just another day in paradise...

In case you haven't heard, we've been having a bit of a smog issue here in Shanghai. In fact, it's been a record-breaking week!

As of Friday, we were off the pollution measuring scale. As a frame of reference, typically, most US cities are in the 10-20 range on the PM2.5 scale. see below "Beyond index" Great!

*super smart ad placecment. air filters on your air quality app.

To bring it a little closer to home. Here's our view, pre-smog.

Here's our smoggy view

I wasn't exactly going to comment on the smog, but then the China news channel released a report outlining the "5 Surprising Benefits of Smog." The Shanghaiist & TeaLeafNation have translated it to English and provided their own commentary for your reading pleasure. Below:

1. It unifies Chinese people. Complaining about smog has brought Chinese citizens together. The haze “is everywhere,” the article continues, from “every big city” to “small cities, towns, and villages.”
2. It makes China more equal. Never mind that wealth inequality remains deep and pervasive in China; everyone has to breathe the same filthy air, right? “Of course,” the article admits, the rich can retreat to their luxury cars or use other means to avoid the worst pollution. “But that is after all a minority,” and even they “have a hard time” avoiding the smog completely.
3. It raises citizen awareness. Here it gets a bit earnest. The article insists that “with the whole world playing up the Chinese miracle,” the pollution “reminds us that China’s status as ‘the world’s factory’ is not without a price.”
4. Chinese people are funnier when they are contending with deadly smog. The article lists a number of popular smog-related wisecracks. The best example from a meager crop: “We’re never farther away than when we hold hands on the street — and I can’t see you.”
5. The haze makes Chinese people more knowledgeable. The article concludes that “through the arguments and the jokes” surrounding China’s pollution, “our knowledge of meteorology, geography, physics, chemistry, and history has progressed.” Also, students of English have added terms like “haze” and “smog” to their lexicon. [...]

 Even with all these benefits. We're keeping our masks on!

Don't worry, yesterday we were already back down to only a hazardous 351...

September 24th, 2013. The Day Our Neighbors Lost their Homes

Originally, I wrote up an entirely different blog post for today, but I'll need to save that until tomorrow because quite a bit has changed in our very own backyard. 

When we first moved here, I wrote about "the price of expansion" and explained about how we learned that families were stilling living in what we thought were abandoned / burnt out homes in our own backyard and the struggles they went through to stay in their homes.

Unfortunately, today those struggles are over.  When I woke up and headed to Spin class I thought something seemed different about the lot behind our home. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it seemed like there was more debris somehow? On my way home and to grab some groceries I noticed a few policemen on the corner of Anfu Lu & Wulumuqi Lu with about 6 men taking sledge hammers to the wall. To myself, and potentially out loud, I thought "that's interesting, I'll take some pics on my way home." But on my way home I encountered an entirely different scene. 

When I returned to the same corner just 10min later there was a a huge gap in the corner made larger by the bull dozer that was squeezing through it. Plus a whole line of men up against the wall wearing red circle stickers on their shirt pockets. Still not fully comprehending what was happening, I snapped a couple pics and headed upstairs to our apartment to get the full view.

It was astounding. There was a huge rope with flags outlining the sidewalks and guards stationed under beach umbrellas (?) every 20 feet or so. 

Through the hole in the wall men started coming in carrying folded cardboard boxes and delivering to what I believe are the 4 houses that still have inhabitants. Once the bulldozer broke through, 4 moving trucks followed down the inner "road" and pulled up to each of the four homes. All those empty boxes were loaded up into the trucks including their refrigerator. (Although I didn't realize that they had electricity?)

After the trucks left, the larger bulldozer came in. A team would water down each building with a fire hose before the bulldozer would attack and destroy. This is how you could tell where the bulldozer would strike next. 

(here's hoping the video works this time)

By 1pm all of the homes had been torn down leaving a cloud of dust in its wake with the smaller  bulldozer and garbage trucks rolling in to pick up the significant piles of debris. 

