Walkabout / Fangbang Dong Lu

First west, now east.  Middle is not so exciting … pretty touristy and lacking a real sense of authenticity.

Like the Xi Lu, Fangbang Dong Lu is packed full of shops and restaurants, with products and people spilling over the street (and very few in cars in sight).

But it is certainly a bit brighter.

The same traditional-style Chinese architecture is on display …

with newer apartment buildings a little better integrated into the older urban fabric (at least by colour, by also by scale)

There are homes in the sky …

as well as on the street.

And just loads and loads of shops selling all sorts of stuff.

Although sometimes the display techniques can be a bit dodgy.

Lanterns and hanging things.

Fans and butchered meats.

The equivalent of a “two dollar shop” (2 yuan = about 30 cents).

A tattoo shop.

And, off to one side, a chaotic and hygiene-averse “eat street”.

Like I said, it’s bright.

As Fangbang Lu reaches its eastern end, it becomes a little more European in its styling, with paved streets, awnings and neo-Classical architectural allusions.  And appropriately, a generous helping of dog turd, as the woman in this image could attest.

By then, we are almost to the Huangpu River.

And over the rooftops loom the soaring commercial towers of Pudong, located on the other side of the river and in another world entirely.

 

Totes randomz in the streets

I’ll tell you one thing I really love about Shanghai, and China in general … it’s the ability to just stumble upon totally weird stuff.  But I can’t tell you what makes it seem so weird … perhaps it’s just the cultural divide.  Or, maybe as the country has opened to the world so quickly, there is no sense of judgement or control over strange things.  Or perhaps within a nation of 1.4 billion, you just have to be extra weird to be noticed.  Too often, I find myself in a situation where I want to grab the person beside me and ask “Is it just me, or are you finding this totally-get-out outrageous?!”

Recently, I happened upon this sport car which had been driven onto the footpath, its doors then flung open to disgorge hundreds of pairs of sports shoes onto the pavement (not to mention ear-splitting techno beats into the air).

      

The people were loving it, stopping their usual Friday night routine (dinner then karaoke, I bet) to fumble through the stacks of fluorescent trainers.  The stench of cheap plastic and sweatshop labour was overpowering.  The lady trying to offload a huge bag of steamed corn cobs was totally neglected by her normally loyal fanbase, and probably left wondering why she had limited herself to what was obviously last year’s best-selling street product.  God damn!  Corn is soooo 2011.

    

The sports shoe sports car reminded somewhat of the big wicker chair trolleys that frequent my neighbourhood.  This is a relatively small version … these things can grow to monumental proportions.  The guys that pull them around must get really tired, because every time I see one, they are slumped in one of the chairs (liberated from the huge tangle), fast asleep.

I saw a few of these in Beijing.  Which is weirder: the missing wheel or the obvious attempt to turn the front into a face?

    

This is a small shop in Xintiandi, in the centre of the city, where instead of hocking cheap souvenirs to tourists, someone decided to fill the space with a bunch of plastic leaves.  There no explanation and no-one around to ask what it all meant.

     

Around the same time, an art show was being held in Times Square, one of Shanghai’s more exclusive shopping centres.  Alongside Louis Vuitton and Cartier, this “digital painting art” show did seem odd.  Not to mention that it was full of all sorts of confusing and confronting, if not contradictory, symbolism.  I am surprised that some government official didn’t personally dismantle the whole thing.

    

These paintings seem to show (horror!) two women and two men in a state of kissingness.  Supposedly the catchcry of officialdom in these matters is the “three nos” – no approval, no disapproval, no promotion.  But despite contravening at least one of these restrictions, I’m sure these painting would have ruffled very few feathers.

This on the other hand, maybe not.  I have tried to feed the Chinese characters into my smartphone (via a handy character-writing app) for translation, and I THINK this artwork suggests a new product for the hard-working man – a pad that you can apply to your backside so that you need not leave your desk when you require Number Twos (although, the man in the diagram has already Number Twoed before application , suggesting that the pad is actually a response to, rather than a pre-emptive strike against, pants-based toileting).  And, while the whole is terrible, I do want to take issue with one detail – the choice of red, rather than brown, as one half of the duotone.  No approval, definite disapproval, and hopefully no promotion.

