Biking, Gaming, Resting, Saturday in Shanghai

This Saturday, J. and I went for a bike ride south of our apartment and into the Longhua neighborhood. As with the rest of town, this area is getting torn up and repaired for the Expo next year. Near the Huangpu River is the most construction, and it wasn’t possible to get close to it. Vast construction walls, dust, and blue trucks got in the way.

The weather was mild and overcast. We stopped for donuts and got splattered with mud from the road. People must have wondered why two foreign devils were biking around industrial and construction zones.

Some photos:

A common breakfast: fruit, grain, and yogurt.

Lipton you’d never see in America: Chunk Fun Chocolate Flavor Milk Tea. Chocolate tea? Okay. Might as well add clear jellies too.

The entrance to the apartment parking garage.

Large green tile building.

Mattress rickshaw.

Cardboard rickshaw.

Train track leading to Nanpu Railway Station.

Another green building.

Under construction.

People waiting for the bus.

Old apartments.

Decorative lighting.

Construction worker resting on his scooter.

Pink broom face.

Produce being sold by a canal.

Canal near Longhua Temple.

Fence, track, and pedestrian crossing.

Phone numbers?

More phone numbers?*

Textured gate.*

Doorway with ACs.*

Man biking along the tracks. Gaudy high-rises loom in the background.

Detour along Wanping Road due to Expo construction.

An old gate to block the tracks.

Diverted canal.

Me on a bridge.*

An excessive amount of dishes.

House boat trapped in the canal.

Temporary wall patch made of bamboo weave.

The end of Wanping Road.

J. on bike.

Warning: steam engine will smash you.

Narrow and endless row of orange plastic chairs.

Highway landscaping.

Bike repair shop on the side of the road.

Abandoned store front.

People sized pipes.

Half car, half wheelchair, all handicap.

Private bus station.

Birds for sale.*

The stairs to a rusty, communist-era observation tower.

I’ve also been able to get a decent connection with few servers to play some epic games of Crysis Wars. This game is crazy: vast, near photo real environments, objectives, changing time and weather, land and air vehicles, teamwork, and good weapons all blend together into some pretty wonderful matches. Getting into a VTOL with a teammate and swooping between mesas to capture a energy station as the sun sets is quite an experience. Nerd!

Woods.

War.

Water.

This game is intense. I’m feeling old and sleepy.