1. Avenue Joffre is now Huaihaizhonglu,4 Chinese characters with chic stores and malls for window shoppers rubbing shoulders with folks of the same face value to search for fashionable lifestyle with elegance as the Shanghai tradition.
2. Morning exercises of Taijiquan, 3 Chinese words to mean Super-extreme boxing on the promenade near the Bund overlooking at Jinmao Tower(Grand Hyatt) I visited such famous place with my sister and her family members several times.
3. The modern Shanghai Grand Theatre was the venue of my sister's wedding in 1940s. I had dinner in two of the nearby restaurants several times for their delectable cuisine. Needless to say,there are other good restaurants in different parts of the city such as "Heqi" with excellent food providing private rooms for guests.
4. The Yu Garden is the place for the famous "Xiaolongbao" i.e. Steamed Little Buns with gravy and other stores selling Chinese native products.
5. The pedestrianized part of Nanjing Lu from Henanlu to Xizanglu as "buxingjie" meaning the restricted carless street for rubber-necking,gaping sightseeing activities. 31 Ice Cream store is always crowded with patrons. I love ice cream anytime since I was at USF. I learned that ice cream is sold anytime of the year at USF. I used to think Ice Cream is for summertime only.
6. Suzhou is close to Shanghai with train nanmed "Dongche" as moving vehicle(train) I enjoyed "Guanqianjie," the street in front of a Taoist Temple with many stores to see even banks with ATM from Citi. My paternal grandfather moved to Shanghai from Suzhou to do insurance business with the British and my father taught at Anglo-Chinese college for decades as the reward of my grandfather's effort to work with the British. My uncle worked for AIG for many decades as an auditor for such family connections.
7. Taikanglu is known for its contemporary art galleries, cafes, small boutiques and workshops.
8. The former French concession was my former residence with my mother and all my relatives such as aunt,uncle,cousins and sister and her family for more than six decades. My father passed away when I was only seven years old.
9. I was born in the former British settlement and my father owned three houses but were sold in 1940s. The present owner remembers the Zia famiy in the Shanghainese,i.e. Wu dialect. Zia is Xie in official Mandarin but my last name is Shieh,a variation of Hsieh,the Wade-Giles system of romanization since Hs is difficult for Westerners to utter the sound so it was changed to Sh when I was admitted to be a graduate student at the University of San Francisco in 1947.
10. Recently I had the pleasure to be in Zhabei district with treelined streets as eco-friendly greenish area. It is convenient for residents to buy daily necessities in the nearby stores.
Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao sending this blog to describe Shanghai in 10 points to give an overview of my native city. It would be a wonderful opportunity to visit Shanghai for World Expo starting in May 2010 to have on-the-spot real experience. The American Pavilion is estimated to cost 50 million,the largest showplace.
Wednesday, January 20,2010 at 6 a.m.
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