We may do a more detailed post on our trip to Qingdao eventually. But my coworkers asked me to put together a short PPT presentation to show photos from the trip, so I thought I’d share it here as well. Enjoy!

From the road we saw the Shanghai (Pudong side) skyline (the three tall buildings above from left to right are the Pearl tower, the JinMao tower, and the World Financial Center – tallest in China reminiscent of a “bottle opener”).  And we passed the Expo below:

Roshley’s apartment is comfortable and in a great central location – cab rides almost anywhere we went in the city were quick, easy and cheap (under $2 with no tipping allowed). Here’s the entrance to their complex:

The view from their balcony (at least in clear weather like we had for the first half of our stay) is spectacular – many of the Puxi side high rise buildings and some of the Pudong side buildings were visible and lit up at night:

Ashley took us to register at the local police station – requiring extra copies of our passports and departure forms.  On the walk we saw some less developed streets of Shanghai:

Laundry was sometimes hanging on rods on the sidewalk across the street from the apartments!  Construction sites were modestly covered (as part of Expo cleanup) by walls, often with Expo signs (Haibao the mascot, was everywhere):

For dinner we all cabbed into the French concession with tree lined streets, to one of many Expat friendly restaurants in Shanghai – more like a California restaurant than what one might expect in China.

A weekend of touring in Shanghai followed with Roshley as knowledgeable, indefatigable guides.  We walked down the nearby main shopping street of Nanjing Lu, much like the nicest shopping street of any big city (malls, individual stores, Christmas-like lights decorating trees) to a very modern and user-friendly use Metro.  We headed over to Pudong on the other side of the Hangpu River to check out the view from the top of one of the towers – we chose the art-deco looking 88-story JinMao tower.  This part of Shanghai is rather other worldly – busy with sightseeing crowds but everything was new and spread out – high rises or shopping malls and nothing else – nothing old or small or residential.

We then went to Madison, a restaurant owned by a chef friend of Roshley’s, for a very nice lunch.

Came across a children’s library:

And had dinner in a Yunnan cuisine restaurant:

(One advantage of a guest blog is more pictures of both Ashley and Rob!)
On Sunday we went to the Xintiandi area, an upscale pedestrian shopping area that had two historic parts: a recreated house showing Shanghai lifestyle in the 1920’s and the location of the founding of the communist party in China:

We had a fabulous dim sum lunch with several Roshley friends and then Rob took us to the urban planning museum in Peoples Square where we saw a huge model of all of Shanghai and an exhibit of buildings worldwide designed by the architect John Portman.

We parents were then on our own for much of the work week.  The Zhao cards Roshley provided us with, 100 green cards the size of business cards with locations of interest in Shanghai printed on them in both English and Chinese, made directing cabbies to our destination a breeze.  And the metro was easy too, although more walking was then required.  Sights included the fabulous Shanghai museum with ancient 3 color ceramics,

Taikang Lu art street, a rabbit’s warren of tiny pedestrian alleys full of quaint up-scale shops, antique shops and the Yuyuan bazaar, a street food market, the Shanghai history exhibit under the Pearl tower, the Fake Market, and Expo (a visit cut short by crowds and heat).
Meals included a fancy dinner at M on the Bund, overlooking the remarkable sight of many new skyscrapers across Huangpu River, authentic Shanghai cuisine at Din Tai Fung, Mexican, and Element Fresh.
We met Roshley’s Ayi and sampled some of her home cooking and met their language tutor.

Finally, for our last weekend in Shanghai, Roshley arranged a trip for the four of us to nearby Hangzhou.  We caught an early train from the southern station for a cheap, comfortable 90 minute ride at up to 100mph.

We checked into the Shangri La hotel

After a huge buffet lunch at the hotel we walked over to the beautiful West Lake.  It was man-made 1000 years ago, with two long causeways crossing it and an island across a bridge with lotus blossoms and mountains in the distance.

