We are finally into winter here as evidenced by the fallen gingko leaves (men on campus beat them off the tree with brooms so we didn't get to spend very much time enjoying the delicate yellow fans), the legions of sweet potato vendors, and nighttime temps in the 30s (Fahrenheit that is). It feels more like what we would call fall and it's pretty nice. However, we will be escaping the brutal Shanghai winter by heading south to Yunnan province for Christmas. Yunnan ("south of the clouds") is home to China's eternal spring with trees beginning to blossom in January. Supposedly they've figured out how to get at least one kind of tree to bloom every month in Kunming, the capital. More about it, of course, after we've been there. But we're very excited to travel again and to spend Christmas someplace totally different. Please God, don't let there be Santa Claus there.
Shanghai is feeling homey and boring, so we are trying to have little adventures here and there to remedy that. Last weekend we accidentally found one of the oldest parts of town--a maze of muddy streets and tile roofs. It was market day and fish were being beheaded in the streets and vegetables we had truly never seen before were being sold for pennies. Great refreshing stuff when you're used to the big city that doesn't feel so adventurous anymore. Just to prove that Shanghai is certainly still an exotic place here's a local menu and a baotzi steamer almost as large as I am.
3 comments:
is that a dog on the menu? i've heard about eating dog - but seeing one pictured on a menu... that's disturbing. i choose to believe that in china one can bring pet dogs, pet cows, pet roosters and pet fish into the restaurant - like in Germany.
yunan!! so cool.
South of the clouds sounds like heaven from where I sit! Be sure and have some Fragrant Tea Sending Forth Delicate Fragrance Far and Near (read about that on a website re Yunnan); and have a wonderful holiday!
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