This dog spent a long time standing on a bench outside our neighbourhood pet store, for no apparent reason.  It didn’t move an inch as I stopped, took out camera, framed shot and clicked away.

I don’t know whether it’s being weird.  Maybe its just cute or scared or something.  After enduring so many months of abuse, my weirdness filter tends to play up a bit.

 

10 Things I Love About Shanghai

Just yesterday, as I was riding the very long up escalator at my local Metro station, I spotted one of my favourite Shanghai things – something from which my feeling of happiness is not derived from a sense of irony, bemusement or desperation.  So, it got me to thinking about things I like here.  Things that are 100% good.

The Baby Split-pant
Babies anywhere are cute.  Babies in China are super-cute.  Babies in China in split-pants might be the cutest thing ever.  The split-pant combines practicality (the ability to toilet in any gutter or planter-box you wish) with comic potential (accidentally exposing your bot-bot to the world).  This baby is wearing a double split-pant.

    

The Food of the Minorities
Some of the outer edges of China have amazing foods.  I particularly love the cuisine of Yunnan (in the same family as Vietnamese and Thai) and Xinjiang (the western, almost Middle-Eastern, autonomous region).  Both have amazing breads, fresh salads and great noodles … which means that they have now become a popular choice for the urbanites of Shanghai.

   

The Bottle Opener
As yet, I haven’t tired of Shanghai’s tallest tower, even though it continually pops in view all over the city.  Especially compared to some other buildings, it is a very elegant structure.  It has an observation deck at its highest level and a crayzy light display each evening.

The Time It Takes to End a Phonecall
There is a strange habit here of extending the process of saying goodbye on the telephone.  I take it as a sign of respect, that the other person doesn’t want to end things quickly.  A typical conversation may go something like this …

A: We’ll get the contract signed and sent to you right away.  [it’s a business call]
B: OK.  Thanks.
A: Great, talk to you later.
B: OK. Bye.
A: Bye.
B: Hm, thanks, bye.
A: Byebye, ah, bye.
B: Ok, bye.  Bye.
A: Bye.  Ah.  Bye.

Using the Footpath to Full Potential
Most cultures could learn a things or two about using, and sharing, the footpath as they do in Shanghai.  It’s business meets family meets pleasure meets cooking meets meets walking meets meeting meets washing up meets eating meets everything else.

    

Shanghai’s Amazing Art Deco Architecture
Shanghai reputedly has one of the world’s best collections of Art Deco architecture, due to the economic boom of the early 20th century and the influence of foreign designers.  It’s something I didn’t know about before I arrived, and continues to delight and surprise me.  That’s the front door to our apartment building on the bottom right.

The Long Sound of Intrigue and Confusion
Imagine, if you will, that you are in a taxi and you encounter a street that is blocked for no apparent reason, or another driver that is attempting something strange or dangerous (u-turn across a median strip, for example).  Without doubt, the driver will respond with a unique exclamation – a drawn-out “hmmmmmm” noise that starts low and rises, suggesting a question but also sounding like an observation; a cross between intrigue and confusion; with a tonal style inspired by Scooby Do.  If you’ve heard it, you’ll know exactly what I mean.  It never fails to make me smile when I hear it.

Cats that Own the Street
The cats of Shanghai would have to be the most confident felines in the world.  They just sit (or lie)on the street or footpath, they draw attention to themselves by miaowing loudly, they approach any person they wish.  Scaredy-cats they are not.

The Shanghai Pyjama
People are most happy to wear their pyjamas in public.  Lots of people … and not just when they are caught short of a dunny roll.  People will walk far from home and undertake a series of errands still wearing last night’s PJs.  There are abundant theories about why this is so prevalent and so specific to Shanghai.  Some say it is like the older Chinese habit of wearing silk clothing as a means of displaying your status as a person of leisure (not some dirty worker).  Or, that it is a washday thing – given most Chinese don’t have loads of clothes, there aren’t many wardrobe options while you are waiting for your clothes to dry.  Or that it is a way of expressing that you are a real local, not some visitor from a less desirable suburb.  Whatever it is, it’s one of my favourite Shanghai sights.

