8/12/06 ~ Xintiandi

On the Rio: The Beatles ~ Blackbird

Advance warning. Today's blog posting is quite long and detailed. I just had a great day and wanted to share.

Last night I decided to experience more of "China" in Shanghai. So for dinner I order stir-fried shrimp Hangzhou style, which means they are in cooked in cornstarch, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger, with a few scallions. They were delicious. Hangzhou is a city about 3 hours south of Shanghai by train, and I'm considering going there next weekend.

And for breakfast today I totally went out of my element and had the Steamed Bun with Lotus Paste and Egg Yolk, the Cream Bun with Red Bean Paste, and the Pork Dumpling. These were really tasty too.

I'm getting much better with my chopsticks. In fact, when I went to a Turkish restaurant on Monday, I had a hard time using a knife and fork. And no, it wasn't because of the 2 glasses of Raki I drank.

Today I went to the Xintiandi district [pronounced ‘shin-tien-dee’] of Shanghai. I was recently told this was the topic of a HD TV show. Translated this means “New Heaven on Earth”, but I would have to disagree. My idea of heaven on earth was Coco Plum Caye in Belize, where I went in May. Xintiandi is a relatively up-and-coming urban hotstop with lots of restaurants and shops built within a very historic district. Most shops/restaurants are reconstructed stone-gated land houses originally built in the 1920s and 1930s. Between the buildings run tiny nontangs (alleys) that connect with large open-air plazas suitable for European-style alfresco dining and drinking. Here is the entrance to one of the plaza areas.

One of the stone-gated houses here is now the Museum of the First National Congress of the Communist Party.

On 23 July 1921 the Chinese Communist Party was formed here by Mao, 12 other delegates and 2 Comintern representatives in reaction against foreign domination.

Mao must be turning in his grave that the backyard to this home is now a Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs and Vidal Sassoon salon. I did enjoy the museum. There were a lot of photographs and memorabilia from the 1920s. Lots of Marxist-Leninist doctrine. I don't know how much anyone reading this knows of the British and Japanese impact on China during that period, but it was staggering. Foreign domination and intervention never succeeds. I wish the current U.S. administration would actually pay attention to history.

The museum brought back lots of memories for me of traveling through the Soviet Union (hard to believe that was 20 years ago).

I'm not quite clear on how the current communist/capitalist fusion within China is supposed to play out. I'm also interested in seeing what impact the 2 newly formed Unions at China Wal-Mart will have. [But I read recently when I was in Hong Kong that Wal-Mart was pulling out of China, apparently due to poor sales, for the same reason it is pulling out of Germany).

The husband of one of my co-workers is a Leader of the Communist Youth Party. She was quite surprised I understood what this was, as usually when she tells someone from the U.S. his job they stare at her blankly.

I bought a small plate with the original Chinese Communist Manifesto on it for $1.25. Entry to the museum cost 40 cents.

My next destination was the Wanghang Bird and Flower Market.

And I finally found some birds!! They even had black-masked love birds, just like my Zorro!! They are so cute. There were also other love-birds, green with red faces and red beaks, (this was my first sighting of a red-beaked bird) and yellow with peach faces. In one large cage, there were almost 25 lovebirds, all the same species. I've never seen that many together. They are all very young. Some did not appear to be in good health, especially the larger parrots, and of course I had the urge to buy them all. I just stood and smiled at the birds for a good 10 minutes. They appeared appreciative of the attention.

The market in general is quite large with several entrances and alleyways. Puppies and kittens are also for sale, and lots of fish. I saw a large clown loach fish, like two of the fish we have in our aquarium (named Bozo and Bingo), but ours are a much brighter orange, probably healthier.

This is a very local neighborhood market, no tourists, with regular stuff to buy for a normal price. I bought some bamboo coasters. I will probably return to buy other souvenirs like tea cups and fans and a nice set of chopsticks (and to see the birds again).

I then walked to the Shanghai Museum. Six stone lions and a pair of mythical beasts guard the entrance. This one is a lion from the Northern Wei Dynasty, AD 386 -534.

These 2 mythical beasts are from the Han Dynasty, 206 BC - AD 220. The first is Tianlu, a supernatural beast. The second is Pixie, the Exorcisor of Evil Spirits.

Items in the museum span from the Neolithic age to the present day and collections include sculptures, furniture, calligraphy, coins, ceramics, jade-ware, and minority ethnic handicrafts (which were quite similar to the items I saw in the Kazakhstan History Museum).

Here are a couple pictures from inside the museum. To my surprise, they allow photography, even flash, in all the display rooms but one or two.

I spent over 2 hours here, but I will have to return. There is just too much to see. This museum is included in the recent book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I would agree. It’s amazing.