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.

Photos!

Believe it or not, I never did this before!

Shanghai

I love this city. There are so many interesting things to do and see, you could spend a lifetime here and not see everything.
So far I've gone to the Shanghai Museum, Small Animal Market, the Bund, XinTianDi, tried to find the Shanghai Flower Market (could not find it, apparently they move around frequently.)

I have managed to find everything I need for painting, the only thing I cant find is Gamblin oil paint, and if you know me thats the only kind I like to use. I am lucky enough have great north light to paint with, the only bad thing is it rains so much here its a little dark sometimes.
I have finished one portrait, and I am working on more. This one is of Wu ZhengPing.


I just got two beautiful Art books by contemporary Chinese oil painters. I looked all over the web and cant find anything about them but they are amazing, Liu Yuan Shou and Shen Sheng Qiu. Also not expensive at all, only 45RMB each (about $6.65.)


Next weekend me and Wu ZhengPing are going to a town called "Xi'tang." Its built above water, you either need to find a boat or a bridge to get around the city, its supposed to be absolutely gorgeous! At night they have little colored lanterns all over, hanging above the water. I will definitely take some pictures and put them up here.

Airports Suck

I left the house at 1:30AM, my mom and grandma drove me to the Appleton airport to board the plane at 5:30AM, apparently you need to check-in 3 hours early for an international flight.
I almost missed my second flight because the first plane was late taking off and we ended up waiting (flying in circles) for another plane to land before us. The sunrise was beautiful though.
Atlanta airport was hellishly huge. I got lucky and noticed a subway type thing that just happened to be going to my gate, yes, the airport is actually so big they need a train (subway?) to get you from one end to the other fast enough. By some insane chance, the gate I landed at was at one end of the airport and the gate I needed to get to was completely at the opposite end of the airport and... only 20 minutes to check-in to my next flight.

However I did check-in with about 5min left. I was next to the-guy-that-talks-to-much and the crying baby but almost everyone was speaking Chinese so I was still happy.
14 hours on a plane didn't sound so bad somehow when I read it, now I never want to get on a plane again.
It wasn't even the sheer boredom, so much as the fact that I think I started to lose feeling in my legs after about 8 hours, and the fact that I still had 6 more hours to go made me want to cry (I didn't.)
I tried to sleep but only succeeded in actually falling asleep for about a total of 2 hours and only about 30min each time. Next time I'll bring more of my own food, I had changed my meals to vegetarian which ended up being totally ridiculous because all they did was take out the meat, no protein added. No wonder I was so tired!

Finally we landed. Pu Dong airport was surprisingly easy to get though even though it was mostly in Chinese, it was also beautiful, they had hanging plants all over. My luggage was the very last to come out.

I got out of the airport and it was very hot and humid, but at the end of the exit line was Wu Zheng Ping waiting and smiling.

*picture Pudong airport, which is gorgeous.

Chicago

I went to Chicago to get my Chinese visa, which was a lot of waiting but actually very simple.

*the Chinese consulate building through a rainy car window*

The next day I got to spend a few hours at the Art Institute of Chicago. I eventually made my way to the John S. Sargent paintings and got stuck, spending at least 20min at each one.

I was also shocked and amazed to learn that they allow cameras in the museum. 

This is the sculpture gallery. It is amazing. I could spend all day in just these two galleries. However I did get to all the galleries that were open (some areas are under construction.)

And this is a Sargent painting. very different from anything I've seen in a book. I forgot the title, some kind of flower.