     

Annamaya
Of Shanghai’s many good vegetarian eateries, Annamaya is king.  Housed in a little yellow building quite close to our place, Annamaya serves up a range of healthy and yummy foods, including delicious vegan deserts.  Every time we go, we wonder why we don’t eat there more often.

Lanzhou / moving mountains (literally…almost)

China can lay claim to all sorts of world’s-best titles … the biggest population, the fastest train service, the oldest panda (perhaps not a surprise) and the longest human domino (10,267 people in Inner Mongolia last year).  It is also home to what is often deemed to be the world’s most polluted city, Lanzhou.  It’s a place that (luck abounds!) I now have a project, so I have become a regular visitor over the last few months.

   

Located at the geographic centre of China, Lanzhou is an industrial city, housing hundreds of factories and processing facilities and power plants.  Geographic conditions don’t help.  The city has developed along the Yellow River, hemmed in by steep mountain ranges on either side of this major river.  It lacks air flow.  It also lacks rain, meaning that the mountainsides are mostly free of vegetation (resulting in regular dust storms) and that toxic air just tends to hang around.  On many days, the air quality is poor that the mountains just adjacent the city cannot be seen through the haze.

The journey to the city from the airport (oddly enough for a smaller city, located 70 kilometres out of town) is pretty desolate.  A new motorway weaves through the bare mountains, lined with massive power cables and outcrops of colourful advertising billboards.

     

Dotted through the mountainsides are hundreds of holes.  According to our driver, these have been created by the shepherds who need to spend nights outside with their herds.  I didn’t see any sheep or shepherds, but perhaps it was out of season.

     

Closer to the city, the mountains have undergone more significant modification. Their sides have been cut into terraces, creating a series of horizontal platforms on which vegetation has been planted.

But plants need water to grow, so millions of litres of water are being pumped to, and sprayed over, the mountain sides.  It’s a huge, not to mention environmentally frightening, undertaking.

But, I guess it is an improvement on the previous solution being supported by the Lanzhou authorities – to demolish a number of mountains next to the city.  Just like opening some windows to allow the breeze in, they said.  This idea was tested, yet failed.  Now the focus is on reafforestation, as well as programs to reduce air use, use cleaner energy and relocate polluting industries.

Some of the hillsides are getting greener.

Flying out the city, you can clearly see how the river system defines the areas that can support vegetation, and by extension, agriculture.  You can also see the enormity of the re-vegetation program being undertaken … and the probable futility of trying to change something that cannot be changed.

My first year in Shangers

I am just about to reach the end of my first year in Shanghai.  Time has flown … thus is the curse of being too busy and being too old …

Here is a highlights package of Year One.  I have themed it around the colour red.  Red is – most of the time – a colour of good fortune in China, so its often appears around the city.

Around this time of year, people sometimes wear red to bring good luck.  But, to be humble about it, it is often red underwear.  I have red longjohns that I have been wearing all winter (for warmth, not luck of course).  I was inspired by the man downstairs from our apartment, who would hang his very fetching LJs in the stairwell.  After weeks of looking, I finally found my own pair.  I am wearing them right now!

For my blog post about our stairwell (yeah, the one with dead chicken) … click here > Our new apartment (1) and Our new apartment (2)

For many Shanghainese, the last year has been all about Expo.  I got to Expo once for a couple of hours and never made it back.  My own lack of organisation reflects the importance of planning, just like the Expo theme (Better City, Better Life).

For more, click here > My first trip to Expo  or for the one about Expo’s wacky mascot Haibao > Give Praise Unto Almighty Haibao

For me, the city was the real event.  These red things spell out the name Cool Docks, a new and kinda unsuccessful development near the old city.  Cool Docks is an exemplar of the ongoing tension between economic development and historic preservation in Shanghai.  See more here > Goodbye Docks! Hello Cool! as well as this post on Xintiandi > The Fine Art of Fakery

I am always looking for special times where elements of the city compose themselves into an interesting photo.  I call them Jeffrey Smart moments and I have been compiling a gallery here > Now, that IS crayzy!