All-in-all the scene was incredibly calm. The only yells came from people on the street when one of the buildings collapsed over the wall and another from a cat in hiding that ran as fast as I've ever seen once it's hide-out was under siege.

As far as I could tell, no one was harmed this time, thank goodness. But these homes and neighborhood are demolished.

I don't really know exactly how to end this post, because while the buildings are down, there are still so many unanswered questions:

- why now?
- did these people know what was happening?
- where will they live now?
- have they been provided for?
- what happens to this lot?
- did the real estate company finally win? was it the government?

Oodles of Noodles UnTour!

After a visit-saving Breakfast Eats tour with UnTour, I decided to give it another go with Oodles of Noodles and we weren’t disappointed!

Our tour guide Clara is originally from Brussels, but has been living across China for 20+ years and she has many stories to share. Clara greeted us in Fuxing Park and whisked us off to 4 different spots where we tried 7 different kinds of noodles. Who knew China produced so many different varieties of noodles, but I was ready to learn! Luckily, we arrived hungry. :) UnTours hunts down the best local spots: some of the longest-standing Shanghai outlets that you can rarely find an expat in, plus you know they're good when the line of locals runs out the door at lunchtime.  

(I think these are in the right order…)

Stop #1:  Seafood Noodles @ A Niang Noodles

Noodles #1: Croaker Fish noodles.  Don’t know what a croaker fish is? Neither did we! It’s this little guy & he is mighty tasty.

Noodles #2: Hairy Crab noodles. Surprisingly sweet but crabby deliciousness. (For hairy crabs, there isn’t much meat, but rather you eat “the mustard” which is quite tasty!)

with 5 dishes still ahead we were warned to get used to leaving a little in our bowl, 
unless you're Bob.

 

Stop #2: Wei Xiang Zhai

You order the noodles by “liang” which equates to about 50g of noodles. I learned this word in Mandarin but didn’t understand it’s implications. A “liang” was previously a government rationed amount at a time when food was purchased with “coupons” and every “coupon” was valid for 1 liang. While the coupons have for the most part become out-of-date, the “liang” measurement still applies.

Noodles #3: Majiang Mian or Sesame Peanut Noodles. This “dry noodle” dish exemplifies the balance of the 4 key flavors of Chinese food: Sweet, Salty, Sour & Spicy (how convenient that they all being with “S”!) And these noodles accomplish this with: Noodles, Peanut sauce, Sesame Seeds, Vinegary Soy Sauce, Chili Oil & Green Onions.

that's some steamy slurping!

the "liang" menu

Stop #3:  Ding Te Le

Noodles #4: Beef Noodle Soup. A little egg, a little onion, a little philly steak beef, and a lot of tastiness!

Noodles #5: Scallion Noodles.  Surprisingly, a crowd favorite with just noodles and caramelized scallion onions

  

To work off all the above noodle dishes we ravaged, we walked around the French Concession and popped into a “wet market” (where locals buy their “fresh” veggies & meats, more on that in another post). We also explored some "lilongs" , aka, Chinese row houses. Clara also found time to pick-up another egg tart from Lillian’s: YUM! And popped us into a Tea shop where we learned about the difference between green tea & red tea.

Lilongs

Stop #4: Lanzhou Lamian

Actually a halal establishment where they pull & prep the noodles right in front of you, how "fresh". This mom & pop shop brought the Langzhou tradition of the famous pulled noodles of the Northwest to Shanghai. No pork here! Which is surprising considering China loves pork. However, during this noodle tour I learned that 10 of the 55 minority groups in China practice Islam.  Learn a little more here

Noodles #6: Pulled noodles (the round ones typical to when we’d think of spaghetti) and flat noodles.

Noodles #7: Knife cut noodles. Made from a roll of dough a sliced off into long strips (like peeling a carrot)

the Oodle Noodle crew

helps to bring scissors

Our street-side dining entertainment. The Tractor Whistle Man

All this noodle writing makes me want some more noodles!!! 

