Hong Kong is AMAZING!

Last week we took a short trip to Hong Kong. It was my first trip there so I was pretty excited after hearing everything my friends here in SH have told me about HK. And I wasn't disappointed! The weather was fantastic, and I spent my first day shopping in Central. When people say the shopping in Hong Kong is great, they aren't lying. It is fantastic!!

Everything about Hong Kong is fantastic. It's small enough that getting around is very easy, all modes of transportation are great. Taxi, Subway, Walking, Ferries, Tram or Bus, you name it and it's pretty simple to navigate. The landscape is beautiful - water, decently clean air, many many tress and lots of outdoor activities. Hiking trails are abundant. The seafood is fantastic - we ventured out to a seafood market one night for dinner. You can see some of our photos below. Delicious! I can't not mention the great Dim Sum! Yum. It was nice to also have a brief respite from struggling with speaking Chinese everyday. The majority of the population in HK speaks english so daily interactions are much simpler and easier.

The people are still just as friendly as the majority of people in mainland China and I can't wait to go back for my next Hiking/Shopping trip!

YES!!!!!!!

We're back in the game! Today I am proud again to say that I am an American and I am finally hopeful and looking forward to the next 4 years.

Obama = Change

We attended an election even this morning at the Hilton Hotel here in Shgnahgi (hosted by American chamber of commerce and American woman's club of Shanghai). It was fantastic - full of all people, Americans, Chinese, and other nationalities from all over the world all hopefully and enthusiastic to see Obama elected the next president of the United States. There were tears of joy during his acceptance speech - it was like nothing I've ever seen. Let's enjoy this moment before all the hard work begins...

It's official. There is nothing we can eat.

What a pain in the ass.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7701477.stm

My current strategy to keep my husband and I as healthy as possible:

1. Order all organic vegetables, fruits and dairy products from helekang.com, a pretty reputable online organic grocery.

2. Buy only imported canned and boxes goods from City Shop Shanghai, or bring these items back from the US.

3. Buy only organic meat from Shanghai Better Meat Supply company, which offers organic pork and imported beef from the United States.

4. Never wash my vegetables off with regular tab water-only use filtered water.

5. We (like most people) have water delivery service which brings big water "filtered" water jugs to our home but because I don't think I can trust that the water is really filtered well I still run it through a brita water pitcher before drinking it.

6. Use two high end, imported air filters in our home to help eliminate any pollutants and toxins in the air (from outside, inside paint fumes, fabric fumes, cabinetry fumes, etc.).

Do I think I'm going overboard? No.

Here's what I've learned in the past 10 months of living in China. You have to assume everyone is lying to you, or trying to take advantage of you. I hate that I have to think this way about everyone. Obviously not everyone is trying to take advantage of you. There are great people here, honest and caring people. But the kicker is that there are also so many corrupt people that in order to really watch your own back you have to be very very careful about everything.

Welcome to China.

Constant Construction

Some photos of the constant construction going on in Shanghai. This is in central/downtown Shanghai - it struck me that there wasn't a single fence or anything set up for procautionary measures. I was just another pedestrian on the street.

Nintentdo Wii Phone?

I'm not going to deny it, I like new technology. I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, the Wii Bandwagon and most of the other cool technology bandwagons just like everyone else.

Here's some cool information for those of you just like me! There are little birds buzzing about a potential new Nintendo Wii Phone. Check out the article here.

China being poisoned by it's food industry.

Read this article below:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,523988,00.html

Will it ever end?

Looks like eggs aren't safe to eat now either.....

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10823478?source=rss

Good lord....my grocery bills are going to go through the roof only buying imported...

Morning Sights

I was out running some errands this morning and saw these lovely ladies out doing their morning exercises. What struck me is that they were combining dance, drums and red "flags" all together. Usually I just see the ladies using two out of the three. Pretty impressive! They even had quite an audience assembled. :-) I guess it's just a typical Shanghai morning...

Mass Matchmaking in Shanghai.

Some 3,000 single men and women gathered last week at the Luwan Stadium for a mass matchmaking session, and by all appearances it looked like a very successful event. The men lined up in rows while the women went past them.

Check out the rest of the story here:

http://shanghaiist.com/2008/10/21/mass_matchmaking_session_at_the_luw.php

Travel Abroad - Mixing Religion and Hotels. Yes!

I read a really interested article today in the New York Times about a less expensive trend in lodging abroad. Staying in a Monastery or a Convent. Yup, that's right - spend your nights under the same roof with nuns and priests.

I think this is a fantastic idea - I've always found the idea of a monastery or convent fascinating. Imagine staying in a roman monastery, steeped in history surrounded peace and quiet. Sounds fabulous to me.

Check out the article here - it lists some great resources for more information. I'm already planning my next trip to Europe! There's something in it for all of us, my husband especially will love saving so much money on hotels. ;-)

Shanghai - The Best 5 Places to Live Overseas in 2008

Shanghai is officially the "Best Hot New City" to live in for foreigners!

Check out the article below:

http://thetravelersnotebook.com/destination-guides/the-5-best-places-to-live-overseas-in-2008/

A Lesson in Burbon Whisky - Makers Mark Distillery

I'm still in the US, actually in Kentucky visiting my mother and grandmother (who is 102 years old!!). Kentucky gets a bad wrap for being a backward state filled with country folk. Ok...that is true to some extent, but not entirely true!!! It is beautiful, filled with trees and rolling hills and among other things has many historic whisky distilleries like Maker's Mark which are still in production.

My mother and I drove up to the Makers Mark Distillery this morning to take the factory tour and see how Kentucky burbon whisky is made. I'm not a big whisky drinker, but I made have been converted after today! The tour was facinating and to call the Makers Mark site a factory is just not totally acurate. It's just beautiful - they're still using the original buildings but everything has been restored.

The whisky making process is really interesting, Markers Mark uses a mixure of grains a majority of which is corn (something like 70%). They barrels that are over 100 years old to fermet the grains and then they turn it into moonshine (basically un-refined whisky) then it gets put into white oak barrels for 6 years while it ages to perfection. Finally it all gets bottled, packaged and shipped out to re-sellers. I should add, all of the bottling and packaging still happens on site, they still print the labels for the bottle on site as well. Amazing.

Really really facinating experience, I'm sure I've managed to muck up the explantaion of how it's
made, but hopefully you can get a better idea of the process from the photos below.

Need a laugh?

If you're following US politics even a little you'll enjoy these HILARIOUS spoofs of the presidential candidates.

I've been back in the US for 2 weeks now and I feel totally inundated by the political climate and the economic crisis. We all need a good laugh to break up the depressed state of the country.

Check out Saturday Night Live's spoofs here:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/

Thank You!!!

For putting me on the list of the 10 hottest China blogs!

http://www.chinabloglist.org/

I'm currently in the USA visiting family and friends (and trying not to cry because of the economic crisis) but I'll be back soon and back to blogging on a more regular basis.

China is faking it's reports from Space??

This has got to be an all time low for the Chinese Media....I mean seriously, how totally ridiculous is this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3082804/China-fakes-reports-from-space.html

Good lord!