Xiamen Sunset

Posting will be light as the year closes. In that spirit, a sunset in Xiamen:

A view from halfway up to (or down from) Wulao Peak

Hakka Mijiu in Xiamen

I had another second post in mind for tonight. In mind . . .

But then I sought food for dinner. By the time I arrived at my first destination the finer offerings were gone. So I retraced my routed through some alleys. Or roads. It can sometimes be hard to tell the difference. But I made my way to a hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant which had earlier caught my eye and settled on some green veggies and octopus.

And then something happened. Sitting next to me was a group of friendly guys.

And before I knew it I was being poured homemade Hakka-style mijiu.

Those who know their Chinese alcohols will know this is a sweet and sometimes rather tasty drink but not especially strong. So I will add that this followed the more typical industry-made baijiu — neither tasty nor weak.

I escaped relatively unharmed. The mijiu was a nice change of pace. The baijiu was your typical passable Jiangxi baijiu. In other words, it didn't burn a hole through my throat, so all is grand.

That post I had in mind, maybe tomorrow.

Mockey Mouse Spirit During Christmas in China

Christmas Eve could have been merrier for Disney in China, despite recent indications it will receive special attention in the government's efforts to reduce the number of imitation goods.

What could be a better name for a mock Mickey Mouse?

Obvious imitations of Disney's trademarks, like the one above seen in Xiamen, are still common in China. A couple of months ago I saw an especially large number of "Mockey" clothing items in Shaoguan.

So when in Xiamen this past Christmas weekend I saw Mickeys, or perhaps Mockeys, at an arcade . . .

. . . on a car . . .

. . . on underwear . . .

. . . and at a pedestrian street . . .

. . . all sights I have seen elsewhere in China as well, it was easy to question whether they brought much holiday joy to Disney.

Police Armed With Something Other Than Rifles in Xiamen

As mentioned in the previous post, I have seen rifle-armed police at shopping areas in both Xining and Shanghai. Last night in Xiamen I saw police patrolling the busy Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street. None of them carried a rifle, but it can still be said they know how to "speak softly and carry a big stick".

Other topics soon . . .

Thinking Again About Armed Police in Shanghai After a Warning for Westerners in Beijing

In Beijing there is something else for Westerners to be concerned about in addition to the usual pollution. Austin Ramzy described the situation in The New York Times:

Several foreign embassies in Beijing, including the American and British ones, warned on Thursday of possible threats against Westerners in a shopping district on or around Christmas Day, urging their citizens to “exercise heightened vigilance.” . . .

The police presence in Beijing was increased on Thursday, with armed officers stationed in front of a main shopping complex in Sanlitun, Taikoo Li Sanlitun, and other intersections in the area.

Fortunately, no attacks have been reported so far. Whether or not the increased police presence has made a difference, it has already left its mark and not gone unnoticed:

Never seen rifle toting armed forces in Taikooli before #sanlitun #beijing pic.twitter.com/aG2t7xPA1h

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) December 24, 2015

Some people were reminded of scenes elsewhere in China:

Rifle-armed China security forces in strange places these days. I saw some at Dali airport entrance in late Nov. https://t.co/k1jNDR68ZO

— Edward Wong (@comradewong) December 24, 2015

I too was reminded of scenes in China including similarly armed police. One was over three years ago in Xining, Qinghai. It too was at a popular shopping district. I hadn't noticed the police there on previous days, and it occurred on a sensitive date in China — June 4, the anniversary of the violent crackdown at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

The other scene occurred more recently over five months ago in Shanghai. One day as I walked down the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street I unexpectedly saw rifle-armed police.

Like Sanlitun, the street is a popular destination for foreigners, though perhaps more for tourists than those living in Shanghai. Seeing the police made me think of the immense police presence I had seen earlier in the year at the nearby Bund after the deadly New Year's Eve stampede. I didn't know if armed police had appeared at the pedestrian street on earlier days or during previous months when I was elsewhere in China. I wondered what led to the increased security and whether there was any knowledge about a specific threat.

