Saturday, May 28, 2005

Baoluo part 2

My Japanese language exchange partner from Beijing (Isao) and his girlfriend (Fumi) are in town for a week (staying at our place). They like cats a lot, so they're getting along with Maomao quite well. Tonight we went back to Baoluo. Here's a picture of my friends:

Baoluo part 2 [Fumi, Isao]

Here are the first dishes to come (both cold appetizers). I really like the roast tofu soaked in some sort of tasty sauce. The green vegetables with minced tofu is also very nice.

Baoluo dishes (xianggan malantou, sixi kaofu)

We stopped at a Hong kong-style dessert place on the way back. Very similar to Hui Lau San (across the street). Gina & I think that Tang Tang should open up a place like that in Beijing...

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Zhenjiang

Last night, we left at 11 p.m. (after Gina got off work) on a quick one-day trip to Zhenjiang (4/5 of the way from Shanghai to Nanjing). I was hopeful of finding some unpublished tomb epitaphs, and Gina came along for the ride. It was not exactly a pleasant train trip on a hard-seater in the middle of the night. We sought refuge in the train restaurant for a while, ordering a dish we didn't really want. But by a bit past midnight, the restaurant staff started encouraging customers to vacate the premises and we spent the rest of the trip with everybody else in the crowded train car. We arrived in Zhenjiang a little before 3 AM and went straight to the hotel.

The Zhenjiang museum is set in the former grounds of the British Consulate (part of Zhenjiang became a British concession after the Treaty of Tianjin). Here's a view of the museum from the front:

Zhenjiang museum

I arrived at the museum just after 9. It turns out that May 18 is National Museum Day, so there was free admission. To my surprise, an assistant director of the museum was waiting for me near the entrance and somehow managed to identify me immediately (could it have been because I'm not Chinese?). He brought me to his office, informed me of a whopping 300 RMB fee for access to the storage rooms, and led me to a room in a locked building near the back of the museum compound. I was definitely disappointed to discover no unpublished inscriptions there, though it was still fun to look at some of the stones (and bricks) from up close (though was it worth 300 RMB?). After inspecting the available material, I spent a little additional time looking around the museum grounds. The museum is finely situated on the side of a hill, with a view of the surrounding area (including the Yangzi River in the distance):

View from Zhenjiang museum

(the small hill with the pagoda on top that can be barely made out in the background is Jiaoshan Park...more on that below).

Gina met me at the museum to have a peek as well. Here we are (very coincidentally wearing similar clothing):

Us with white shirts

Possibly because of the free admission, it was interesting to observe several couples taking their marriage pictures in the museum grounds:

Wedding pictures

We walked along the Yangzi for a ways, then hopped on a bus that took us to the entrance to Jiaoshan Park. Jiaoshan Park is a small mountain-island (180 meters or so tall) in the middle of the Yangzi River. After crossing over on a ferry, we wandered around a little bit. Here we are amid Japanese maples:

Japanese maples

The primary destination for me was the Jiaoshan Inscription Museum, featuring numerous stone inscriptions going back as far as the Six Dynasties Period (i.e. 3rd-6th centuries). There were more tomb epitaphs of interest, though, unfortunately, none that had not already been published. Here's me examining an epitaph (just so there's a little solid evidence that I was working hard on this trip)...sorry the picture is a little blurry:

Examining a tomb epitaph

We also climbed the mountain which had views of the Yangzi River (although the views were largely obstructed by tree foliage...we were too cheap to pay the additional 15 RMB to climb the pagoda on top of the hill that would have brought us above the trees). There were some pretty impressive barges visible in the distance:

Looking towards the Yangzi

On the way back to the ferry, Gina was suddenly very excited to have found a fruit-covered mulberry tree:

Picking mulberries

Mulberries

We headed back into town and, after exploring a little downtown, where we got some fairly tasty choudoufu (fermented tofu) and relaxed in KFC for a while, we boarded a 6:10 express train back to Shanghai. By 9, we were home. Maomao seemed reasonably happy to see us...

Friday, May 06, 2005

Baoluo

After a day of reading gazetteers regarding Changshu County, I went with Gina & Meimei to Baoluo Restaurant (which specializes in Shanghainese food). I was disappointed. We had been there before and the food was excellent, but we decided to try new things, and most weren't good. About the best thing we ordered was laziji which isn't even Shanghainese. Meimei liked the chilis in the laziji:

Grasping chilis

Swallowing chilis

Here's a good shot of Gina eating an orange:

Eating an orange (close-up)

After dinner, we tried going to this bar/club called "Windows Too". It's supposed to attract the young crowd and have 10 kuai drinks; Meimei is young and we thought we'd take her. But when we got there, we discovered there was a 50 kuai cover (which defeats the point of cheap drinks) AND the crowd was very young and very non-Chinese and generally very scary.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

May Day

For the May Day holidays (one week in China), Gina's little sister ("Meimei") is in town. Today I took her to Jinmao tower:

Meimei beneath Jinmao

Here's also a view of her looking towards the Oriental Pearl (that horrendously ugly structure with the two red globes):

Meimei and Oriental Pearl

After walking over to the Intercontinental Hotel, where Gina was minding the hotel wine shop (hoping to sell that 1929 Bordeau which would get her a nice commission), we took the subway to see two of Shanghai's universities: Huadong Normal (not worth setting foot in) and Jiaotong University (ok if you're in the neighborhood). Here's a picture of Meimei at Jiaotong University:

Jiaotong University

Finally, we walked over to Xujiahui and stopped at Ganghui Plaza. I love the floating red globes (I think we've got a theme going here):

Ganghui Plaza

In the evening, we walked over to Wujiang Road (street with lots of small restaurants and snacks, including fried buns), passing across a large overpass:

six-level overpass

Here is what Wujiang Road looks like at night:

Wujiang Road

After the fried buns, we had Chongqing-style chicken hotpot:

Chicken hotpot

Notice how happy Meimei looks with all that spicy food!

More bandwagon

To copy Christine (she should know I would do this given how much Isaac & I like looking at the atlas), here's the states I've visited:




and the countries I've visited:




create your own visited states map
create your own visited countries map