Chinese New Year

Lighting firecrackers to ward off evil spirits.

Our front door, decorated in the Chinese fashion.

The morning after . . . one of dozens of piles in the compound from spent firecrackers/fireworks.

Silk flowers on display in outdoor shopping plaza

Monday was Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rabbit has passed and now we are in the Year of the Dragon. My Chinese teacher explained that not every birthday is celebrated in China, but the 12th birthday is. The zodiac is a circle and when a year is celebrated, that sign is at the top of the circle. When you are at the top, it is easy to fall down, so you need to be careful when your year comes around. One way to have good luck in your year is to wear red everyday. Some Chinese mothers make this easy by buying red underwear for their 12 year old children. Lucky for my Rabbit child I didn't learn about this until the Year of the Dragon, right? But I still have time to prepare for the Year of the Snake next year! (JUST KIDDING!!!!!)

Anyway, Chinese New Year is a feast for the senses. Lots of noise, decorations and foods are associated with the holiday. I hope these photos I took to give you a better idea.

Some of the dozens of varieties of lanterns at Yu Yuan Gardens.

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One of the many dragons on display at Yu Yuan Gardens.

You know you are safe when....

You know you live in a safe neighborhood when your neighbour leaves his car parked on the street.... overnight !

That's negotiable

Papa Dumpling and aka The Works were measured for custom-made pants last week, and yesterday I returned to the Fabric Market with with a friend to pick them up. We didn't have any tailor recommendations, so we decided to try 2 different tailors to compare the results. I think they both turned out pretty well, but time will tell. Since the Fabric Market  is quite a distance from home, I decided to make a few additional purchases while I was there.  The Paying Customer has taken my bathrobe hostage, and I was bent on securing another robe so that we could each have one to wear. After locating a booth with suitable robes, it was time to begin the negotiations. The shop keeper opened with an offer of 120 rmb, which is about $19, a fine price for a nice plush bathrobe in the U.S. But we are in China and in small shops and markets the FIRST price isn't the REAL price. And actually, there is more than one real price depending on if you are a foreigner or Chinese. So, I make an offer, and the salesman counters that he is already offering me his best price. I start to walk away, and suddenly he is willing to come down in price. Sometimes this doesn't work, but no matter, since the thing you are trying to buy is likely available at another shop very nearby. It took about 4 more exchanges, but eventually it was agreed that I could have the robe for 85 rmb, or $13.50. Quite a lot of work to save $5.50 but in the end I think we were both happy. (At least until I got home and aka The Works declared he would like a robe, now, too! Of course he does, why didn't I know that?) I also bought a Chinese style jacket for myself, and I am sure I paid too much for it but I was so excited to find something that fit off the rack that I just went with it.  My best deal was a sturdy (counterfeit) Swiss Gear backpack that I bought to replace Paying Customer's worn out one, which I got for half of the initial asking price. I've heard that most items can be gotten for 1/3 the initial asking price, but I'm just not that good at negotiating prices. But I am getting better.

A study in contrasts

On the Great Wall, near Beijing

Imperial Palace Gardens - Tokyo

Our Christmas vacation is coming to an end. During our break, we had the good fortune to visit Tokyo, Beijing and also spend some time here in Shanghai. Here is a short summary:

Tokyo is very big, very clean, very orderly and quite quiet. We all loved it! Perhaps we wouldn't have enjoyed the city quite as much if we hadn't been coming from Shanghai, which is very big, very dirty, very chaotic and quite noisy. We expected it to be very expensive but found it comparable to visiting a big city in the United States. We stayed in two small hotel rooms in an old neighborhood in Tokyo located near several temples. We never rode in a taxi our entire visit, walking and relying on the subway systems to get us where we wanted to go. We were surprised that the level of English the average Japanese person could speak compared to the Chinese. We did quite a bit of shopping in Tokyo, as Japan is the home of Nintendo, and also spent a few days enjoying Tokyo Disney. People watching was great fun and we enjoyed lots of decent American-style food. We were very comfortable in Tokyo, and we would go back to Japan given the chance.

After Christmas, we took the train to Beijing to see some sites. First off, I will say that I expected the pollution to improve as we left the city for the countryside, and was surprised that it just got worse as we headed north. The skies in the countryside were worse than a typical day in Shanghai. Beijing was worse than any day I have experienced in Shanghai, and there were several times that I felt like I could actually taste the pollution. But it was a small price to pay to see some fantastic historical sites. We did not stay long enough in Beijing to even scratch the surface of all that this city has to offer. Maybe we can return in the Spring when the weather is fair? We stayed in a nice Chinese Hotel in a great location near the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the Great Wall. We rode a cable car up to a high point on the wall, and then climbed down. It was spectacular and I consider myself quite lucky to have had the opportunity to see this wonderful piece of history. We also visited to Forbidden City and were overwhelmed by the scale of the place. Like many things I've seen in China, I think it was designed to intimidate. We also wandered around Tian'anmen Square, but all but Papa opted to skip the viewing of Chairman Mao's tomb. We tried to visit the National Musuem, but they were doing some renovations and the fumes in the building were overwhelming, so we didn't spend enough time there to see much.We spent an afternoon wandering around the Olympic Park area, without actually taking advantage of the winter sports or the indoor waterpark that are available there.

Papa has been back to work for a while now, and the boys go back to school tomorrow. We have just 2 weeks of school before we have another 2 weeks off to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We will be in China for the New Year festivities. I've heard that nothing can prepare you for the noise level, short of a combat tour. Needless to say, I am shopping for ear plugs for each member of the family. We will be taking a cruise the second week of our vacation, starting in Singapore and visiting Malaysia and Thailand. We are very excited and feeling very blessed to be able to see so many new places!

Our gingerbread houses -- Shanghai

Inside the Forbidden City - Beijing

Tokyo Disney

A bento box displayed at the Pokemon Center, Tokyo

Safety first

While traveling to Harbin on a business trip I noticed something rather unique in the closet.

Can't say I have seen this anywhere else. New regulation phasing in? Old one on the way out?  Or something you can only find in Harbin?

The expo guy

You will find pictures and statues of this guy everywhere.  He was the mascot from the 2010th Shanghai expo.

The expo was a a very big deal. They built a lot of buildings and subways. They introduced a new type of cab.  Created a tollfree English helping (962288).

FYI,  anyone visiting shanghai would do well to put that number on speeddial.  They specialize in giving directions,  just tell them where you want to go and hand your phone to the taxi driver.