Dan Washburn's Shanghai Diaries: New Photos Archives

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October 2005

10.08.2005 (127 new)
Visit an old colonial island in Xiamen and huge earthen roundhouses in rural Fujian. Scenes from my National Day 2005 holiday.

10.08.2005 (41 new)
Go on the set for my very first infomercial! I play the role of “Dr. James,” inventor of a product called “Dolly.”

10.08.2005 (57 new)
Get some sweaty culture at the Asian Gaelic Games. Gaelic football comes to Shanghai!

10.08.2005 (14 new)
Jam with Xingfu 13 at the Shanghaiist.com launch party.

10.08.2005 (29 new)
Take a stroll through the Second Annual China International Adult Toys and Reproductive Health Exhibition, also known as the Adult Expo or the Adult-Care Expo.

May 2005

05.20.2005 (36 new)
Welcome to Washington, D.C., home of huge pizza slices, hallway golf and barbecue served from behind bullet-proof glass.

05.20.2005 (21 new)
New York, New York. Skyscrapers … and everything.

05.02.2005 (22 new)
One day late, but the rain-delayed BMW Asian Open is finally over. This just in: Ernie Els is a very, very, very, very, very good golfer.

05.01.2005 (26 new)
You’d be surprised how little golf you actually watch when covering a golf tournament. Here are a few shots I took during one of my infrequent trips to the course at the BMW Asian Open. By the way, Ernie Els is good.

April 2005

04.27.2005 (20 new)
Soccer. Football. Footie. Call it what you want. Photos from two different China Super League matches.

04.16.2005 (39 new)
The view from the streets of Shanghai during the anti-Japan demonstration of April 16.

04.11.2005 (117 new)
Take a two-day hike through minority villages, rubber tree forests and pineapple fields in sub-tropical Xishuangbanna, near the Burmese border in southern Yunnan. ‘Banna is one of my favorite places in China … to get away from China.

04.10.2005 (22 new)
Scenes from the China Baseball League, an old chair, and some new — and really tall — buildings.

March 2005

03.29.2005 (25 new)
See scenes from Madang Lu — my street — as they tear it down and the Doland Museum of Modern Art as they build it up. See the Chinese version of the Kramer portrait … and Yak butter tea … in Shanghai! Also, watch as I continue to photograph other people’s mail.

03.22.2005 (53 new)
Brian and Jill had much luck weather-wise during their two-week trip through China. So more blue skies greeted us in northwest Yunnan’s Lijiang and Baisha. We had a memorable encounter with the famous Dr. Ho and we never escaped the glare of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. That is not a bad thing.

03.18.2005 (8 new)
Shanghai Talk magazine held its annual party at La Fabrique on Wednesday. The theme was “art deco,” which I know now means more fur than feathers. Or at least that’s what I was told. Wisely, I wore neither. (These pics weren’t taken by me.)

03.16.2005 (30 new)
February 26 was a beautiful day in Kunming. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. The weather was warm. Old folks sang and danced at Green Lake. Others flew kites. The cherry blossoms were blooming. Well, what are you waiting for?

03.13.2005 (41 new)
Is the Great Wall overhyped? No. Hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai in the dead of winter is one of the most beautiful things I have done in China … or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. See for yourself.

03.13.2005 (8 new)
Went to Tang Hui Pub in Shanghai last night … and fell in love with the place. A nice divey atmosphere. Really good live music. I have found my home. Here’s a handful of pics and a video clip from my maiden voyage.

03.10.2005 (59 new)
It was damn cold in Beijing a couple weeks ago. So, in addition to many photos of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace — both covered in snow — you will also see several images of Brian, Jill and me bundled up like Chinese babies. Sorry, no pictures of Mao’s dead body. Had to check the camera at the door.

03.08.2005 (25 new)
The first installment of photos from the China visit of my friends Brian and Jill finds us in Shanghai visiting some of the usual haunts … but with unusually blue skies.

