Life is getting easier everyday...

Click to take a look at daily life here in Shanghai Shanghai_walking009

Hey, Jenn here again! I know that I have been letting Sean bear the burden of writing all of the blog entries but I have been his shadow writer at times, I have helped gather some of the information and well let’s face it, someone has to plan all of the stuff that we are doing! We really have been going nonstop… exploring, traveling or writing about it. We are four weeks on the road now and in some ways it is getting easier and in others the wear is showing. While Sean is busy with what I now term his “mistress”, the blog, I have been busy trying to keep us organized and travel- ready. I have learned the art of washing clothes in either the bath tub or sink (depending on the load) and then hanging them in various parts of the hotel room to dry. The window is the best place but since we are across from the biggest post office in Shanghai, I refrain from drying my delicates in the sun. We have learned to stop on the way home to stock up our mini fridge with the necessities - orange juice, coffee drinks and soda and to keep a few cups of noodles, potato chips and pastries on the shelf for those times that we just don’t feel like going out in the freezing cold or having to deal with the language barrier just to feed our gnawing bellies.

We are living out of four suitcases (but we just had to buy a 5th…shopping) that I have neatly arranged all over the hotel room. Trust me this room is much nicer than the first one so I am not complaining. And although these beds are bigger than the first room, they are still nothing more than a double bed. Which I guess if you are Asian, that is big enough. When you are like Sean and I, you find yourself precariously hanging over the edge in the middle of the night. And then there the housekeepers in the morning… You don’t need an alarm clock here (which there is not a clock in the room-must be some superstition, I’m sure) you are wakened each morning with their loud talking and banging of doors. The first thought that always comes to my mind is, did we put the “Do Not Disturb” sign out last night?

Getting around has become easier and I don’t feel like the “alien” that I did the first few days. I actually caught myself walking down the street the other day as if I belonged here until I caught the glare of a stare directed at me and it was then that I realized my transformation into a China resident has started. I am starting to feel normal here. I wished that I spoke the language… Oh my God, I wish I did. And it is soooo hard. Nothing makes sense with the pronunciation so I have also honed my skills at looking up words quickly in my Mandarin book and pointing to what it is that I want to say. And they are really great about it too. I recently picked up a bottle of what I thought was soy sauce but couldn’t tell so I had to confirm with the older man at the register… he chuckled and said “Yes, soy sauce”. It’s funny, you never know who will surprise you with English.

I don’t think I will ever get used to the shopping here though. I can’t tell if it is high pressure sales or just extremely good customer service. Either way, since I am the great “shopper” and usually not the great “buyer”, I think I will stay out of stores for awhile until I really need something. There is no window shopping in Shanghai. If you look at it, the sales lady has it bagged for you before you can say “bushi”, which means NO in mandarin…but Sean and I still don’t know how to pronounce it!

I will end for now but I already know what the subject of my next entry will be about. I will end up being one of those starving kids in China that my mother told me about in order to get me to eat my vegetables… and now I know why they were starving… and I would do anything to have those safe vegetables that my mother was trying to get me to eat…. You can’t imagine the food here. Where is the General Tso’s Chicken , the Honey Garlic Chicken or Pork Fried rice??? And what is foie gras and who eats pig intestines??? More to come…..promise.

Click to learn more about the "meat street" behind me... Shanghai_walking009

The Way Shanghai Used to Live...

Click to see how they lived here in the 20's... Shanghai_Shikumen

While we recovered from our exposure to the Communist Party museum :), we checked out what a home was like for residents of Shanghai back in the early 1900s. The Shikumen lanes were considered among the younger generation as the ultimate examples of dilapidated, crowded and wretched urban living. Fortunately, a few literary masterpieces were written by writers who loved the lane's architecture and showed people the beauty of Shikumen.

