New year is coming, pollution is staying

Chinese new year is next week, can already feel that the city is getting more empty. There are not so much people on the streets and some small shops have already closed. Chinese Spring festival or "new year" is the biggest migration movement in the world. Hundreds of millions of people are going back to their hometowns. The population in Beijing is about 70% from other regions and most of them go back to their hometown. There are a lot of migrant workers who only get one holiday a year and this is it.

Some of the small shops are closed

Streets and house complexes are all full of lanterns

But the pollution is still at large, it's been snowing for 2 days now so it helped a little but the index is still on 200 and healthy should be about 40. Wearing a gas-mask every time I go outside, looks like post apocalypse 3rd world war but at least breathing feels better. Thanks Dad for buying it!

Yepp, looks like something out of a horror movie, but this is reality in Beijing at the moment

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Blue Skies By The Bund

The Bund in Shanghai, build around 1920 by the allied forces or invaders as some call them build a lot of big buildings by this busy trade port. The buildings are still standing are now refurnished into offices from some of China's biggest banks, hotels or restaurants. My all time favourite is the Roosevelt House which is on Bund nr. 27 and has a spectacular view of the Pudong Skyline. About 25 years ago Pudong was just swampland, rice-fields and small houses that barely had electricity. Now it's been completely transformed into one of the worlds most important international trade spots. Pictures speak for themselves, a coffee here on a clear day is amazing. 

Come to Roosevelt House in Shanghai, it's the best view you can find in Shanghai

The bund, always a lot of tourists but few know of this awesome view place

Loads of bigger ships passing here all the time

Private bed with Shanghai's best view @ rooftop. Gets better how?

Weather here is 1000x better than Beijing atm

Shanghai is full of restaurants, was recommended to go to the "best" Xinjiang food place located in Xujiahui. Their food is amazing and portions are very big for a very good price. The beer comes in quite big glasses too!

Muslim styled BBQ food

On the weekend we were going for brunch at Sasha's and then headed for the "movie town". Too bad it took quite a long time to get there 50km outside downtown in Songjiang. The place was closed when we arrived, better luck next time...

Sasha's - Hengshan road / Dongping road

On the way to Songjiang I saw this from the subway...wonder what kind of foundation or cemetery it is

Movie city, guards didn't let us in

 

Just 50km outside Shanghai downtown and it looks like this

 Our neighbour was drying his meat on the balcony...nope this you don't see back home

Time passes

Been in Shanghai for almost 2 weeks now but it doesn't feel like that long a time at all. It's just like coming back to the life there was here before. Last weekend was warm but now the quicksilver has dropped to about 0 and it's become windy.

Long days at the office, smoggy outside in Shanghai too. Normal working time in China is about 9-18 or 19 in the evening. Project Expeditors Shanghai office.   

Beautiful view in the smog...

There has been a construction yrd next to our office building for a few years already. In the end of last year the foundation was finally done and now when I came back 3 months later there were already many floors done!

The BBQ guy outside our flat, he arrives every evening around 21 and stays until early morning. Talked to him a bit, he is from Anhui province about 6 hour bus ride from Shanghai to the south. 

Also fried noodles or rice with eggs is awesome!

Some great late evening snack

Some of the evenings have been spent home with Playstation :)

Had sushi for lunch at a "rolling table" place. This week on Wednesday they had half price salmon sushi's for only 7.5 rmb / plate with 2 rolls. Thats about 1 euro each. 

Pick your favourites when they come

The food menus can sometimes be hilarious in China. Here is one from a Korean joint. 

Nanjing East street, Shanghais biggest walking street full of shops and restaurants. When you walk here in the evening as a foreigner you will get about 10 sellers coming to offer you bags, dvd, watch, lady massage, special beer etc whatnot. The energy consumption must be quite high to keep the 1km street lighted up every night. No wonder it's been so polluted here lately when looking how much energy is used here daily. And most of the energy comes from coal burning plants. 

3 steps to heart stopping

James came to Shanghai this weekend, it's been about 6 months since we met, but does not really feel so long. We decided to make a heart stopping 3 course late X-Mas dinner since few of us spent it in Europe this year. First we walked to the Metro shopping mall, it's just next to Xizhang road / Huaihai road. Picture is the big crossing on Yan an road / Xi zhang road.

We were making sausages wrapped in cheese, wrapped in meat, wrapped in bacon, wrapped in dough. Eaten with eggnog followed by 3 huge cheese cakes. If this meal isn't a heart stopper what is?? And if you don't think this is hot! you need to recheck your diet!

Pre fry the sausages

 The ingredients: sausage, cheese, bacon, hamburger steaks and dough.

 Make the hamburger stake flat so you can use it for rolling

 After that add the cheese

 Now your sausage is done in the pan, put it on the "to be wrap"

 Add sauce of choice (we used BBQ) 

Start wrapping the whole thing (it's quite delicate so use a cheese cutter or something)

For maximum stability, use toothpicks to keep it as a roll 

 Lift up the roll and place the bacon under it

 Wrap the bacon around the roll

 Check that you did not forget anything....

 Use bigger sticks for the roll so you can easier place it in the oven

 Cover the roll with bread crusts before putting it in the oven

 Keep in oven about 30 minutes on 170 degrees for cooking the bacon well and crispy

Last step, put dough around the "heart stopper"

 

 Cook them for another 20 minutes on 150 degrees

 Take out when brown

 

Bon appetite !

 Oh man this was just so good!! But it's seriously so much to eat that you need to be super hungry for this stuff! And it takes quite a long time to make all these things. We spent half a day in the kitchen. Thanks Helena, James and Kari for a great Xmas dinner :)

Dessert!

And 3 sets of cheese cake with blueberries

As if food wasn't enough we also made eggnog which turned out sooooooo good! Ganbei

Eggnogg done!!!