Christmas in Shanghai

2013 marks my second year celebrating Christmas in China. The first was spent in Nanjing, a city of 8 million. This year, I am in Shanghai with around 26 million inhabitants. Shanghai is a very international city, which means I enjoyed a very eclectic, and international holiday season. My Christmas dinner, for example, was at a property owned by the Presidential Roosevelt Family, and featured Scotland smoked salmon, French blue lobster, Icelandic halibut, Australian beef, and more. Believe me, this was a delicious feast!

Always concert in Nanjing

I rested in Shanghai on the fourth day of vacation, complete with a nice body massage, and then went to Nanjing for day 5. My good friend in Nanjing, Andy, bought us tickets to his favorite pop star's concert. 

The star, Andy Liu, is 52 years old and he almost never stopped moving and dancing with the dance team. I hope I can move like he does when I reach that age! 

I could only understand a few words here and there of the songs, which means I need to keep improving my Chinese, but the show was still enjoyable.

Apart from the singing, there was also lights, smoke, and rain effects. Dancing and acting. One particular song was a recreation of the music video- I'm told- which is a good chance to add a little commentary. The music videos in China that I've seen are quite different from MTV, chiefly in that they are refreshingly free of constant booty-shaking and party-making. Instead, most videos tell a story, often a love story, and very often about the common man/woman. This particular video was about a man who meets a girl at a dance; he rescues her from an abusive bf, and they have a brief romantic rendezvous before the bf returns with his gang. In order to save the hero's life, the girl returns to her ex. But they fight again when they are at the evil mans apartment, and he kills her. It is a very sad story!

Concerts in China, if I may extrapolate from my one experience, are very different than those in the US: no mosh pits, everyone sits down for 90% of the show, for example. So I am glad I got to experience a different style of musical performance and presentation, and I actually quite enjoyed it! My vacation had all but ended with the concert, with only a train ride back to Shanghai on the schedule for day 6. It was a great, week-long holiday!

Huzhou

The train from Jiaxing to the next destination, Huzhou, was only one hour and I passed the time with some reading.

The taxi from the train station to the hotel was only twenty minutes, and that time was spent observing the scenery. Huzhou is dotted with small hills and is situated along Lake Tai, which is the third largest lake in China. The other primary attraction is an impressive Sheraton hotel that is one of the top ten modern architecture designs in China. 

Now, being that this hotel costs USD $500 a night, I did not stay there. Instead, I opted for a room at $50 a night, including breakfast, across the street.

The Sheraton lights up at night, so this was my window view: 

 The next day, after discovering that my included breakfast was not a good match for a western appetite, I went out to explore the lake. There is a very nice Fisherman's Wharf that was bustling with activity. Out floating on the water was a strange mix of giant rubber duckies and traditional Chinese warships, called junks. 

This was a no itinerary vacation, so I made time for a good rest on my second night in Huzhou. Then for the next day, I simply got up and casually explored. I went along one side of the lake for a good hour walk, then returned and thoroughly explored the Sheraton facilities.

Before long, it was time to get back on the train and return to Shanghai. Three days of vacation down, three more to go.

Jiaxing and Wuzhen

The Chinese National Holiday, celebrating the creation of the modern Chinese state, runs from Oct 1 to Oct 6. It's a week-long holiday, and the next few posts detail how I took advantage of the down time.

I arrived in Jiaxing on the first night and stayed at a very quaint hotel right on a lake. The morning brought a still, calmness that can't be found in crowded metropolises, and I was reminiscent of my many walks around the pond in my parents suburb. 

The draw of this destination is a place called WuZhen, which is a sleepy riverside community that has maintained the traditional style of old China. The town has a history of 1300 years. 

The tourist sites of particular interest were a 100 year old pharmacy, a fabric workshop where they make and dye indigo, a traditional fire department with old tools, and an ancient bed museum that displayed beds that had been preserved from past Chinese dynasties.

