View from our window

Here's a shot from the balcony of our new apartment in the XuJiaHui district of Shanghai.

We go to a wedding

A few weeks ago we went to my team member's wedding. Keshuang and CaiFeng had actually been married in a civil ceremony some months before. The "wedding" we attended was the public ceremony and banquet for friends, family, and coworkers.

We took a taxi with a coworker and his wife to QingPu, a suburb of Shanghai and the bride's home town. The banquet was at the QingPu Hotel which appeared to be hosting several weddings that day. We signed in and handed over our red packet filled with cash -- the only appropriate gift.

The wedding started 30 minutes late at 11:30. The bride and groom marched down the "aisle" amid confetti and fireworks (see photo below). The best man, father of the bride, and their former university professor said a few words, rings were exchanged with the usual western vows, the bride and groom bowed to their parents, a "LOVE" candelabra was light - sorry I do not have a photo of that one, you have to imagine it -- and then we ate.

During eating, the bride and groom came around to each table for a toast. Later, the bride drew names from a basket and a few lucky guests received gifts. After playing some friendly, traditional jokes on the bride and groom, the wedding was over.

More photos from Shanghai Art Museum 2006 Biennale

I published some additional photos from our September visit to the Shanghai Art Museum 2006 Biennale. Click here to see them.

We are still very busy outfitting our new apartment. I hope to post some photos of it this week.

Also, it's just over one year since we moved to Shanghai, so you can expect a One Year Report in the next few weeks.

A Busy October

It's been a busy October.

We spent the first week of the month in Japan. I hope to get the trip report posted sometime in 2006 but I'm way behind as Bali and Nanjing remain unreported as well. The short report: Japan was awesome! See the photo below.

The second week of the month was spent looking at apartments in the XuJiaHui area of Shanghai. We found a nice 3-BR apartment on the 11th floor of the "Ya Du" complex which is close to Sun-Ling's office, Metro Line 1, and the Intel shuttle bus stop.

Thus, the 3rd and 4th weeks of the month will be spent packing, moving, and settling in to our new home. Updates to this blog will be sparse.

Our new address is:
300 Nandan Rd
Bldg 8, #1101
Shanghai 200030
China


John enjoys a cold beer with the vegetarian dinner served to us in our room at a Buddhist temple/inn on Mt Koyasan.

Tibet Clockwise - Part 6

For the final installment of our May 2006 Tibet trip click here. We travel 45 kms outside of Lhasa to Ganden Monastery. The drive along the Lhasa River was awesome.