Wondering with Wind

We went to see a ballet show <Swan Lake> last Friday as an activity to celebrate my birthday. The venue is in Shanghai Orienal Art Center (东方艺术中心) in Pudong, Shanghai. This butterfly-shaped architectural artistry is among China’s most important performance venues.(See the brilliant photo below. Photo courtesy to jordipostales.)

The art center in day light.

It is designed by architect Paul Andreu of Paris who has created a building that is “bright and transparent as if by magic” in the words of the architect. The complex encompasses three venues: a 1,979-seat philharmonic orchestra hall, a 1,054-seat lyric theatre, and a 330-seat chamber music hall. It also features ancillary public facilities such as an exhibition hall, music shops, a restaurant and an arts library, as well as a multimedia and training centre. (source here.)

Here is the photo tour of my night:

The performers are from Russian National Ballet Theater. It is my first time to see a formal ballet performance and the performance definitely gave us a delightful and pleasant night. I was amazed by the scene/stage design – so beautiful that I can’t believe my eyes.

How to Get There (by Metro): Line 2 Shanghai Science & Technology Museum  Station

During the past few months, especially before 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, I have heard a lot of stories about the difficulties to get a visa (long term) to stay in China, either for work or for pleasure. One of my blogger friend was forced to leave China right before Olympics when they have been in Beijing expecting the Games for more than ONE year and were ready to witness the grand event with a whole heart of enthusiasm. (story is here.) That was really sad.

The good news is that foreigners may not need visas to visit Shanghai along with the Disneyland amusement park opens. Disneyland has been the most exciting BUZZ word in the past two days. The stock market fluctuated with the announcement that Disneyland is finally coming to Shanghai, according to all the major local medias.

We knew there has been a rumor that the first Disneyland amusement park in Greater China Area was supposed to open in Shanghai instead of Hong Kong a few years ago. But the Chinese government wanted this project to stimulate the travel industry of Hong Kong after SARS. Now, at the moment of global economy recession, a lot of local investors or companies are so exciting to see the project will pull the domestic consumer needs. It is said that the real estate/land price around the park location has gone up 30% in a few days since the news came out.

The amusement park will be built in an area called Huang Lou (黄楼) in Pudong, 15 mintues drive from Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG).  The most attractive policy is that China will issue 48-hours in-transit permits for travelers who have no valid visa. Isnt’ it cool?

I am so looking forwards to a day when Chinese citizens can visit more foreign countries without applying visas, and happy to see that China will make this first step in the coming few years!

Majestic Theater (美琪大戏院）is one of the oldes theaters in Shanghai. It offers a diverse range of regular performances such as opera, ballet, concerts, local/regional dance performances and gala. Sit in downtown Jing An district, a block away from Plaza 66 and Citic Plaza, it is on a very good location where you don’t need to worry about transportation after a performance ends late at night. Why does it matter? A friend told me that she hasn’t been to a concert for a long time because it is too hard to get a taxi after the show. The closest metro station for Majestic Theater is West Nanjing Rd. Station of Line 2 (Nanjing Xi Rd. 南京西路).

I went to see a Chinese opera “Madame Bovary, IS ME” directed by Edward Lam (Hong Kong) and performed by students from Taipei National University of Art (台北国立艺术大学) last week.

Here is my photo tour:

I live around Jiangsu Rd. (江苏路) Station, Nanjing Xi Rd (南京西路) station is 2 stops towards west direction. Once you are off the metro, take Exit 1 and walk towards east on Nanjing Xi Rd. and then turn north on Jiangning Rd. (江宁路).

When you see this sign, you know you will be there. (max. 10 minutes walk from the Metro station.)

If you pass this sign, you are walking too far away. Turn back to the corner where the entrance is.

We headed to the theater directly from work and this was my dinner. It is called Guilin Rice Noodle Soup with Soured Cowpea (酸豆角桂林米粉). Not bad for 7RMB.

Very nice!

The theater is well kept: clean and spacy. There are around 700 seats on ground and 300+ on the second floor.

Meeting the director and the performers!

Ok. here are some detailed information about how to get there:

• Address: Jiangning Rd. 66, Shanghai (上海江宁路66号)
• Phone: 021/6217-4409 (call before you go)
• Online schedule: check the schedule here
  
• Ticket:Buy in advanced, or just show up the theather before the show, “dealers” will gather around you. 30% off is a possible deal.

upcoming: The Best ABBA Show by Waterloo May 20, 2008

Photo courtesy of Shanghaiist 

This is an old image, and stories about Tomson Riviera, the 110,000 RMB/sq. meter apartment in Shanghai have been online since 2005 (read here and here).

