i dont think i’ll ever get tired of this view :)
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Tag: in shanghai
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rust!
we have a engineer friend that works for a big company, making oil drilling platforms, the kind that floats in the sea, slowly digging a little hole until they find oil. he’s in shanghai every other month to supervise the construction work, and today he invited us to visit the steel factory where they make the structure for his projects.
it was really neat, like visiting a rusty steel yard and we got to learn about all the processes that are involved in making these really big things, the different kinds of steel, how they weld them together, sand baths and galvanizers, semi-submersible stuff, etc etc.
at one point, we saw a worker just drawing a sort of wrench on a steel plate and cutting it out! :D they don’t invest the money on proper tools, but at the same time, it gives you a small idea of the potential of the materials and tools they handle. cut, weld, repeat. pretty cool!
note the drawing on that folder!
can you see us there? :)
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children were cool
chinese wisdom, from suzhou. i thought that chinglish would probably be a “language” soon to be extinct, as the dictionaries and automatic translators got better. but after almost 2 years of living here, i don’t think that’s the case. chinglish is alive and well, omnipresent in every restaurant menu, advertising banner, school book, product description… sometimes it’s funny, sometimes cryptic, sometimes technically correct but not so polite… but definitely here to stay!
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a visit to the shanghai museum
in a sort of new year resolution, we decided to make an effort to visit a “touristy” destination in shanghai every week or so, to get to know the city a bit better.
this week we went to the shanghai museum. you can learn about all sorts of art-related aspects of chinese culture in there, and there’s enough of it to keep you entertained for hours – a clear overdose of information to our jetlagged minds. anyway, here are some pictures:
all in all, this would have been better if we were less tired – or had a special interest in any sort of ancient art.
still, there are some lovely pieces in there, and the entrance is free, so if you fancy stuff like calligraphy, chinese paintings, currency, bronze works, sculpture, ceramics, chinese furniture, jade carving, etc. give it a go!
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a postcard from shanghai
on monday i return to portugal for the christmas holidays, and i can’t wait to marvel at the blue, unphotoshoped skies of home. :)