The last of the garden pics. It turns out as we hailed a cab for the ride back that we were in the not as pretty part of the lake, had we turned south instead of continually walking north, I think we would have fared better. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back.
Another bicycle/cart guy!
Yes, there was colour here, just a lot of bad light.
More of that great grass.
Still wandering around the garden. Can't quite remember if this was one day or the next. Things are already becoming fuzzy for me.
One of the many small ponds around the lake
I liked how this looked like a mini forest.
The amazing part of this area was that there were no mosquitoes, even in this calm water.
Had to fit a bike in there somehow :)
Slightly tired of walking we decided to take a scooter/rickshaw/taxi thing to westlake to cut our time. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong, and this is the time we took the taxi.
Either way, it was a lazy day.
Still overcast
Being overcast though lets you shoot during the day and not have everything blow completely out. This one with the EP2
This one the D700
Didn't take a lot of pics in Hangzou despite it supposedly being one of the most picturesque places in China to photograph. I ended up more interested in getting my laundry done and getting to Japan. Here's what my EP2 saw
They have bikes that you can rent for the day and ride around. Such a great idea, but we unfortunately never ended up doing this.
The lake. Rather foggy due to the weather.
Not sure what this cart was for, just like the way the detail turned out.
I tried many times to get her perfectly in the middle of the metal doors without any camera tilt, but this was the closest I came to what I envisioned. Next time I'm just going to be creepy and stop and snap it, instead of taking it like a spy.
They keep this square nice and clean, even after it rains.
So close to making a book about bikes. Just need a few more pictures :P
My search for pulled noodles ends. They were good, but not the best. If I could have them right now of course they'd be spectacular.
*sigh*
Travelling is as much about food as it is about the sites and photography for me. So what was the best meal in Shanghai? The breakfasts were cheap and delicious, and so were the other delectable stalls serving food so cheap and good it should be illegal. But the winner has to be this pan fried dumpling place. The inside was filled with a pork soup like mixture that had some sort of curry like spice to them.
I believe this was our second helping of it. Or was it the third?
I grab other breakfast items to feed my sleeping co-traveler.
Train station at Hangzou.
Rain + overcast light makes me think of Vietnam
I trotted out early this morning to try and get a sense of the city before it became filled with people.
Empty! This was right across from our hotel.
Under the freeway.
I'm guessing that the wire boxes are for hanging your laundry. Still the cheapest way to dry your clothes
Last bike pic in Shanghai
My favourite of the morning. Couldn't have taken this during the day for sure. Seems like in Shanghai, pedestrians hit the streets before cars do.
The day was really overcast which made it bearable to walk across town to get a sandwich.
I love this one because it looks like I took it at a museum of national history. The lighting is so flat and even, and the people seem so posed, as if they were mannequins. They are really working on the grounds of the library. Looks like they have a long way to go.
Shot this in near darkness in a back alley of some night market in Shanghai. I can't remember for the life of me what it was called though. We were supposed to eat here, but didn't find anything appetizing.
Wait for it....
...And my love for noodles continues.
We eventually escaped the market with two new handbags and an appetite. Undeterred by our previous attempt to find good bread, we set out to the French quarter to find a place that we were guaranteed had great bread.
A walkway over a busy street.
The walk back over the bridge.
Looking for the smell of bread, we instead find fire. Everybody stopped to look. Inside the plume of smoke.
Orange + bike. Love it.
Breakfast in Shanghai can't be beat. You can purchase as much as you can carry in both hands for probably less than $5. Not only that, everything is made fresh on the spot every day. It's probably because of that fact that it's so good. How can you make something thousands of times and still have it suck.
Fresh made baos
Breakfast prep.
Bicycles. Had to put this as it's been too many posts without one.
Apparently the best shopping to be had in Shanghai lies across the bridge into a less well developed area called, "Qipu road". By best shopping, I mean of course high quality knock offs of designer brands. Away we go!
The bridge there.
Graffiti here is in English. Weird.
Everything is muted on this side of the river, so this caught my eye. Way to rock the pink little girl.
Google is great. Especially when you're traveling. It's not just maps, it's your security blanket, gently warmed in the dryer. So when it tells you that a restaurant is on a particular street you go there and walk blindly back and forth on that street desperately looking for the restaurant. There is no questioning the mighty Google. Except I suppose in Asia.
Long story short, we finally find the place by making a phone call in a department store to our friend Karen. If we had to, we probably wouldn't be able to find it again, not only was it off the street, it was up a back alley staircase.
Snapped this when we thought we knew where we were going.
Dinner time. Love open kitchens and the rare-hard-to-find Northern vegetarian Chinese food.
Introduced to Japanese whiskey as a nightcap at a swanky bar. It's good stuff. Notice the ice. These bartenders don't mess around.
As promised. More umbrellas.
The best part about rain is the reflective ground.
Umbrellas are the second best part.
I stood here like a creepy man and watched these two lovebirds have fun in the rain. It caught my eye because it reminds me of another photograph with umbrellas I really like.
I believe we ended up trying to find a good Shao Lin Bao place to eat dinner at. It turned out it was closed. Not only was it closed, but the road that it was supposed to be on was closed, and every single shop was also closed.
The good news is that it was raining, so I got some interesting lighting situations.
Street food stall. The red blows out here a little, wish I used a smaller aperture.
I love my umbrellas.
Cleaning up.
More umbrella photos are around the corner.
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