Night Shoot with the Shanghai Exposed Club

I have joined a new group, Shanghai Exposed,  it's a group of photography enthusiasts that tromp around Shanghai and neighboring towns and shoot great pictures.  I am a novice, a point and shoot camera  is my game.  But I do have a fancy camera, well actually Tony has a fancy camera which I have now appropriated and am interested in learning how to use.  I have read the first 35 pages of the instruction book but I am also a hands on kind of gal and thought I would just throw myself into the club and snap away enthusiastically.

Last night the club leader - Darrell - scheduled a night shoot at a lit highway underpass.   The location is about 2Km (1.2 miles) from our apartment and I thought it would be nice to walk.  The weather in Shanghai has turned cooler and the humidity has dissipated so it is just great to be outside.   I gave myself 30 minutes to walk over, but I should have given myself more as I saw so many great things to photograph.   I was not late but it was a close call.  

On this evening shot I learned how to create a light stream with the fancy camera, it turns out you have to change a lot of the automatic settings, but once you understand what all the buttons do on the camera it's quite easy.

So here are a few of my pictures, I hope you like them!  

 The view from the lobby on the 17th floor of my building.  Looks like it's going to be a nice evening.

 When I got down to the street I saw that it had been decorated for National Day, which is October 1st.  A big holiday in China! Plus it's Moon Festival so everyone is cheery as they have a few days off!

 This is a nice shot of my apartment building, it's the building on the far right corner of the picture.  The tall building with the top lit in yellow is the Ritz Carlton and there are 2 towers on either side which are the residence towers. We live in the right one.

 A little local neighborhood among the high rises. 

 Just a pretty shot of the full moon and the pretty stair rail.

  I arrived at the underpass with all this terrible traffic teeming about.....oh wait that is normal traffic.

 One of my artistic shots!

 How does it ever sort itself out?

 They are at a complete stop!  Nobody wants to give way, typical Chinese, always self serving.

 Some more artistic shots!

 I finally started looking away from the highway lights (look away look away from the light.....that's for you Aunt Cathy!) and saw a park and the lovely JW Marriott pencil building. You may have noticed in the three shots that show the pencil building the top is a different color in each. The building has a revolving color spotlight filter, it's very pretty!

 More art for you!

 And now some examples of my  new skill at making ribbon light.!! Nice eh!?

 I had a wonderful time taking pictures and talking with new friends and thanks to Darrell who showed me how to make light streams in my photos.

Sunday Brunch at the Geisha

  It was a beautiful Sunday morning and Tony and spent the early morning reading and sunning ourselves by the pool.  It gets hot here in Shanghai during the summer so we try to get out by the pool by 9am and come back inside by 11:30am.   Well we don't sit right by the pool but on the pretty grass strip on the 8th floor terrace, pictured here.

 The pool is just around the corner, but as it is usually filled with cute, happy, frisky (loud) 4 year old kiddies, we opt for the grass strip instead of by the pool.  We often go over to the pool for a quick dip to cool off and then back to our chairs for some more relaxing reading and quiet time.  Since we live in a BIG city of 22 million people you can imagine there are not a lot of green spaces to rest and be quiet.  The parks are always teeming with people, in addition, you cannot sit or walk on the grass.  The park police, yes they are there, walk around and wave you off should you step on the precious green turf.   There are some park benches in a few of the parks but they are always already full of elderly people enjoying the shade of the trees and gossiping away.  Probably their own apartment (one room to 3 people??) is small and hot so sitting in the open park is a nice treat.  We are lucky to have this grass space on the 8th floor of our building and we take advantage of it quite often.

 Naturally being Sunday thoughts turn to brunch at the noon hour.  I had read about the all you can eat brunch at the Geisha, a sushi restaurant.  188 RMB, about $30.00 USD, gets you all  you can eat sushi and sashimi and all you can drink beer.   A quick shower and change into some comfortable walking shoes and off we went.  The restaurant is about 2 km from our apartment, about a 25 minute walk. 

The restaurant is in the former French concession area of Shanghai. There has been quite a ruckus about the correct name of this area.  Simply spoken or written as  -the French concession - is very romantic and evokes lovely thoughts.  The Chinese government has indicated the proper/ official name of the area is - the former French concession and if you want to use the name in any type of promotion or advertising you must use the word 'former' or pay a fine. The Chinese hate to be reminded that they were not the most powerful or in control so this is 'tres' important to them.  Their country, their rules.

We arrived at the restaurant at 1pm ready to eat! We were hungry.

The restaurant is comprised of three parts.  First floor - restaurant, second floor club, third floor lounge/bar/restaurant with outdoor seating. We made our way directly to the third floor as the outdoor seating was calling our name.

The third floor was amusingly decorated with a portrait of Geisha lips, lovely dark wood and comfortable chairs.

We sat by the window on the inside to enjoy both the light air conditioning to combat the humidity and the outdoor air.

The menu had lots of delicious items to choose from and choose we did.  Although neither of us wanted beer so we choose to drink sparkling water.

First plate, sashimi, and look there is another stinking shrimp head. I HAVE learned my lesson and I know that I do not care for the taste of shrimp head, raw or fried, you can read about my fish head revelations here:   http://www.surpriseshanghai.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html.   
And just so I wouldn't make the mistake of eating it (you know in my enthusiasm of sharing a wonderful meal with my husband)  I just avoided that morsel altogether. 

