"Big-nosed, Golden-haired Foreigners": Photos of Shanghai

Most of these shots were taken over the past week.

First up is a photo of an impromptu singing session in the park. But first some cultural commentary. The guy in the back came off as somewhat pushy, approaching me mainly to get me to shake the things he's holding. I politely had to decline ... about five times. Funny though, he didn't approach anyone else from the crowd gathered to watch, and my friends and I were the only foreigners. Very often do I find that, as a non-Chinese person, I'm often singled out for both the good and the bad attention. Beggars always go for the lao wai first, and it's hard for a foreigner to shake these people. Those selling fake Rolexes, bootlegged DVDs, and "lady massage" in the street rarely if ever approach Asians, but I literally cannot cross the street to the food mart without hearing "Hi Hello, Lady Massage?". Both my Mandarin profs and also students in the street confirm that everyone learns about the "big-nosed, golden-haired foreigner", and it seems as though the Chinese are strongly encouraged to approach random foreigners in order to practice their English. It is somewhat annoying to think that the locals are literally taught from youth to think of you as a big-nosed, golden-haired English-speaking automaton, but if you have a little free time it also makes it quite easy to have some random Mandarin practice in the park or at a tourist site. Back to the picture of the singers:


The Happy Lemon:


A neat shot of the evil-looking building with a bright moon behind it. This is actually the JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square:


The lights atop the building on the right rotate colors through the evening:


A neatly-lit building:


Ancient design in the foreground, modernity behind it:


View from a pedestrian overpass:


A park south of People's Park, and very close to where you have the best shou zhua bing that I've found so far in Shanghai. The blue guy is the mascot for the upcoming Shanghai World Expo 2010:


Here I am in front of the Pu Dong skyline:


Pu Dong skyline catching some of the last moments of sunlight of that day:


... and I leave you with a neat macro shot of Donald Duck: