Life’s tough when you’ve got to compete for cuteness on the A-list of endangered species. Wrinkly old elephants at the Royal Elephant Kraal zoo in Thailand are being dressed up as pandas to remind visitors that it’s not all about the new cute panda cubs born at the zoo recently.
Via Xinhuanet.com
It’s one thing to eat street food from vendors and haggle for pet bunny rabbits in Shanghai. You’re cool, you’re local, right? But, purchase sex toys and the like from some guy who sells his wares on the street out of a wooden box?
Here’s an interesting piece of news for readers back home: On Saturday morning a residential building under construction in Shanghai fell over like a pack of cards. Unfortunately, one worker was in the wrong place at the wrong time and died. Luckily, this building didn’t fall over into another highrise building or was closer to where more people are living. If the same collapse happened in a more built up area (say, where I live) it would have easily killed thousands.
Here are the pictures of a building collapse:
Well, it’s yangmei season once again in Shanghai. Known as the Chinese Strawberry, yangmei can be found in the fruit stalls and street vendors all over town this time of year. The furry-looking fruit looks similar to a lychee at first glace but is dark red in colour. Tasting somewhere between a strawberry and a raspberry the yangmei is sweet with a touch of tang. Saying I think they’re hao chi (delicious) is an understatement – my local dealer’s face lights up everytime he sees me…
What: Yangmei (Chinese: 杨梅; pinyin: yángméi) Also known as waxberry, Chinese Bayberry, Japanese Bayberry, Red Bayberry, Chinese Strawberry
Where: Fruit stores, grocery stores, street vendors
How much: I’ve been paying around 10RMB for 1 Jin (almost half a kilo I think)
Update: Thanks to Dingle Speaks for his notable warnings about the yangmei I speak highly of. Used to speak highly of….
While the berry could easily be substituted for a raspberry or strawberry in recipes I’m keen to find out if the yangmei would work in cocktails:
Yangmei Mojito
- Fresh Yangmei (instead of Lime)
- Mint
- White Rum
- Sugar
- Soda Water
Mixed with Ice and served
Shanghai Manhattan
- Yangmei flavoured Baijiu
- Whiskey
- Bitters
- Garnished with a Yangmei
All shaken and strained
Yangmei Martini
- Yangmei juice or yangmei flavored Baijiu (depending on personal taste)
- Cointreau
- Vodka
Shaken and strained
Shanghai Sea Breeze
- Vodka
- Fresh yanmei juice
- Cranberry juice
- Dash of lime cordial (if wanted)
- Lime
Mixed with ice
Yes, another one with the Pearl Tower in it. Taken during the Chinese New Year celebrations and touched up using Tiltshifter.
This time I tried yet another time lapse but this time at night. Oh, and you can see the full version of this in HD on the vimeo Web site. There’s a lot going on in this picture but nothing uniquely Shanghai cool – just me experimenting more with this format on a regular street near my house. Next up, I’ll work on the framin’.
Quick, somebody grab the:
It’s almost like this piece of Chinglish has come straight out of a movie with a funky bass line.
With the amount of wankers wearing shirts with polo players on them you could be mistaken that Polo is a popular past time in Shanghai. However, Shanghai is a terrible place if you’re a polo player. The lack of open spaces and shortage of young fillies to hire is such a conundrum for locals and foreigners alike. Luckily, a couple of postmodern young go-getters decided to ditch the horses for bikes and create their own version of ‘Bike Polo’.
As the name suggests players use bikes instead of horses and substitute grass for concrete. Using what looks like home made sticks, the rules look pretty much the same as polo – like I have any idea what those rules are. The result: mixing sticks and bike spokes into one game is surely going cause a few bruises.
According to the video below the games kicks off, bike off, tees off, starts on Saturday afternoons at the Shanghai Indoor Football Stadium. So, stop complaining that “all there is to do in Shanghai on the weekend is shop, drink, dance, puke, repeat”, and man or woman up, fix up your bike and head on down. Everyone, including dudes with ladybikes, are said to be welcome down at Shanghai Bike Polo Club.
More info on where and when the games are on and equipment needed visit the Shanghai Fixed Gear Website.
This quick time-lapse is a view 30+ floors up overlooking the apartment block across the way and into the distance. For anyone who has seen Shanghai from a plane or from one of the high points around town you’ll notice that these high-rise apartments stretch out as far as the eye can see.
After the recent mass blocking of social networks, photo services, and Bing – Microsoft’s new search engine – the intertubes have again been unblocked and procrastination amongst expats has once again returned to the status quo.
With that in mind I thought an update to what Bing actually means in Chinese now that it is unblocked. I previously speculated the meaning could be quite a few things in Chinese. However, Microsoft have since launched the site with the characters 必应 which is “bi ying”. I’ve been told via the team at CBSi China it means “whatever you ask for i will satisfy you”.
