Easter 2010. We spent the weekend in San Francisco - enjoying aspects of the City that we find delightful as well as some touristy things. It is not very often we see people at the vista point called Twin Peaks. If you come to SF, please don't miss that view. On a clear day you can see 360 degrees - but bring a jacket, even in the summer, as the ocean breezes are strong and chilly.
We had brunch at Roy's Hawaii Fusion restaurant - consistently good. Had lobster potstickers - killer good - could have had only those with a little salad and rice for brunch. Afterwards we went to the San Francisco Asian Museum to view the current Shanghai exhibit. http://www.asianart.org/. I traveled to Shanghai in 2009 and of course, the Shanghai of today isn't anything like it was 200 years ago or even like it was in the late 1980's when my husband used to travel there on business.
What I remember of Shanghai were the crowds of people (seemed like each one wanted to sell me something - very capitalistic those Communists I met), the constant construction, and the smog. As I viewed the exhibits today, the 1920's Shanghai appeared to be very exotic and brought back mental images of Bernando Bertolucci's 1987 file "The Last Emperor". Remember the scenes of the lovely Chinese women in white 1920's sheaths lounging after a tennis match, drinking martinis? Seemed like such a decadent life. Then the revolution arrived and life changed drastically for everyone.
When I studied for my Master's in East Asian Studies, the history of the Opium Wars and the Chinese relations with Western countries (circa 1850s) was the most intriguing. If you are unaware of this period of China's history - it explains a lot about where things went rather off between the East and the West.
No comments:
Post a Comment