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Some people are having problems with this site, so I have decided to continue my travel blog on Tumblr.

The URL is walkaboutstuff.tumblr.com

See you there.

Thanks for reading.

Grand Cerf

During the long voyage across the Pacific Ocean I asked the other passenger, Aurelie, to teach me a French song. I have been practicing and I think I have it in a presentable form now. This is a children's song about a deer who saves a rabbit from the hunter. There is an American version of this except with an old lady instead of a deer.

I enjoyed this so much that I asked my hosts in Shanghai to teach me a Chinese children's song. They did but I'm not ready to perform it yet. When I get to Hanoi I will try to learn a Vietnamese children's song.

So. Here is my rendition of Grand Cerf:

Inkstones

At the Guangzhou Museum I learned about inkstones. These are used to grind ink (which is solidified into a stick) and mix it with water. There are four main types of inkstone, one of which is duan which is mined in this part of China. A scholar's desk included the "four treasures," brushes, ink, inkstone, and paper.

Guangzhou, Yuexiu Park

Several people have told me they have trouble viewing this site, and it seems no one can leave comments. Sigh. Sorry about that. I should habe explored other blog possibilities before I left Tacoma. I don't think I can do anything else with just my phone. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Yuexiu Park is a large beautiful place with lakes, gardens, sculpture, a bowling green, an amusement park, and lots and lots of noisy birds and insects.

 One trail was called The World of Idioms and Fables. It was lined with sculptures illustrating these. As I am not familiar with Chinese culture I did not understand most of them but it was fun anyway.

 I called this guy the hitchhiking mage.

Ooh. I know this one. The blind men and the elephant.

Nothing to see but jungle but I recorded a short video to capture the bird and insect noise.

Guangzhou

I've been in Guangzhou for about 24 hours and 12 of those were sleeping. But now I have been to two museums, the Guandong Museum of Art and the Guangzhou Museum. The first had some really amazing modern carved jade by a great artist but I guess it was just over my head. I can't think of anything to say about it. I've never seen anything like it before. What I can talk about is the sculpture garden outside. It included some heroic worker stuff but also some very thought-provoking pieces.

At the Guangzhou Museum I saw some beautiful carved jade, porcelain and bronze pieces. There was a whole room devoted to ink stone which I had never heard of before.

Fun but exhausting. Time to get some more sleep.

Shanghai 4

Sunday I visited the Power Station of Art. The building was originally an industrial power station and was made into an art gallery in 2010. My host, Holly, said it is called the Shanghai MOCA, but the building clearly says Power Station of Art.

This leads me to a point that has been building in my brain all week. It is impossible to fully experience a place if you don't speak the language. For example, I'm sure I would have learned a great deal about Chinese music and culture in general if I could have understood the speaker at Saturday's concert.

So even though I'm here in this beautiful city and seeing the sights and hearing the sounds I'm like an animal or a blind and deaf man who only experiences a tiny part of the whole. I felt the same way at this art exhibit.

The artist is Li Shan, of whom i have never heard, but who is very famous. In 1993 he gave up traditional art and started working with DNA and how it can be manipulated. His work includes images of combined life forms, and also actual manipulation. One of the exhibits was a field of corn growing in a vast array of milk crates. Another was the same with rice. The explanations were only in Chinese so I have no clue what the manipulation was.

The work was beautiful and moving. Sometimes repulsive. Part of the exhibit was pages from Li Shan's notebooks. I really wanted to know what he was saying but I'm illiterate.

So much beauty.

Shanghai 3

Today I went to a concert at the Shanghai Concert Hall. It was an ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments. The music they played varied tremendously. The young players performed masterfully. There was some sort of hammered zither, a flute, a drum, a variety of lutes, and an erhu. I couldn't read the program or understand the speaker but I appreciated the expert and emotional playing in a variety of styles. The first and last pieces sounded traditional to me, like what I was expecting to hear. In between were all kinds of other things. Some sounded like pop tunes but they were unfamiliar to me. I did recognize the Clarinet Polka, and Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, both performed by flute and zither.

Shanghai 2

Today I went to a section of the city called Old Town and toured two sites. The first was Temple of the City God. This seems to be a real religious site. You could get incense on the way in and burn it at various shrines. Lots of incense was also burning in the central courtyard.

People knelt and worshipped in front of a variety of statues, large and small. I was intrigued by one statue who had hands coming out of his eyes. And the hands had eyes in them. I would like to know his story.

The second place I went was called Yuyuan Garden. It's a walled-in collection of buildings trees and ponds. The original purpose was to provide a place for quiet contemplation, but there are far too many tourists for that now.

Shanghai

It's my second day in Shanghai. I now sort of know how to ride the subway, but I've only ever gotten on and off at the same two places. Both days someone has approached me wanting to take a selfie with me. I'm a freak.
     I spent about three hours at the Shanghai Museum. It was fantastic. I want to share some of the cool things I saw.

 This is labeled as a guardian of the world. I'm going to need to do some research on why he is stomping on a baby.

Jade carving. So beautiful.

Apparently people made chamber pots like this because they thought it would be fun to wake up and pee in a dog's mouth.

Xiexie Shanghai

Ningbo

Before this year I had never heard of Ningbo, China. I went there because the ship would not allow me to disembark in Shanghai. I was there for about 34 hours. What I learned was that Ningbo is a very large and very old city. It was once called Míngzhōu, and has always been an important capital city in this area. The port is the 3rd largest in the world. 
     My host's friend Robin spent the day acting as my guide and interpreter, which made it possible to see and do much more than I could have on my own.
     Our first stop was lunch. You see Robin here with our fare. It turns out Ningbo's signature dish is niu wa or frog. He took me to what he said is the best niu wa place in town. It is called zai hui shou which means You look back many times, meaning that you will regret it forever if you don't come in here. We got a bowl of frogs, a bowl of fish soup, a plate of steamed bok choy, and a bottle of orange soda. The frogs are served in a spicy broth with all those round red chilies. Delicious. These are not frog legs it's the whole thing, well ok, they cut off the heads and feet. I set one critter up for a close-up. 

They were really tasty.
     After lunch we went to the Ningbo Museum which is a very large beautiful building. There I saw Neolithic artifacts and other amazing things (bronze swords, jade Buddhas, fine porcelain) from Ningbo's long history. 
     Next, Robin drove me out to see a village, very different from the city.
     I could come back and see things I missed on this trip, but this was a good introduction. 

Thank you Ghost Writer. I am now in Shanghai and internet access does not seem to be a problem. I will resume posting.