ISpyShanghai

I’ll almost certainly never fly on Concorde, play on Top Of The Pops, or slide down a zipline from the top of the Eiffel Tower into a swimming pool full of marshmallows, but this week I fulfilled at least one of my personal ambitions:

New one on the left, old one with the cover faded off to nothing on the right

I had to get a new passport because the old one was full up!

The visa for China takes up a whole page, and I’ve been in and out of Korea more times than the Japanese army, so my stint in Asia has really helped out- but it’s still a decent spread of stamps to look back on.

I’m not showing the two different photos though- it looks like new James ate the old one, then polished his head with an orbital sander.

After all last week’s talk about Buddhism, I decided I should give something back by buying a little incense from my local Buddhist supply shop (where I buy all of these things). I picked out some incense, a little dish to burn it in, and was admiring a horrible gold watch with a little swastika instead of a second hand, when a guy came in to buy one of these things:

It’s some kind of tool to use when divining fortune by the eight diagrams (ba gua) which, if you tuned in last week, you’ll know is one of the many things you can’t do in a temple.

The size of a CD, made out of wood, it has a compass in the middle and the two pill shaped holes have spirit levels inside, to make sure it’s on a flat surface. Most of the markings on it don’t mean a thing to me, but I do know that the innermost circle shows the “8 diagrams”, elements of nature, such as fire, heaven, thunder and earth. You can see 4 of these things written the same way on South Korea’s national flag (best flag ever btw).

More info here and here, but to be honest it’s all total bollocks, they just look cool. And for 25rmb a piece, I bought four of them to use as drinks coasters.

People try to tell you that Buddhism is a very cool and laid back religion. A bunch of guys in colourful robes sitting around thinking about whether toast can ever be truly bread again.

Not true.

I once spent a night in a temple, and those monks were on my back like the bad tempered Chief of Police in a Mel Gibson movie

• “You can’t sit there”
• “We wake up at 4am for prayers”
• “You must eat all of the food in your bowl”
• “Stop trying to melt that gold statue with a cigarette lighter”

That was in Korea but the same goes here, look at this list of rules posted outside XiaHai temple:

No peddling paper money for the nether world or divining fortune by the Eight Diagrams? Screw that.

Stick to Islam I reckon, those guys know how to party.

This week marks the 3rd anniversary of the first time I came to Shanghai.

here’s what I wrote about it:

Back in those days I used to work in Korea, at Incheon airport, and would have to leave every three months to get my visa stamped. One such visa trip was to Shanghaii for the Chinese New Year of the Rooster- it was my first ever time in China, and here’s what I thought about it:.

China was great, cold, wet, crowded and a bit dirty, but great all the same

[I remember the weather was really horrible actually. Raining and grey the entire time]

Shanghai is a fairly good looking city, despite the fact it’s covered in cranes from all of the construction projects- it’s hard to tell which of the neon lights and sumptuous decorations were just up for the New Year celebrations and which are permanant but I ended up stopping practically every 20 metres up the street to take a picture.

[and, propheticallly]

My plan is to go back in 2008 for the Year of the Deathstar Throwing Ninja.

ahh if only I knew then, what I know etc.

In fact I remember thinking at the time that Shanghai would be a great place to live, and do you know what? It is.

Looking at the address of the place we stayed in though, I still can’t work out where the hell it was:

Any ideas?

Bit of a heavy weekend this one. Sae-Jin, my mate from Korea was visiting; drinking ensued.

On Friday night we ate at a duck restaurant which is so famous it gets a mention in my Chinese text book. Quan Ju De on HuaiHai Lu is one of a chain of restaurants (most of them in Beijing, home of the doomed duck)- and they certainly do a lovely bird.

Since it was raining, however, we couldn’t get a taxi for love nor money (and believe me, we were prepared to offer both) so ended up walking all of the way from the restaurant to the pub- pausing only for a pint of ale and four B52s to keep the cold out.

