Shanghai Art Expo

This is one courtyard of the Shanghai Exhibition Hall where the International Shanghai Art Expo is being held. If you enjoy art, continue! I have downloaded various art pieces from the Expo. In typical fashion, the address that was recommended in the paper was not the right place to go in, so in order to buy a ticket, I had to walk through a parking lot, go down an alley, go through barriers, and proceed to a gate where I could buy an entrance ticket. It was on the opposite side of the building. This is the front courtyard. An amazing thing for me is how alive Elvis and Marilyn Monroe still are, even here in Shanghai.
This is Haibao, the mascot for the International Shanghai Expo 2010. He is everywhere, ads are everywhere and work is happening all over the city to give it a facelift before the world comes to Shanghai! Work is still going on outside our lane. Today the sidewalk is completely torn up, huge machines in front of the lane. We were laughing at how we have to make our way around all the construction. In the States the street would be blocked off for a half block either direction. Every man for himself. But I digress. . . . .
This was the most amazing painting. It looked like real gauze had been placed on the canvas.

This is a detail of majongg tiles that make up the next piece you see.

I didn't photograph another sculpture of a face that was very detailed and made from ink stamps. I love this Chinese artists take on Andy Warhol drowning, being swallowed, in his art!
This was the centerpiece of the exhibition. I won't expound on all the possible meanings of it! It is huge with a barrier around it and lights blaring for all the professional photographs being taken.

An interesting installation from Taiwan. There were about 5 more of the paintings on this backdrop and the was the whole exhibit from this particular gallery.

From Marlborough Gallery in NY. This is a very layered piece with burlap on the red side of the face and at the bottom. Stunning.
More from Marlborough. There were about 5 of these large cast bell-like figures.
Elvis lives! . . . on computer paper, crumpled, streaked and hanging on the wall.
The only ancient replicas in the whole place.

I couldn't take my eyes off of these two.
Warhol's Mao - 1973.
Hmmm. Carcasses. There was a large concrete rectangle on the floor with another carcass coming out.
One of many Bottero drawings from Marlborough.
A most beautiful Bottero bird.
A fabulous experience to see and be around art again. It has been a long time for me, and being by myself I wandered and took my time. Lovely.

M

Shanghai Daily

Storey here! Here's some more news of Shanghai daily. This week on Monday we got an ayi to cook for us, we had pot stickers on Tuesday for dinner. We have a different ayi to clean for us she only comes in the moring. We only have PE on Wendsday and Tursday. We get two recesses. The ayi is babysitting us tonight they have to go to a meeting at school. The new books that my dad is writing is Kingdom Keepers 2, Peter and the Starcathers, and Steel Trap 2. I think all of them will be very good so make sure to read them. We hang our clothes on a line instead of using our drying mashine it's for when it rains or snows. That's all for today zai jian ( bye bye)!

Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC)

Today in Shanghai. I went with my friend Julie to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which has the honor of having the tallest observation platform in the world. They know they can keep that distinction for about another 6 months before a building in Dubai is completed. These workers were on this platform suspended from the side of the building. I think they were really just there for photo opportunities since we could see them do nothing the entire time! This is looking out east over the Pudong area. We live on the west side of the river in Puxi - Pu meaning river, Xi meaning west. Pudong is Pu = river, dong = east. Pudong is the much newer section with compounds abounding and new buildings where rice patties were just 10 years ago.



This is the view looking toward Puxi. The Pearl Tower is the needle/bulbous tower to the right of "workers" on the other side of the building.

