30/365

The dreaded wait at the bank.

29/365

Alarm clocks made by the children in my nursery class.

28/365

Back to our regular Shanghai winter gloom and glare.

27/365

Project 365 Day 27
A rare blue sky in Shanghai

26/364

Project 365 Day 26
Firstly, Happy Australia Day (or Happy Invasion Day, as the case may
be).
Today's photo is of a sign seen painted all over Shanghai. The sign
'chai' means to demolish, and the buildings it is painted on are
slated for destruction. They are being pulled down for many reasons,
some out of concern for health/saftey, others to make way for roads/
subways, but most are just pulled down to make way for a brand new
highrise. It is a real shame because the old culture of Shanghai is
literally being destroyed whole city blocks at a time. The residents
of these buildings are compensated, but not at a level that would
allow them to live in the same area, so in effect it relocates large
numbers of a lower socio-economic sector of society to the
outskirts of the city.
In effect, the symbol is seen as the mark of death.

25/365

Project 365 Day 25
Despite it's sometimes advanced technology, bamboo scaffolding is
still a very common site in Shanghai.

24/365

Project 365 Day 24
Kids at a Chinese New Year art project I was helping to run yesterday painting (the bottom half of) a Chinese dragon.

"I'm an analogue girl in a digital world"

Follow-up

This is a follow-up photo for todays 365 post: the finished piece. Not
bad for their age if you ask me.

23/365

Project 365 Day 23
Instead of planting according to the climate, the incredibly smart
city planners of Shanghai plant tropical flora then wrap them against
the cold for half the year. Looks good, huh?

22/365

Not an uncommon site: groceries unceremoniously carted around on their way home to become dinner. Yes, those are chicken legs.

21/365

Project 365 day 21

Anyone complaining that girls grow up too fast these days should come
to china- the general complaint is that women don't grow up fast
enough. Obsessed with Barbie and Hello Kitty, women in Shanghai hold
on to their youth so tightly it has claw marks in it. My current co-
teacher has a doll which she plays with and buys clothes for, my
former co-teacher gave me a Hello Kitty knife fork and spoon kit for
Christmas, and Phil's former receptionist carried her tea around in a
pink Cinderella thermos.
This "bouquet" is a perfectly acceptible gift for your girlfriend-
yes, that's a bunch of skewered pink teddy bears surrounded by
glitter and feathers.

20/364

Project 365 day 20
A street-side bicycle repair shop

19/365

Project 365 day 19
A hair salon drying it's towels on the footpath.

18/365

Sometimes paying your bills can be hard enough, deciphering them in
another language can be downright madness!

17/365

Project 365 Day 17
Shanghai is a city of endless construction at the best of times, but
this construction is currently being done at a frenetic pace in a vain
attempt to complete all public works before the Expo.

16/365

Project 365 day 16
My good friend Denise on the left and her 'friend of a friend' Cathy,
who I discovered lived two streets away from where I grew up in the
Blue Mountains, Australia... It's a small world after all.

15/365

Project 365 Day 15
It has been so cold the last few days that the large fish pond at my
school has frozen over. The fish are at the bottom in serious
hybernation mode- I wouldn't want to be in their shoes... Or flippers.
I have been amusing myself by throwing a pebble into the pond in front
of my class and watching their eyes go wide with disbelief when it
just DID NOT SINK! I love how easy it is to blow the minds of two year
olds.

14/365

Project 365 Day 14
Another "city improvement" in preparation for the upcoming expo:
talking maps in taxis. For a few years now most shanghai taxi
companies have had advertising screens on the back of the front
passenger seat- something that anoys the hell out of me. But the
newest thing in the cabs using the Touchmedia screens is to have maps
with directions to a list of popular tourist destinations. There is
also a button to press to hear the directions in Chinese.
I can't say I've ever used it, and I'm not sure it would be of that
much use- the screen doesn't come on until the driver turns on the
meter, yet the driver usually won't turn on the meter until he
understands where you want to go. Classic chicken vs egg conundrum.
But who knows, it could come in use sometime.

13/365

Project 365 day 13
A man riding past a roadside display which are popping up everywhere
in preparation for the upcoming expo in Shanghai this year. In this
one, Hai Bao- the little blue guy- is dressed and holding firecrackes
ready for Chinese New Year.

