Happy holidays!

We passed some festive graffiti here on Gulangyu. It's chilly, but
clear and sunny!

Ho ho ho

We joined a festive ride around Shanghai yesterday. There were about 30-40 riders in Santa hats, a tricycle blaring Christmas tunes, and plenty of beer stops. It was a great way to get into the holiday spirit.

Brief

Oops, seems that time has slipped away a little too quickly for us. We passed our 1 year anniversary here in China a few days ago and it's both embarrassing and gratifying to reflect on the progression of a year in Shanghai.

We've met incredible people who have helped us broaden our worldview and experience how small our planet really is (in a good way). On the flip-side, neither Troy nor I have really acclimated to the Shanghai cuisine... I love cheese too much.

That's all for now. We just booked a weekend trip to Xiamen over Christmas, so there will be pictures of beautiful, crumbling, colonial architecture coming soon.

Rampage

Troy's having a rough day, but I know how to make him laugh.

Why you should listen to your Chinese apartment agent.

El Nido

Pictures are posted from the trip here (or click the collage below).

El Nido and Bacuit Archipelago, Palawan

View from my hammock

Looking from a hammock at Cadlao Island where we kayaked a day ago for
fantastic snorkeling. Tomorrow S and I will have a boat drop us off on
a deserted beach where we will snorkel, kayak, and camp away from
civilization for the night. El Nido is a stunning place.

Exploring villages in Yangshuo

Time seems to have slipped away from us. So, as we are getting ready to head off to the Philippines, I thought that I should try to get a few things from Yangshuo up to share.

Big city

We pitched to a client in the downtown banking district. The view of
the skyscrapers from their 18th floor office was impressive.

Ride to Kunshan beer festival

Last weekend a bunch of friends rode to Kunshan, a town about 40 miles from our pad in Shanghai. There was a beer festival in Kunshan, which was good enough reason for me.

Sierra and Anna setting out... Anna is shielding her identity in anticipation of looting

It was hot and hazy when we set out. Unfortunately there's no forecast for air quality, so when we make any riding plans it's really a roll of the dice. Ten of us rode and at about half way there one of the fellas (hungover Luke) got a couple of flats. As I improvised a repair in an anonymous outlying suburb of Shanghai, a crown of Chinese locals circled around.

I've found that on several occasions, when a few people's attention are attracted, more will congregate, and little else seems to be as compelling or urgent as standing around to watch a foreigner do whatever it is he's doing. Honestly, I could be doing nothing and a small crowd can quickly grow to claustrophobia inducing proportions. The curious part is that those who join in to see what the buzz is also will hang around for some time, as if nobody has anything else of importance to accomplish. It's a bit amusing or disconcerting depending on my mood.

A good portion of the ride was along a multi-lane highway, but the bike lane was mostly separated. Traffic was also light, which was comforting.

Pit stop in the shade

Wide open highway and Luke in the separated bike lane. That motorcycle-pickup-lumber-hauler is awesome.

We set a pace line for the latter half to make better time, but not everyone kept the gaps down.

The air seemed to deteriorate as we traveled farther from Shanghai, however, so several of us wore masks despite the heat to filter the air. Well before we reached our destination, my mask was soaked with sweat, so pulling lungfuls of air was a challenge.  Sucking in completely unfiltered particulates was even less appealing, so I gutted it out. We were happy to check in to a hotel and clean up.

The beer festival was a far cry from Portland's no-frills arrangement. It was surprisingly crowded for a country that doesn't seem to be too enthusiastic about beer, but the venues were more about corporate promotion. A Budweiser tent was castle themed and had a big stage with live music. We ducked into the this building but didn't need much of the bad karoake, crowds, or vomit inducing lights so ducked right back out.

We could have wandered a bit more but ended up settling in the German tent, where at least the beer would be satisfying. Sierra was tuckered from the long ride and uncharacteristically she left early with Anna to retire.

Walking out of the fest with Andreas and my pilfered German/Chinese beer mug.

The next day a few friends rode back to Shanghai, but I didn't want to punish my lungs for consecutive days and the girls were definitely not interested so we gave the train a try. Our tickets back to Shanghai were a whopping 12 RMB, or $1.80, each. As the girls queued up for tickets, I waited outside with the bikes and drew quite a crowd. Chinese reaction to our bikes is absurdly predictable now, with a squeeze of the small tires, lift of the light frame, and the inevitable question "Duo shao qian?", or some variant of "how much?". Every. Single. Time. I decided to play dumb but that didn't dissipate the crowd, so by the time Sierra returned she had to wedge through layers of onlookers as they eagerly watched me doing... nothing.

