We flew into Shanghai and took a bus three hours south. Our good friend Paul Grantham had told us about his favorite Chinese city, Hangzhou, which is known for its natural beauty. We were glad we had taken his advice as soon as we saw the impressive landscaping.
But the weather had a big impact on our trip. We experienced typhoon Fitow, down graded to a tropical storm by the time it arrived in Hangzhou, and it rained for three days.
At first we walked around a bit in the rain, and we saw a wedding party.
Then we holed up inside, swimming every day at the hotel's pool.
One day it rained 10 inches. Only a few vehicles even attempted to drive on this road.
And traffic became backed up on the streets that weren't flooded.
We were glad we had rented an apartment hotel and made good use of its kitchen.
We bought oats and cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Pete stir fried peas shoots with garlic and cooked fried rice for lunch.
Kristina made a Vietnamese style pomelo salad. Pomelo is similar to grapefruit. Mixed with a sweet and spicy fish sauce, it was a delicious reminder of the food we ate in Vietnam.
After the rain finally stopped, we spent hours walking around West Lake. This temple complex was from the Song Dynasty, and venerated three generations of kings from the 12th century.
On the temple grounds there were several pomelo trees.
We also noticed Buddhist details like this bronze bell that was hanging from the Sacrifice Hall.
And the wood details were stunning.
The natural beauty of West Lake has been captured in countless poems, with themes like "orioles singing in the willows" and "three pools mirroring the moon" and "Leifeng Pagoda in the evening glow".
We went up the rebuilt Leifeng Pagoda and enjoyed views across the lake.
This man is 92. He wanted to practice his English, so he had us write out some phrases for him.
These women gave Kristina a plastic flower garland to wear for the photo. They were very friendly, but we could only communicate by speaking French, which was pretty limited.
Around the lake we watched several different groups of musicians playing traditional music.
Unfortunately we didn't see these cool tandem bikes to rent until we were halfway around the lake, so we just admired them instead of going for a ride.
This is a view from Su Causeway, which was first built in 1189. It was a lovely shortcut across the lake.
While in Hangzhou we mostly cooked our own food since we were able to get organic produce. But we did have a few meals out. We read a review of a Japanese Izakaya called Yoshikawa, so we went there and we loved their sushi.
All too soon it was time for us to leave. We took a bullet train from Hangzhou, and the station was huge and modern with lots of sky lights. Traveling at speeds up to 200 mph, we got to Shanghai in an hour.
Here is an iconic view of Shanghai looking east across the Huang Po River to Pu Dong, Shanghai's financial district. After having seen this view in countless photographs, it was incredible to experience it through our own eyes.
Pete is in front of Garden Bridge, the view that is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
We saw another wedding couple, this time in front of Monument for the People's Heroes on the Bund.
The Citibank building had some of the best lights on the Bund with this butterfly on flowers.
We went across the Huang Po River to the Pu Dong side to get a closer look. This is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which was completed in 1994.
We were glad there was an elevated pedestrian walkway.
We took the walkway to the Superbrand Mall where we saw a Lego show called "The Art of the Brick" by Nathan Sawaya.
This is the Shanghai Financial Building that was completed in 2008. We read When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques, and learned Shanghai will likely become the financial center of the world within the next 20 years. Pu Dong has only been built within the last 35 years, so this is an amazing prediction. We highly recommend this book as a fascinating and easy to read economic primer on Asia since the 1980's.
At the National Museum we saw this jade funerary "mask" from the Zhou dynasty circa 800 BCE. The Chinese at this time believed that jade had special powers to protect the body, so a king would be buried in cloth adorned with these ornaments.
This calligraphy scroll is entitled "Ode to Peony" and was created by Zhu Yun Ming in the 15th century near Shanghai.
This is the Yu Garden in Shanghai, a 400 year old Chinese pleasure garden. Built during the Ming Dynasty, it was meant for strolling and contemplation. This dragon was atop the wall and has a pearl in his mouth. Pete is standing in an intricate opening in the wall where the top is the dragon's back.
This is the tallest building in the garden, which was one of several ornate pavilions.