In summary:

Travels: Moganshan Mountain Weekend Getaway

During the monsoon on Friday, the Kansas Crew & the Shanghai Dancing Team loaded up into our 15 passenger van for a trip up to Moganshan for the weekend!

Moganshan, a mountain range about 200km west of Shanghai, is where in 1910 all the foreigners in Shanghai setup summer homes to escape the stifling heat of Shanghai. It was lost in time a little but has recently been revived with a couple premium retreat resorts and some cabin-like houses for rent. Our crew rented out Moganshan House 21 for the weekend and just had an amazing time.

The weather was absolutely perfect and the air was fresh. We went on a couple Chinese hikes (read: walks on paths / steps through the mountains). We played games, cooked food and danced out on the deck for hours. It was a perfect relaxing weekend! My pictures don't even BEGIN to do it justice.

View from The Lodge

The Lodge (not actually a Lodge, but a restaurant/cafe with helpful English speaking staff!)

loving all the houses tucked into the hills

 

Bamboo Forests 

(nearby bamboo forest in Anji is where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed)

One of our "hikes"

Part of the Crew

hiking views

the town below

ascending mountains

 House 21. Our happy home! 

(surprisingly large with a gigantic outdoor party ground and patio per room. plus, house comes with an ayi! only way to travel)

plus the aftermath

Great friends, great food, great weather, great everything! An incredibly successful weekend getaway!!! We are incredibly lucky.

... there may have also been some drunken shenanigans in there as well... I'll keep the photographic evidence to myself on that one. ;)

"Authentic" Chinese Furniture Shopping

I've been on the hunt for a Chinese-style dining table, so when I heard about these "furniture warehouses" in Pudong I just had to investigate.

Shanghai Mu Lan Hua Ge Jia Ju Li Curio, (easy to say right?) doesn't have a website, which after the pics you'll understand why, so I did some research and came across this write-up in Smart Shanghai:

If you’re looking to satisfy your sense of adventure, spend an afternoon in Outer-Pudongland, sifting and pouring through the wonderful mountain of crap and curiosity at this offbeat antiques and furnitures market... It involves a trek out to the wilds and it's almost impossible to find, but that's half the fun. Builds character. More a giant clearing warehouse than a market, really, Mu Lan contains 20-meters-high piles and piles of old trunks, chairs, tables, ladders, stools, musical instruments, taxidermied baby goats (that’s a hot item), old radios, televisions, buddha statues, and more. Miscellaneous, miscellaneous, miscellaneous... It’s a unique shopping experience -- oozing with authenticity, as they say -- not for the faint of heart or those afraid to get their hands dirty. Everything is covered in dust (and authenticity), it's cold, damp, dark, and would make a great setting for a horror film.

...After reading this, I rounded up my favorite partners in crime and we were excited for our adventure!! 

The pictures we found online must be photo-shopped, as what we found was certainly more "authentic"   I'll post pics in sequence so you can take in the full experience...

we stepped out of the subway, and this seemed somewhat commercial...

kinda commercial...

 uhhh.... they said it was tricky to find...

partners in crime, always up for a fun adventure!

the first "warehouse" we came across... (note the tanker on the side?)

our first look inside!

i want this drum!!! totally a practical purchase

  

 a little room wall-to-wall with chairs

 warehouse #2 

i can't believe we missed the official entrance 

 not quite what we were shopping for...

 i'm still interested in one of these birdcages...

 

it only gets crazier from here...

biscuit tins

"antiques" 

 

   

balancing acts

"hi, I'd like the trunk, 2nd from the bottom please"

Combined expressions are PERFECT!

need a chair?

 

 in summary, we had an awesome time!!! this place was a tad overwhelming. there were definitely some goodies, but took some time to process everything and there's no way we saw everything! I didn't find a dining table, but this console table caught my eye. we decided next time we need to bring a local negotiator to get the best prices.

  

we'll be back!!!