A few tasty rolls were also consumed and after a satisfying lunch and scintillating conversation with each other we departed the restaurant at 3pm.

We took a leisurely walk back to our apartment enjoying the sights and smells that I believe are unique to Shanghai. 

And here is Tony in the elevator of our building, satiated both bodily and visually after our outing. Another wonderful Sunday!

A short cut through a warren of lane homes.

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What a beautiful day, sunny with a breeze, perfect for finding the new and elusive Mr.V's a sandwich stall.  Mr. V's opened about 4 months ago and the review tempted me with memories of the most perfect of flavors I have only enjoyed in Vietnam.  Bright fresh vegetables with a squeeze of lime, a dash of Vietnamese hot sauce and some pork stuffed into a crispy baguette. Yes, here would the place to buy a bánh mì sandwich in Shanghai!  One of my favorite places in Asia is Vietnam, the people, the sights, the perfect coffee and the food, oh the food. I have been twice and would happily go again and again.

With address in hand and a quick look at google maps I decided to take what looked like a shortcut, a new adventure, through some traditional Chinese neighborhoods.

 I love walking through these old neighborhoods of crowded lane homes.  Lane homes were built in 1920 or 1930 as cheap tract homes and are now considered prized architecture.  A lane home is a two story unit, connected to a number of other two story units which extends from a main lane (branch) which is connect to a major street sometimes and offers a great shortcut if you know what you are doing and where you are going.

 There is a whole community of services offered inside these neighborhoods, here you can see the barber pole mounted on the right side of the picture, must be a barber shop down this lane and center is a  fellow with a sign mounted to his bike offering some sort of service I imagine.  Probably knife sharpening as that is MY most pressing need and every time I pass a guy on the street who is sharpening knives I don't have mine on me.  I feel uncomfortable just carrying a backpack full of dull knives but I should do it till I find the knife sharpening man.  The knife sharpening man is a mobile shop and he doesn't seem to go to the same spot on the same day and time of the week.  Sneaky guy, which is why I should carry my knives, but that seems so wrong.

So back to the lane homes. This is the main branch (Lane) of the neighborhood and runs straight from YanAn Highway to Julu Lu, both major roads.  From the main branch are the smaller lanes which are quaint, quiet and beautiful. I noticed a seamstress, a vegetable stall, and a shop to buy drinks.You may wonder, as I do, who are these people are and what are they doing. 

I have only seen old seemingly retired people in the neighborhoods.  The young people (spoken as a generalization) do not like the old homes, typical Chinese mentality, if it's new it's good. Old is not good. I also found out that Chinese women must retire between the age of  50 - 55 and men at the age of 60. In addition you must surrender your drivers license (if you are so wealthy to have one) at the age of 60.  I kind of like this law, no drivers over the age of 60 and you must be 21 before you can take the test to get a drivers license.   Seems it would make the highways and byways safer, yet having been here now for 4 years I know this is not true, drivers here are nuts!

There is wonderful greenery lining the lanes and even a lovely outdoor table to enjoy the cool shade.

Then I saw this.....a large... what I am assuming is a pet rabbit.  Although it could be dinner...??

So how does one find these great short cuts? Which gate do you go through?

Well on YanAn Road  you go through this gate, pay no mind to the guard he lets everyone through. The gate is next to a very tasty Uyghur restaurant known for it's grilled lamb kebabs and the shiny bass structure in the right had corner of the picture is the BBQ that they cook them on. I do wonder how often they have to polish it as it always looks so bright and clean.  I took Dad here last time he came for a visit and he liked it a lot!

 The other gate is on Julu Lu (Lu means road) and it's my favorite street name to say; go ahead say it nice and fast...Julu Lu Julu Lu, see fun!

 Here is the gate on Julu Lu, you would never know that it connects with the other main road.

 Out the gate, on to Julu Lu and I ran smack into the cantaloupe man.  Could the knife sharpening man be close by? But we are looking for Mr. V's and a tasty sandwich for lunch, perhaps I'll buy a cantaloupe on the way home. 

According to the google map  I am to walk down this road to number 93. You can see on the street sign that this section of Xiangyang Lu runs from 1 - 55. I am getting close to my lunch!

I think it's kind of funny how the hair sticks up on the sign for Mr. V's under the Tao Hair Salon sign.

We have arrived at the sandwich stall and it is a tiny little alcove offering Vietnamese coffee, fresh squeezed lime soda drink and the coveted Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich!   I ordered the lime soda and a sandwich.

Bright flavors, a little spicy and a wonderful crunch from the veggies and crisp bread.  All in all a good lunch.
As I turned around to retraced my steps I immediately saw the top of our apartment complex! 

I knew I was close and now that I know the short cut I really am close!

 

As you can see here there is a locked gate guarding these apartments, I would not be able to get inside this neighborhood. 

 Back down the main lane toward YanAn Lu my home in sight!

 A few snaps of more lanes in the neighborhood, nice cars everywhere. Maybe they belong to their kids? Maybe the young people do live here too(with their folks) and they are at work.

 Looks like laundry day.

 

I arrived home safely, quickly and with a full tummy and began researching my next adventure! Stay tuned!