As Seen by TV

I was strolling around the city this past weekend doing some shopping and happened to stumble upon a parade in preparation…

Think your commute is bad?  Check out a video I took of mine: People’s Square @ Rush Hour (alternate link).

I wish I could travel in some sort of style, like in this BAW (Beijing Automobile Works) BJ2022 Brave Warrior MkII, a Chinese-style Hummer (“Han Ma“, or Bold Horse in Chinese), even though a Chinese company currently owns Hummer (view American reactions here).

Sure, one could say it is a copy of the American HMMWV (“Humvee/Hummer”), but we would also have to mention the Hummer was copied off the Lamborghini Cheetah (built in California by Lambo for the US military) which, in turn was copied off the XR311.
Fun fact: the US Army crashed and destroyed the only prototype Cheetah and never returned it to Lambo, 3 years later the Hummer emerged.

Lamborghini eventually scrapped the Cheetah (most likely in part due to it’s nutty 3-gear 5.9L V8 Chrysler engine), then built the LM001, and in 1986 unveiled the LM002 (aka the “Rambo Lambo“) production model at the Brussels Auto Show, one of the coolest and most sought after cars of the 1980′s with it’s 42 valve 5.2L V12 engine taken out of the Countach (also undoubtedly one of the coolest cars of the 80′s).   The LM002 subsequently held the record for most horsepower in a SUV (455HP) for over 20 years until Porsche manufactured it’s most powerful engine ever and produced the Cayenne Turbo S (550HP).
Only 301 LM002′s were ever built in it’s 7 year lifespan and I have been lucky enough to see one in the flesh on the mean streets of Overschie, Holland back in the mid 90′s.  I still remember it like it were yesterday, with those custom Scorpion tires… what a beast.
Fun fact #2: Hunter S. Thompson (a hero of mine) owned one.
Fun fact #3: Iraq, 2004; not knowing it’s value or rarity, the US military (irony?) found a LM002 that had belonged to Uday Hussein and used it to “simulate the effects of a car bomb”.  Boom.  Only the engine “survived”… talk about war crimes.

Read more about the Lamborghini LM002 here.

[überholprestige- German term for the ability of a car to intimidate drivers into moving out out the way]

Shengjianbao, a type of Shanghainese baozi (dumpling) with pork, which when cooked melts into a soupy liquid, which effectively makes it a soup dumpling with the soup in it.  Delicious.

I had read this CNN article (“Worlds’s Greatest City: 50 Reasons Why Shanghai is #1“), and number 29 suggested Yang’s Fried Dumplings on Wujiang Lu (map).  So we hit it up (and who knew it was right outside Windows Underground?!) and goddamn they were good, good thing I read their tip first too: “Don’t dive into these shengjianbao all at once.  Carefully suck out the soup before you devour it.”

On our way to Yang’s, while walking across People’s Square, we came across a large group of older people holding photos and flyers, all in smaller groups having heated discussions with each other… yup, we had stumbled upon the “marriage market”.
Parents and grand parents arrange dates (and inevitable marriage) for their offspring (many of which don’t even know).  Weight, height, etc, and a sort of life resumé… some even have a price tag.  I can only imagine the lady my grandmother would hook me up with.

It’s a shame that it’s been raining all day, as I’ve wanted to go explore the festivities planned for today.  The firework spectacle takes place in just over an hour, so I’m sure I’ll have a glimpse of that.
As for yesterday, I certainly heard a ton of explosions, and assumed they were fireworks… but I couldn’t see/find the damn things.   I ended up going to Pudong, taking metro line 2 to Dongchang Road and walking back to the Lujiazui station (I live nearby the Line 1 South Shanxi station, you can check out a subway map here).  The clouds were absolutely sensational… the colored lights from buildings literally saturated the sky, and once again impeccable timing, as it started raining just when I was wrapping up.

The first two images are panoramas, the vertical consisting of 8 images, and the [messed up] 360-degree horizontal of 13 (the building with the antenna just off-center is the stock exchange).
Also check out the differences in clouds between a 1.6sec and 30sec exposure.  You can even notice a blue radiance on the top right, from the blue lights that decorate the front/back of the Shanghai World Financial Center… not to mention the amazing glow from the apartment buildings to the left.

I have more images (I took about 140, which is more than double the standard Tim Shoot), but these are the only ones I cleaned up, more will be added later.  Have a good night/day wherever you may be and Happy 60th Birthday PRC!!
[also happy birthday to my Italian brother Salvo, have a good one yo!]

Dope video from the crazy parade in Beijing by Dan Chung: