Category Archives: Favorite Things About Shanghai

Top 10 Ways to Tell It’s May

10. The plane trees have popped. Come back in November if you want to see the onion dome on the old Russian church or the round windows in the deco buildings next door. 9. The poodles come out of their … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai | Leave a comment

Sleepless in Shanghai

For the diehards who really miss China, and the exceptionally curious, I recorded a few key minutes around midnight, as seen and heard from our balcony in our lane. Not any special viewing point. Consider that this goes on everywhere … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai, Holidays, Least Favorite Things About Shanghai | 2 Comments

All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Oops, wrong carol, wrong holiday! Though it’s hard to tell here that Christmas isn’t over. Here’s a shot I took this morning of a shop window: All around town, Christmas trees are serving their second tour of duty, now hung … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai, Holidays | 4 Comments

Bloomin’ bonsai

It’s probably about time for azaleas where I come from and although I had mixed feelings about planting such garish colors in my own front yard, I used to love walking or driving around Washington and seeing them everywhere, bunched … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai | 5 Comments

Purple

I’ve had my eye on this stall around the corner for a few weeks now. Behind the counter, the help are wearing purple outfits and serving up something that’s apparently pretty special.But what have they got that the purple-dressed workers … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai | 5 Comments

Waxing nostalgic

Here’s something I’m already nostalgic about that’s changed since 2004. Back then, we used to hop into a blue Da Zhong taxi and find a long list of rules encased in plastic and hanging behind the driver. My favorite admonished … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Chinglish, Favorite Things About Shanghai, Then and Now | Leave a comment

Shoutin’ Out

Anybody reading out there in St. Louis? Anybody anywhere near St. Louis? Because have I ever got a tip for you. Worth a detour for sure, worth a journey, too (if your journey wouldn’t be quite as long as mine). … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Beyond the Huangpu, Favorite Things About Shanghai | Leave a comment

Wanted

We laugh a lot at the really strange translations and word usages that we see here, supposedly written in English. (We aren’t mean-spirited; we know our Chinese is much worse.) But every now and again, one of those strange phrases … Continue reading

Posted in Chinglish, Favorite Things About Shanghai | 8 Comments

Warming Up

With the advent of cold weather, the Shanghai Guild — a knit-for-community-outreach group that I host at my house (and have written about before) — is a hive of activity.  A little more than a week ago, we had a … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai, Shanghai Guild -- or where a skein of yarn may lead you | Leave a comment

When moss is no help

What was that old Girl Scout adage? Something about moss growing on the north side of a tree…. Here in the former French Concession of Shanghai, it goes like this: Plane trees leaf out first on the north side of … Continue reading

Posted in Around and About Shanghai, Favorite Things About Shanghai | Leave a comment