Happy Father's Day...the jaded version

The view from the Yán'ān Elevated Road 延安高架路

Back when I was living in Taiwan, Father's Day was an occasion I didn't look forward to. The reason had nothing to do with the day itself, but rather the date on which it was observed by the Taiwanese. Because the words for "father" and "eight" are homophones in Mandarin (ba), Father's Day is held every August 8. Which means, of course, that in most years, Dad still has to get up early and go to work as usual on the so-called special day that is supposed to honor him. I could never see anything auspicious in that, and so we always followed (and still do) the American custom of observing it on the third Sunday of every June. And I can think of no better way to celebrate the occasion by visiting, say, a Buddhist temple.

Compared to Taiwan, China doesn't have very many Buddhist and Taoist houses of worship, and China's financial capital of Shànghăi 上海, in particular, seems to suffer from a shortage of spiritual retreats (although one of the few benefits of living under an authoritarian, officially atheist regime is that we don't have to suffer from the likes of Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses,  Hare Krishnas, Sōka Gakkai 創価学会 members or anyone else who feel the need to intrude into your life in order to show you "the way"). Still, there are a handful of functioning monasteries and temples, with Yúfó Temple 玉坲寺 (aka Jade Buddha Temple), built between 1918 and 1928, being one of the more active ones. The first building of note after paying the entrance fee and entering the complex is the Hall of Heavenly Kings:

Across the courtyard is the Great Treasure Hall:

Inside sit the Buddhas of past, present and future:

Lining the walls on either side of the Buddhas are the gods of the twenty heavens...:

...while in the rear stands a copper Guānyīn 观音, providing some much-needed holy water:

Other items of note inside the Great Treasure Hall include the ceiling, drum and bell:

My wife was proud of herself for being able to balance this one mao coin on its end (note: I was able to do it, too):

My daughter ponders the transitory nature of existence:

Behind the Great Treasure Hall sits the Jade Buddha Hall, which required a separate admission of ten RMB ($1.60) to go in. Inside sits one of the two jade Buddhas which were brought over to Shanghai from Burma in 1882, and which give the temple housing them its name (not to mention its raison d'être). 1.9 meters (roughly my height) tall and, unlike me, made of pale green jade, the figure can only be admired from afar by visitors. Photography is also prohibited, but thanks to Google, I can share its image with you here:

http://www.heybrian.com/travels/buddhas/

On the way to the other jade Buddha:

This one can be photographed, as it relaxes in the Ancestral Hall, conveniently located in same courtyard as the temple's gift shop:

Amber and I pose with the mementos of our visit to the Jade Buddha Temple. The two of us are holding good luck amulets connected to our signs according to the Chinese zodiac. Mine is...never mind. My daughter's animal is a controversial issue in our household. If you believe coffee mugs purchased in Chinatowns, the year 2006, when Amber came into this world, is the year of the Dog 狗 (戌). However, the Chinese Zodiac conforms to the lunar calendar, and on the day when my daughter was born, there was still one week remaining in the year of the Rooster 鸡 (酉), which means she's actually a chicken. Amber would prefer to be one of man's best friends, but you can't argue with the heavens:

Aging in Shanghai...gracefully (one hopes)

Shànghăi 上海 at dusk

After nearly a year here, we finally got around to exploring Shanghai's iconic Bund 外滩 from one of its most scenic vantage points - a sightseeing boat on the Huángpŭ River 黄浦江. Reserving online (as opposed to buying tickets at the boat dock) saved a significant amount of RMB, and made having to line up cattle-like in a stockade prior to boarding almost bearable. Once on board, we staked out a good spot and heroically fought off the grannies from the provinces who tried to elbow their way between my daughter and my wife in order to get a better view. And what a view it was, with the contrast between the futuristic light show on the Pŭdōng 浦东 side of the river and the more tastefully lit-up buildings on the Pŭxī 浦西 side accentuated by a bright orange full moon. 

From our vantage point on the top deck, we first got a good look at Pudong:

The boat then did a U-turn in the Huangpu, giving us a close-up look at the buildings on the Bund:

The Huangpu River is always clogged with boats of all shapes and sizes, and the throng crowding the deck could be aggressive and noisy, but the sightseeing cruise was a fun trip that was over and done with in about an hour:

 The three of us certainly approved:

Glassy-eyed in Tianzifang

It's Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 time again, making this Monday the third day of a long weekend. Rather than checking out any boat races, however, we paid a return visit to Tiánzĭfáng 田子坊, that neighborhood of traditional lòngtáng 弄堂 alleyways that has found new life as a trendy hotspot of boutiques, cafes and restaurants. Like the last time, today's weather wasn't particularly promising, but with the exception of a few sprinkles just after we arrived, the rain refrained from coming down. And just like our first visit, the weather didn't deter the crowds from showing up:

First things first, lunch needed to be taken care of. Somehow, despite the confusing warren of narrow alleyways, we managed to locate New York Burger, where I celebrated this important date on the Chinese cultural calendar by having a bacon cheeseburger washed down with a craft beer from California:

The food you should be eating for the Dragon Boat Festival is a kind of sticky rice dumpling known as zòngzi 粽子. Near New York Burger, a woman was assembling some and attracting a small crowd around her. It's an indication of just how much Chinese society has changed when young people could be heard marveling at how they had never seen how zongzi being prepared before. We did have southern Taiwanese-style 南部粽 zongzi at home for dinner this evening:

It was kind of hard at times to appreciate the charms of Tianzifang's alleyways:

A scene reminiscent of my kitchen:

My daughter has a favorite store in Tianzifang, Candy Lab, which has three branches there:

Tianzifang attracts more than its share of expat visitors, lured by the familiar foods and drinks on offer:

Not sure exactly what the dispute was about, but these two women were making a public demonstration of their disagreement with one of the shops:

I took this shot by holding the camera over my head, and taking a photo of the scene going on behind me. That's me under the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 福岡ソフトバンクホークス baseball cap:

Some alleyways were a little less busy than others:

What keeps Tianzifang from being a classic tourist trap is that it's still a functioning neighborhood. The sight of laundry hanging above the overpriced boutiques and restaurants served as a reminder of this:

Out of Tianzifang and time for a break at a Taiwanese foodstuffs shop across the road:

A short stroll down the street is the Liúli China Museum 琉璃艺术博物馆, founded by a pair of artists from Taiwan named Loretta Yang and Chang Yi:

The museum is dedicated to the art of glass sculpture, or pâte de verre as it's called in French (and in many of the exhibit captions). There were some interesting historic examples on display, such as these Go 围棋 pieces made during the Táng/Sòng dynasties...:

...or these ancient belt buckles:

But the most striking exhibit had to be this 1.6 meter-high, 1000-armed statue of the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Guānyīn 观音. It took Yang 18 years to finish this masterpiece, which she based on a wall painting found in one of the Mògāo Caves 莫高窟, located along the fabled Silk Road. What the statue may have lacked in antiquity was more than compensated for by its craftsmanship and dedication:

Relaxing on the patio of the Liuli China Museum at the end of a pleasant holiday afternoon. There won't be any more three-day weekends until the Fourth of July, when the girls will be in Taiwan. I'm planning on celebrating American independence by learning about Japanese atrocities during the Second World War, but that will be the subject of a future post:

OMG! 100% proof UFO's are real!!

Seen in the night sky over Beijing: Is it a UFO?! A drone?! A spy satellite?! A top-secret Chinese military jet?! Or seeing as this was taken in China, perhaps it's merely a kite of some sort? I'm going with the latter. My daughter was suitably unimpressed with this supposed visitor from another galaxy.

http://youtu.be/pWJozEZsJYI