Happy Chinese New Year!

Wow, there just seems to be a lot going on right now... come Feb, I'm afraid my blog will get boring! So Chinese new year was today- it's a little like the 12 days of Christmas in that it lasts 15 days and at the end is Yuan Xiao Jie. We'll get into that later. So basically everyone takes the week off and almost all shops close. Two days ago I hung out with a few new friends and in addition to some fun board games, we bought firecrackers and set them off. (Everyone sets off fireworks on New years eve and the day of, so we were just a tad early). Some photos and video below. I had never lit a firecracker since it's so illegal in the US, and your parents scare you so much that you fear that looking at a firecracker stick might cause you to go blind. It was pretty fun! Now, there isn't a big display at the wharf or anything like 4th of July in the states- its more of a local thing. Each family, neighborhood, routy kids, etc. sets off their own. I live on the 9th floor and have a neighborhood right behind me. It's kind of fun as I can see the ground fireworks as well as those that shoot in to the sky. I don't know my firecracker trivia, so don't test me on what each of those are called! But just to reiterate, it's really crazy how many fireworks go off... it sounds like a war zone and there really isn't any regulation.

Yesterday, new year's eve, Wendy and I met up at Longhua temple, a Buddhist temple. It was 300yuan to get in which I think was ridiculous so we just stayed outside. However, that was just as interesting. Hundreds of people gathered to pray and burn incense... and there were firecrackers, and the temple had a bell that rang every 8 seconds. It was pretty intense. It was like sitting in the airport smoking lounge, in a war zone, with policemen, firemen, people praying, selling things, shoving, pushing, lining up to get into the temple, all at once.

Barack and my birthday

ok, so I'm ethnically Chinese and livin' in China and all, but I'm of course a total American patriot! Who isn't these days with Barack in office? So I started looking for an Obama party early on- and found a place, the Glamour bar on the Bund as a good place to hang. Now, Obama's inauguration started at 12 noon EST, and that's about 1am our time. (on the 21st) There were about 600 people at this bar and I met up with a few folks there. Stupid me, I dressed "American" with my baseball cap and red and white gear...but this was definitely a bar, and so shed my hat early on. Very cool to be an American overseas and watch the whole ceremony and his speech. Really interesting perspective with my current "global citizen" state right now and seeing the US from afar. I get a lot of questions about "why the Americans do such and such."

Ah, so my birthday was today too. Nice to have a new president as a gift. At work, we went out for noodles as that's a tradition on someone's birthday. If the place had served it, I would have gotten the "Long Life" noodles- which is just one big long noodle. haha. At work, they got me a cake, and I went out with some friends to karaoke (!) afterwards. Ah, KTV as they affectionately call it. We went to this place that is literally three floors of individual rooms for KTV. and there's a dinner buffet included. it was petty nice- I think there's an opportunity here for the US. Maybe WiiTV, or RockBandTV? anyone anyone?

good times. Although I must say, this year I'm not as eager to celebrate the bday in any big grand fashion. Must be getting older!

Harbin (-15F anyone?)

Eli had to push Up his Shanghai trip to this week - originally he was going to spend three weeks here spanning the Chinese new year week. Because of that, we also pushed up our trip to Harbin. Now, why Harbin? "China's tenth largest city and known as "Ice City" for its long and cold winter" quotes Wikipedia. They have the world's largest ice festival (ice sculptures, buildings, etc.) and so why not take advantage of the cold weather and go where it's even colder? I was envisioning something like the Ice World of "Die Another Day" but as you can see from the photos, this was so much cooler! (no pun intended) From Singapore's 85+ degree weather to -15 below, I feel like I am really testing my temperature limits. We first went to the Siberian Tiger park where there are over 800 tigers, and we could feed them through a fence. (San Francisco zoo should take note!) Below is a picture of a liger- a tiger/lion hybrid. Also, we went to a Snow park where they had huge snow sculptures; Eli and I went tubing down one too. You can see below how they make them- using plywood to form a huge box, they shovel snow in it and people stand/jump on top, making the snow dense enough to carve. There was also a pretty ho hum "Disney" themed park that was slightly over-marketed as well.
However, the second day we went to the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival- the grandaddy of them all. Pretty amazing. They embedded neon tubes in the ice and there were replicas of Tienanmen Square, the Birds Nest, Pagodas and the Great wall. There were skating shows, slides, bikes, etc... even camels and fuzzy white dogs? All for an entrance fee of ~$20. Only in China! I can't believe how long it must have taken to make all this. It'd be fun to watch it all melt in slowmo.
The third day we left in the afternoon, but not before we walked around town, and took a "ski lift" across the Harbin river. It was so cold that the river had frozen over so we decided to walk on it on the way back. There were people ice fishing and some horse drawn sleds as well. We heard a couple of gunshot like booms and decided to hurry up our leisurely pace!!