We hired a small boat with one rower who rowed us around the lake with a single oar.

A favorite wedding photo spot:

Ate on island at famous 150 year old Lou Wei Lou restaurant including fatty pork:

And West Lake sweet and sour carp, shown to us live before our meal:

Then (between showers to cool off) a trip to a street market and then to a light show with dancing on the water:

Took a Sunday a trip by bus to the Longjing tea culture village, only finding private households selling tea:

And then a return to a small restaurant for several local dishes, including Beggar’s Chicken cooked in lotus leaves, claws, head, and all:

Then a hot stroll through a pedestrian street market, an uneventful return by train to Shanghai, and, for the parents, a long flight home.

Additional notes: wild taxi rides driving down the wrong side of the road, street signs in English too, so easy to navigate, people in public in pajamas, children in split pants, a bustling economic miracle in the making, official looking people almost everywhere (e.g., crossing guards), huge crowds in many places, not drinking the water takes getting used to, Roshley seems to us quite adept at communication.

Thanks to Roshlooper for hosting our wonderful visit.

Anyway, here’s an article about how people in Shanghai are dealing with the heat (pictures aren’t showing up right now for some reason, but they’re pretty funny). The cab rides home from work are getting more interesting…a lot of times I head south down Changhua Road around 7 PM, and dozens of people are out in the streets playing cards or Chinese chess, shopping, smoking, squatting, talking, fanning themselves, watching their kids run around and play, etc. It’s something I feel like I’d never get to see in the US (even if it is, sadly, because many of these people don’t have AC and just want to beat the heat).

Our map has been updated. We visited Hangzhou with my parents (post coming) and added some more places we’d like to visit. Also, I’ve integrated it with the blog so that if you click on a city we’ve been to (blue), the link to the relevant blog post comes up. Fancy technology! Enjoy.

Some of you have already seen this picture, but for those of you who haven’t we thought we’d post for your enjoyment.

We’ve noticed many dogs here wearing shoes when they’re outside, so we thought we’d try some out on Cooper.  It rains quite a bit in SH and every time we have to take her for a walk when it’s raining her paws and legs get really muddy.  We thought the shoes might help with the muddiness, but as you can tell from her facial expression in this picture– I don’t think the shoes are going to work out.  I wish I had taken a video of her first time walking in them!  Even our Ayi had to giggle watching Cooper struggle with the shoes.

In other news, Rob’s parents are in town!  They arrived last Friday and are here until next Monday.  Our first house guests!!  They’ve agreed to do a guest blog post, so stay tuned for that sometime in the next few days!

don't i look good?

hellooooooo world!!! it was a rough trip, but here i am in….where am i, again?

welcome to my first dlog post. if you like reading it, i will accept a cookie as reward. an ear rub would be nice, too.

i’m so excited to be back with mom and dad, but things seem…well…different. first off, it’s HOT outside, and muggy, and rains more often. people here talk funny and here’s the craziest part—they don’t seem to think i’m adorable! when i take mom or dad for a walk, we see lots of people, and i strut my stuff to show them how cute i am, but people just seem to walk away or pretend they don’t see me. i’m not letting it hurt my self-esteem too much…mom and dad still give me the attention i deserve. plus they have new friends…one who’s teaching them to talk funny, and she calls me cute (in the funny-speak). then there’s another one that cleans the house, and i like her a lot except when she brings out  the vacuum cleaner monster.

i like our new house, but my bed is a little too small and sometimes my butt hangs out the back when i lay in it. sometimes instead of my regular dinner i get people food (rice and diced veggies), which is pretty good…but what do i know? i’ll eat anything. when i eat the veggies i get so excited that i leave some stuck to the wall next to my bowl, which is nice ’cause then it’s like an extra snack for later.

i'm supposed to stay on this blanket now on the couch...ha ha yeah right

when i want to “get busy” now i have to ride 24 floors in an elevator, so i’m learning to hold it. that’s good, because i haven’t found a perfect spot to pee yet…sometimes i’ll spend 5 or 6 minutes dragging mom or dad around, looking for that perfect spot, squatting here and there…but it just never feels quite right.

there's so much commotion out there!

well, that’s it for now. i miss my dog friends, and all my other people friends, too. do you think they’ll visit?

did you smell that?? i gotta go. lick you soon!

