Of Shanghai: Killing Time

Ok, we have one kick-ass set of photos from Shanghai, but it's late and we're sleepy, perhaps because we spent all day napping while the power was out in the entire Embassy. So for today, we're just randomly throwing out a couple decent pictures from Shanghai. As we may have mentioned already, this trip in general was not filled with photographic glory, so most photos are a bit more illustrative than intrinsically good pictures. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.

Anyway, above, one of the more interesting pieces of art in the Shanghai Art Museum, which features centuries of historic Chinese Art, demonstrating any number of stylistic shifts in the painting of ridiculous mountain landscapes with little pagodas in the valleys. In the ancient sculpture section was this stele, covered in little carved Buddhas.

Below, the thriving commerce of the streets in Shanghai. The saleswoman, it turns out, was not enthusiastic about being photographed along with her wares, for some unknown reason. You would think it's because the books she was selling were a blatant infringement of copyright, but then again, the guy selling street corn-on-the-cob didn't want his picture taken either.