According to the museum, over 70% of Shanghai residents were born and raised in Shikumen houses. Today there are almost gone but they have rebuilt a house from the 20s. It is constructed in the architectural style of the 1920s and is modeled on one household, which was part of a unit in an alley. There are seven exhibition rooms and it shows how the typical family lived back in the 1920s.

Tingzijian Literature

Tingzijian is the name of a small room located at the turn of the staircase in a building. It usually faces the north, so the small room would be cold in winter and hot in summer. House owners used to rent them out for extra income. During the 1920s and 1930s, intellectuals and artists came to Shanghai to escape pressures in other parts of the country. Mostly single, Tingzijian was cheap and in these rooms they were prodigious. Many famous writers such as Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei, Guo Moluo, Mao Dun, Ba Jing, Ding Ling and Feng Zikai had lived in Tingzijian. Many of their works reflected life in Tingzijian and Shikumen, and were hence dubbed Tingzijian Literature.

At their peak, the Shikumen-style neighborhoods numbered more than 9000 in Shanghai and took up 60 per cent of the total housing space of the city. The Shikumen style, which has survived for more than a century, isn't in vogue today but people are realizing these monuments to Shanghai's past should be preserved.

Take a look through this old style of living here in Shanghai here...

Old Enemies Are Now Neighbors...

Click to see more street pics... Shanghai_walking009

Now that we have a plan and soon will have a place to call home, we are a bit giddy and with giddiness comes confidence and a more relaxed feeling as we travel. It was time to see some of the China you can only really see by being here; breathing the air, interacting with the people in the street, glimpsing the giant military infrastructure that is present but non-intrusive to the point of being shadows.

As many of you know, I was in the Navy for 10 years from 1980 - 1990; ten years of Cold War. I worked in the Naval Security Group, which is a very small part of the Navy in charge of intelligence gathering and denial of intelligence to adversaries. During my time in the military, Russia and China were two of the biggest adversaries we faced, and I could not even consider visiting or seeing either of these countries because of what I was doing with the Navy (it's been so long it doesn't matter now but it was very classified at the time...) and back in the 80's you could not visit these countries - they were just not open to foreigners. So you can imagine how amazing it was for me to not only come to Shanghai, China to live for a year, but yesterday Jennifer and I walked down to the French Concession area and stopped in at the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Yes, there are guards everywhere and yes they are active military and yes, of course we are living in communist, albeit open and friendly, China. But here I was, out of the Navy 18 years, waiting in line for free(!) tickets so I can walk over to an unobtrusive, small building you would hardly pay attention to if it wasn't so historically significant, so I can visit the site where the Communist Party in China began. You have to understand how cool that is, right?? It will be the same when I take a guided tour of the Kremlin in Moscow later on in life...

The Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is a two story building and the living room downstairs is the place where the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held, a bunch of guys met and stood around talking at a table, having some tea, and created a revolution. This is akin to our Continental Congress where Jefferson, Adams, Washington, all wealthy, white land owners in the U.S, gathered together to forge out the initial documents and theories of independence for our own country. Well, in China they had the same thing and it was just as profound.

After the May Fourth Movement, many Communist groups emerged nationwide. On July 23, 1921, thirteen Communist groups that were selected from all the Communist groups nationwide and represented over 50 Communists in the country held the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The Communist International also dispatched two deputies to the congress. On July 30, disturbed by a detective from the Police Bureau in the French Concession, the meeting place had to be moved to a yacht on Jiaxing Lake in Zhejiang Province on the last day. The congress approved the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, passed the Communist Party's Constitution, and elected the central organization. From then on, the Chinese revolution entered a new era.

Much to my chagrin, there was a guard in each room so I could not snap a photo of any of the relics we saw, but I did take advantage of the gift shop and was salivating at the thought of purchasing such famous writings, key chains, and even a Christmas ornament with the face of Mao on it. I opted for a set of 4 postcards and will have them framed when I get back to the USA, which I have no idea when that will be...if only my old Navy buddies could have seen it too, time marches on and so should we..