Earlier this week we decided to go check out Toy Story 3 with a few friends.  It was our first time to a movie theater in China, so I was excited about the experience.  All things considered “going to the movies” is pretty much the same in China as in the U.S., but there were a few key differences.

The price– When we went to buy the tickets (a day early) I realized the prices in SH are similar to any of the major U.S. cities.  It was 100 RMB/ticket, which is almost $15!  That being said, you could buy a VIP card by paying 800 RMB upfront and save 20% off your ticket price as well as food– a pretty good deal.  The theatre was also assigned seating, which was really nice, although we had to get there 30 minutes early to keep our seats.

The concession stand– This was probably the biggest difference for us.  First of all, there were two concession stands.  One for beer (yes, BEER!) and ice cream and the other for popcorn, soda, and candy, etc.  I convinced Rob to order a beer just because he could, which you can see in the pic above.  I didn’t want beer, so I went to the other concession stand where they had tons of other stuff.  I wish we had taken a picture of the concession stand menu!  Just to give you an idea of some of the more noteworthy items– what you see Rob holding in the picture is beef jerky.  We also saw squid on the menu, as well as Pocky (yum!).  For any of you who don’t know what Pocky is see this Wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky.  Of course, popcorn was available, but it was definitely not the kind of popcorn we’re accustomed to!  There were two kinds available, which they called “sweet” and “salty”.  The sweet kind was in the front and seemed to be more popular with the locals (Shanghainese people tend to like sweet foods).  I thought it would be like Kettle Korn, but it turned out to be more like caramel popcorn, but not as sweet.  We opted to order the salty popcorn, but even that was a little sweet.  AND there was no butter available!  I rarely put butter on my popcorn, but it was still strange to not see it on the counter.  Although the ticket prices were a bit expensive, the food prices were much cheaper than in the U.S.  We got a huge combo (two large sodas and a large popcorn) for about $6, plus the discount!

The movie– Our overall movie watching experience was pretty similar except for the Chinese subtitles (in 3D) at the bottom of the screen, which didn’t bother either of us much.  Rob complained that the 3D technology was different and not as good, but I didn’t notice anything.  Although, the glasses were much larger and heavier, which was a bit annoying for me.

All-in I would say our first movie-going experience in China was a success!  I would definitely go back.  :-)

P.S.  Can’t believe it, but today is our 1 year anniversary!  Time sure does go by quickly!!

Nice view from my hotel window

As the name implies, Qiandao Hu is a (man-made) lake full of islands, near Hangzhou. Eleven of us left the office early on Friday morning and took a van the 5ish hours to Qiandao Hu. Checked in to a nice hotel and headed straight to lunch, then to “piao liu,” which was translated on my itinerary as “drift.” When we got there it looked more like whitewater rafting, with two main differences from what I’m used to—there were only two of us per raft, and there weren’t any natural rapids, so every few hundred meters there was a man-made chute that one raft at a time could squeeze down, plummeting 4 or 5 feet into the water below. Tons of fun…everyone got soaked.

"Piao liu" rafts

Dinner both nights had lots of (whole) fish stew, since the area is famous for its fish (as well as Nongfu Spring bottled water, a popular brand available in Shanghai, and Cheerday Beer, which has about the same alcohol content as Nongfu Spring bottled water).

...and plenty of fish for sale in the gift shops!

#88 looks adorable! Let

Saturday we did what I assume is the typical touristy thing to do in Qiandao Hu: we rode a boat from island to island, got off and walked around at each. It was hot/humid as blazes, by the way, so I was dripping sweat the entire time. It was pretty awful from that standpoint. We got the VIP room on our powerfully air-conditioned boat, which was nice.

