Shang-hai-jinx

Greetings, blog followers! We are now on post two of Wandering Aidan’s China Series. Again, this means the miniseries is on sabbatical, but it will be back after this episode and two more.

Stop Two: Shanghai!

Shanghai was a more relaxed location, compared to the all-day tours of Yangshuo. On our first day, all we did was go to a circus show in the city; however, it was enough to make up for the lack of entertainment throughout the rest of the day.

Much of it was acrobatics- impossible to describe without photos, of which I have none- but there was a comedy act. A knife thrower boarded the stage and practiced his throwing with balloons as targets. Then he moved on to actual people. Since his assistant kept chickening out (acting, of course), volunteers were searched for in the audience. Once one was found, they placed him against the wall, and after some deliberation, they blindfolded him. On the count of three, the thrower threw the knife, hitting the board with a satisfying thunk and barely missing the man- or so he thought. Really, the knife thrower’s assistant simply jammed the knife into the wall. They repeated this a few times, eventually placing a balloon directly under the man’s groin and pretending to pop it with expert precision- again, the knife was simply jammed in, with the volunteer none the wiser.

Luckily for you, the next part of our journey yielded more photos and less description. Our second trip was through 1. A large ancient garden and 2. A maze-like marketplace.

The garden placed an emphasis on using uncut stones.

Very different things...

There is a type of dragon that only the emperor of China may use for decoration. The man who built this temple wanted to show his power- without getting killed for copyright infringement- so he simply used a different type of dragon. (On a side note, you can see the dragon's body running all the way across the wall.)

The koi fish here are often fed. As a result of this, they will swarm around people standing on the edge and open and close their humorously circular mouths. The fish at the very top and center of the picture is a good example of this.

The sign seems reasonable...

...Until you zoom out.

This is the marketplace maze. There's not much to it, but it's still kind of interesting.

Back to less adventurous matters, this is the view from the hotel room. There are two interesting things to note here:

1. There are many, many boats on the river. The river here is convenient for a crowded city like Shanghai, since materials can be hauled back and forth without disturbing anybody. Oddly, these materials seem almost always to be dirt and gravel.

2. The short buildings on the other side of the river are from the colonial era! The area is called "the Bund".

Lining the river here is a peaceful, wide-open pier. It's a pleasant place to walk in, and a welcome escape from the city.

Another oddly written sign. We saw a sign with an almost identical inscription back in the Silver Cave. "Striding" seems to be a commonly used word here on notifications.

Thanks for reading!

Bonus: Aidan’s Mandarin Lessons, Episode 2!

Today’s lesson is on having a short, meaningless conversation in Mandarin.

A fun fact before we start: Nǐ hǎo, or “hello”, is made of the words nǐ and hǎo. Don’t worry, that wasn’t the fact- that would be exceedingly obvious. Anyway, the former means “you” and the latter means “good”.

For instance, I could start a conversation with “nǐ hǎo”- “hello” in Mandarin. (Or if I’m really feeling adventurous I could try “nǐ zǎo” for “good morning”.) However, this leaves something to be desired. To get in more of a proper greeting, I can add the question word (ma) to the greeting (nǐ hǎo) to form “nǐ hǎo ma?” or “how are you?”. Despite the fact that they sound almost exactly the same, you would probably use both of them, as in “Nǐ hǎo! Nǐ hǎo ma?” or “Hello! How are you?”

There are several responses you can put to use here. You could say “Wǒ hěn hǎo” (pronounced “Wah hung hao”) for “I am very good”, or just “Wǒ hǎo” for “I am good”. Additionally, for more of a middle range, you can use “hái kě yǐ” (I’m alright) or “bù cuò” (not bad).

That’s all for now! More Mandarin will come soon!