February 2005

02.18.2005 (24 new)
The final installment from Hawaii. There’s actually a beach or two in this batch. Back in Shanghai now. And it’s damn cold.

02.04.2005 (16 new)
Yep, you guessed it: The photo above is the only one in this batch that has nothing to do with my nephew. Expect more photos of Hawaii soon. Girlfriend arrives tomorrow, so I think I’ll actually leave the house.

02.02.2005 (32 new)
More from Hawaii. And a few of these photos actually don’t feature my nephew Sam. A few.

January 2005

01.15.2005 (16 new)
Aloha! Let the baby photos begin!

01.13.2005 (16 new)
Venture into the freezing home of the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks for a brutal game against the Xinjiang Flying Tigers — and then join the after-party, complete with air hockey, karaoke and John playing the tamborine.

01.03.2005 (15 new)
Be one of the first people to look inside the brand-new $120 million Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. Then, be one of the first people to make fun of it!

01.01.2005 (18 new)
Sip some champagne and welcome the new year with scenes from Senses Wine Lounge, ZIN Wine Bar and Grill, Cotton’s and everyone’s favorite party spot, Luis and Cecil’s apartment. Happy New Year!

01.01.2005 (18 new)
Take a walk — albeit a short one — through Shanghai’s biggest snow storm in a decade. The snowman pictured above was created by some Xintiandi Starbucks employees with too much time on their bare hands.

01.01.2005 (13 new)
Step onto the set of a television commercial shoot for a new NEC mobile phone that doubles as a TV. The set was a very cold, deserted cargo train station north of Shanghai. I reprised my role of a white man intrigued by a Chinese man’s electronic equipment. I think I’m starting to get type-cast.

December 2004

12.27.2004 (35 new)
Holiday photos galore! First, a few from the (not so) Chinese gift exchange at our holiday party. Then, watch a Christmas Eve feast turn into a dance party/football challenge (thanks to about 10 bottles of wine). Finally, meet two-week-old Tate, Glen and Kelly’s cute little holiday gift to the world.

12.17.2004 (7 new)
Last night was opening night at Manhattan, one of the first bars to bow at the new bar strip on Tongren Lu. Shanghai Diaries was there.

12.11.2004 (7 new)
Head on down to The Literature Club for a foot-stompin’ good time with the Shanghai Cowboys. That’s right. Country music in Shanghai! And, dadgummit, they’re pretty darn good, too. Need proof? I’ve got three video clips — so you can hear them firsthand.

12.06.2004 (24 new)
A couple dozen shots from a walk around town with Bliss and Andrea. Check out one of my favorite old neighborhoods in Shanghai … and the best tasting hot dog in the city.

November 2004

11.30.2004 (7 new)
A few photos as I ease back into life in the big city. See my Thanksgiving dinner, my apartment building and a few random street shots. Oh yeah, a parrot, too.

11.29.2004 (3 new)
See my Christmas tree. It’s very fake. And, really, it’s only a half tree, because … well, because I bought it in China. It was so bereft of branches, so barren, that we had to bend all the wires to one side, thus creating the illusion of a semi-full fake tree. But the back’s got nothing, nada, zilch. Didn’t stop Henry from coming all the way from Guizhou to hug it, though.

11.24.2004 (66 new)
Just off Xiamen’s coast, the island of Gulang Yu is a five-minute ferry ride to a bygone era. Designated an offical “International Foreign Settlement” in the early 1900s, Gulang Yu is now a somewhat spooky place — beautiful old buildings are falling apart — but it still retains much of its colonial charm. (NOTE: If you make it to the end of this batch of photos, you get a prize: a glimpse of what just may be the largest couch in China.)

11.23.2004 (62 new)
Take a walking tour through the Xiamen fishing village Zheng Cuo An interesting mix of old and new. Also, see a badminton court inside a pool, dogs named Henri and Salvador, and just a few photos of the famous island Gulang Yu (I plan on taking more there today).

11.22.2004 (66 new)
Check out the island of Xiamen, one of the more beautiful and livable cities in China. Get up close and personal with some local fishermen … and some Taiwanese islands.

11.18.2004 (73 new)
They say Guangzhou is a little rough around the edges. See for yourself. Check out the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shamian Island, a family who lives above a curtain shop, Kong Fu Tea, Guangzhou’s decaying Western architecture — and the cockroaches that Dan ate!

11.15.2004 (50 new)
Tianlong Village in western Guizhou is home to the Lao Han minority, many of whom still live like it’s the 14th century. It’s an ancient town with stone walls, stone roofs and stone bridges … and women who remove their hair after getting married.

11.15.2004 (30 new)
At 81 meters wide and 74 meters tall, Huangguoshu Waterfall is the biggest in China. It’s impressive and, if you travel during off-peak tourist season, a rather peaceful place. Enjoy.

11.15.2004 (85 new)
Lusheng Festivals in eastern Guizhou are full of bright costumes, babies in backpacks … and bull fights. I went to two, in villages called Chong’an and Gulong — so did thousands of Miao minority people. Soak it all in.

11.08.2004 (41 new)
Take a break in Kunming, which some are calling “the Seattle of China.” Watch Chinese kids breakdancing at a bar. Watch Chinese adults dance by Green Lake. And meet Jenny, whose family Dan lived with down in Xishuangbanna.

11.08.2004 (124 new)
Take a fascinating trip down to the jungles of Xishuangbanna — near the Burmese border — and spend a few days in Bayi Village, where nearly everyone makes a living by milking sap from rubber trees.

October 2004

10.28.2004 (40 new)
More from Lijiang, including the Bai Sui Fang Guesthouse, a dog named Pig Head, a trip to the market and a random encounter with a reader of this website.

10.27.2004 (29 new)
Lijiang, in northwest Yunnan Province, is a tourist town — but it’s tastefully done. It’s like taking a step back into history. Check out these pics and get lost in Ancient Town (I just did on the way to this internet bar).

10.27.2004 (135 new)
A tale of two lakes: Qionghai Hu, in Xichang, and Lugu Hu, which straddles the Sichuan-Yunnan border. Lugu Lake — home of one of the world’s last matriarchal societies — is one of the most beautiful and fascinating places I have been to in China. I highly suggest you take a look at these photos (although I guess I’m a bit biased … I took them).

10.20.2004 (80 new)
More from Sichuan. This time Chengdu, the provincial capital. There is a lot to like about Chengdu. I think it would be a cool place to live — if only the skies weren’t so gray. These pics will give you a mini tour of the city. They will also introduce you to Dave, the white guy who drives a pedicab.

10.16.2004 (42 new)
Mianyang, a Sichuan city you probably have never heard of, is home to the best live original rock music I’ve seen in China. Go figure. Of course, none of the musicians can afford to own their own instruments. They have concerts about once a year. And the shows end really early — the bands are usually made up of college students … and they all have curfews. So much for the rock ‘n roll lifestyle. Lots of pics and videos inside!

10.14.2004 (80 new)
Take a deep breath of Gansu’s Lanzhou, once considered the World’s Most Polluted City. This place gets a bad rap from many … including those who live there. But I didn’t think it was that bad. Good food, good people — and on some days you can even see the mountains that surround the city. A few videos in this batch.

10.14.2004 (115 new)
Bliss and I took a “vacation” from Lanzhou and headed to Guyuan in southern Ningxia, home of Benjamin — a guy I met in a Yinchuan internet bar. We saw the colors of fall at Liupan Mountain, a huge 1,000-year-old Buddha at Xumi Mountain … and Benjamin’s mother, part of the Hui minority, served us a big pot of rabbit.

10.14.2004 (46 new)
Scenes from Yinchuan, site of my first stay in Ningxia. I visited the finest local video arcades, the Western Xia Tombs and Sand Lake — home of the scariest ostriches this side of the Gobi Desert.

10.14.2004 (5 new)
A few shots from my brief layover in Beijing, which included a tour of the “Underground City.”