The islands were hilarious…mostly tourist traps. I don’t remember exactly what was on each island, but they each seemed to have a theme, like Lock Island (I don’t think it was really called that), on which there were giant padlock sculptures, and you could buy a lock with you and your honey’s name on it and lock it to a railing on the island. I once again encountered the speaker-rocks that we saw on Putuoshan, if that gives you an idea of what I was in for.

Here’s some pics of what I saw:

Giant locks!!!

Deadly snakes!!!

A gentleman demonstrating the Beijing Bikini

Some attractive stuff

It really was pretty there...

The craziest/funniest part was when we docked at an island and my coworkers, translating from the guide’s Chinese, asked me if I was interested in seeing the “she-males” on the island. My first reaction was, “why would I want to see that when you can see it every day for free in San Francisco?” But when I thought about it, I started to wonder if they’d be in a cage like the birds, and all the tourists would be pointing and taking pictures. I had to see.

Turns out it was a drag show of sorts, and you had to pay to see it. We opted against. Weird.

Imported from Thailand

Saturday night at dinner we got an extra treat: half of a cow’s head, complete with skull, teeth, and even a little “eyebrow” on one piece of meat (which no one would eat). It was interesting to watch my Chinese coworkers react to the cow head…everyone thought it was funny, and wanted to take pictures, but I was the only one all that grossed out by it. Living and eating here has started to redefine “picky” for me.

Our chief designer taking the half cow head by the horn

We spent the in-between times playing UNO, another card game like Gin Rummy, a dice/drinking game, watching World Cup, working on my Chinese, and walking around sweating a lot.

If any of my coworkers read this, thanks again for a great trip! 下一次我记得说 “UNO”！

Click here for the rest of the pics. And keep your eyes open for upcoming posts about Cooper’s first days in Shanghai, and other recent happenings.

Last night, I went to Guyi, so far one of my favorite Chinese restaurants here, and ate my first spicy frog leg.  It was delicious!  The flavor was really tasty and the texture of the meat was kind of like fish.  I had no idea how to eat it, so I had to ask friends for a tutorial, which of course I got made fun of.  It was worth the humiliation though…. YUM!  I would definitely order again.  :-)

Rob is currently out of town at a work retreat, but I got a text from him last night saying a “highlight” of his dinner  was being served half a cow head!  Right now, I don’t have any other details, but I’m sure he’ll give a full report on the blog next week.  Stay tuned…..

As most of you know, we just recently returned from our first trip back to sunny CA!  We had a GREAT two weeks seeing friends and family (more on that later) and also spending time with our dog, Cooper.  Part of our plan on this trip was to bring Cooper back with us to Shanghai.  The pic above is her in her travel crate on the airplane.  It was a long flight, with the first leg going from LAX to Detroit and then onto Shanghai.  Total airtime was a whopping 19 hours and as you can tell by the look on poor Cooper’s face, it wasn’t a great experience for her!  That being said, she did really well despite only going to the bathroom one time (in the middle of the Detroit airport) and having to stay in the crate for so long.  Luckily, we were able to keep the crate on our lap for most of the trip and we could open the side flap a little, so she could look outside the window and watch the clouds.  Right now, Cooper is in quarantine, but she’s being delivered to her new home, our apartment, on Sunday.  I wonder what she’s thinking about this weather.  Right now we’re enjoying 95 degree temperatures with 90% humidity– lovely.  Hello summer!!!

Click here to skip right to the rest of the pics!

We spent last weekend in Seoul, capital of (South) Korea. Thanks to friends Christina and Brian for showing us around!

The trip consisted mainly of eating, shopping, eating again, drinking, eating dessert, and shopping again. We both like Korean food, but Ash is a little more fanatic about it, so that combined with the shopping meant that she was left with a more favorable opinion of Seoul than I was. But the weather was great, and I wasn’t complaining about the ridiculous over-consumption. Also, it was my first time out of China in awhile and it’s nice to feel like you can eat raw fruit and drink tap water without fear.

