8/6/06 ~ Museums

On the Rio: Gil Shaham (violin) playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Minor

My adventure yesterday was to locate the Hand-Printed Blue Nankeen museum. Along my way there I walked past the Tun Run Tea House where had gone on Tuesday night with some co-workers. They serve all kinds of tea; the one I ordered had a blooming flower in it. Very tasty. A tea house is where people come to chat, guys will play card games, some will have dinner. There is a large table in the main entrance that has all kinds of dried fruits and nuts and fresh fruits as snacks.

To get to the museum, I had to enter a courtyard of local apartments, and then follow signs that led me through some alleys, making several turns. Thank goodness there were signs. But I knew I had arrived when I passed through a gate and saw various cloths drying in the sun.

Blue nankeen has long been the most popular hand-woven and hand-printed fabric favored by Chinese ordinary people. This museum is said to produce the highest-quality blue-cloth, similar to Batik cloth. Blue nankeen is the most unique regional ware available from Shanghai. Here is a picture inside the museum.

I bought my first souvenirs today from here. A cloth, a cell phone bag, which is the coolest thing, and a small pouch. They also have beautiful napkins, clothes, purses, pot holders and hot pads, and other sized cloths. I will be back. Here are the pictures of what I bought.

I then headed to the Arts & Crafts museum. I got to watch various staff making clay dolls, paper cutting, lacquered jade, stone and painted wall hangings, embroidary, paper lantern making, and inside bottle painting. Really cool stuff! And only a $1 admittance fee. I will also be going back to buy souvenirs from there.

I also walked by the Western bars, like Sasha’s and Pauliner’s brewery, and O’Malley’s Irish Pub. This entire neighborhood is known as the French Concession district.