Marianne and Luci were here for a week, and we had an opportunity to get out and see beautiful Shanghai - some more! The weather has been spectacular - clear skies and crisp.
Taikang Lu is a wonderful area of shikumen lane houses that is slowly being transformed into boutique shops, restaurants, artist spaces. Storey's clay class is there on Saturday mornings, so we all headed over and walked around while she was working away forming clay into pieces of art. This gentleman was working at sanding something down. I think he was doing shoe repair, but not sure. Found him as we rounded a corner of one of the many spidery lanes in Taikang Lu.
One courtyard with shops and restaurants below, living above. (The girls are really tired of me taking pictures, but sometimes you just need someone in them!)
Paige's holiday concert was on Friday night. This is the newly buzzed Ridley sitting in the audience as we waited for Paige's group - which happened to be the last group of the night!
Paige is playing clarinet, first seat in the second row on the left. She is one of three 6th graders in a band made up of a few 7th graders and mostly 8th graders. They were really pretty good. Another fun school event. Marianne and Luci got to attend both performances - lucky them! - and Luci got to spend the day at school with Paige.
Ridley and I received a very rare gift of going to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. We were invited by my tutor, Dean, to hear a concert given by his cousin Guang Yang, a mezzzo soprano of outstanding ability. Her voice is spectacular. She lives in New York and sings around the world and is back in Shanghai to give a Master Class at the Conservatory for 2 months. She will be back again next year to sing in Don Carlos at the Shanghai Opera. It was a magical evening to be able to walk down the street and hear this world class singer in a beautiful setting. Once again my little iphone camera can't quite capture the details, but it gives a bit of an idea.
I am endlessly amazed at how things are put together here. Below you will find important wiring in the heart of the city. How does it all work???
Marianne and I took a day to walk down Nanjing Lu, the great pedestrian street that ends at the Peace Hotel and the Bund. The Peace Hotel has enjoyed great history in Shanghai, being constructed in the 1920's by Sassoon. The Peace Hotel also now comprises the building next door which was the Cathay Hotel, very luxurious in its day. It is all now under renovation, to be reopened in 2009, in time for the Shanghai World Expo, 2010. The whole city is preparing for this big event.
Looking back at the Peace Hotel from the Bund.
Huangpu River and the Pudong side of Shanghai - the Pearl TV tower, Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Tower, among the many other buildings in the ever growing "new city". 
Lots of kites and all kinds of "stuff" available to buy on the Bund. I am not sure where you can go in this city without finding something to buy!
Marianne, Luci and I spent a day at Yuyuan Gardens and surrounding areas. Of course I had to have them taste the delicious dumplings in the famed restaurant, and then we actually went into the Gardens. I had never gone in before. It is a huge area, and we only made it through about 1/3 of the Gardens before we needed to move on to Dong Tai Lu, a great old "antique" market street. 
The Gardens here are very planned and orderly and include necessary elements of rock, wood, water, feng shui design. Very easy to meander and not quite know where you end up.
This was the Dragon courtyard, so named for the Dragon wall that surrounded it. There are buildings, water and places for meditation behind every turn.
Marianne and Luci took the overnight train to Beijing last night and are now with the Walters visiting Beijing (The Great Wall today) and then Xi'an before we all meet up in Chengdu on Friday to spend a few days with the panda's and other great sites. It may take me a month, again, to get caught up from our trip, so please excuse the lapse in blog reporting while we are away.
Last night was Storey's Holiday program. She is the one closest to us on the top row. If you click on the photo you may get a better shot. Playing the violin. It was a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade performance with singing and various bands playing. When 100 kids from about 40 different countries are singing about peace in the world, it is pretty moving. It was a fun night.
Marianne and Luci are here, arrived Monday, and Marianne has a real camera and took better pictures that maybe I can post later.