This is in the elevator, giving constant height information. We went up to 550 meters, I believe, before we stopped the first time. It takes three elevators to get to the top, so of course you must pay for three elevators!
The whole entrance felt a bit like a futuristic Disney ride, and we saw a light show in a small room before entering the elevators. The light show has a brochure just describing it and the artist. It seems like every major event has a mascot, and this building has a flying cartoon like bird, and the lights show had funny little fish and bird like figures swimming around the light. Then, enter into the elevator where there is a 70's disco strobe light thing happening on three walls and the ceiling while you climb to the 96th floor. A little disconcerting.
More Pudong views. There are housing complexes with roof tops all the same color, such as this red roof top division. There were blue roofs, orange roofs, red and one other color, escaping me right now.
From the 100th floor, we could look down through a glass floor. We are looking at traffic and a park.
More roof tops.
My friend, Julie, from Minneapolis. She has been here for about two years and has given me so many helpful hints and places to go. The tough bargaining gal!
A lovely random piece of plywood just hanging around at 550 meters in the sky! And workers for show.
This is a huge, beautiful building we are looking down on. The intracasy of the steel and glass work can't really be seen well, but it was stunning.
The top floor.
The building from the ground. The hole at the top of the building is not seen from here, but it looks like a bottle opening. The story goes that this building was begun over 8 years ago and the original design was a circle opening at the top. It started looking too much like the rising Japanese sun, so they were asked to change it. It took 7 or 8 years to get through that request, and finally it was finished just last week.
We had lunch looking back toward Puxi at an Italian restaurant called The Kitchen. Delicious and a beautiful view of the river and all the traffic making its way down. A cruise ship dock will be opening soon, bringing a whole new set of tourists to the city.
M

Shanghai Daily

My name is Storey Pearson. Being here in Shanghai is a great experience. It's very hot here in Shanghai. The food is the best ever! Everyone is so skinny but they eat so much food! For me School is fun but still hard my teacher is Mr.Park. He is from New Zeland. At lunch they always give us rice. In Science we are plating seeds without water it's called Hydrophonices. My two new friends are Cathy and Natasha. You will always be tired at the end of the day. There is a fruit here called Dragon fruit. They say it makes your skin more buautiful. That's it for today of Shanghai Daily.

A weeks worth of fun to catch up on! It takes a long time to download the photos, and often the connection is lost and you have to start all over - as just happened to me. There is a group of photos that just won't load for me today. I will try another day.

This is a dull shot of waiting at the bank to withdraw money - larger than the 2000rmb that you can take out at the ATM. When you walk in the lobby, you take a ticket (must know which button to push for the foreign window - all in Chinese characters of course) and then you walk through the lobby, around a corner and down a hall to this waiting area. There are tellers behind glass windows (I was not allowed to photograph them) at desks, and when your number comes up, you sit and transact your business. It is all so civilized and orderly. There are queues for everything.


We took the girls to the bus yesterday morning at our usual 7:10, and as we were waiting we heard endless firecrackers explode. It went on for a good 5 minutes and was coming from our corner. After the girls got on the bus, we headed down to check out the excitement. It was the opening of a new store. Flowers adorn the exterior, and as we arrived they were sweeping the sidewalk of the 4" deep debris from the firecrackers. We checked out the new store - a bakery! We are good patrons already. They have fancy pigs in a blanket, all kinds of unknown pastries filled with honey, cream, sesame seed paste, cheese, cakes, cookies, sliced wheat and white bread and more. I went back before the girls got home to get them a snack, and they were sweeping up again from another round of firecrackers. They were also handing out pieces of sponge cake, heavy on the icing. I went back again this morning, and the cake is still flowing, and a whole new set of pastries were set out, so of course I couldn't find what I was looking for from the day before! Anyway, a shot of the new shop with the flowers out front. Paige's favorite bao spot next door.
Another shot in which I really can't capture the craze of the street. We walked out of our lane on Saturday morning and everything was normal. Returning home less than an hour later, the sidewalks and gutters and fencing along the road had been completely torn down. They are redoing the gutters and sidewalks, and the process is fascinating. They just dig in and let everyone else figure out how to deal with it. Bikes, motorcycles, people walking are all on the street, and at times, now all on the sidewalk! There is never a moment of inattentive walking around here. When cars back up out of the lanes, they just back up. Whoever is behind, or cruising down the street, is in charge of watching out for themselves. Cars also do U-turns in the middle of these narrow streets with cars zooming by and 2-wheeled vehicles zooming by. There don't appear to be too many rules to the road beyond watching out for yourself. I guess that's always a good rule in life! We think they are starting the preparations for Expo 2010 now that the Olympics are over. The Expo is in Shanghai, and there are already massive posters and advertising for it. The mascot is a blue gumby-like looking character. I will have to get a shot of him somewhere.
This is Max, our dear friend we met at Lulu's Seafood in St. Louis. He was always so kind to us when we were there, bringing us extra treats and introducing us to the "real" Chinese food. He lives here in Shanghai, and is back working for BMW. He has been so gracious, doing so much for us. We have gone out to dinner a couple of times with him and his best friend Spike, and his fiance Shelly. (Next picture) They are getting married next week and have invited us to the reception (I think only family attends the actual ceremony). We are thrilled to be able to be a part of a Chinese occasion like this. Max took us (yes, wouldn't let us pay a quai!) to dinner at South Beauty. They ordered up a feast, and everything was extraordinary. The girls loved every bit of it, too.
Shelly and Spike. Most professional Chinese all have English names. Shelly does all the food ordering.
We went back to South Beauty with some friends who visited. This is Maya, and she and her mom and dad are going to live in Chengdu for a year, as we are doing in Shanghai. We hope to visit them at some point. They are from the Seattle area.
Bob, Maya's dad. Six years of learning Chinese, speaking almost everyday, and he thinks he MAY be at about a 3rd grade level. My tutor just told me that at the end of lessons this year, I may be at Kindergarten level!
Jen Levine, Ridley's publicist from Disney was here and took us all to dinner. Fun to see her.
Water on both sides of the walkway as you enter the restaurant. Mirrored doors at the end that slide open at the last moment.
We are off to buy some softer mattresses than what we have been given! See what we find.