After I dug up the above photo this evening, my attention was quickly drawn to another detail — one I don't think I considered much on that summer day and probably wouldn't now without knowing the details of the current warnings for Westerners in Beijing. I won't soon again forget the date of when I first saw rifle-armed police on a Shanghai street. It wasn't June 4 or Christmas. It wasn't even a day of particular note for most people in China. But it was a notable day for Americans. It was the 4th of July.

Now I wonder if that wasn't a coincidence.

Pedestrians on Two Roads in China

I am now far away from the pedestrian street in Shanghai which appeared in the previous post, but China has many pedestrian streets. So here are two happy girls I saw today at Xiamen's Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street.

Yet Xiamen isn't the city where I took the photo of the earlier mystery scene I shared after departing Shanghai. I left that city this morning on a high-speed train which a regular announcement identified as "Harmony". Fortunately, Harmony didn't present an endlessly repeating promotional video like the train from Shanghai.

Nobody correctly identified the location of the earlier scene, although there were some reasonable guesses. Keeping with the pedestrian street theme, I will share another scene from the city.

As a close examination of the photo will reveal, it isn't exactly a pedestrian street. People on motorbikes often made their way on the narrow roadway past the street vendors and through the crowds. It all seemed to work, perhaps even harmoniously, like many other aspects of life in Ningde.

Ningde and Xiamen both differ significantly from Shanghai. And they differ significantly from each other as well, although they are both on China's southeastern coast in Fujian province. So Fujian flavors are on the way (amongst others), including those found on pedestrian streets.

Two More Shanghai Scenes

I was tempted to included two more photos in the previous post "Twenty Shanghai Scenes Not Featuring Luxury Malls or Skyscrapers", but they didn't quite fit the theme which emerged. So I will share them separately here.

One photo captures a portion of a destination especially popular for tourists and shoppers: the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street.

The other photo includes tall buildings in the background.

In front of the buildings is a collaborative creation (link in Chinese) by Yu Jiyong (余积勇) and Shen Tingting (沈婷婷): the May Thirtieth Movement Monument in People's Park.

The locations where these photos were taken are just minutes away from each other by foot. And I have stories for both. Another day . . .

Twenty Shanghai Scenes Not Featuring Luxury Malls or Skyscrapers

Despite all of the attention Shanghai receives from the outside world, many aspects of the city's life and environment remain relatively underexposed. As in earlier posts covering areas of Shanghai such as Dachang Town, Xuhui district, and Hongkou, I will share a set of photos to offer a bit more balance. The ones below were taken where my activities brought me in central areas of Shanghai west of the Huangpu River during the past couple of weeks. Like photos of Shanghai's luxury malls and modern skyscrapers, they all capture a part of the city's story.

Small park next to Qinghai Road

Shaanxi North Road

Changping Road

Facing away from an entrance to the underground Hong Kong Shopping Centre

Fengxian Road

Lane south of Nanjing West Road

Lane north of Tianshan Road

Sweet potatoes for sale at intersection of Shaanxi North Road and Xinhui Road

A small bear

Construction site next to Puji Road and Guangfu Road

Hongxin Fashion Plaza

Wujiang Road Pedestrian Street

Qipu Road next to the Shanghai Xingwang International Finery City

In front of a shop at the Xingwang International Finery City

Shanghai Railway Station

Crossing Huashan Road

Window at a wine bar & bistro on Jiaozhou Road

Restaurants on Shaanxi North Road just south of Xinhui Road

In front of the Tianshan Commercial Building

Julu Road

Out of Shanghai Again

A view out the window during my train ride yesterday

Early yesterday morning in Shanghai, I boarded yet another high-speed train. As expected, the long trip on a rail line I've traveled many times provided numerous scenes of nature, small towns, and construction projects — sometimes together and often immersed in smog. As not expected, during the entire trip a short video promoting a recent international fashion week in Xiamen played repeatedly with melodramatic music for all to hear. In case you didn't know, you can play golf in Xiamen too.

After I disembarked, the train sped away continuing its mission of informing riders about the Xiamen Fashion Week. I traveled away less slowly from the train station in a vehicle which felt no need to do so. Soon I was walking about a city I had never visited before and happy to stumble upon an old narrow street full of life. The street abruptly ended at a construction site, next to which stands a temple where I accepted a loquat from a Buddhist nun. My appetite stimulated, I headed back to a place which appeared promising for local-style fish balls. It did not disappoint.