Another photo to click on to enlarge, and even then I can't promise you will see what I saw. I was in a taxi on my way to the dentist (my crown came off with some yummy caramel) and I looked out of the window and dangling halfway down the corner of this tall building was a worker cleaning the building. Not the windows, just the corner of the building! Do we clean buildings in America? I have never seen it myself. But unbelievable to watch him swinging around so high up and rappelling floor to floor to wipe off concrete 20 stories up.
Paige indulged me - she hates all the pictures I take. Grammy Lu wanted to see her outfit for the winter dance. She had gone out with a friend (I was lurking in the background) and bought this darling dress with green sweater for the semi-formal winter dance. Another fun night of dancing and hanging with friends.
Mmmmmm..... Don't look too closely! A bike with a basket of live chickens in the back to choose the freshest one from. Dressing of the chosen chicken on the sidewalk right beside.
Storey had a friend spend the night, and the next morning we headed off to a ceramics class I had heard about at Taikong Lu. Freezing in the room, but lots of fun getting hands into the clay. A long held desire of Storey's since we arrived in Shanghai.
Later that day Storey and I headed to the roof top cafe of the Shanghai Art Museum for a Girl Scout Mother/Daughter tea and cookie swap. We came home laden with home-sweeet-home tasting cookies: sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, gooey butter cookies, oatmeal cookies. And one mom even found the recipe for and made Tagalong cookies! That is only about half the group of girls and half the table chock full of goodies.
OK. I woke up this morning to an email from my mom saying, "Get going on the blog!" We have been a tad busy, so here are a few updates!
The continued manual labor on the lane, digging up, hauling out, ditches, pipes, filling in and now cementing. The amount of labor involved continues to astound us, and as we were discussing last night, it is all for the storm drain. One might think that with all this labor and effort of digging up the whole lane, they might also replace the other water pipes, bury phone and electrical wires, lay in cable for the ever expanding internet for 3 years down the road. No. All this work is just for the storm drain. Hopefully they don't dig it up again while we are here for the other necessities of the lane!
We always have to give ourselves a few extra minutes to get out of the lane as we usually get behind several wheelbarrows getting filled and rolled out. There is no thought of letting anyone pass by, unless you jump into the ditch!
We woke up Monday morning to the main lane having been poured over night. Half the lane stable again.
This is out our bedroom window last night, around midnight. They are pouring our lane. The concrete is being mixed by hand at the end of the lane (pictured in previous posts), wheeled down quickly and poured into the frames that had been built yesterday. There was such a racket going! No care that people might be sleeping at midnight. Lots of yelling, banging, hammering, rolling. They actually were finished about an hour later, and it quieted down.
Storey ran out our door first thing this morning, trying to get at the concrete while it was still wet! She is leaving her mark in Shanghai.
This is literally off our front step. It does look like the lane is going to paved on top of this concrete, like they did the sidewalks this fall.
Yesterday as I was heading out the lane, I saw new materials being brought in. Don't know what these planks are going to be used for, but the wheelbarrows stopped here
at the front of the lane and were then being hand carried down to the end of the main lane. I will keep you posted on what new construction may be before us! Aren't you just waiting on the edge of your seats?!
Brick layer at work. Where are all those bricks coming from?
Mmmm. Outside our front gate! Of course they were gone and redistributed in a matter of minutes.
On my way to my first American Women's Club of Shanghai luncheon, I had to snap a photo of this laden scooter. The ability of the people on bikes and scooters to balance untold amounts of boxes, bottles, bags,
anything, really, is awesome.
I joined Julie for this luncheon as it was at M on the Bund which I love, a Christmas luncheon, and the menu included turkey and stuffing with cranberries which I have been dreaming of! During the luncheon a fashion show of old kimono's kept us entertained.
After the delicious dim sum brunch, we headed down toward YuYuan Gardens where the junk market is. I showed photos of my first experience here, and it was so wild I had to bring the family back. Even MORE crowded on the week end, if that is possible. Storey was in heaven and found several things, stickers, etc., that she bargained hard for. Ridley was loving all the office supply booths as well as household supply vendors. A little bit of everything here. I caught him hanging out in front of this booth....