12/365

Project 365 day 12
This photo was taken out eating hot pot with friends. As a rule (after
so many years in China) we generally don't eat Chinese food. Aside
from being sick of it, it is very difficult to order vegetarian food
in the meat loving Shanghai even whenbyou speak Mandarin.
Hot pot is one of the exceptions we make, especially at this
restaurant which has individual pots, organic vegetables and meat, and
100% vegetarian cooking broth for vegetarians like me!
The general idea is that you select your broth and a variety of
vegetables, tofu and meat, and a choice of dipping sauces, then you
cook all your food on a hot element on the table in front of you. I
must admit to finding the veg broth fairly bland, but if nothing else
it's fun, and has a good communal feel when you're with a group of
friends.

11/365

Project 365 Day 11
This morning I dreamed Phil and I were packing for a weekend of summer
camping by the beach. When my alarm rang I woke up to a very
depressing Monday morning in Shanghai. I very nearly quit my job on
the spot just so I could crawl back into bed. Eugh, I hate Mondays at
the best of times but this is just miserable!

10/365

Project 365 Day 10
Karaoke (known in china as KTV) is one of the most popular pastimes
for Shanghainese people. Far from being a very public experience that
it is in western cultures, in Asia you hire a small room with a few
friends. We went last night to rock the mike for a friends birthday.
When in Rome, huh?
This is only one small corridor of a rabbit warren of rooms in a chain
KTV venue containing a few hundred private rooms.

9/365

Project 365 Day 9
China has a lot of so called 'fake markets', named for the knock-off
products they sell (the products are fake, not the markets!). The
products are cheap but generally quite well made, and it is usually
very hard to tell the difference between one of these fakes and the
geunuine thing. There are several large, multiple-floor markets in
Shanghai alone, here is a photo of just one stall in the Pearl City
Market in Gubei area.
Of couse, as selling fake knock-offs is illegal, I myself have never
indulged in such an activity.... Hehehe.

8/365

In shanghai I can afford to do things that I would consider a luxury I
Australia- such as having regular manicures and pedicures!

7/365

Project 375 Day 7
Our aquarium, otherwise known as "what happens to old communist
propaganda statues in a modern China"

6/365

Project 365 Day 6
Shanghai morning (aka the obligatory Asian bicycle shot) taken once
again from my taxi window.

5/365

Back in Shanghai- a stone lion guarding the front of a restaurant.

4/365

Project 365 day 4
The streets of shanghai from the taxi as we went home from the airport last night. Right now I am back in a taxi heading to work, although it feels like my head only just touched the pillow. We are tired, cold, missing Australia already, but overall we ate happy to be back I'm our home.
It is a strange thing indeed to realise that your "home" is in a strange and foriegn land.

3/365

2/365

Take two... Again... Grrrr I'm having serious technical issues here...

2/365

 Another one still from australia but about our life in china (sort of)- as I do not live in Australia anymore I do not have a home here- hence we are staying in this caravan in my parents backyard. It's been ode quarters for two weeks, especially since Phil is 6'2" (189cm) tall! But we've come to think of it as a bit of a home away from home. In spite of this it will be good to get back to our apartment in shanghai with our OWN bed (although small and of the typical hard as a brick Chinese variety we've gotten used to it!)   

2nd attempt at 1/365

1/365

So here is the first photo in the Project 365 essay- although I said I would make it China-based, I am currently visiting family (and throwing our engagement party- yes Phil and I are finally making it legal!) in the Blue Mountains, about an hour west of Sydney, Australia. Indirectly this picture is still related to my life in China: living as we do in the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, it is top on our to do list to catch some peace and quiet and get back to nature whenever we are on holiday. This natural waterhole is called Jellybean Pool and is located in the Blue Mountains National Park, about ten minutes from my parents house.  

Project 365: Day 1
(and at 11:35pm I'm just in time!)

Project 365

My new year's resolution is to participate in a 'Project 365' assignment, in which I will attempt to post a different photo each day for 365 days. Being based in China, I have decided to make my participation in the activity a photo essay on a year in Shanghai. Mostly I will be posting photos directly from my phone, so I will appologise now for the quality of the photos.
My sister, Liz, will also be participating in the project (it was at her suggestion that I decided to join) and she will be documenting her life as a carer for her husband. Check out her blog A Caring Project
I do hope you enjoy the project.