Marcelle

We found an indoor "wet" market we had heard about, not far from our house. The first floor had all kinds of meats, dried and VERY fresh, prepared food and some, not much, seafood. The second floor was filled with the most beautiful vegetables, half of which we could not recognize, but we know are delicious, from our restaurant voyages, if we could figure out how to cook them!The eggplant is spectacular. So delicious.
All kinds of peppers, spices, grains, mushrooms.


Modern electronic city! We go in here where there are a million different booths, and find office supplies, bikes, printer cartridges, pots and pans, cameras, computers, tvs, almost anything you could want!
It's really just stuff, stuff, stuff everywhere in this "modern" city.
The first week of school was busy and fun. Storey is still thinking that the teachers are far too strict over here! Paige is having a ball running from class to class and building to building. She has already made some wonderful friends from all over. Her closest friend, right now, is Elmsley who is American but just moved from England. She was born in London and has a lovely accent. I went on an outing yesterday with 3 other women, and Elmsley's mom was there. She went to college and met her husband in Idaho! The other woman I met was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, just down the road from us in Hailey, and then lived in St. Louis for 9 years before heading to Shanghai! The other woman who put the whole event together is from Minnesota, and knows my friend Nancy Erickson because their sons were in school together. What a small world that we all meet here in Shanghai, China!! We took one gals car and driver (how nice) out west to a well known antique furniture warehouse. It has exquisite pieces, is clean, organized (very unlike the others I have been to!) and very expensive. She also doesn't bargain. It is really just for westerners. Fun to see. We then went to the Hongqiao flower market which is endless and amazing. First we walked through plants, bonzai's of every sort, through gorgeous orchids, cut flowers, and then there are shops upon shops of ceramics, silk, fish, home decorations, wrapping goods, ceramic sinks, incense shops. I had a big lesson in bargaining. I thought the prices were amazing, but the gals I was with said they were much more expensive than normal, and we bargained hard for everything, and walked away 80% of the time. That is the key. You can't be too attached to anything. The prices were good, but I guess more than they should be. I did walk away, however, with a gorgeous white orchid, with pot, for 30 rmb - about $4.50. Huge bunches of flowers were 10 rmb for the whole bunch. I had to bargain hard to get the vase with the price of the flowers. You promise to come back and fill up the vase! Bargaining is exhausting! We were there until about 2:30 without lunch, so we ate at about 3 and gave up the fabric mart for another day!

I am off to school for a PAFA meeting - Parents and Friends Association. I am starting my language lessons either today or Thursday, could join the American Women's Club among about 10 other clubs. I think I will just focus on school - for the girls and me. But I was invited to a Wednesday mahjongg group which I will start. Too much to do already!