In all fairness, he didn't know he was standing in front of these lovlies. Just trying to stay out of the way of the elbows! The girls wanted to buy little goldfish that we had found at Yu Gardens when there before, so we were on a hunt for fish bowls of any kind. The little goldfish, if they are even goldfish, are about 1.5 cm, if even, and come in little plastic key chain pouches. The vendor says they live for 6 months in the pouch - no food, just whatever kind of water they put them in. That was not going to work for us! We needed to transfer them to real homes. After finding the necessary bowls, colored rocks, plastic plants, we headed out of the junk market to cross over to YuYuan, but in the midst of all the street vendors, we came across a man selling the fish key chains from a cardboard box for 2 yuan each - 2 fish in each key chain. As we were looking at the key chains and deciding, the vendor suddenly grabbed his box with all the fish sliding around on the top and bulldozed past me and the crowd heading into the store. Paige had been holding a key chain, and one fell to the ground that I picked up. Several people around all of a sudden spoke English and were saying, "free, free, you take, yours." We were left holding these keychains with no where to hand them off. A man, who was obviously a plain clothed policeman, came and shooed us away, so off we went with our new fish! It was quite exciting. The vendor must not have had a license to be selling these. We kept laughing at how quickly he disappeared, and wondered how he knew the policeman was coming.
Later Sunday afternoon we headed over to the Honqiao Marriott where the Middle School choir was singing for a tree lighting ceremony. Many of Paige's friends are in the choir. With wonderful Chinese flair, a Santa, lit with sparklers, flew across the lobby, dropping sparklers everywhere as he went, and lit a very large explosion of sparklers on the other side of the lobby. Don't know if there are any safety standards for these kinds of things, here. Sure makes it fun, though! 
We have been trying to get our livingroom furniture recovered, so Ridley and I finally made an appointment and hopped a taxi to the far outer reaches of Shanghai to one of many warehouse districts, this one more of a furniture and design area. We walked into a building under construction on the bottom two floors, and then came in to this area where women were all busy sewing upholstery.
This larger room is where the fabric was being attached to the furniture which we saw being made on another floor. Everything right here. Anything you want, they can make. Ridley and I went into another room to find the fabric we wanted. We went through countless books trying to find fabric that was in stock so we could have them made quickly -
10 days. After many changes we decided upon some fun, wild aubergine, red, gray and green mixed. Sounds interesting, huh? Don't worry. The next day our gal called to say that, in fact, that fabric was no longer available! Uggg. The warehouse is so far out there we are not interested in going back out, even though they have our furniture slip covers. We found a store they work with around the corner from here, so there is another fabric expedition planned for later this morning! Because she had promised us we had chosen available fabric, she has now said that they will make the slip covers in 4 days, once they get the fabric. WOW! 4 days. We'll see.
Xiangyang Park is around the corner from us, and is a wonderful, typical Shanghai Park. Everything is highly planned for activity and communal gatherings. I have shown photos of the park in the morning when everyone is out exercising in their various chosen forms, and now it is late morning and it is just a gathering spot. Storey and I came here to hangout on a beautiful Sunday morning while Ridley and Paige walked further down the street to one of our favorite DVD stores. We were all waiting for the dim sum restaurant to open. Back to the parks here - it is about nature, but not about nature being natural, if that makes sense. Part of the idea of nature is to make it beautiful through human design and for human use. It is designed with lots of trees, shrubs, flowers, rocks, walkways, all to be used by everyone. This large walkway into the park has benches on both sides, and one of the activities in the middle on this day is one of the water painters. Drawing Chinese characters is an art form, and on the gray surface the water characters stay long enough to be admired by passersby. Sorry not to know what he is writing about. I am sure it has to do with happiness, good long life, things like that - or quotes from famous writers. . . 
Around one of the many paths surrounded by trees, we found a covered open area where a serious game of Chinese checkers was in progress. In the summer time these shaded areas, surrounded by trees, help provide some relief from the heat while gathering in all possible wind currents.
