Confucious Temple

In our minds, there is a significant difference between the theology of Buddhism and the philosophy of Confucianism, although we don't pretend to know very much about either. When we visited a Confucius temple, there were a striking number of external similarities to what we saw at the Buddhist temple. The temple architecture stressed different things (more dragons than people), but the layout was pretty much the same. Instead of a giant golden Buddha inside the temple, there was a giant golden Confucius. We were surprised to see so much incense burning and ritualistic chanting/singing...something else we saw at the Buddhist temple. Interesting...we weren't expecting to see so many quasi-religious aspects of Eastern religions here.

Part of the admission price (5 yuan...70 cents) was a bundle of incense to burn. So we did. A first for us.

The low-quality video below is sideways...sorry...you'll have to turn your head, but more important than the picture is the sound.

Farewell Dinner

It's hard to believe that our time in Shanghai has passed so quickly. Hyrum finished grading final exams on Friday, and as a precursor to our departure, the College of Engineering hosted a farewell dinner for us the Tuesday prior.
Pictured here are the dean, vice dean, some of our co-teachers, and our friend Yiming (standing far left) who has organized our trip and taken such good care of us.

And now for some shots of some more wild Chinese cuisine. Pictured are (1) drunken shrimp...raw shrimp swimming in some kind of sauce that we're pretty sure had alcohol in it (not something we ate), (2) crusted pork...most like Russian "sala"...the upper fatty layers of pig skin, (3) very delicious rice cones that you fill with sweet mandarin sauce, dragonfruit, and corn, and (4) the everything seafood bisque: clams, muscles, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, ... truly excellent, but jellyfish is hard to swallow, literally.

Sick Scottie

We had a scary couple of days this past week. On our trip to the canal town Scottie was tired, clingy, and hot; so hot in fact that at the restaurant we asked them to bring a fan and stripped off his shirt. Our Chinese friend was impressed with his belly. It was a hot day though so we assumed he was just a little overheated. However when we got home turns out the poor little tyke had a temperature of nearly 104 degrees. Thank heavens for baby Tylenol. After four days of high fevers, we were going to risk it and take him to a Chinese hospital. Luckily the fever broke over night and he is good as new. He didn't eat for about four days but luckily his cute belly is still intact.

Zhujiajiao Canal Town

On Friday, Yiming took us to the canal town Zhujiajiao ("Ju-Jaw-Jow"). Beautiful! The city is over 1700 years old. It features this bridge-- which is a measly 500 years old--called the "Set Fish Free Bridge" to honor the kindness of a town leader who was always doing good deeds...
...so we bought some fish and set them free.

A shot of the main canal running through town. Besides the boating, we saw a lot of locals washing their clothes, shaving, and fishing in the canal.

We also took a boat ride in one of these canal-worthy vessels. Instead of pushing off the ground with a pole (like Italian gondolas), they actually row.

Nice hat, Mom!

Ahh, lunch. Previously, we had seen some locals selling some fresh eels, and others eating some snails. Little did we know what dishes awaited us at lunch! In addition to the usual shrimp, tofu, and cucumbers & edamame, we were treated to stewed eels w/ onions, and boiled snails. We tried everything...and were pleasantly surprised by the eels. We actually ate a bunch of snails for adventure's sake...actually quite tasty, but the texture isn't something we're used to.

East China Sea (Xinghai Beach)

The other day Scottie and I accompanied Hyrum to Fengxian district (where Hyrum teaches). After class we went to the beach! At first glance, the beach looked disgusting: the "beach" was cement steps, the sky was hazy, and the water was cloudy. That didn't stop us from wading in, and we realized that the cloudiness of the water was because the bottom was made out of hard, smooth clay. And at high-tide, the water was only knee-deep for as long as you could see.

Scottie and I went on a horseback ride out into the cloudy abyss. Scottie loved it.


When the tide went out, it revealed hundreds of critters for daddy and Scottie to torment. (Hyrum adds: Actually, the other Chinese folks were the tormentors, putting dozens of crabs in tiny sacks; Scottie and I were just observing, not catching.)








Since the trip to the beach was spontaneous, we didn't bring swim trunks or diapers. Scottie's Chinese "stylish cow" diapers were soaked and saggy within the first few minutes. Mommy and Daddy got their skirt and dress pants muddy in a hurry, too.

At low tide, the water is only 1-2 inches deep...and a lot of fun to run through at full speed.










On the way back, we rented a pedicab, but thought it would be more fun to drive than to be passengers. So, Hyrum and I took turns. The driver is sitting in back. I loved driving through traffic. And boy! we turned a lot of heads...a white woman in a muddy skirt, peddling around a bunch of boys.

Cute pics of Scottie & Mommie

At The Martyr's Memorial. A peaceful tomb surrounded by flowers, sculptures, reflecting pools. Many locals practice relax, jog, or exercise here. Scottie loved the long ramps to run up and down.

Longhua Temple

Shanghai's oldest Buddhist monastery, not too far from campus. We came at a good time--the monks were busy burning incense as offerings for the dead. One of the monks spoke broken English, so we were able to learn a little more about this fascinating religion and the monk way of life.

Most temples had one or three very large golden Buddhas. Below are some shots of a temple with hundreds of Buddhas...each one slightly different. Notice the little blue man in the second inner temple shot.

Steeped in Tea Tradition

Since Nicole and I are Latter-day Saints, we don't do tea--green, black, white, pink--or any color that comes from the tea leaf. But, we *do* do herbal tea. We met a few Chinese tourists in Shanghai who invited us to a tea ceremony, which, we learned is steeped in Chinese tradition.

