Iron Man and Lost Temples
Yesterday we were walking around Xintiandi (new heaven on Earth) and G-man noticed that the new movie, Iron Man, was playing at the theatre. I was surprised to see that this new Marvel-funded Hollywood superhero release was showing in China because I had only just recently started hearing about it in the US media. If I'm not mistaken, the movie hasn't been released in the US yet. If that's correct, maybe this is Hollywood's strategy for denying the movie and DVD pirates some of the take in China. I plucked down the RMB 160 for two tickets and we enjoyed the first bit of big screen Hollywood we'd seen in about a year.
The theatres in China let you pick your seats when you buy your tickets but it was not as if there was a mad rush to see the movie at noon on Saturday. We were among only ten people in a theatre for hundreds. Of course the theatre assigned all of us to sit bunched up in the middle of the giant theatre. Maybe this is because Shanghainese feel more comfortable in a crowd. Maybe it was to give us the illusion of being part of the action - I don't know. But we didn't get up and move away from the other 8 people - we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
By the way, we enjoyed the movie.
This morning some friends and I struck out at 7 am for another walking tour of the People's Park to Yuyuan Garden portion of old Shanghai. We started out at a McDonalds on Nanjing Pedestrian Street where we found three ragged people sleeping in the restaurant and a staff that allowed beggars to go from table to table hitting diners up for money. As we started to walk it began to rain and it continued to rain for the next three hours of the walk that took us south on Xizang (Tibet) Road past the old New World Amusement Center (closed), the old YMCA Hotel (closed for renovation) and the old Daoist Temple. The temple had been moved from its old location - in fact I think it had been moved twice. Oddly enough, Shanghai has moved its temples around so much that they actually misplaced one. Either no one knows where it is or someone is hiding it. But how can you lose a temple?
The theatres in China let you pick your seats when you buy your tickets but it was not as if there was a mad rush to see the movie at noon on Saturday. We were among only ten people in a theatre for hundreds. Of course the theatre assigned all of us to sit bunched up in the middle of the giant theatre. Maybe this is because Shanghainese feel more comfortable in a crowd. Maybe it was to give us the illusion of being part of the action - I don't know. But we didn't get up and move away from the other 8 people - we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
By the way, we enjoyed the movie.
This morning some friends and I struck out at 7 am for another walking tour of the People's Park to Yuyuan Garden portion of old Shanghai. We started out at a McDonalds on Nanjing Pedestrian Street where we found three ragged people sleeping in the restaurant and a staff that allowed beggars to go from table to table hitting diners up for money. As we started to walk it began to rain and it continued to rain for the next three hours of the walk that took us south on Xizang (Tibet) Road past the old New World Amusement Center (closed), the old YMCA Hotel (closed for renovation) and the old Daoist Temple. The temple had been moved from its old location - in fact I think it had been moved twice. Oddly enough, Shanghai has moved its temples around so much that they actually misplaced one. Either no one knows where it is or someone is hiding it. But how can you lose a temple?
posted by Kevcham at 6:19 AM
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