The centerpiece of the garden is the Exquisite Jade Rock, a five ton boulder that looks like Swiss cheese. It's said when incense is lit underneath it, smoke comes out all the holes.
Another book we read was The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi, a novel about Shanghai from the 1930's to the 1980's. In it we learned about the longtangs, the traditional urban alley communities where most people lived. We visited Tian Xi Fang, which is a district of longtangs with their original construction that are now chic shops and restaurants.
We love Korean food, so we stopped for lunch in Tian Xi Fang at a BBQ restaurant.
Throughout Shanghai we have noticed that skewer food is all the rage. Pete is enjoying a spiral cut, fried potato skewer.
People were lined up to get their own potato skewer.
We also visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Center. This is a model of the whole city in its current form.
This part of the model shows the 2010 World Expo buildings. Attended by 73 million people during its 10 month run, it set the record for Expo attendance. The theme was "better city, better life", a reflection of our times and how many people live in urban environments.
The mascot for the 2010 Expo was Haibo. Kristina is pictured with a graffiti image of Haibo, which is based on the Chinese character ren for human beings.
We saw a lot of graffiti like this as we headed towards M50, a contemporary art district in Shanghai.
M50 has over 100 galleries and artist studios.
One gallery has this cool image on their door.
These boots with lower leg bones didn't have a title or artist credit, but seemed to be a commentary about the high cost of the US "boots on the ground" policy in the Middle East.
This pencil drawing of the Yu Garden's jade rock entitled Rockery by Li Haifeng says modern Shanghai has a trash problem!
This is a building in Shanghai's old quarter. As you can see, the sky is blue and we haven't experienced bad air quality yet.
One of our favorite ways to have tea is called gung fu cha. Here the proprietor of the tea house is brewing the first round of oolong tea for us.
We also had sesame dumplings in chrysanthemum tisane soup with our tea, yum!
The tea house was in the old part of Shanghai and was decorated with images from 1930s.
This was our view from the tea house looking down to the small street below. Shanghai is an amazing city that has thousands of years of culture, and yet seems completely modern. It has been a delight to experience all the different aspects of, what is now, one of our favorite cities.
But the weather had a big impact on our trip. We experienced typhoon Fitow, down graded to a tropical storm by the time it arrived in Hangzhou, and it rained for three days.
At first we walked around a bit in the rain, and we saw a wedding party.
Then we holed up inside, swimming every day at the hotel's pool.
One day it rained 10 inches. Only a few vehicles even attempted to drive on this road.
And traffic became backed up on the streets that weren't flooded.
We were glad we had rented an apartment hotel and made good use of its kitchen.
We bought oats and cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Pete stir fried peas shoots with garlic and cooked fried rice for lunch.
Kristina made a Vietnamese style pomelo salad. Pomelo is similar to grapefruit. Mixed with a sweet and spicy fish sauce, it was a delicious reminder of the food we ate in Vietnam.
After the rain finally stopped, we spent hours walking around West Lake. This temple complex was from the Song Dynasty, and venerated three generations of kings from the 12th century.
On the temple grounds there were several pomelo trees.
We also noticed Buddhist details like this bronze bell that was hanging from the Sacrifice Hall.
And the wood details were stunning.
The natural beauty of West Lake has been captured in countless poems, with themes like "orioles singing in the willows" and "three pools mirroring the moon" and "Leifeng Pagoda in the evening glow".
We went up the rebuilt Leifeng Pagoda and enjoyed views across the lake.
This man is 92. He wanted to practice his English, so he had us write out some phrases for him.
These women gave Kristina a plastic flower garland to wear for the photo. They were very friendly, but we could only communicate by speaking French, which was pretty limited.
Around the lake we watched several different groups of musicians playing traditional music.
Unfortunately we didn't see these cool tandem bikes to rent until we were halfway around the lake, so we just admired them instead of going for a ride.
This is a view from Su Causeway, which was first built in 1189. It was a lovely shortcut across the lake.
While in Hangzhou we mostly cooked our own food since we were able to get organic produce. But we did have a few meals out. We read a review of a Japanese Izakaya called Yoshikawa, so we went there and we loved their sushi.