Singapore

I had a last minute (and when I say last minute, I mean 1 pm, team decides I should go, 3 pm get passport back from the China Visa place, 4 pm book flights, 11pm leave) trip to Singapore! I had to be there for a meeting on Thursday and stayed until Sat. I knew Singapore was an international city, but I didn't realize how diverse and multicultural it is. There are Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, European, and all sorts of other influences. It's quite inspiring as a place for design. I hate taking pictures of McDonalds, but I thought that their current promotion of the new year"Mega Prosperity burger" was interesting. The manikins below are also multiracial, and the amusing thing is that they covered the women's busts in dark pantyhose. Nice workaround. I hung out with Sue, a friend and co-worker who's family is there and they showed me around. The beach was pretty nice! It was so good to be in 85degree weather- much better than the Shanghai 20's. The beach picture shows a lot of cargo ships in the background, showing Singapore's status as the world's busiest port.

Train to Hangzhou

So earlier this week I went with some co-workers to Hangzhou via the train on a daytrip. The trains were pretty nice. The one we went on was pretty new and went directly to Hangzhou in 1:15 hours. Pretty fast, around 100mph. Hangzhou is famous for its West Lake, which we had tea near (the pic of the house is a teahouse). We also went to visit a local design firm... who printed out a banner welcoming us! nice!

Interesting products!

Well, being a product designer, I tend to take note of unique products I've seen around here. Below are just a few... food ones will come later.

"Heater pads" are pretty common. Here's one that has a slot for your feet.
A pumpkin-shaped humidifier for the dry air here.
My microwave has some interesting buttons.
Ever wanted to really test out your toilet paper before buying...?
Selena plays with a "pet balloon." you can drag it behind you with a leash!
Loofah embedded in soap! This was quite an expensive purchase, it better exfoliate my skin well!

hanging out in Shanghai

The last few days have been fun- I've hung out with Tony (a co-worker) and his girlfriend Kelly.We all signed up at a gym nearby (Megafit) that has an outstanding deal of 14oo RMB (~$210) for the year! Classes, nice showers, lockers, new equipment... even boxing lessons? Anyway, with the winter months upon us, I need to this so I don't get a Beijing duck Belly! I also went to try out hot yoga at Kelly's studio. You know, attending the class made me think I was in San Francisco. The Israeli yogi, the half Caucasian/half Asian class, and upscale facilities... who knew that Shanghai could be just like Noe Valley??
I also got a case of the sniffles, probably because the little bit of sunshine in the morning fools me and plays hide and seek the rest of the day, causing me to be unprepared for the cold that inevitably happens as we tend to walk outside more than not. So on Nanjing Lu, a very... very busy place this weekend with most Chinese taking the new year's off, and there are sales all over the place, we went to a Chinese medicinal store. After talking to the "pharmacist" I got some medication that look like rabbit pellets. I'm supposed to take 5-10 at a time? Ah, what the heck. I've taken them a day now, and I'm not sprouting any antlers, and my sniffles aren't getting any worse.
Also, we went to see MeiLanFang, starring Miss Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger lady). I was so glad to see that the movie had subtitles! ... but they were in Chinese. (You may find this odd, but basically everyone can READ Chinese characters, but just pronounce them differently. i.e. if someone speaks Cantonese, and doesn't really understand Mandarin, they can read it to understand) I reluctantly went in, thinking I'd just admire the Peking Opera singing (riiight), but to my surprise, I understood quite a bit and got the movie. It's pretty darn good, and I'd recommend it! Maybe I'll go see some Beijing Opera here.

New Years

I went with Thomas and Selena, both local coworkers , to the CokeCola New year count-down party. Thomas knew the organizer and it was outside near the Oriental Pearl Tower. There were some big name performers like some ABC (American Born Chinese) guy, Wong Lee Hom. Funny thing was, we all went out to a KTV (karaoke bar) beforehand (with dinner buffer included!) and sang some songs that he and another performer (which we didn't know was coming) sang at the show. I still sang American songs at the KTV bar, but my goal is that by the end of this rotation, I will whole-heartedly be able to sing some of the Chinese classics in Chinese! Wish me luck... I actually do think its a pretty good way to learn Chinese, albeit the tones are all way off.