Our First Visitor (part one) March 12, 2010
Posted by freda in China.trackback
First of all, I’d like to belatedly wish everyone a Happy Year of the Tiger! We missed a good deal of the celebration in the city as we were in South Africa, but there were fireworks every night for over two weeks, up to and including the last night, Lantern Festival, on February 28th, so we did actually witness a little of the biggest holiday of the year. The lobby of our apartment complex had a fabulous display for the holiday…
(I apologize for all photo placements – I’m a blog newbie and still learning the “insert” function.)
Our first visitor, Don’s mum, Elsie, arrived the evening of February 25th for two weeks with us. Despite unfortunate weather (heavy fog, rain, snow!) I think we showed her a good time. I felt bad that, because I haven’t lived here very long, I don’t yet know all the best places to take a visitor, and the weather did stop us doing a few activities, but … we managed to pack quite a lot in, and there’s always next time!
We stayed low key for the first couple of days. For Elsie’s first morning, I took her walking through our ‘hood – along the river, out for lunch to our favourite local, Element Fresh, a quick stop at City Shop for a few groceries. Then our driver picked us up and we went to the fabric market – the required first day activity if you want to take some custom-made clothes home!
On Saturday we went furniture shopping – Don and I are still looking for a few needed pieces. Didn’t decide on furniture (though we found a few potentials), but I did get a lovely old curio (supposedly 80 years old) for display on the living room table…
I’m not sure what it’s original use would have been … I’ll have to do some research.
We also spent a few hours shopping in the “fake” market, which is always fun. Everything from watches, handbags, belts, sunglasses, sports jerseys and luggage (knock-offs), to the curios like fans, silk and pashima shawls, Chinese-style clothing, and placemats, table runners, shoe bags, etc, plus pearls and other jewelry. The shopping is endless!
On Sunday we went to the Westin for brunch and entertainment. The brunch was absolutely delicious and the entertainment was … okay. This fellow – 
was making little critters from bamboo reeds for the women and children.
There was a lovely orchestra playing while we ate, and then a variety of entertainment –
the orchestra
After brunch we went to YuYuan Gardens, a Shanghai must-see. When we planned this excursion, however, we didn’t realize we were going on the busiest day of the year – Lantern Festival Day. The crowds were amazing! But, once through the shopping area and over the zig-zag bridge (several right angles, designed to thwart bad spirits who can only travel in straight lines (!)), the garden was beautiful and peaceful.
everyone having fun…
Lanterns hanging everywhere, of course, because of the festival.
over the zig-zag bridge…
into the beautiful garden…
okay, not everyone was having fun!
Elsie and I stayed home on Monday morning to watch the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. In the afternoon we walked to Bamboo Massage for foot massages – a first time treat for Elsie, and she’s hooked!! Then Mr. Shi picked us up and we went to Carrefour for groceries – a must-do outing: the size of the store, the noise, the crowds, the unidentifiable food – it’s an adventure!
Don left for Cairo really early Tuesday morning. Elsie and I picked up my friend Kim and the three of us went to Taikung Lu, the artists’ enclave. We wandered the alleyways, shopped the boutiques, (I bought an adorable “commie pig” (love the humour!) 
),
ate lunch at a great little cafe.
Freda and kim checking out a shop… and one of the little alleyways….
Then we went to the Gang of One Studio (www.gangofone.com.cn) to buy a couple of photos by Wang Gangfeng, famous Shanghai photographer. Kim has actually met both him and his wife, Coin Qian, a painter. (www.coinqian.com) Wonderfully for us, Coin happened to be in the gallery/shop and helped us in our selection of photos, as well as spent time chatting with us about her husband’s work, her own work, and showed us her studio workshop. I bought two of Gangfeng’s colour photos of people on their bikes in the rain, with their ponchos over themselves and their bikes – a very typical scene here.
this is my photo of one of the pictures I bought. The other one is rather similar, taken at the same street corner, but a bit of a different scene.
Do check out his website, though, because his pictures are so great. The black and white ones of children are adorable. Before we leave I’ll be buying a few more, I’m sure.
The rest of the week was spent doing some more shopping – fake market, pearl market, fabric market – and a couple of tourist things. We spent a couple of hours at the Jade Buddha Temple, one of Shanghai’s few Buddhist temples.
It was built between 1911 and 1918, has several statues…
and carvings, including a lovely laughing Buddha…
and a reclining Jade Buddha…
But, the “centrepiece” is a 1.9 meter-high pale-jade Buddha, which you have to admire from afar, and can’t take pictures of.
We also went to the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall – an excellent museum centre that houses a good display of the coming Shanghai World Expo and an incredible model of Shanghai that takes a whole floor….
Our apartment complex is featured in this picture on the right… basically we’re right in from of that small ferry boat – the four taller building around the shorter one that’s (almost) lined up with the little ferry boat. That shorter building in front is actually not accurate to our complex – it’s the common area, but in reality, the common area building is only a few floors high.
On Friday night we packed our suitcases for our early Saturday morning flight to Beijing….
freda's world adventures 
Those crowds look pretty good — but nothing like the downtown Vancouver crowds for the Olympics! 😀