New Years in Shanghai
2008 is supposed to be a big year for China. Eight just so happens to be the best and luckiest number here. Plus the olympics are coming, and a plethora of other exciting stuff is planned for the year to come. I am ready!
Gina and I traveled to Shanghai to ring in the new year. Keep in mind that this is not the Chinese New Year. The Chinese lunar calendar does not change to 2008 until February (none other than) 8th. By which time I will be the ripe young age of 27 (28 by Chinese standards) and celebrating both dates by sitting on my board in the warm sun in a lineup for the perfect wave on Bali.
But I digress. Shanghai at New years.
Shanghai is quickly becoming one of those cities where I would never want to live; and although I am always excited to arrive, I am equally as excited to leave. It was SO busy this weekend. I saw a few near death incidences just getting on and off the subways. But Yao Ming and I managed to chill alone amidst the insanity.
We spent a lot of time wandering through random streets this weekend. In particular, the French Concession and other artsy parts of town. I sent a postcard home to Hana recently, but I don't think I have told many of you about the 'pajama culture' in China and in particular in Shanghai. It's quite simple, really. Many people here have no qualms about never getting out of their PJ's; so much so that they wander out and about to run their errands without changing and without even thinking twice about it. Case in point:
Laundry day...outside on a busy corner....
Dog 'walking' in the middle of the day on a Monday.
After battling crowds and walking the entire width of Shanghai, we went back to our hostel to get ready for the big night! This is our "We're ready to party" faces.
And then here we are... 'partying'.
We had a few parties we'd been invited to (read: expensive, snobby and only foreigners...what you could do anywhere in the world on New Years) and then there was this Temple I had heard about from another guys' blog. We had no real plans except to go with the flow and have a good time. I thought we might hit up the temple and then go to a bar or two. But plans changed very quickly upon our arrival to the Longhua Temple. I didn't know this until after we went, but apparently the ceremonies at this temple on December 31st are considered one the of the eight greatest attractions in Shanghai. Longhua is the oldest and largest temple in Shaghai. It was built in 242 AD.
We were greeted by a crazy parade of masked actors....
...who then preened and posed for pictures....
...under the wishing tree.
This tree's leaves are made of golden silk and each one has a real wish on it that people have written. We couldn't read any of them but I'd like to think they were all meaningful. I imagined one to be the wish I would have on the leaf. It would just be the character for 'compassion'. This is my current mantra and if I had to say I had a new years resolution, being more compassionate would be it. However, I have been working on this for a few months now and won't be surprised if I take my whole life to prefect it, so it is not really just for 2008.
Once we thought we'd seen everything there was to see outside of the temple, we bought our tickets to go in the temple. Again, having no plans, we thought we might just check it all out and then leave if we wanted to (for dinner and drinks maybe) and then return when dinner was done. However, upon entry we were told there was no restaurant in the temple (although I had read there was) but that we got a bowl of noodles at midnight; and we were told we could not leave if we wanted to get back in. So, two freezing cold, hungry little girls walked around the temple aimlessly, wondering what we were going to do after spending the equivalent of 50$ to get into the place.
We tried to be zen about it. There really was a lot to see and midnight was only two hours away.
So we checked out the room with 100 gold Buddhas.
Gina and I traveled to Shanghai to ring in the new year. Keep in mind that this is not the Chinese New Year. The Chinese lunar calendar does not change to 2008 until February (none other than) 8th. By which time I will be the ripe young age of 27 (28 by Chinese standards) and celebrating both dates by sitting on my board in the warm sun in a lineup for the perfect wave on Bali.
But I digress. Shanghai at New years.
Shanghai is quickly becoming one of those cities where I would never want to live; and although I am always excited to arrive, I am equally as excited to leave. It was SO busy this weekend. I saw a few near death incidences just getting on and off the subways. But Yao Ming and I managed to chill alone amidst the insanity.
We spent a lot of time wandering through random streets this weekend. In particular, the French Concession and other artsy parts of town. I sent a postcard home to Hana recently, but I don't think I have told many of you about the 'pajama culture' in China and in particular in Shanghai. It's quite simple, really. Many people here have no qualms about never getting out of their PJ's; so much so that they wander out and about to run their errands without changing and without even thinking twice about it. Case in point: Laundry day...outside on a busy corner....
Dog 'walking' in the middle of the day on a Monday.
Yes, I do plan on busting that style out while I'm here. But I plan to wait until it warms up to a bearable PJ-sporting temp.
And then here we are... 'partying'.We had a few parties we'd been invited to (read: expensive, snobby and only foreigners...what you could do anywhere in the world on New Years) and then there was this Temple I had heard about from another guys' blog. We had no real plans except to go with the flow and have a good time. I thought we might hit up the temple and then go to a bar or two. But plans changed very quickly upon our arrival to the Longhua Temple. I didn't know this until after we went, but apparently the ceremonies at this temple on December 31st are considered one the of the eight greatest attractions in Shanghai. Longhua is the oldest and largest temple in Shaghai. It was built in 242 AD.We were greeted by a crazy parade of masked actors....
...who then preened and posed for pictures.......under the wishing tree.This tree's leaves are made of golden silk and each one has a real wish on it that people have written. We couldn't read any of them but I'd like to think they were all meaningful. I imagined one to be the wish I would have on the leaf. It would just be the character for 'compassion'. This is my current mantra and if I had to say I had a new years resolution, being more compassionate would be it. However, I have been working on this for a few months now and won't be surprised if I take my whole life to prefect it, so it is not really just for 2008.Once we thought we'd seen everything there was to see outside of the temple, we bought our tickets to go in the temple. Again, having no plans, we thought we might just check it all out and then leave if we wanted to (for dinner and drinks maybe) and then return when dinner was done. However, upon entry we were told there was no restaurant in the temple (although I had read there was) but that we got a bowl of noodles at midnight; and we were told we could not leave if we wanted to get back in. So, two freezing cold, hungry little girls walked around the temple aimlessly, wondering what we were going to do after spending the equivalent of 50$ to get into the place.
We tried to be zen about it. There really was a lot to see and midnight was only two hours away.
So we checked out the room with 100 gold Buddhas.
And the room with a couple big golden Shivas.
And the crazy people praying and lighting fake money and incense in the fire.
But by the time we'd thought we'd seen it all, we were hungrier, colder, and it was only 10:20pm.
We were about ready to abort the mission when out of the corner of my eye, I saw 'the light'. There WAS a little restaurant and it was selling soup and cookies! We couldn't believe it. I think both of us were almost in tears and I wanted to drop to my knees and kowtow in the direction of the restaurant.
After dinner we were warmed and rejuvenated, so we headed over to the stage to watch some traditional Chinese entertainment. Acrobatics, opera, and dragon dancers all tickled our senses while at the same time, people rang the huge copper bell to make a wish for the coming year.
And then came the countdown...and the fireworks...and the dragons.
And the crazy people praying and lighting fake money and incense in the fire.But by the time we'd thought we'd seen it all, we were hungrier, colder, and it was only 10:20pm.We were about ready to abort the mission when out of the corner of my eye, I saw 'the light'. There WAS a little restaurant and it was selling soup and cookies! We couldn't believe it. I think both of us were almost in tears and I wanted to drop to my knees and kowtow in the direction of the restaurant.
After dinner we were warmed and rejuvenated, so we headed over to the stage to watch some traditional Chinese entertainment. Acrobatics, opera, and dragon dancers all tickled our senses while at the same time, people rang the huge copper bell to make a wish for the coming year.
And then came the countdown...and the fireworks...and the dragons.
Happy New Year!
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