Before the throngs. I'm trying out-cool as the pink polo accidental hipster.

We almost didn't get into the station because the security screener flat out refused to allow us entrance with our bikes and was completely uninterested in deciphering our broken Mandarin pleas. Fortunately at about the time we were contemplating packing up and riding back his superior stepped in and waved us by the security check. There are perks to being a foreigner.

After a lengthy but typical delay, we boarded and just took our bikes onto the car with us. Too easy. We may use the train again to arrange a ride well beyond the city, but hopefully the success of our trip won't boil down to the mood of the security attendant.

Next weekend Sierra and I are headed to Yangshuo. It looks amazing...

Typhooey and more Wall pics

Well, a couple days ago it was reported that we were directly in the path of typhoon Muifa. It was much ado about nothing, however, as the storm stayed offshore and slinked by to the north. Today all we saw were a few half-decent gusts and some light rain. I'm feeling gypped.

I've grown weary of the photo-a-day. Instead, here are a few more pics from the Great Wall. These are from day two, when we hoofed it to Jinshanling.

Doing the Ralph Macchio.

The suspension bridge at Simatai reservoir

The descent to the Simatai reservoir bridge.

And a treat for those of you who read this far! As we left the Jinshanling access area, I needed to use the facilities so followed signs to this cesspool. It smelled worse than it looks. I turned and walked out immediately, then decided that it was at least worth a photo. There were insects buzzing everywhere and filth pooling at the bottom of the troughs. Awesome. Well, mother nature called, but at least it wasn't of the squatting variety. It turns out a proper bathroom was another 5 minutes down the path.

Great Wall of China (2)

Great Wall of China (1)

The Pretty-Pretty-Pretty Great Wall

S and I went to the Great Wall last weekend. She had a presentation to give in Beijing on Monday, so we decided to work in a visit to the Wall over the weekend, as it's not far from Beijing. Once we decided to go, I started exploring the possible destinations and made plans for the trip, and I let Sierra book my flight in and out of Beijing (hers was already purchased through work). Yeah, more on that later.

After some deep digging on the interwebs, I worked out details to visit a beautiful closed stretch of the Wall. We flew in to Beijing early on Saturday, took the subway to a bus depot, bused for 1.5 hours to a small town, and then had a driver take us an hour farther to a small simple inn. The inn itself is hidden up a winding road just an eighth of a mile below the Great Wall on the back side of the Simatai resort.

The quaint Dongpo Inn.  The accommodations were minimal, but the food was great and location even better.

We arrived at about 6pm on Saturday as the owner of the inn rode off on his motorcycle to make sure the guard enforcing the closure of that portion of the Wall had left for the day. When he returned, he showed myself, Sierra, and a handful of French patrons a trail to follow up to the Wall. From there, we climbed tower after tower until we were hiking with a wooded slope to our left and a cliff immediately off the right of the ancient winding structure.

Here's a birds-eye view of the stretch we hiked that evening. We went as far as the highest point on the right side before the Wall begins descending. While the entire stretch shown is currently closed, it is permanently closed beyond that point due to disrepair and lethal terrain. We turned around just in time to make it back to the inn by dark.

Here are a few photos from our evening on the Great Wall at Simatai. A thin fog shrouded the distant peaks and towers.

Pausing and posing on the way to the Wall.

Just warming up. It was very hot and humid, and it didn't take long to saturate my shirt. In fact, I've never seen Sierra sweat as much as she did this weekend, so I wasn't the only one.

This stretch of the Wall is known for the steep rugged terrain, unimproved condition, and remoteness leading to fewer visitors. All of my favorite things. Of course, being closed now really keeps the riff-raff out (except for us, apparently).

Obligatory jumping photo -- the Zen master leap

More to follow...

07/22: Medicating for the Great Wall

S and I have been sick, and this photo was before we got meds from a
local clinic. I'm typing this from a plane set for Beijing, where we
will visit the Great Wall this weekend. Fortunately our cocktail has
done the job and we're feeling a bit more human for our journey. The
next photos promise to be more interesting than this one...

07/21: Retro-futuristic terminator hausfrau

These colorful face shields can be spotted on ladies on occasion. Stylish.

07/20: Window washers