I also made other galleries devoted to funny buildings > Small Man, Big Hair and food > Fun with Food … as well, the most popular of all, Chinglish > Huh Wot?

While we haven’t done as much travelling as I would have liked, we did get to visit a few places closer to Shanghai.  We did a weekend trip to Nanjing and saw lots of amazing old buildings, including this Hall of Scarifice.  The Nanjing posts > The other great wall and > A nice place to spend eternity and > Avoiding the Tiger Summer

    

Suzhou is another nearby city, full of canals and old buildings.  The candles are from the main temple in the city centre.  Suzhou stuff > Canals, gardens and silkworms > It could hardly be called humble… > Suzhou Museum: it’s all-white

These hire bikes are found all over Hangzhou, which we just visited last week.  Stay tuned for future posts on this city, often referred to as “Heaven on Earth”.

    

And a few trips to Hong Kong … catching up with friends and family and renewing visas.  This is the pulling mechanism of the Peak Tram which gave us the amazing view included in this post > City, nature and nothing in between

And not to forget the ever-fascinating Macau which I had a bit of trouble working out … It’s like the Portugal of China! > No, no, the Disneyland of China! > No, actually, the fake Venice of Asia!

And speaking of trams and stuff, here is a shot from Line 10 of the Shanghai Metro.  The red seat is for the mobility-impaired.  I cannot talk enough about how amazing the rail system (Metro, heavy rail, fast rail) is here.  I did a few posts about transport > High Speed Rail? China Has It. > My Walk to Work (2) > Another Crayzy Motorway > The Rules of the Road > but must do more.

And to finish off, here is what some workfriends and I wore to our company’s annual (Chinese New Year) dinner.  I was concerned that our interpretation of the theme “Your Chinese Best” as the uniform of the Red Army may have been risky, but everyone loved it and there was much clapping and laughing when we arrived.  Here are some of the ways I celebrated the various festive seasons > Festive celebrations / let me count the ways and > Carpet-bombing in the new year

It’s been a great year and I have enjoyed remembering all the crayzy things I have seen since I arrived.  Hope you have enjoyed hearing about it all too …

Onto Year of the Rabbit.

Thanks to everyone for your readership and for your comments over the last year.

x The Doctor.

I Heart Bobo

So, some workfriends and I went to see a play the other day – an adaptation of Hans Christian’s Andersen’s Snow Queen.  I had forgotten that HCA wrote kids’ stories, but I guess that explains why at least half the audience was under five and loudly saying all sorts of things like “That’s his nipple!” and “Are they real cherries?  Are they … REAL … CHERRIES?!!”

One of our group arrived just as the show was about to start, and after she had found a spot for herself and her oversized handbag, another of our workfriends leant over to me to whisper three magic words: “Bobo is here”.  That phrase helped me through the next two and half hours of amateur theatre.

Meet Bobo.  Bobo is quite possibly the smallest and cutest dog I have ever met (with apologies to Herman and Merlin and Teddy and all the others…)  Bobo could almost fit in a teacup.

I think that Bobo has more changes of clothes than I do.  This is a widespread phenomenon in Shanghai, where dogs are treated better than children.  I’ve seen all sort of doggy sweaters and pants, hats and scraves, even mini-Converse shoes.

This is what Bobo wore for Halloween this year.  It’s a pumpkin suit, in case you didn’t realise.

    

This is Bobo’s preferred means of transport.

And here is Bobo deeply contemplating the meaning of something, perhaps life, perhaps the next costume change.  Bobo’s sense of focus got her through the whole of the Snow Queen without a yelp or attempted escape from her carrybag.

And the name, you wonder?  ‘Bo’ means wave, ‘bobo’ is like a sine wave, which apparently is like the shape of a lady’s chest, especially an ample one.   Which for a small fluffy dog makes sense, doesn’t it…?

I guess some things just don’t need to make sense, hey Bobo?

