Simply China - II

This is just various photos from the last couple of moths.  No particular order but some interesting things that happen.

I was invited to a leadership conference in Sanya.  Stayed at
the St. Regis, very beautiful hotel and location.

Chinese New Year is a time for feasts.  My team went out
to dinners with the COMAC teams to celebrate.  This was
one of six dinners for me.

I Love Shanghai (from Puxi looking at Pudong)

A little easier to read...

My taxi driver pulled over and had to pee.  Public deification
is more popular than you think.

China day costume for Caomei before school.
That is Chocolate, Frosted Flakes she's eating.

My office area at COMAC.  I've chosen to have a cubicle too.

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We had 3 days of snow last winter.  The largest accumulation
was about 1".

The family was asked to pose for a local magazine.  A topic for
another blog.

Ji'an Temple

Just one of those days that you need to get out of the house and see something.  We went to the Ji'an Temple over in Puxi.  It is a Buddhist temple with many large statues, incense burning structures, coin wishing opportunities and praying people.

You were able to purchase incense sticks and place them in
these structures.  Offering to the gods.

It gave us an opportunity to talk about other religions and what Buddhism is.

This big structure in the middle was the center of coin throwing.
You had to watch out for others missing.  The kids collected a
small treasure to bring home.

This idol was about 15 meters tall.

Lots of gold or jade in these idols.  You can see
there are kneeling furniture in front for praying.

This was the main temple, with the largest idol in it.

Wide-angle of the courtyard.  It is in the middle of the city.

Chinese Snake New Year

The largest holiday on the Chinese calendar is their New Year, or spring festival.  Most Chinese will leave the big city and go 'home' for a week or so to be with their families.  In Shanghai there is a large migrant population so the city probably decreases by 50% during this holiday.  Most foriegners leave the country since this is a week off from work that most other countries in the world don't celebrate.  The challenge is getting a ticket out. 

The view from the JW Shanghai looking down on People's
Square and towards the Bund.

It is still winter in Shanghai!

The fireworks at midnight.

It turned out that the fireworks were mostly close to the ground so it was not as impressive as we hoped.  They were exploding at about the 20 story and we were on the 55th or in the lounge on the 59th story.  

Two envelopes with 10 RMB in each from the hotel.
Money in envelopes is the Chinese traditional present.

A dragon paraded through breakfast (see video).

Caomei wore the freaky Chinese mask, I guess because she
was wearing here Chinese outfit.

Relaxing on New Year's Day by the pool.