(101 Things About Shanghai) Zoned for Crappy Pastries

(101 Things About Shanghai) Zoned for Crappy Pastries

ETA 12 August 2010 ExtraOrdinary has disappeared from the infamous corner and in its place is Bakery #4 in 12 months: Elysee (insert French accent aigu on first and second Es) Boulangerie-Patisserie. Yes. En Francais. Bien sur. And OMFG- they have real pastries hidden away 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Getting from Here to There

(101 Things About Shanghai) Getting from Here to There

After a bajillion years of searching real estate ads and a bazillion weekends and Wednesdays spent staring at worn, tired, spartan, absurd flats, we have finally found a new home. Unfortunately– as everyone has lamented to us– it is Expo year and housing prices have 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Everyone’s a Florist

(101 Things About Shanghai) Everyone’s a Florist

We are easing into the lush and sweaty long summer season, when Shanghai overcompensates for its appalling climate by making everything all rich and verdant. The florists have all started displaying their wares outdoors, blocking the already blocked sidewalk with potted plants of all sorts- 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Trippy but Pointless Public Art

(101 Things About Shanghai) Trippy but Pointless Public Art

In the wilds of Pudong, deep down in Zhang Jiang Gaoke where I used to catch the bus to work in Lingang (don’t even ask how far away that was) there is a giant Delete button standing on one of it’s corners at the edge 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Chinese Laundry

(101 Things About Shanghai) Chinese Laundry

I’ll readily admit I was reluctant to post on this theme as it is high up there in my list of cliches to steer clear of. However, a cliche is generally based on some tired, overused aspect of reality and that is true of this 

(101 Things About Shanghai) It’s not the Heat, it’s the…

(101 Things About Shanghai) It’s not the Heat, it’s the…

  Sometime around now, Shanghai shifts gears and rather abruptly begins to feel like the changing room of an indoor public pool. It’s not hot out yet;  Summer’s freakish sweaty heat has yet to descend.  It is humid though. Your skin feels clammy and ever 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Ludicrous Shopping Tactics

(101 Things About Shanghai) Ludicrous Shopping Tactics

  We went to the fakes market today in Nanjing Xi Lu, which is a 4-storey shopping mall that sells only bootlegged goods from hundreds of tiny shops the size of our kitchen. There are a lot of shirts and shoes and ties and small 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Sudden Shops

(101 Things About Shanghai) Sudden Shops

In Canada, it is highly unlikely that you would ever come across a street vendor setting up an impromptu, unlicensed shop on the sidewalk. In fact, really, it’s unlikely you would ever come across a street vendor. When they exist, they have been vetted and 

(101 Things About Shanghai) Casual Armband Security

(101 Things About Shanghai) Casual Armband Security

At the bus stop just outside our apartment complex there are three elderly people clad in matching orange wind breakers and baseball caps emblazoned with Shanghai Ping’an Volunteer (and a lot more in Chinese). They have government-issued red armbands pinned to their sleeves. They can 

(101 Things About Shanghai) New Wave Dogs

(101 Things About Shanghai) New Wave Dogs

One of the interesting things about living in a country that has only recently shifted from a practical, survivalist mode of living (hello Great Leap Forward!) is that everything bourgeois is new and exciting. This includes keeping pets as pets and not as, say, nutrition