Notes:
Thanks to Bobo’s Mama for the photos!
I will remove any comments that poke fun at my little friend and/or question the value of making this post, OK!

In any colour, as long as it’s fluorescent pink

As you would naturally expect, Shanghai is home to the world’s only Barbie Superstore, housed in this seemingly innocuous 6 storey building on Huaihai Road, Shanghai’s premier fashion street.

Inside, it’s a world of pink.  Really bright, eye-burning pink.

Shelves and shelves of every Barbie model known to man … um, woman.

Not to mention, clothes and shoes (for adults, mind you), a bubble-tea cafe that has a catwalk for fashion shows, a Barbie restaurant on the top floor and a Barbie salon where you can model yourself around your favourite Barbie.

Or, if you are short on time (but not in stature), you can make yourself into Barbie in an instant.  Actually, you can only be one of her sidekicks.  Only Barbie can be Barbie.

You can also purchase the new Barbie VideoGirl, exclusive to Shanghai and perfect for any crusty old man who wants to get a video camera into a young girl’s bedroom.  Classy.

Pride of place is the central staircase, spiralling 3 stories high and surrounded by a hundreds of Barbies encased in perspex boxes.  Just like Barbie herself, it’s the perfect representation of female liberation, is it not?

Anyway, maybe she deserves it … turns out that Barbie is a fur hag.

It does seem odd that Mattel are making a big push into China.  Barbie is tall, blond and has big bazoongas … three traits that Chinese girls may have trouble identifying with.  But I guess Barbie has always been about dreams, about believing that “I can be…” even if genetics and economics and social circumstance are fighting against you.

It will be interesting to see how long the bright lights of the Barbie Mansion stay switched on.

Showing off a bit of flesh…

You can walk seemingly forever in Shanghai and not run out of things to look at.  Last weekend, we did loads of walking around the Suzhou Creek area, just to the north of the city.  While it’s easy to get lost in the crooked streets of these older neighbourhoods, the city’s skyscrapers pop into view even so often to remind you that you are indeed in the centre of a major metropolis.

Qipu Road is renowned for cheap clothes shopping, including massive department stores and shopping malls, and a very hectic street market.  They say that to find cheaper clothes in Shanghai, you would need to front up at a textiles factory (and then, you’d also have to bargain with the seamstresses).

It attracts a lot of people…

… not to mention the usual variety of transport vehicles …

… and all the stuff (delivery carts, motorcycle taxis, bins and brooms) required to keep the place functioning in a relatively civilised way.

One of the architectural “features” of Qipu Road is the White Horse Shopping Mall, obviously the place for ladies’ intimates.  It attracts a substantial number of men, just hanging around outside … perhaps just waiting for their wives, who are picking up a few pairs of cheap knickers …

… or maybe these his-n-hers patterned wool robes.  Am thinking with winter coming on …

A few blocks away, we discovered another market street – the more regular local food market, tucked into a row of old residential buildings.  The opposite side of the street had already been demolished to make way for a modern residential complex, complete with blank wall and widened footpath to the street.  It’s sad to think that soon, the older buildings will be torn down too, realising the vision of a bigger and blander street.  That’s progress!

The markets were particularly meaty, so we rushed through at a pretty fast pace (Mr I.E. was not happy).  The Master of the Map managed a few quick-draw photos on his more fancy camera, so much credit to him for these snaps…

It’s duck duck …

Goose!  Just after this photo, poor Goosie managed to lock eyes with me as if to say “Please just buy me and end this undignified life-in-a-cardboard-box”.  He really was out of place in this green vegetable display.

Mr Fish wasn’t too impressed with the camera work.  Less so was Mrs Chicken a few doors up, who stopped mid-beheading to give the Master a prolonged death-stare and a move-along-please expression.

No wonder … I think there are bad things going on here.  How much per kilo for the kid, do you reckon?

Crayzy bright things in the park

The other day, I popped on my new Feiyues (an old-school Chinese sneaker brand that translates as ‘flying forward’, once standard issue for school kids but enjoying a second life as a slightly ironic fashion piece) and went to look at some sculptures.  For 2 months, a park in Jing’an (just near our place) has become an outdoor art space, perhaps coinciding with Expo, but certainly showcasing a bunch of sculptors from around the world.

