Shanghai'd

Courtesy of a local magazine competition (and lack of much competition), I won 2 tickets to see Ziggy Marley in Shanghai last Tuesday night. These were not just any tickets, but front-row VIP tickets. My exciting was palpable, not out of a particular fascination with Ziggy Marley, but because I've never had front row seats for anything before. Front row tickets are just cool. Something about walking right past all the other seats and knowing exactly where your row is without asking the usher.

My excitement, however, quickly turned to impending fear when we got to our seats and couldn't help but noticed the extremely large subwoofer conveniently positioned literally inches in front of our tender eardrums (they have softened after living away from Austin for more than a year now ... it's scientific). Who was the sound engineer who came up with this one?


As soon as the first dreadlock-infused bass note shook our very being, it was clear we would be abandoning our prized front-row seats immediately. Still, I managed to shoot this admittedly poor quality video before retreating back with the rest of the plebs. The occasional camera shake is me trembling in fear for the health of my ears. That or the bass.

Civilized.

The propaganda machine in China is very keen on wen ming. You see the slogan everywhere - street signs, neighborhood demolition sites, "beautification" projects. Still, I was a little surprised to see it in the bathroom of all places, but that's exactly what greeted me at this urinal in Huang Shan.


The English is an abbreviated version of the Chinese, which I think states something like "Get closer to the urinal, become closer to civilized".

Advice we could all take to heart from time to time.

Hong Kong.


I hear the comparison made often that Shanghai is like Xianggang was 10 or 20 years ago. After our weekend trip there, it's clear Shanghai still has a long way to go if it wants to fulfill that prediction any time soon.

Stepping off the plane from the mainland was like getting hit with a refreshing wave of ... coherence. And order. And things-just-making-sense-courtesy-of-the-English-ness. A few noticeable differences from Shanghai:

- people boarding the subway orderly waited for the other passengers to "alight" (I love British English) before rushing on
- clean-burning LPG taxis
- no littering, spitting, or smoking (all punishable by 100+ HKD fine)
- the express train from the airport actually goes somewhere useful, like downtown!
- the concept of waiting in line is understood and applied
- the Rolex shop on the corner isn't selling fakes
- no "lao wai" calls (unless I just didn't understand it in Cantonese)

As always, check out the Hong Kong photo set on my Flickr page.

Eating dog.


Our Ayi invited us to spend the Chinese New Year with her family, so on our way to Huang Shan we first stopped off in her small village, Xuancheng, in eastern Anhui province - an easy 7 hr hard sleeper train ride from Shanghai. It's a rare opportunity for foreigners to get a glimpse into the "real" life of China's peasants, who still make up the vast majority of China's overall population. To be invited for Chinese New Year is a special honor, so we of course jumped at the chance.

Shanghai, with all it's Starbucks and KFCs is by no means an accurate representation of China as a whole. I knew this before our trip to Xuancheng, but the point was further reinforced during our stay. Xiao Xu's home (when she is not working in Shanghai) is a 2-story cement building with a shotgun layout. The front has a dining area, with the kitchen in the back. Upstairs are two bedrooms. There is electricity, but no running water. The toilet is the ubiquitous hole in the floor in a room attached to the back of the house. Behind the house were some styrofoam and other trash-fed "free range" chickens and a small vegetable garden. Modest, but comfortable.

Chinese New Year dinner, being such a special occasion, demanded a special culinary treat, and we were not disappointed - at least not in our quest for the authentic China. This was not my first time to chi gou rou, but all I could manage to think about during the meal was the skeleton-like rattling sound the bones had made when Xiao Xu stir-fried them up in her wok a few minutes earlier. I'm ashamed to say this is one of the few times I couldn't clean my plate.

One Child Policy.

China's well-known yi ge haizi zheng ce has led to the unintended consequence of significantly more boys than girls - in some cases as unbalanced as 55 boys for every 45 girls. The situation is particularly problematic in rural areas where parents value a baby boy over a baby girl and will go to great lengths to try to make it happen.

Which explains this sign we saw in rural Anhui province.


Literally, it reads something like "having a boy or a girl are both equally good".

Crowded.

The pristine images people show you from their trip to Huang Shan:


The real Huang Shan you don't see in pictures:


Needless to say, it can get a bit yong ji de, but with a little effort you can sneak off the beaten path to more "undiscovered" areas of the mountain. Supposedly the Chinese Labor day holiday in May is the worst for crowds, so if you're thinking about a trip to Huang Shan, plan accordingly.

Check my Flickr page for the complete set of Huang Shan photos.