The first step in the tea ceremony involves offering the first serving of tea to the tea god. From what we can tell, he's a 3-legged toad with 7 rhinestones on his back. After pouring the offering on his back, we were invited to stroke his back for good luck. Scottie did well with the whole "petting the toad" idea. Another deity presiding at our tea party was a little Buddha, whom Scott treated as one of his plastic cars, and drove him all over the table.

After the initial offering, we were shown how to properly drink tea with three fingers--the thumb and index pinching the little cup, and the middle finger supporting the bottom. Girls are supposed to flare the remaining fingers, and guys are supposed to make a fist, obviously a show of strength. Tea drinking involves three steps: swirling the tea, smelling the tea, and drinking it in three sips.

This particular tea was handmade mountain herbal tea, and was pretty pricy. So we only did two different kinds: Ginseng and Jasmine.

The lady who led the tea demonstration.

Several kinds of herbal teas in the glass jars, plus the tea toad and Buddha on the table.

The second course (Jasmine tea) consisted of the traditional tea cup, plus an urn-shaped cup, that was used to smell the tea, use the vapor to clear your eyes, and rub the warm cup on your face and forehead.

Sunday on the Bund

We took a Sunday stroll to a very crowded "the Bund". (Note to Shanghai travelers: Shanghai is crowded; the Bund on Sunday is purgatory.) A few shots of us, the Huangpu river, and the Pearl Tower. This area was part of the British concession, so that many of the buildings have a very Western look.



The real highlight of the trip were the crowds and crowds of paparazzi (aka, Chinese tourists visiting Shanghai). We literally couldn't stop walking without forming a crowd of onlookers...poking and prodding little Scottie, his blonde hair and big American blue eyes.

In the last picture, only about 1/2 of the crowd is pictured; there were probably 30-40 people taking glamour photos of Scottie and his entourage/dad. This sort of thing happened at least 5 times during our stroll. Ahhh, the adoring public!

Where's the beef?

This is what I thought I was be getting. As I understood it, the 4.50 yuan version included cheese.

And this is what I actually got. Really, it was quite tasty. But it caught me by surprise. In case you can't tell, the fixins inside include:
(1) Lettuce
(2) Tomato
(3) Bacon
(4) Cheese
(5) Egg

What? No beef? When we asked the lady at the window about it, we couldn't make out if she was trying to tell us they were out of hamburger that night, or that this "hamburger" didn't actually include any hamburger. Either way, it was yummy with an egg.

City tour #1: something old & something new

The College of Engineering at Shanghai Normal takes foreign lecturers on a couple of sight-seeing excursions during the term. Yesterday, we went to Yuyuan Garden and Xintianii. We've been outside Yuyuan (or just "Yu") garden before, but today we went inside to see one of the oldest parts of Shanghai. Xintiandi is a super-stylish part of Shanghai in the French concession...we may have seen more Westerners than locals when we walked around. To us, Xintiandi felt like a stylish Newbury Street in Boston with a 1900's Chinese flare.

Scottie's best and worst moments...Best: feeding the large "goldfish" (carp) up close in Yu garden. Worst: running full speed into an invisible glass wall in a Xintiandi shopping center.

Some Shanghai opera being performed on the street near Yu Garden.


Some beautiful structures in Yu Garden, including a 400 year old Gingko tree.


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Scottie's encounters with goldfish. We all had fun until the gray monster carp showed up. I managed to get a snapshot (doesn't do him justice) of the Chinese Loc Ness before he took off my hand....in the last picture, you can see one eye and his mouth, which probably opened to be 2.5 inches in diameter. He splashed Scottie, reared his ugly head, scared us all, and thus ended the goldfish feeding frenzy.

Welcome dinner

Last night, the College of Engineering threw a welcome dinner for Scottie, Nicole & me. The vice dean, co-teachers, and the incredibly friendly Yiming--our administrative assistant (more about her later)--took us to the Taoli restaurant, we we had several courses of Chinese food, including a few Shanghai specialties. We tried everything, and likes most of it.

The Shanghai specialties were:
(1) Cold pumpkin with pickled figs (Pumpkin was good, figs were...ummm...pickled)
(2) Rice balls (the texture and shape of soggy gumballs) in a slightly sweet sauce (Hyrum liked it, Scottie was suspicious)
(3) Marinated pork (Hyrum ate the lard and all, Nicole and Scott were more civilized)

The dinner highlights included:
(1) Ying-yang soup...in the Taoist tradition (yummy)
(2) Jellyfish salad with peanuts (Hyrum liked it, Nicole was indifferent)
(3) Tofu sprinkled with fermented duck eggs and coriander (sounds yucky, but pretty good)
(4) Lotus roots (bulbs) stuffed with sticky rice (yummy)
(5) A whole mandarin fish (head included) with relish in sweet-n-sour sauce (delicious!)
(6) Sauteed Chinese mushrooms & peppers (Nicole's favorite)
(7) Chinese "cakes" that you stuff with veggies before devouring

...and others: cucumbers & vinegar, shrimp & vinegar, and a boiling pot o' tofu...still on fire at the table. We topped it off with drinks of herbal tea, pecan juice, and coconut milk....which Scottie devoured...and dessert: fried sesame cakes and watermelon. Yum! Truly a feast.

Here are a few pics of the meal. We'll show pics of our gracious hosts in a coming post.




Blurb: (L to R, top to bottom): (a) the feast the Chinese-style lazy Susan turntable (why don't we have these?), (b) notice the ying-yang shape in the soup, (c) jellyfish salad, (d) bean curd with duck egg, (e) lotus roots, (f) the fish smiling at the camera next to a plate of shrimp, (g) Scottie opted for a pineapple Popsicle.