As Seen by TV

I got my hands on the brilliant Canon 5D Mk II, what a truly glorious piece of machinery.

The moon was strange that night, as I had never before seen such a bright start hovering so close to it…

Xujiahui Park, Take 002

These are images I took just over a month ago from around my neighborhood, Xujiahui.  When I moved here, this site was just a normal block filled with shops and traditional Chinese houses (my complex is right across the street), which was then reduced to this construction site 2 months later, and is now subsequently, a massive parking lot.  So goes the large-scale urbanization of China.

My somewhat short walk took me from Tianping Road & Guangyuan Road, across Huashan, up Gongcheng, and back down Hongqiao to the XJH intersection (by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it before, all the streets in Shanghai (well, most of them) are named after the cities and towns of China).

Since 1998, Goldman Sachs has been putting out quite an interesting (and nerdy) report on the World Cup… economics-style.  If you enjoy football and are suffering severly from World Cup fever as I am, download and check it out now!

Goldman Sachs – The World Cup & Economics 2010 (.pdf)

Well, it doesn’t happen very often, but it seems I totally forgot about a shoot I went on… way back in February.

Although I do have a good excuse, as right after that shoot something happened… the absolute mayhem that was Chinese New Year (see the amazing pix again).  That post incidentally still holds the record for most traffic to this blog (cheers for that, by the way!).

Anyway, so this post is the lost shoot just before Chinese New Year, just a stroll down my street (Yong Jia Road) to Fuxing Park, just to give a realer idea of what my [old] neighborhood was like.  Enjoy.

Well, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo opened last Saturday May 1st… 6 months of crazyness now commences.  Our first taste of “Better City Better Life“ occured immediately after, when our local government gave everyone in Shanghai an extra 2 days of holiday (+1 day for Labor Day).  I took the opportunity to hit up the Yu Yuan Garden shopping area. 
It was a zoo.

Yu Yuan Gardens (Fuyou & Lishu Road) is a tourist hot spot for buying (and haggling) for handicrafts… everything from traditional calligraphy brushes and chopsticks to ”new jade” (fake) bracelets and statues.  I also happened upon a “2 Kuai Shop”, which is like the 99Cent stores I am familiar with in New York City, only difference is that 2RMB is equivalent to about $0.30! 

Definitely worth a visit, just keep an eye on your valuables (tourist hot spot = pickpocket hot spot), and prepare to bargain hard.  There is a Line 10 metro stop close by (“Yuyuan Garden“), but at the time of this writing this line is still in test phase, which means it only runs in the mornings, so keep your eyes peeled, or just walk from Line 8 Dashijie station.

I managed to hook up a sweet fake Zippo with classic Mao propoganda art on it (+ fluid & case) for 9.9RMB.  Also don’t forget to stop by the infamous dumpling spot, but be prepared to wait in line.