Spring has Arrived!!!

Spring has arrived in Shanghai!!!

We took the opportunity to visit Nanhui to check out the tulip garden & peach blossoms there!

Look at the colourful flowers that are so beautiful! Flowers can really brighten up one's spirit. Like children, we were hopping around, so glad to be surrounded by the multi-coloured flowers.

Coincidentally Roxanne and Huay Chen were in town. My friend, Sabrina was our guide and she

helped to arrange the trip for us. We took a cab from Longyang Subway Station and it took us 45 mins and cost us RMB140. I got the food and fruits to keep us going! We had a picnic at the tulips park where we sat by the lake, across the windmills and surrounded by multi-colored tulips.

I just love spring. The fresh air. The warm sun. The cool breeze! That's SPRING to me!

Chinese Lessons

Glad to announce that I have started my Chinese class!!! Yup, learning how to pinyin, write Chinese characters and speak better Pudong Hua!

My classes are held in Pudong Public Service Centre. It incorporates speaking, writing and cultural Chinese lessons. It's held on every Saturday from 2pm - 4pm. We had 23 students during our first lesson but now it has dwindled to 13 of us who are regulars. That means 10 dropouts!!

Seen above with some of my classmates & teacher (in Qipao).
From left: Me, Chris, Mr. Wang, Ray, Jane, Jenny (our lao shi or teacher), Alison, Yolander,
Ray, Fanni & Reinhard.

Today is my 4th lesson and we had our first Cultural lesson. The place is quite a distance from my apartment in Puxi. So I always have to rush out latest by 12.30pm. If I am early I would catch bus No. 18 that brings me to People's Square. From there, I would take Metro Line 2, stop at Museum of Science & Technology. I would walk for another 15 mins to reach the centre from the Metro Station. Usually I would take a short cut through the park. I always enjoy the walk through the park, now that the weather is warmer and flowers are beginning to bloom!

For our cultural program today, we were introduced the Chinese Opera. I find this very enlightening. For one who enjoyed watching Cantonese Opera when I was young, I didn't realize that there are so many things to learn about the characters, stories, gestures, types of Chinese Opera.

Our teacher, Ms. Cai, introduced to us to Chinese Opera. She showed us some of the movements made by female roles in the opera. She made the women in our class to walk like the female role (Hua Tan) and the men to walk like the male lead (Sheng). I can't help laughing because for me it was so tough to walk gently and make a decent bow!

We were encouraged to at least attend an opera performance while we are in Shanghai. We can either go for a Beijing Opera (Jing Ji), or Shanghai Opera (Yue Ji) and preferably choose a performance that features a few famous scenes from various opera pieces. That would be more interesting than going for one full piece performance. Some of my classmates are determine to check out the performances available at the famous Tian Chan Peking Opera Performing Centre (http://www.tianchan.com/) at Fuzhou Lu, Shanghai. It is highly recommended by Ms. Cai. I may check it out on of my free weekends.

The Bund

The famous Shanghai Bund or Wai Tan (in Chinese) is located along the Huangpu River (黄浦江). Across of it is the newly develop suburb, known as Pudong （浦东）. This is where the famous Pearl Tower and Jingmao Plaza (one of the world's tallest building that took over that position from our Malaysia's Petronas Twin Tower a few years back).

I captured some nice photos during a visit to The Bund with my friend, Kim Huat & family members. Unfortunately it was drizzling lightly and the wind was too strong for us to stay longer. I only managed to catch some photos and hope you like these night views of The Bund. It reminds me of Frances Yip's Shanghai Beach hit (上海滩)....Long pan, long lau........la la la....

The Beauty of Shanghai

I captured some lovely photos of Shanghai's night scenes recently.

What makes Shanghai beautiful? It's lights, lights and more lights!! Check out the photos enclosed, and I bet you would agree with me.

The photos above are taken at PuXin Jie, the famous pedestrian street at Nanjing Xi Lu. On weekends, residents of Shanghai would flock here. They shop, feast and also sit along the benches people-watching ~ which is also my fave activity here!