Sight seeing with the Evans

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.