The park contains a Japanese-style pavilion … all precast concrete and timber beams, its quite a lovely building and a great space for some of the more contemplative scultpures.

These massive metal pieces slowly turn in the breeze (above head height, of course…)

And speaking of heads …

As I have observed before, the local artists seem to tackle a variety of ‘izzues’ with their work.  This was a little person blowing up a foot with a few too many toes.

And – OMG! – a few too many Doctors!

This one was pretty spectacular, like a huge blob of metal hovering above, and oozing onto, the footpath.  It also had a little shiny bear perched on top.  It spoke to me, but  I am not sure what it was saying…

Naughty Boy, however, was giving some clear messages.  This 8-foot infant was balanced upon a row of metal Pepsi bottles and brandished an equally shiny machine gun.  I have cropped these from the image, lest I glamourise two very bad habits.

The centrepiece of the park was a bright and brilliant piece, aptly named Red Beacon. 

After all this walking, I discovered that my Feiyues had been hard at work, creating a humungous festering blister on my heel that is forcing me into thong-wearing for the next few days.   Red, oozing, disturbing … it may just qualify as modern art.

Our new place – front door to jamban

Inside, our new apartment is pretty styley but also a bit odd.  Some good points: timber floorboards, old metal windows and doors, great natural light and cross ventilation (not that we have tested it during these crayzy summer days).  The furnishings, I have to admit, are not really to our taste (the apartment came fully furnished).  A strange hybrid of French provincial and Chinese historic.  The landlord is probably having an each way bet on potential tenants – either a wealthy local or a romantic expat.  The sofa is way too big and quite ugly.

One feature is the fancy drinks cabinet (perhaps it has a proper name, but I don’t know it …)  From its closed position… 

one simply pushes the front panel …

to (ta da!) reveal a very generous amount of alcohol storage.  More than we would ever need anyway…

We also have a Grandfather clock.

And this mushroom sculpure thingy.  While we are going to ask the landlord to take anyway the sofa, the ashtray stand and a few other items, we are definitely going to keep this one. 

The main bedroom has a good view over trees.

And the kitchen looks over the adjacent gardens and neighbouring building.  The buildings are much closer than in a modern complex, but the landscape and thoughtful placement of windows allow for a sense of privacy.  The other day, however, I did spy one of our across-the-courtyard neighbours watering his balcony plants – in the “old style”, if you know what I mean…

The bathroom is kinda Parisien.

All the way down to the toilet, which has been fitted with a crayzy water-spurting lid.  Like a poor man’s bidet – a poor man who doesn’t mind bum grime getting trapped in all the gaps created by the badly fitted seat.  Way too European for my liking …

Fashions of the Footpath

“You’re not leaving the house dressed like that, are you?”

It’s a phrase that I imagine is not widely spoken in homes across Shanghai (and not only because the negative rhetorical is lost on most Chinese people). For it seems, when it comes streetside fashions, anything goes. It’s an attitude that is very Shanghai … the city and its people possess a self-assuredness and social blindspot without parallel.

Lately, it has been raining like crayzy (and I have been working hours that are likewise crayzy), so documenting and showcasing Shanghai quirks has been difficult. These pictures have all originated in GoogleLand, but rest assured I have seen all this and more.

Item One: The Shanghai Pyjama

This one is very famous and extremely Shanghai.  People are most happy to wear their pyjamas in public.  Lots of people … and not just when they are caught short of a dunny roll.  People will walk far from home and undertake a series of errands still wearing last night’s PJs.

There are abundant theories about why this is so prevalent and so specific to Shanghai.  Some say it is like the older Chinese habit of wearing silk clothing as a means of displaying your status as a person of leisure (not some dirty worker).  Or, that it is a washday thing – given most Chinese don’t have loads of clothes, there aren’t many wardrobe options while you are waiting for your clothes to dry.  Or that it is a way of expressing that you are a real local, not some visitor from a less desirable suburb.  Perhaps it is just part of the Bad Fashion Continuum that China is.