10.14.2004 (29 new)
The final batch from Harbin. See Stavros hit his GuoMei Bilingual Preschool students with “the basher,” Chinese women dance with red fans to the tune of a live jam band and Stavros getting up-close-and-personal with some locals after a few pints of black beer. There are videos in this batch, too!

September 2004

09.20.2004 (83 new)
Visit Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, which borders Mongolia and Russia. Travelers in China come up here — to the far, far northeast — to escape China and explore what’s left of the city’s old Russian architecture.

09.20.2004 (27 new)
Check out Suifenhe, on Heilongjiang’s eastern border with Russia, where the Chinese people speak Russian and the Russian people speak … Russian. Russians come here to shop — and act like they are still in Russia.

09.20.2004 (77 new)
Get lost at Changbai Shan, or Ever-White Mountain (above), home of the beautiful Tian Chi, or Heavenly Lake, some colorful fall foliage … and maybe even one big evasive monster.

09.20.2004 (39 new)
The “lost” photos from Shenyang and Dandong, including the always popular Museum of American Aggression. Damn those aggressive wolves, those imperialist running dogs!

09.08.2004 (19 new)
More from Changchun, including World Sculpture Park (above), an industrial sunset and John’s first appearance of the album.

09.05.2004 (56 new)
Very current photos from my first day in Changchun, capital of Jilin province. Check out three of Jilin University’s five campuses — and, of course, Wal-Mart.

09.05.2004 (48 new)
Visit China’s “rust belt” in Shenyang, a city on the rise, and glimpse into North Korea from the border town of Dandong. (NOTE: About 100 more photos from Liaoning are currently trapped on my iPod, awaiting an iBook to save them. Stay tuned.)

09.05.2004 (53 new)
Check out the Great Wall’s rugged Simatai section. Also, meet some of the people I visited with while in Beijing.

August 2004

08.23.2004 (52 new)
One day in the nation’s capital. Tiananmen. The Forbidden City. Hutong neighborhoods. And one strange blue tire.

08.23.2004 (95 new)
Welcome to Inner Mongolia: The Big Empty. Ride horses through the grasslands. Or fall asleep in the Gobi Desert.

08.23.2004 (104 new)
Step inside Haoyi, a curious village of 4,000 in southern Shanxi that looks like the remains of some lost civilization, or a country just recovering from war.

08.23.2004 (14 new)
More from Xi’an, including a group of painters who wait for work on the street corner and biang biang mian, a secret Shaanxi recipe.

08.07.2004 (53 new)
Xi’an, in Shaanxi Province, was one of the world’s grandest cities thousands of years ago. Now, it has its moments, like the intimidating Army of Terracotta Warriors and the city’s lively Muslim Quarter.

08.07.2004 (9 new)
See what you think of Three Gorges Dam — the largest hydroelectric dam in the world — in Yichang, Hubei Province.

08.07.2004 (96 new)
Take a look at the beautiful ancient river city of Fenghuang in western Hunan. Also, take a walk on the Great Wall of South China.

July 2004

07.30.2004 (24 new)
Join along as a Chinese tour group visits Shaoshan, hometown of Mao Zedong in Hunan Province. Also some photos from Changsha, Hunan’s capital.

07.29.2004 (165 new)
Scenes from life in rural China, Jiangxi Province’s Hengfeng Town and Hengshui Village.

07.22.2004 (80 new)
Photos from the first stops on The Trip, Zhejiang Province’s Hangzhou and Tiantai.

07.18.2004 (5 new)
Added five photos from Shanghai’s House of Blues and Jazz to the People Pages album.

07.08.2004 (67 new)
Added 67 photos to City Scenes: “A Walking Tour of Old Shanghai.”

07.05.2004 (24 new)
Added 24 rain-soaked photos to the Hangzhou album.

07.05.2004 (21 new)
Added 21 photos to the City Scenes album, including some shots of the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui.

07.05.2004 (6 new)
Added six jazzy photos to the People Pages album. See A.J. Khaw jam with the Andy Hunter Quartet at the House of Blues and Jazz.