Nov. 14 Wandering and exploring Shanghai

Being almost constantly with 7 other people, even though they were lovely companions, made me want to just explore by myself. Since I was now in the center of a city, this was easy to do.

Across the street is a hospital. This is the gift shop:

I have a list of yarn shops here and found that there was one across the street from the hotel. That was my first stop. Then I just walked up that street. Found a cashmere yarn shop that wasn’t on the list. Found a shop where I commissioned a cashmere sweater. The salesgirl spoke no English and I spoke no Chinese, but we understood each other. She measured me; I picked a color; we determined a style. She showed me the approximate price. (A combination of the cost of the yarn, plus 1.5 RMB for each gram used.)

On I went through People’s Park:


Nanjing Road is a big pedestrian shopping street. They were having a dance performance there:

Stopped at Micky D’s for lunch. I was the only round eyes in the place.

After walking around for about 6 hours, I hobbled home to get ready to go to the reception. In the US, the receptions are often just wine and cheese, and a few finger foods. They often run out because the grad students scarf it down fast.

This reception was held in the Shanghai Grand Theatre. All of a sudden this trip, we are being moved to the dignitaries tables. We had gold patterned plates, gold spoons and chopstick rests and special red chairs with gold ribbons. It does mean that I can’t take as many pictures.



The menu was: Cold dishes, Chicken shreds & Scallop Soup, Sautéed River Shrimps with Vegetable, Fried Sliced Beef with Black Pepper, Fried Pork Knuckle with Garlic, Sautéed Chicken Meat with XO sauce, Fried Mandarin Fish with Sour & Sweet Sauce,
Seasonal Vegetable & Fresh Mushroom, Fried Rice, Fried Cake with Meat Floss & Sesame, Steamed Corn Cake with Milk, Glutinous Rice Dumpling in the Wine Syrup.

All of this special reception was in honor of T. D. Lee’s 80th birthday. He is a co-nobelist with Yang and he is really the father of China’s physics. He has mentored 2 generations and they are very proud of him and very grateful for his leadership. They had a large birthday cake:

Does the top look a little weird to you? It did to us.

Another evening when they never stopped pouring the drinks. We are wondering what the Banquet (which is normally the more important dinner) is going to be like.