.
All the real estate is on sail, waiting for new owners, already for some years. Would be kind of interesting to live in the place where having only facades of shops and eateries and only neighbors are plastic bears.











Another couple, another bear, another facade.








"Looka-looka, Buy 3 get a free ride!"
Near my home








The price of real estate is rising as fast as the new houses are being built, something to think about...






Who don't know yet, this blue guy is Haibo and it is the symbol of World EXPO2010 in Shanghai. The ones who are in China might have noticed, it is very hard to find a spot where there is no blue guy... daily cover story in news paper, news, walls of buildings, fences, parks, in my swimming pool... And of course they come usually with some good slogans... like this one.

Summer is gone

Shanghai streets 2 weeks ago. Macho guy walking around with the cute teddy bear hanging on the belt. Seems last week the summer ended in Shanghai, over a night switched from shorts and t-shirt to autumn jacket, got even an idea of switching to winter jacket.






Kitty on the door

Old streets of Shanghai - October

Drying clothes above the street







... and from the windows







Shikumen architecture







Everybody needs their daily dose of rice... also ducks.








New buildings making their way








Kitchen opened directly to the street

60 years of Communism in China

During the first week of October China celebrated 60 years of communism, obviously this is bigger than anything else. The streets of every city in China had started to get red already in August - different statues with big 60, red flags, red Chinese flags, red Soviet Union flags (with hook and sledge hammer). The big culmination was 1st of October with a parade in Beijing lasting for 14hours.

So we did the crazy move and decided to visit Beijing during the celebration week. For future if you are planning to visit Beijing and especially interested of these famous must-see places Forbidden City, Summer Palace and pagodas, then definitely 1st week of October is not the time to go there.
In the Forbidden City fighting with the crowds didn't leave much time to see and visit actually the buildings. Well, that was not a problem, as I had seen enough of traditional Chinese architecture.

At the same time traditional old Hutong streets were very perfect to be discovered by bicycle.






Rehearsal for the big day, Shanghai








Shanghai-Beijing night train









9 million bicycles in Beijing







Fruits on the stick









National Theater










National Theater









Bird's Nest in the Olympic Area








Inside of Bird's Nest







Pan Gu







and Bird's Nest in the grass









China Wall in Mutianyu section



















Rows of mountains









The Wall








This is how close I got to the Beijing Roast Duck this time. Even though it was just 11:30 in the morning the restaurant was so packed with people, and queue was 45minute just to get a seat.










Sunset in Summer Palace










Sunset









Streets in red










Street musician









In China it is a symbol of status to own a car, not everybody can do it, often it is years of saving to get one. And then to get a registration plate on the car costs around 4000EUR in Shanghai. And then all other kind of possible taxes. So finally when the owner can drive the long awaited vehicle he might get very excited when expressing the love.







The backside of the loved one







When Boeing has a hangover

Shanghai through new eyes

Shanghais is one big city, even after 9 month of living here it is still so easy to discover places so different. Moganshan Street had been in the list of place to go already for long, finally we made it there with Kristel and GT.
This area is the place to go, if the interests towards art, especially modern art, are a bit deeper than the photos with silhouette of Shanghai and its TV-tower or EXPO2010 Haibo-art from commercial pedestrian streets.





Life still rolling in its old traditional routes, old man in the park







Every cup has its own place






Butterfly Bay






Getting closer to Moganshan street. Graffiti is not that common in China, most probably it is very serious crime and as there are everywhere very watchful eyes, it is seen rather rarely.







Moganshan art in gallery







Act on the door






Moganshan art in gallery

Hiking 2009 - Terracotta warriors

My favorite breakfast - fruits and yogurt. When having it in non-home locations some of the ingredients can sometimes broaden the horizons. This one had oat flakes that I usually don't include to my daily selection, but nothing strange about it. But what popped my eyes wide open was the salad leaf.









Terracotta warriors









In China pomegranate grows already in plastic bag. No wonder plastic bags are so popular here :)







Pottery figures from Han Jingdi Tomb







Xian. Crossroad - delegation of 7 traffic officers - this must be the safest crossroad in the world. This was not any big special crossing, it was not any special celebration day - just a normal day, normal traffic.

Hiking 2009 - Xi'an

Xi'an was not in the original plan, but after noticing how close we were (only 14h by night train) to this famous location, small modifications to our route were made.

Xi'an is the ancient capital of China, the capital for Han and Qin dynasties. 1976 local farmer discovered by accident an army of pottery warriors, known as a Terracotta warriors - around 6000 life size figures lined up to go for battle. Nowadays this city is one of the top touristic destinations of China.




The ancient wall of Xi'an - 14km long - actually not ancient, it has been almost 100% rebuilt as tourist attraction in its original location. Wall fading in Chinese fog-smog.







My very own tap... only I can use it... if I had the key








Getting ready







Backstreets






View from the restaurant window






Cooking food in front of an eating place. Flames bursting out from the fireplace.








Inside the eating place, next to our table fresh dumplings were made
















Stolen photo from the photo shoot