White Christmas - my first.

Out to dinner - I had the bright idea to put this beer out on the ledge to cool down, it's hard to get cold beer. I was congratulating myself for about 10 minutes before the relative warmth of the bottle melted the snow enough for it to slide off with a crash onto the street below.  Lucky there wasn't a lot of foot traffic in the minus 20 degree conditions

Dinner, Christmas Day. 

Fresh Snow !

Merry Xmas Mr Street BBQ skewer man !!!

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I'll be home for Christmas.

Back to Liaoyuan (LY) again.  A week before Christmas and the snow keeps coming.

View from the office .

Out to dinner the week before Christmas, my heart went out to the guy who had to ride this bike home that night  .....

--- O ---

Go go Jade Rabbit

I dunno why, I love the rabbit. He got to sit on the lap of the Moon Godess, lucky bunny.

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Shanghai - that famous pollution.

This is as bad as anything I saw before the Olympics.w In our hotel (not the finest) you could smell it in the rooms eventually. The PM 2.5 count got up over 800 ppm one night mid-week.  It only seems to get this bad in winter these days, the only factor could be the coal-fired power stations and heating plants. Everyone blames cars and industry but they aren't seasonal things.  The burning of the crop stalks finished over a month before this.

Compare these pics with one of my first posts from September where you can see right across the river to the big new towers on the Pudong side.  Here we have the visibility closing in to about 1000 metres, maybe 800 .........

getting closer .......

and closer -----

check this photo in the paper carefully, this is the same shot the next day taken from the city looking back my way (west).  No trick photography here. 

Oh,and RIP to you, Nelson Mandela.  Invictus !!!

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Watch your ears !

I know it's peurile but I still love the Chinglish signs. I don't know if you can read this crappy phone pic, its the Van Gogh Hair Salon.  This one is right up there with the the sunglasses shop in Liaoyuan 2 years ago that was selling Hellen Keller eyewear.

Back to Shanghai - again

A chance to get some warmer temps for a few days.

Here's a guy catching some ZZZZs at the airport on the way down to Shanghai. You can't tell how cold it is from the photo but he must have caught a few rays in that position.

One thing about Nanjing Xi Lu in the Jing 'an area in Shanghai is that there are a few pretty cool restaurants and bars around there.  It took me a while to find a few regular spots I like, here is one of the microbreweries springing up in Shanghai - Dr Beer. Nice food, nice atmosphere.   

Dr. Beer 83 Fumin Rd Jing'an, Shanghai

Also Julu Road (Julu Lu, love it) has some good places, I love Maya which is further back towards town and closer to the JC Mandarin where we've been staying for a few years now. 

Night lights walking back along Nanjing Xi Road to the hotel after some sliders and a few Dr Beers. Bad camera pics and the pollution is pretty bad.  It's hard to see but the trees are all lit up with fairy lights at night. Getting cold too, in December it's getting down to zero in Shanghai. Some years it even snows here. 

Saw this neat little electric bike, very neat and a lovely piece of design.  When you see how old and dodgy looking the local brand scooters look you can really appreciate now pretty this one is.  Actually took this pic a few weeks prior on my walking trip to the Jade Buddha Temple. 

Poster on the wall at my favourite "Chinese Japanese" restaurant, around the side of the Portman Ritz Carlton,  on Xikang Road between Nanjin Xi Lu and Beijing Xi Lu (Beijing West Road). Great value food here, you can eat and drink to bursting point,  Asahi and sake included, for less than 200 rmb.  It's tiny and they cram you in, the food is just as good if not better than any other Chinese Teppanyaki / Yakatori / Sushi place in town costing 3 or 4 times more.

The pollution is kicking in this week, more in my next post. A big round of meetings this week but they are all indoors and mainly at our hotel which means we don't have to go out in this stuff too often. 

Patterns in snow

A few photos.