Anyways, I think the best way to explore is without any expectations...
Today I signed Matt & I up for an early morning outing with a "Meet Up" ( ) Photography group. Now, by no means am I a good photographer, but they were headed to an area I had never heard of and since it was a photography group, I figured there had to be something to see. Plus it would be a great way to meet some new people.
We headed to Qibao Ancient City. We had no idea what that meant.
I did a little search on the subway during our 30min ride there and here is what I learned:
- Only ancient town with a history spanning over one thousand years in part of greater Shanghai. An original "water town"
- Qibao is the Chinese for 'seven treasures' A couple theories on this name, but the local favorite is a folk tale about 7 treasures that found their way to the town / temple: 1) iron Buddha made in Ming Dynasty, 2) a bronze bell also dating from the Ming Dynasty but said to have mysteriously appeared from nowhere, 3) Gold Script Lotus Sutra written by an imperial concubine of the 10th century, 4) a one-thousand-year-old Chinese catalpa tree, 5) a jade axe, 6) a gold cockerel and 7) a pair of jade chopsticks. Of the seven treasures, only the first 4 are proven and only 2 exist today.
- Cricket fighting: popular folk activity of breeding and fighting crickets. yes, crickets. they have shows in May & Oct, but unfortunately we missed that.
- It will be crowded. What isn't in China?
Anyways, we arrived with obviously limited expectations and this made for a great morning spent wandering through the small town. We arrived before shops opened but then by the time we left it was a mob scene. Part of the experience was just the transformation. It's a bit touristy now, but still I'd recommend the morning trip.
A little unofficial dance performance at the entrance
Early Morning
Shops
Street Food. Crazy.
Back alleys + Matt's Shadow Plays (local to the area. obviously)
Quaint Morning turns into Crazy Afternoon
Matt got in to the Street Games
Qibao Temple
Matt's Hair. He's too cool to read my blog, so I figured I should share. :)
Oh, & it's fireworks galore again tonight! I think the city of Shanghai might be exploding. It's INSANE!
Such a pretty town, kind of like Venice only Chinese.
ReplyDeleteBTW what are those things on a stick and what do you call that hairstyle ;0
xo
Jackie, try this on your pictures (Chuck Anstrom):
ReplyDelete"The way Blogger hosts your pictures is through a private Picasa Album. Using your Google ID, log into Picasa and click on My Photos. You will discover that each of your blogs (if you have more than one) has its own album. Click on the correct one.
You can then locate the picture that is rotated. Click on it, and it will expand. Then in the upper right corner you will see a button marked "Edit." Click it. This will launch the Picnik editing application. You can then rotate the photo to the way you want it to be. Save it back to your album. "
Thanks Chuck! I appreciate you giving me some tips! This didn't work exactly but gave me a good starting point and now I think I have it working again. I'm sure everyone else also appreciates not having to continue to turn their heads sideways to check out the photos. :)
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