We took a red-eye out of Pudong on Friday night. Despite the late flight and fact that I left straight from work, getting there on time was a disaster. Mostly our own fault, but we ended up sprinting through the massive Pudong airport just in time to board. We did notice, however, that we’re getting a little better at frantically communicating in Chinese. Things like “We have to go where?!?!? How do we get there??? Do we have time???”

We got to our hotel around 1 AM and immediately headed out to shop. You read that correctly. One of the “perks” of our hotel being near a major shopping district called Dongdaemun is that the malls all stay open until about 5 AM. It was surreal seeing how busy the malls were with mostly young people shopping as if it was the middle of the day.

They didn’t have much in my size, but I was surprised to see some Indiana University gear:

Ash bought some stuff…I’ll let her provide details (check the comments below) but she got some cool shoes that some of her Korean classmates wear, some socks, and other stuff pretty cheap.

Next day we got up and met our friends for a late breakfast. We passed some places of interest on the way:

And then we were off to the restaurant, where we sat on the floor and ate a feast of meat, kimchi, rice, acorn jelly, seaweed, and other pungent little goodies that are characteristic of Korean food. And, strange enough, potato salad. We ate with the traditional metal chopsticks and spoon.

After that we walked around a cool area with a lot of art galleries and cafes. Even though we were stuffed from lunch we couldn’t help ourselves from stopping in a convenience store to see what other local treats we could find. Answer: melon popsicles and banana milk.

Checking out convenience stores and grocery stores in foreign countries is one of my favorite ways of experiencing cultural differences. (I’m aware this doesn’t make me sound like a very deep person.) There were also full chicken drumsticks (bone in) shrink-wrapped on the shelves.

After a stop at a cafe for some coffee/tea, we went to yet another shopping area to walk around. There were a lot of high-end luxury brand stores and also people selling souvenir-type stuff from booths. We didn’t buy anything, but I did get something for free:

Weird. Then we went back to the area near our hotel. Our friends hadn’t seen the malls we were at until the wee hours of the morning the previous night, so Ash went with them again while I went back to the hotel and napped. A man can only take so much shopping (in my case, next to none).

Then dinner.

We went to a really cool restaurant for some beef grilled at the table. Pic is above (first one in the post) but here’s the outside of the restaurant.

The little vents above each grill suck the smoke up so that you (theoretically) don’t smell like smoke for the rest of the night. The food was amazing. We drank local beer called Cass. It’s better than it sounds.

In what’s becoming typical for us and our Shanghai friends, we went to a separate restaurant for dessert. We’d been excited to try a local favorite: Belgian-style waffles for dessert. Here’s Ashley demonstrating her excitement and sporting her new glasses from the Shangahi eyeglasses market:

I believe this one was the green tea waffle with green tea ice cream, topped with cashews and about a can-and-a-half of whipped cream. It’s one of four that we ordered for the table.

After that it was a night of drinks and dancing. We had a blast, but for some reason my stomach was bothering me. Writing this post, I can’t imagine why…

The next morning we got up and only had a half day before heading back to the airport. We went for brunch with everyone and I discovered something delicious called dukk mandu gook. Then we went to see the “fake river,” which seems to be a draw for locals and tourists alike. It was a hot day, and people were enjoying the water, or even a nap under the bridge. Here’s one last pic of us next to the fake river, just a few minutes before we started heading back…

…but not before eating one more thing. Here’s JT showing off the corndog covered in French fries that we bought off a street vendor. I don’t even think we ate half of it between the 8 of us, but of course we had to try.

Seoul was great but exhausting. If I go back I’m hoping to stay longer, shop less, and eat less.

Now we’re gearing up for our big trip back to the US!! Hope to see you soon.