Today, an investigation result about Tomson Riviera since June 2007 was released: Shanghai real estate and and department has ordered “Tomson to sell at a reduced listed price or put all its properties out to lease”. This is a strong action in the move to cool down the over-heated real estate marketing in China. What’s the government’s next movement?

I mentioned in my previous post that “Jinmao Tower is no longer the most visible building from The Bund on Lujiazui in Pudong, Shanghai”. Who is the new landmark?

The above image was taken from Yuyuan Park last weekend. It is the new icon of Lujiazui – Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC): Height: 492 meters (72 meters higher than Jinmao Tower), 101 floors. The skyscraper is estimated to be completed before 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It is a nice angle to view this ‘highest tower” in China from Yuyuan Park. (see official image below)

I heard about this building a long time before, as friends were circling the original design blueprints via email. The email was asking the recieptants to against the design because it resembled “two swords and the Sun” which are the icons of Japan and Japanese culture. (see right image.)

The owner and investor of SWFC is Mori Building Co.Ltd. (森海外株式会社), a Japanese company. SWFC Co. was found on 1995 but due to Asian financial crisis, the project was forced to stop until 2003. But after the design by KPF, an American firm, was publiced, a Singapore Chinese wrote a letter to Shanghai Urban Construction Department and pointed out that circle on the top resembed the national flag of Japan. Fengshui master also claimed that this building will hurt the Fengshui of Lujiazhui, even the design has been changed. The circle has been changed to an echelon. {Information in this paragraph is from this post.}
If you know about the anti-Japanese sentiment in China, you will understand why building a tower can be so difficult even in 21 century, especially with the help of Internet as information distribution/broadcasting method.

Anyway, I am not exciting to see this highest building in Shanghai, it is just another challenge for Spiderman.

Good Year is on the sky in Shanghai Bund, who else?

Two flying fishes！Who is on the ground?

Banks！

I haven’t visited Shanghai Bund for more than 6 years after I graduated in 2001 until yesterday. My parents-in-law are visiting us and we wanted to walk around the city in weekend. The bund obviously is our first choice of sightseeing. The weather wasn’t perfect, windy, cloudy and chilly, especially by the Huangpu River.

Things have been changed so much: Jinmao Tower is no longer the most visible building in Pudong from the Bund; Chartered Bank Building was redesigned and renovated by a team of international architects led by Italian designer Filippo Gabbiani, and was reopened in Nov. 2004. It is now no longer a bank; one of the Big Four nation-owned banks China Bank of Communications moved out of the Bund, but the other 3 (BoC, ABC, ICBC) of Big Four are still on the Bund. Wikipedia page didn’t catch these changes.

China Citic Bank

Take a real virtual tour on the Bund to see all the buidlings here:

http://shgov.city8.com/sh10951_BA1H-0.833_0.206_1.309.swf 

You wil need to install Flash 9 in order to take this grand tour developed by a Chinese map company city8.com

I read a review about Taiwanese Ang Lee’s new Venice Film Festival 2007 award winning movie from one my favorite magazine on Saturday. I then followed the movie and research the story, the writer of the story, the husband of the writer, and the characters in the story/movie and reviews about the writer during the weekend. I enjoyed doing this because I really like the writer and her books. She is Eileen Chang (张爱玲). Eileen spent 30 years writing this 29-page short story which happened in 70 years’ ago.

The movie is rated as NC-17 in US. Ang Lee said Don’t expect much from ‘Lust, Caution’ to USA Today. He was talking about the box office performance; I think he was also talking about culture difference. I really doubt that people with Chinese culture background can understand it as the way Chang wanted to express. Can you undertand why it is a big deal? But maybe Chang took 30 years to make it for everyone. We will see.

Anyway, I would strongly recommend people who like Shanghai or want to understand Shanghai should go for the movie. Chang keeps every details through each single Chinese word, and Ang Lee repeated every detail about Shanghai in it. [Note: the woman on the magazine cover is the main original character in Lust, Caution from 1930s’; her name is Ruping Deng.]

I always wonder what do you see when you visit “ancient city/town” in Shanghai neighborhood, like Suzhou, Zhouzhuang, or Zhujiajiao.

This is the hometown to NBA hero Yao Ming.

A boat ride will be fun.

Windor shopping.