All too soon it was time for us to leave. We took a bullet train from Hangzhou, and the station was huge and modern with lots of sky lights. Traveling at speeds up to 200 mph, we got to Shanghai in an hour.
Here is an iconic view of Shanghai looking east across the Huang Po River to Pu Dong, Shanghai's financial district. After having seen this view in countless photographs, it was incredible to experience it through our own eyes.
Pete is in front of Garden Bridge, the view that is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
We saw another wedding couple, this time in front of Monument for the People's Heroes on the Bund.
The Citibank building had some of the best lights on the Bund with this butterfly on flowers.
We went across the Huang Po River to the Pu Dong side to get a closer look. This is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which was completed in 1994.
We were glad there was an elevated pedestrian walkway.
We took the walkway to the Superbrand Mall where we saw a Lego show called "The Art of the Brick" by Nathan Sawaya.
This is the Shanghai Financial Building that was completed in 2008. We read When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques, and learned Shanghai will likely become the financial center of the world within the next 20 years. Pu Dong has only been built within the last 35 years, so this is an amazing prediction. We highly recommend this book as a fascinating and easy to read economic primer on Asia since the 1980's.
At the National Museum we saw this jade funerary "mask" from the Zhou dynasty circa 800 BCE. The Chinese at this time believed that jade had special powers to protect the body, so a king would be buried in cloth adorned with these ornaments.
This calligraphy scroll is entitled "Ode to Peony" and was created by Zhu Yun Ming in the 15th century near Shanghai.
This is the Yu Garden in Shanghai, a 400 year old Chinese pleasure garden. Built during the Ming Dynasty, it was meant for strolling and contemplation. This dragon was atop the wall and has a pearl in his mouth. Pete is standing in an intricate opening in the wall where the top is the dragon's back.
This is the tallest building in the garden, which was one of several ornate pavilions.
The centerpiece of the garden is the Exquisite Jade Rock, a five ton boulder that looks like Swiss cheese. It's said when incense is lit underneath it, smoke comes out all the holes.
Another book we read was The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi, a novel about Shanghai from the 1930's to the 1980's. In it we learned about the longtangs, the traditional urban alley communities where most people lived. We visited Tian Xi Fang, which is a district of longtangs with their original construction that are now chic shops and restaurants.
We love Korean food, so we stopped for lunch in Tian Xi Fang at a BBQ restaurant.
Throughout Shanghai we have noticed that skewer food is all the rage. Pete is enjoying a spiral cut, fried potato skewer.
People were lined up to get their own potato skewer.
We also visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Center. This is a model of the whole city in its current form.
This part of the model shows the 2010 World Expo buildings. Attended by 73 million people during its 10 month run, it set the record for Expo attendance. The theme was "better city, better life", a reflection of our times and how many people live in urban environments.
The mascot for the 2010 Expo was Haibo. Kristina is pictured with a graffiti image of Haibo, which is based on the Chinese character ren for human beings.
We saw a lot of graffiti like this as we headed towards M50, a contemporary art district in Shanghai.
M50 has over 100 galleries and artist studios.
One gallery has this cool image on their door.
These boots with lower leg bones didn't have a title or artist credit, but seemed to be a commentary about the high cost of the US "boots on the ground" policy in the Middle East.
This pencil drawing of the Yu Garden's jade rock entitled Rockery by Li Haifeng says modern Shanghai has a trash problem!
This is a building in Shanghai's old quarter. As you can see, the sky is blue and we haven't experienced bad air quality yet.
One of our favorite ways to have tea is called gung fu cha. Here the proprietor of the tea house is brewing the first round of oolong tea for us.
We also had sesame dumplings in chrysanthemum tisane soup with our tea, yum!
The tea house was in the old part of Shanghai and was decorated with images from 1930s.
This was our view from the tea house looking down to the small street below. Shanghai is an amazing city that has thousands of years of culture, and yet seems completely modern. It has been a delight to experience all the different aspects of, what is now, one of our favorite cities.
