Shanghai Pictures, Plus When The Care Bears Go Too Far

I found some pictures from Shanghai I never posted, thought some of you might enjoy seeing them. They are all cell phone pics, though, so not super high quality.

A hot water dispenser, very common in China. The Chinese characters say 'caution scalding', meaning scalding water, but the English 'care bear!'?? I can't even call this Chinglish or a mistranslation, this is just a joke someone played, right?

British style telephone booth, a cultural relic of the British occupation of Shanghai I assume. I was amazed how clean and empty the sidewalks of Shanghai were, compared to Chongqing:

An apartment courtyard; this picture makes me so homesick:

Little places to grab a cup of afternoon tea or coffee.

An aquarium in the pedestrian tunnel. I remember thinking how fancy Shanghai is compared to Chongqing, based on the underground tunnels alone. Wouldn't it be cool if your job was to take care of pedestrian tunnel aquariums?

In contrast, this is what I saw most nights on the sidewalk outside my gate in Chongqing. My taxi pulled up to this:

Street Video

I wanted to share with you a taste of what I encounter when I leave my apartment. I needed bread, so I videotaped my walk from my gate to the bakery. I held the camera in front of me without using the view finder, so it isn't great quality, but I was trying to be inconspicuous. When I point the camera at the white bins? Those are turtles, frogs, fish and salamanders, sold alive for fresh cooking.

Firehouses

Firehouses are beautiful to me for their unique architectural and historical place in society. Unlike office buildings, restaurants, and sometimes even churches, no two firehouses are exactly alike even though most of them provide the same services. Pretty cool!

 

Many firehouses in NYC are listed on the historic register. Using a historical register guide, I took myself on a walking tour, taking photographs along the way. (The picture at left is one of them.)  Once or twice someone working inside saw me taking pictures and talked with me about the history of the fire companies and the firehouse in that neighborhood. I loved hearing more about the neighborhoods and the people who have lived in these houses. 

If you want to see more of my pictures of NYC firehouses, click here.