scarves en chine

a couple of my last outfit pictures from china--i think i wore a scarf there every single day.

at the terra cotta warriors in xi'an. i bought this scarf in shanghai, and lost it in beijing at a concert about a month and a half later. depressing. it was my favorite for a while...i had a tempestuous love affair with gray and yellow.

at the temple of the eight immortals in xi'an. when we first got there, it was fairly warm; i didn't even bring a coat from beijing. yet literally on our last day there, it got disturbingly cold. i was wearing all of the clothing i had brought. in this picture, i look cold but happy. the scarf is from a brilliant 10-and-20-kuai (up to about $3) scarf shop in downtown xi'an.

the smell of chinese ink of the stone carvings was indescribably rich and dark and perfect.

i went twice to the great wall at jinshanling, outside of beijing. it's my favorite site by far on the wall: wild and lonely, and only partially restored. i'm wearing chinese pink pearl earrings--there have been stretches since then where i haven't taken them out for a couple days at a time!

shanghai art

shanghai art museum, on one end of the people's park in the center of town, has tons of patriotic/propaganda art. this one is so gorgeous that i stood and stared for a few minutes.

moganshan/m50 is shanghai's newest answer to the jing's 798 art district. i love these girls' outfits, especially juxtaposed with the bike and cookie monster. the graffiti'd sign behind them that says some stuff about "new asia conglomerate" and a limited liability corporation! from industrial park to art space, just like 798.

stormtroopers, angry pandas, etc. i liked the feel of the outer fringes of moganshan--much like 798 pre-commercialization, i'd guess. the heart of moganshan, though, was commercialized and touristy yet still charming, like 798 today.

backpacker

ah, tourism.

this was from the lovely champagne-colored elevator in my shanghai hotel...who says that i can't wear a nice big ring and a good scarf at the same time i am toting a giant backpack?

gilded blue

this was my museum-visiting outfit. i thought i'd never say this, but i miss the shanghai heat and cozy smog.

skirt, purse, and omnipresent black flats are secondhand; shirt is a north face hiking shirt that i like to travel with because it fits perfectly and refuses to get stinky or dirty; little cut-glass earrings are from the yuyuan bazaar; gold-and-blue scarf is from suzhou.

inside the shanghai art museum. it says "the people."

the people's park

at the center of shanghai, near the shanghai museum, shanghai art museum, and nanjing road.

kari and sarah: supermodels for life

my friends look too sharp, loitering in black and red.

a failed attempt at a jumping picture

shanghaied

, some shots from a trip to shanghai this fall...

it's surreal that i took this with my own camera:

at yuyuan bazaar. i'm wearing a scarf from suzhou. my cloisonne bracelet provides that essential little orientalist touch.

everyone's favorite japanese-h+m-type-thing on nanjing road, shanghai's actually charming hypercapitalist pedestrian street, which is similar to the more soulless wangfujing in beijing.

taking in the afternoon:

bar rouge, on the bund. some bits of shanghai were a little too shanghai for me, and the clubs fell into this category: compared to beijing, things were often too shiny, too westernized, too populated by expats--not beijing-y expats (NGO people, students, diplomats, artists), but really stereotypical expats (english-only, business, finance, real estate).

my own autumn holiday

so i am on academic break right now. i spent the last few days in suzhou and shanghai, and next i am headed to xi'an to see the terra cotta soldiers and wander the city a bit until next week. it is nice to be back in beijing for a night. i have determined that i am much more of a beijinger than a shanghai person, although according to a friend who lives in shanghai that mostly has to do with me being a tourist and not living there long-term.

more later! i am taking pictures like a madwoman!