We spent the rest of the night in the Eager Beaver, and (after a cocktail tour of TMSK, People 7 and Arch) ended up back there again on Saturday night. Learning from mistakes made the previous day though, Craig had thoughtfully provided a selection of hats for the long wait for a taxi.

SaeJin steps in to help a lady in distress

Mr Wiggans, Dr Meakin, SaeJin and Me

For the last one or two years I’ve made a calendar at Christmas. Photography is in my top three hobbies (others: binge drinking, teasing shrimp) so by the end of the year I tend to have 12 shots that I think would look good in a calendar. Let’s face it, only my Mum looks at it, so the bar does not have to be set high.

Anyway, I’m rambling- the point is that whilst looking through my photos for this year’s effort I came across some of the first shots I took of Shanghai back in March 2006.

March 2006, from Science & Tech museum towards Lujiazui 

The way I came to Shanghai in the first place was that I was working in Seoul, South Korea at the airport there. I took a weekend trip across the (<insert name of sea or whatever here>) and had a look around Shanghai, loved the place, and decided it would be a place I’d love to live. My company won a contract at the new terminal here, I told anyone who would listen I’d be prepared to go, and bish-bash-bosh, here I am.

Before I made the big move though I came over for a month in March- partly to introduce myself to the customer, partly to work every hour Jah sent on whatever crisis we had at that time.

A park near the Four Seasons, just off Nanjing Xi Lu

Looking back at the photos I took then is strange. It seems like a really long time ago, and I remember how the city looked very strange; foreign, alien.

I’m sure Shanghai has changed a lot since then, but I’m guessing my view of it has changed more. Some things don’t change though, seems that even back in the mists of March 2006, manbags were all the rage on the streets of Shangers.

The Spring ‘06 collection

So, I’m on my holidays at the moment, in lovely Suzhou.

The weather has been great so far, yesterday we hired bikes (mine is about 8 sizes too small and I was hunched up like a cartoon turtle on a tricycle) and at a temple, a Chinese guy said “Hello!”to us in Russian. It’s all go.

Funniest exchange so far:

Emma (deadpan)- James, I saw what you’ve done in the toilet
Me- Errrr
Emma- You used my toilet paper. There are two rolls, it’s clearly His ‘n’ Hers
Me- I assumed it was Hers ‘n’ His!

But maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, no photos because I haven’t brought the doohickey to magic the photos onto cyberspace, but I thought I’d just mention about the comments. I get about 30-40 spam comments per day, most of which get caught by some magical ensarement charm, but occasionally some get through- hence you might notice comments that say things like:

Hmm, good point. I have never thought of this way before. Generic psychohexyldrine, naked Lindsey Lohan? Fake Rolex. All the best.
Ryboquantafoot Bonanza

Also, if you post a comment with a link, it has to be approved (by a board meeting of 18 shareholders, and a Knight of the Realm). So yes, my aplogies to Kieron Henderson of Seoul, Korea AKA Champagne Seoulcialist. It wasn’t me, it was the software what done it.

Back to the swimming pool for me!

My mate Peter, like RachelLynn before him, is currently passing through Shanghai on a grand tour from Korea to Europe without flying (RL going on from there to Canadialand). It’s quite the journey, a boat from Incheon to Qingdao, the train from Qingdao to somewhere good, through China, through Russia and Westward, ever Westward.
The message I’m getting from both of them is that buying train tickets is a difficult business; and unless you get started on it early, you’ll end up sitting on a hard seat for 15-19 hours.Peter has just been to Beijing, where he says the construction there is even crazier than it is in Shanghai. Just on the short walk back from the pub last night we passed several big building sites where people work through the night.

Peter and a guy guarding an open manhole

The government recently passed a law in Shanghai that means you can’t use your car’s horn in the city centre because of the noise. Fair enough, although I’m a bit surprised that traffic noise is considered more annoying than a jackjammer going hell-for-leather at 3am.