As we followed this path around, hidden by trees and shrubs and curving walkways, Storey and I came upon this children's area, that in all our previous visits to the park we had neglected to find. It is well tucked away, which is private for the kids, and a happy hidden corner from all the other park visitors! Several rides, a carousel, this water ride, and carnival like games are all available.
Storey begrudgingly admitted that she was a tad too big to go on the rides. She would have loved to get on them all. Instead she found carnival games that were thoroughly enjoyable. She shot balls, trying to knock over animals in this one. She had quite a crowd that gathered behind her to check out her accomplishments. One of the onlookers was a dad who decided he needed to try his hand....
He took over the very small seat to prove his worth while his son stood by, not getting the opportunity to play!
Storey found pictures hanging on a kiosk and we saw this paint table and assumed they all went together. She got a butterfly and the gentleman in the kiosk ran for one of the women helpers who came and pealed the design off the paper, transferred it to a metal sheet and gave it back to Storey.
Storey very calmly and cooly painted, head down, while once again she attracted lookers on. No personal space problems here!
Ridley and Paige soon showed up and Paige joined in the fun with a fish design. When finished, the gentleman in the kiosk put the metal sheets in a little toaster oven and baked it and we got to take home the masterpieces. We thought they were stained glass window designs, but we have yet to get them to stick to the windows.
One more water shooting game before we left. There were several attendants walking around and taking care of everyone's needs. It was quite organized, civilized and fun. With the last paint applied and baked, we then scurried off to our dim sum brunch, thoroughly enjoying our local park!
One courtyard with shops and restaurants below, living above. (The girls are really tired of me taking pictures, but sometimes you just need someone in them!)
Paige's holiday concert was on Friday night. This is the newly buzzed Ridley sitting in the audience as we waited for Paige's group - which happened to be the last group of the night!
Paige is playing clarinet, first seat in the second row on the left. She is one of three 6th graders in a band made up of a few 7th graders and mostly 8th graders. They were really pretty good. Another fun school event. Marianne and Luci got to attend both performances - lucky them! - and Luci got to spend the day at school with Paige.
Ridley and I received a very rare gift of going to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. We were invited by my tutor, Dean, to hear a concert given by his cousin Guang Yang, a mezzzo soprano of outstanding ability. Her voice is spectacular. She lives in New York and sings around the world and is back in Shanghai to give a Master Class at the Conservatory for 2 months. She will be back again next year to sing in Don Carlos at the Shanghai Opera. It was a magical evening to be able to walk down the street and hear this world class singer in a beautiful setting. Once again my little iphone camera can't quite capture the details, but it gives a bit of an idea.
I am endlessly amazed at how things are put together here. Below you will find important wiring in the heart of the city. How does it all work???
Marianne and I took a day to walk down Nanjing Lu, the great pedestrian street that ends at the Peace Hotel and the Bund. The Peace Hotel has enjoyed great history in Shanghai, being constructed in the 1920's by Sassoon. The Peace Hotel also now comprises the building next door which was the Cathay Hotel, very luxurious in its day. It is all now under renovation, to be reopened in 2009, in time for the Shanghai World Expo, 2010. The whole city is preparing for this big event.
Looking back at the Peace Hotel from the Bund.
Huangpu River and the Pudong side of Shanghai - the Pearl TV tower, Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Tower, among the many other buildings in the ever growing "new city". 
Lots of kites and all kinds of "stuff" available to buy on the Bund. I am not sure where you can go in this city without finding something to buy!
The Gardens here are very planned and orderly and include necessary elements of rock, wood, water, feng shui design. Very easy to meander and not quite know where you end up.
This was the Dragon courtyard, so named for the Dragon wall that surrounded it. There are buildings, water and places for meditation behind every turn.
Marianne and Luci took the overnight train to Beijing last night and are now with the Walters visiting Beijing (The Great Wall today) and then Xi'an before we all meet up in Chengdu on Friday to spend a few days with the panda's and other great sites. It may take me a month, again, to get caught up from our trip, so please excuse the lapse in blog reporting while we are away.