There was also a bamboo pole gymnast performance, which was staged on a boat in the water, and was incredible! The gymnast performed different feats of balance and strength on the pole, thirty feet above water, with no safety harness!

It was definitely worthwhile to "wander off the beaten path" and to see this place. The last picture below is a representation of a traditional Chinese wedding, which I took to give some inspiration to my family members who will be wed next year!

Lego Classmates

This blog is dedicated to some of my oldest friends, who I've known since we shared table space and the football field in elementary school. During high school, we split into two different schools across the metro area, but maintained contact and continue to do so, even across state lines and international borders, today. So when I went to an awesome exhibit in Shanghai (at one of the many fancy shopping malls) that displayed these really cool Lego creations, I could almost see my friends in the structures. The exhibit was done by New York based artist Nathan Sawaya - the man really knows his way around Legos! I include a brief description of why I thought certain pieces related to my friends.

This Lego structure has Justin written all over it. I can still recall a grade school summer camp (Owl's Roost) that I participated in one year, and when sharing a seat near Justin, I was fascinated to hear him talk about black holes.

This image reminds me of Chris, though my friends are all pretty well connected to their computers. From my days of running my own college newspaper through to today with projects on spreadsheets, Chris has always been available to 'reach through' my computer screen and help to edit or troubleshoot.

This picture reminds me of Bryce - a Captain for the US Army. Some people may look at this and think the figure is just barely hanging on, but I think it is a very heroic pose and the Lego man is about to climb up and deliver a can o' whoop ass.

This image is a good match for Shigeki, who is completing his PhD in complicated curing cancer kind of science stuff that I don't really understand. I think he will be successful, so people who suffer from pain or have holes in their chest (like below) will one day be able to use his cures.

And these are just a few particularly impressive Lego structures. The dinosaur is supported by lots of wires. Unfortunately, there was already an incident and the structure was missing some ribs and an arm. Part of the staff was trying to 'put humpty back together again,' but their efforts were unsuccessful, at least while I was there. They managed to glue on the rib, only to realize that they had glued it on backwards a few moments later!

Here is one game that my friends and I all enjoy. We haven't any chess matches probably since elementary school or possibly into high school, but I think I would win if we did!

Stockholm: Doherty Baltic Adventure

I finished my packing my suitcase early in the morning, then ran up to have a buffet breakfast on one of the higher decks, while sitting at a table with a floor to ceiling window view to watch our sailing in to Stockholm. The country is composed of about 221,800 islands, and the ones that floated passed us were all beautifully tree-covered with idyllic houses and boats.

Once the ship was docked, we made an exclusive visit to the Captain’s Bridge (one of the perks of being crew family!). One of the officers, Petyr, gave us the inside scoop, and let us ask a string of questions. He showed us the three methods for controlling the ship’s movement. One way is with the Ship’s Wheel which, despite our expectations, was actually smaller than a car steering wheel. The second way is with a tiny joystick, and I mean TINY joystick. The third way is with two devices that can rotate and swivel around 360 degrees, thereby changing the thrusters of the ship, which react and move exactly according to the thrusters.

Once off ship, we boarded a hop-on, hop-off bus and went to the first spot of interest: the Vasa museum. We really wanted to see the shipwreck that had been recovered and put on display. We didn’t know what to expect, but once we saw the huge line of people, we figured it must be good! I did a quick James Bond maneuver and went to the entrance to scout the situation. I returned to the family with a plan: we held a brief Doherty huddle, then exited the ‘Visitors’ line and entered the ‘Tour Group’ line, which actually was not a line at all, so we got in right away!

The ship was fascinating; as we learned from a brief movie in the museum theater, the ship was built over the course of several years, and then sank within the first half hour of its maiden voyage. So it was pretty well preserved and the explorer’s always had a pretty good idea of where it might be on the sea floor, once the technology to lift it back up and restore it had caught up, which began in 1961. They are actually constantly restoring the ship, though this is now mostly focused on gently removing the bolts that have corroded and replacing those with new ones.