The air quality is not as glorious as hoped, but it is currently better than Shanghai's. It's warmer here too. During the next few days I plan to get caught up on some work, while also taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about another city in China. Ideally those two goals wouldn't conflict very much.

I plan to finish at least one other post before further mention of my current location. So in the meantime, I am curious to know whether any readers can identify the city based on the clues above, the photo I took early this evening in a busy shopping district which appears below, and the bonus clue underneath it. Best guesses are welcome. I will be sure to praise the person with the first correct answer. Or if they prefer not to be publicly identified, the next order of fish balls are on me.

Bonus clue: This water isn't represented on Google's online map but it does appear on Baidu's map

Shanghai Juice Contrasts

Cleaning a fresh orange juice machine inside a Shanghai metro station:

Selling fresh pomegranate juice at a Shanghai bus stop:

Sick and Tired in Shanghai

Today at Qipu Lu in Shanghai

I had planned to be blogging quite a bit more the past week or so since returning to China. Plans . . .

Unfortunately, last week something decided to wreak havoc on my sinuses and seemingly my brain as well. I wasn't sure whether it was virus-related or pollution-related. I considered the latter since it somewhat reminded me of how my sinuses reacted when I first went running in Shanghai's pollution over a decade ago during a trip from the U.S. And yes, after starting to run again during my recent trip to the U.S., I ran in Shanghai during a couple not-so-great days for air (which is most). Whatever I have, it isn't a run-of-the-mill cold for me, especially in terms of how it ebbs and flows. I think I am over the worst.

On a related note . . . yes, it's best to exercise in clean air. And bad air is, of course, bad. That's straightforward. But the science I've seen on the health impact of exercise when polluted air is the only option seems to be a mixed bag. There's reason to think it might be a net good, at least for some health aspects. But these studies focused on Western-style pollution, so it's unclear how the findings apply to China-style pollution — different in both its content and amount.

I have my personal limits though. For example, once I had gotten myself into an outdoor running routine while in Zhuhai and Hong Kong. But that came to an immediate halt upon arriving in Changsha where I spent a couple of months. That first morning I looked outside the window at the awful air and despondently thought "no way".

I would like to keep up the outdoor running, so next time I may try it with a face mask. It's cold outside, so perhaps the heat the mask traps on my face will be a pleasant bonus. Anyway, soon I will be in parts of China with typically better air quality. Hopefully I'm not killing myself. If I am, there are the words of famed cache clearer Chester Walsh: "Like I always say, you gotta die prematurely of something."

So yeah, as the coat in the photo above proclaims, I've been sick and tired. Come to think of it, that applies to my feelings about China's air too.

Love Station Fashion

Clothing store in Shaoyang, Hunan

Multitasking in Chongqing

A boy on a mission earlier this year at the Chongqing Flower Park (重庆市花卉园)

'Tis the Season for Star Wars in China

Signs of Christmas are easy to find in China this time of the year, and in the past I have shared holiday scenes from Putian, Quanzhou, Wuhan, Zhangzhou, and Hong Kong. But none of them included TIE fighters or Imperial Stormtroopers. The idea of mixing Christmas with Star Wars will make some people cringe with memories of the fascinatingly terrible 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. But at the IAPM shopping center in Shanghai the two have been combined in a more harmonious manner to promote the upcoming release of Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Some people will still cringe due to the further commercialization of Christmas, but in China most people attach little or no religious meaning to the holiday and the government has more concerns about the potential "religionization" of Christmas.

Below are scenes at the shopping center from this past weekend, including Friday when several of the Star Wars displays were still roped off. Christmas trees with light sabers, starfighters, female models wearing Star Wars themed clothing, armed Star Wars figures, and an unarmed Santa Claus (unless you count his bell) all make appearances. Many of the photos capture the variety of people who interacted with the displays or the modern design of the shopping center itself. IAPM couldn't be more different from the simple outdoor market which existed at the same location less than 10 years ago and sold fakes imitating some of the luxury brands now available at posh stores there. The shopping center, its visitors, and Disney's new hopes in China are all signs of how much the country has changed since the first Star Wars movie opened 38 years ago in a land far, far away. . . .