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.

AVIAGE Chinese New Year Party

Chinese New Year is huge in China - the biggest holiday of their year.  This year was the transition from a Dragon year to the Snake Year.  The Dragon is the best year out of the 12-year cycle so if you are going to have your baby then this is the year the Chinese do it (God permitting).  This entry is about the party that the company held for it's employees and spouses.  The company is up to about 300ish employees in Shanghai, and there was a 90% attendance rate (in the US it is typically less than 50%).  So the Marriott, where it was held, had about 500 people for dinner then the entertainment put on by the employees.  It was a fun concept since it built some fun relationships in the process.

I was asked to by one of the four Master of Ceremonies (MCs) - That's me in the tux below.  The presentation was done half in Mandarin and half in English.  Overall, the crowd really liked the show and I had much more fun than I thought I would have.

I introduced myself as Bond...Jame Bond - one of the funny points of the show.

One of the fun show items was a top-10 list that I put together.  It was a fun way to get the crowd into the show.  Here is the list.

Top 10 Best Things about 2013 Chinese New Year

10. It’s the only time of the year when you can get a taxi, even when its raining

9. A second chance for a new year's resolution since you already blew your one from Jan 1st.

8. Expats get to work another weekend.

7. A week of no sleep from the non-stop fireworks

6. A week of visiting relatives at ‘home’ will remind you of why you moved to Shanghai

5. A week off to catch up on episodes of your favorite TV show

4. No more stress about the world ending in 2012.

3. Sex can be fun again since there is no more pressure to have a ‘Dragon’ baby! 

2.  Snakes are less scary than Dragons.  

1. This year we will sign the Master Contract with COMAC.  

Belly Dancers, there were quite talented in their art.

A great show called 'Expat Style' based off of  Gangnam Style.
It was a great show that had the crowd roaring.

Chinese singing - the tree is for where you put wishes for
the new year.  

Brown-eyed Girl solo - very awesome

The leadership team entered the dinner with a lit up Dragon
and Snake.  There was a beating drum - very Chinese.

1930s song

My Favorite Things sung by a young girl.

Piano solo - a good time to take a rest.

Three guys on my team (Gary, Zong and Simon) doing a couple
songs.  After some technical difficulties in practice the result
turned out to be very good.

After the show my team gathered in the lobby for a fun photo
under the snake.

Yings at Terra Cotta Soldiers

So the terra cotta soldiers of Xi'an are a fascinating sight that are a great example of the incredible work that can be achieved by slaves ruled by ruthless dictators.  The soldiers themselves are all beautiful since each one is unique.  It was also speculated that before being buried each one was painted in extravagant colors.  The story behind the soldiers is sad.  

The first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, believed that he needed to bring all of these soldier and horses to his afterlife.  He also wanted to preserve his tomb so he had the 100,000 slaves who built all these buried alive also.

Yings with Uncle Jim

This was in location #3.  Hardly escavated at this point.

Location #2, a deeper area.  Our guide didn't tell us too much
about this one.

Four years after the emperor's death there was the 'farmer's revolt'.  The common people got pissed off that all the town's money was invested in the soldiers - and maybe that all their friends went missing... The farmers raided the tombs, knocked over the soldiers and then burnt the structures to the ground.

This is #3 again.  You can easily see the beams that held up
the dirt above the soldiers.  

I didn't quite get these bronze statues.  They looked out of
place in the museum so they were probably trucked in from
somewhere else.

This is location #1.  About the size of 2 football fields and filled
with soldiers.  The soldiers have been reconstructed by finding
the pieces and gluing them together. 

We kept talking about how we felt sorry for the archaeologists
who have to dig all these guys out with toothbrushes!

Yings around Xi'an

While Uncle Jim was here from the USA, we took a short flight to Xi'an for his second weekend.  Xi'an is one of the oldest cities here in China that dates back 3100 years.  It has been the capital of China a few times and has been the location of the most dynasties.  A dynasty is the reign of an emperor, I think.  

We had a full day of touring the attractions but we also spent some time nearby the hotel in the city.  This means within the city walls.  This city wall is a great-wall-like boundary of the inner city that is as impressive as the Great Wall.  It seemed to be taller and wider and was 20-30 km in circumference.  In nice weather you could rent a bike and pedal all the way around.

We walked around the Muslim area, the bell tower and the drum tower.

This steak and beef on a stick was street food that was
brought in to our table.  Very spicy.

The Muslim quarter walking street.  Very crowded with many
unique foods, trinkets, artwork and other unknown stuff.

This was a crazy desert that was steamed and put on a stick.
We asked the name but it didn't translate to English.

Roasting walnuts.

A cool stone carving.

10 RMB ($1.60) for a view of Jupiter through
his homemade telescope.  He put this thing on
his 3-wheeler.

Even though it was 300+ on the air quality index we could see Jupiter.
Yugege has ice cream flowing in his viens.

Oriental Pearl Tower

The Pearl Tower is one of the center pieces of the new growth of Shanghai.  It was the first landmark to be built to signify that China was on the growth path and was a force to be reckoned with.  It was built in the early nineties when Shanghai decided that they were going to build on the east side of the Huangpu River.  Locally it is called the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower or Dongfang Mingzhuta.  

Looking up at the tower in the little courtyard
in front of  the tower.

Construction began in 1990 and was completed in 1994.  It is 468 meters (1,535 ft) high and was the tallest structure in China until 2007.

Uncle JimHead was in town so we decided to pay the $20 ea
to go up the tower.  There are two floors and beautiful views
of the city.  It was worth the money.

Here is looking out at the other tall buildings.  These are
mostly taller than the oriental tower.

This is looking down on the elevated, circular walking path.

This was a freaky glass-bottom floor!!  

We were all freaked out standing on this glass.  Construction
in China is not known for its high-quality.

Courageous Yuyuan!

Caomei joining the fun of 'floating' over the city.

All the kids had a great time experiencing walking and
crawling over the glass.