After the Vasa, we took the hop-on bus around for a while, listening to the recorded information about places we passed by, and taking in the sights as a family. Before we knew it, the time for goodbyes arrived, and we exchanged hugs and kisses before I headed into the Central Station to get to the airport. Parting truly is such sweet sorrow! 

Me

Best memory: Operation Stealth Mode: entering the Vasa museum disguised as a tour group, so we didn’t have to stand in the thirty minute long line!
Fave spot: The Vasa
Fun fact from tour: The Vasa sank almost immediately after it set sail, yet the two shipbuilder brothers were not held responsible or faulted for anything wrong with the vessel.

Mom

Best memory: Sean using his natural charm and suave personality to expedite our wait time to tour the Vasa Museum. I am confident the Swedish ticket taker at the “Groups Only” entrance was totally smitten!

Fave spot: Touring the Vasa Museum and watching the video about the history of the ship was fascinating.  Although the ship was not seaworthy, the vessel is beautiful! It has incredible woodwork and carved sculptures.

Fun fact from tour: “On 10 August 1628, Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage and sank in Stockholm harbor.  The wreck was salvaged in 1961 after 333 years under the sea.”

Tim

Best memory: Vasa tour
Fave spot: Vasa Museum
Fun fact from tour: Short voyage for the Vasa!

Shannon

Best memory: Showing the family my favorite city!
Fave spot: Any coffee shop in Stockholm with delicious pastries!

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Helsinki: Doherty Baltic Adventure

This blog entry is dedicated to Lambchop; may the puppet live forever.

The morning started with a drizzle of rain, so we took things slow at a late breakfast, following our morning workout routine. By the time we departed from the ship, the sun had resumed control of the sky. We meandered through town, enjoyed some smoothies at a local shop, before we figured out our bearings on the map and walked along a nice, community greenbelt, then through a farmer’s market, and up the hill to a church. After the church, we visited the senate building, then returned to the farmer’s market for a reindeer meat lunch (not for mom and Shannon). We also bought and sampled some yummy fresh berries, then dad purchased some nice homemade jams for taking back in his suitcase. As we retraced our steps back through the greenbelt, we stopped to enjoy the performance of a military band, and saw some interesting street performers.

 

Even the street performers in Europe have a more relaxed mindset: smoking and drinking beer during ‘on the job’ breaks. I wouldn’t be surprised if these were American street performers who determined that working in the states, along Hollywood Blvd, L.A., or 16^th Street Mall, Denver, was just too demanding and they preferred to emigrate for work on ‘easy street’ in the EU.

That night for dinner, we ate at the nice restaurant on ship. Most of the food on the ship is included in your ticket price, but this restaurant is so nice that you should pay extra! They do a really nice, 3-4 course meal, followed by an additional course of dessert, and provide better wine pairings. The atmosphere there is very nice and the dress code is formal. We enjoyed the food and some silly inside jokes!

Dad

Best memory: Watching the Marching Band while visiting the church
Fave spot:       Farmer’s Market: buying wild strawberries and blueberries, and sampling reindeer meatballs

Shannon

Best memory: Listening to the band in the park on a beautiful day in Finland
Fave spot: The Senate building

Sean

Best memory: Racing against Shannon to the top of the senate building stairs, Rocky-style.

Fave spot: The farmer’s market we stopped at for lunch and shopping.

Mom

Best memory: Watching Sean create a video of the marching band welcoming four of the Doherty clan to their fair city: Helsinki, Finland.

Fave spot: Walking through the city, filled with canals, historic statues, and luscious gardens was very impressive. The Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral and Senate Square was brimming with history, yet bubbling with residents of today. (The white cathedral is the unofficial symbol of the city.)

For more pictures, please visit my Flickr account here