20

I just turned 20 on Dec. 28! Wu ZhengPing and his mom got me a Birthday cake. We stayed home and watched movies almost all day, I was really sick... some kind of flu.

(bleh) I look sick... so I am only putting up one picture.

Xīn tiān dì: "New Heaven and Earth"

These are my photos of a recent walk around 新天地 (xīn tiān dì) a beautiful section of Shanghai, with many renovated 石库门 (shí kù mén) buildings. 

Shí kù mén literally means "stone gate." They are a blend of traditional Chinese and old western style architecture. They can be found all over Shanghai as most of Shanghai's population lived in them during the early twentieth century.

Xīn tiān dì just has some particularly nice ones. It manly consists of  book stores  and shopping areas , cafes, restaurants, and Bars. 

Xīn tiān dì is quite reminiscent of the atmosphere of old Shanghai.

Xintiandi literally means "New Heaven and Earth." 

Xīn tiān dì has lots of narrow alley ways, all warmly light just like this one.

The main cafe, restaurant and Bar area. 

Xi'tang

Our trip to a small-ish town called Xi'tang.

The Shanghai Train Station at 9AM, which means we had to be awake by 7AM out of the house by 8AM. ugg.

Train cleaners.

And arriving in Jia'shan about 1 hour later.

After leaving the station we took a local "taxi", which means one of the many waiting cars, bikes, trucks, vans, real taxis and these weird half car things, they look like a normal car but only have 3 wheels. As soon as you some out they descend of you, everyone trying to get you to take their vehicle as the price drops lower and lower. We ended up going in the more expensive (25 Yuan = $3.50) from a nicer looking girl driver. The guys are more aggressive about getting you to take whatever they are driving and will actually follow you all the way to another car still trying to bargain. The trip was about 15min to Xi'tang from the train station in Jia'shan.

Xi'tang!

I did not know this is where they filmed a "Mission Impossible 3" scene. All the shop keepers got pictures with Tom Cruise, which they display in their shops.

We ate lunch at that corner restaurant.

 Little old lady selling  stinky tofu (yes, they call it that because it smells bad until cooked), she posed for us, really cute. I would not eat out of the container she cooked it in though.... 

Lunch.

Old couple that played an Er'hu and sang for us while we ate. They walk around and ask people for a few dollars to play, we gave them extra.

MIMI!~! there are at least 400 in this city I am sure...

I wanted to take them all home (all 400 of them?) but Wu Zheng Ping said no... (kidding, but they are cute!) Also all cats in China are named "Mimi", just thought you should know.

me.

Bunny in a very tiny cage hanging from a bike O_O I wanted to buy it...

One of the rivers that runs through Xi'tang.

These are everywhere.

 
Long one person hallway.

Can you tell I love these red lanterns?

At night we took a 25min ride on one of these.

Hand painted fan, we got to watch him start.

Wu Zheng Ping on the "Sun Bridge".

I thought it was pretty in the daylight, at night its even more beautiful! The red lanterns are all over lighting up the water.

We bought paper flowers to float down the River, they were only 1 or 2 yuan each.

Xi'tang at night.

The next day we walked down an old allyway, very pretty.

Great old Chinese house, we could have stayed here, (I wanted to.)

Bridge on the way in/out of Xi'tang.

Garden in Xi'tang.

When he took this off, his head stayed all wrinkled up, I am not kidding.

Subway on the way home. Its always like this.

Funny Chinglish sign close to the apartment.