In the lead-up to Expo, the government campaigned heavily to discourage public pyjama wearing, claiming it to be an unsophisticated habit that would embarrass the whole country.  Unfair!  As a visitor to this city, I encourage the Shanghainese to continue this very endearing practice.   

Item Two:  The On-off Relationship With One’s Shirt
Here is a common sight … not so much about the clothes, but the way they are worn.  OK, it’s hot, I understand.  OK, most Chinese are pretty trim and can get away with some abs exposure.  But please, decide whether the shirt is on or off.  I can’t determine whether you are in the process of getting dressed or undressed, but either way, it shouldn’t be happening in the street.

With the weather getting hotter and steamier, I am going to have to adjust to seeing this one more often.

Item Three: Unnatural Foot-Based Couplings
Sometimes it seems like fashion here is like one of those flip books for kids, where you can put together different combinations of animals or people, so you get a astronaut’s head on a ballerina’s body, or an animal made up of the head, body and legs of three totally different species.  In particular, the combination of legwear and footwear is often quite absurd.  Men’s favourite: dress shoes with shorts.  And for ladies: a sock or ankle length stocking (a stockette?) with heels.  I am constantly staring at people’s feet, which probably makes me look like some kind of fetishist or something.  But at least my feet don’t look like any of these…

Item Four: The Shanghai Funboot
Oh yeah, ugg boots are huge here.  People wear them to work all the time, even for client presentations.

Give Praise Unto Almighty Haibao

Haibao is the official mascot of the World Expo.  Haibao means ‘treasure of the sea’ which is also reflected in his colour.

Haibao is a lovable fellow who represents the open and welcoming nature of the people of Shanghai. Haibao doesn’t have a motto, but if he did, it could well be “watch? handbag? suit?” which is the way I am welcomed by people in most parts of the city.

Haibao’s form is based on the Chinese character meaning ‘people’ but one of my work colleagues thinks he is based on a condom.

Haibao is not recognised by my spellchecker, which suggests Hairball instead.

Haibao is climbing out of the wall of my local shopping mall.

Haibao is hanging about and spouting unintelligible words of wisdom.

Haibao is always drawing a crowd.

Haibao is hot.  Haibao is so hot, in fact, that he has an inbuilt cooling fan.

Haibao loves to act the fool.

Haibao just can’t wipe that smile of his face, regardless of how ridiculous his clothing choices are.  Haibao, word of advice: not even Santa looks good in a fur-trimmed red suit.

Haibao haunts my dreams.
Haibao cannot be avoided.
Haibao is all and all is Haibao.

Seoul / Postscript (aka wtf)

Here are some things from Seoul that don’t fit neatly into categories – on this blog or generally.

A fine delicacy from the streets – a hot dog and potato chips are pressed together, battered and deepfried.  Hello heart attack!

Another type of hot dog.  People in Seoul love their dogs a lot.  Note the handy elasticised toileting hole.

And speaking of toileting, this is a most unfortunate name for a bar.  I didn’t go to toilet there, but I am sure it was pretty wacky.

Seoul / Hoodie, 2 Shoes

From the very start of our trip to Seoul, it was clear that there were a few fashion laws in place:
a) everybody must wear a hoodie
b) when it comes to footwear, the crayzyer the better
c) old ladies must wear ridiculously oversized plastic visors

Delighted by what we saw, we attempted to document as much as possible, but generally, people feel uncomfortable with a stranger pointing a camera at their head and/or feet.  The following do some small justice to the fashion on parade.

These guys were preparing to perform a martial arts demonstration (thus were OK with cameras) but were fully committed to the hood.

I took this shot through a cafe window.  The heels are a pretty typical set, but certainly not as high or wacky as many we saw.  And here is a collection of Dragonboy’s best shoe shots (mostly from the Metro):

He calls the last one “Sneaker Love”.

That’s his shoulder at the front of the shot.  I was pretending to take his photo after we had scaled a hill for a view over the city.

*Thanks also to Dragonboy also for providing the inspired title of this post.