The front of an old building, with lamps in different colours hanging in front of it. You can see right through the front door and a back window to a garden where more lanterns hang. There are no people visible.

The interior of the inn. A table stands in front of the bar, with bottles of wine and wine cups abandonedon it. A row of lanterns hangs from the ceiling.

Me sitting at the table in the inn, holding a large ceramic bottle of wine up to my mouth.

Maybe you’d have other ideas about what I got up to there.

Picture 3 by @in_the_bottle

#RaeShanghai #Hengdian

Me standing behind the counter of an old-fashioned inn, with blue and red ribbons decorating the front, and wooden signs with menu items painted on them in gold hanging down from the ceiling.

Me holding up a scroll with an abstract diagram on it in blue and red, leaning on the inn counter from the first picture.

Would you believe me if I told you I found an abandoned inn, with a mysterious martial arts scroll inside it?

Photos by @in_the_bottle

#RaeShanghai #Hengdian

First culture shock on returning: in China you don’t walk on elevators, in Switzerland you’re supposed to stand to one side so people can walk on the other.

#RaeShanghai

Me posing with a statue of Wang Xizhi. He has his arm around me; I am gazing fondly up at his face.

Two statues beside a bridge: Wang Xizhi is writing on a fan for a stooped old lady.

Me sitting on a bench beside a cartoonish sculpture of Wang Xizhi. He’s wearing a green robe and a blue Daoist headscarf. We are both making peace signs. I’m also holding a tote bag with a cartoon of Lu Xun on it.

Me standing by another statue of Wang Xizhi. This one has two geese next to Wang Xizhi’s feet!

Today’s quest in Shaoxing: collect every Wang Xizhi!

I’m very certain there are more Wang Xizhis that we didn’t find, but we got a good selection. Pictures 1, 3 and 4 are by @in_the_bottle.

#RaeShanghai #Shaoxing

Art Deco buildings and the decorative metal wall of a bridge.

Buildings on the Bund, their lights reflected in the wet pavement.

Advertisements and neon lights on a theatre. In the foreground is an electric buggy driven by some tourists.

Buildings lit by multicoloured neon lights with Chinese writing. A tram waits at a stop. In the bottom right corner, two women in evening dress walk away from the viewer.

Republic-era Shanghai by night.

#RaeShanghai #Hengdian

Mirror selfie of me at a makeup table, wearing Tang Dynasty hanfu, floaty layers in blue and turquoise. My hair is in an updo with long extensions, with a gold headpiece and lots of dangly ornaments.

Me wearing turquoise Tang Dynasty hanfu, sitting at a low table with a red-and-black decorative screen behind me. I am looking to one side and sipping from a small cup.

Me wearing turquoise Tang Dynasty hanfu, striking an elegant pose against a black-and-gold column, with the backdrop of the Qin Emperor’s Palace fortifications and green mountains. In one hand is a yellow and blue novelty ice cream.

Me wearing turquoise Tang Dynasty hanfu, standing in front of a red covered bridge in the Qin Emperor’s Palace. I am holding a blue-and-yellow novelty ice cream in both hands and opening my mouth wide to take a big bite.

Playing in Hengdian! 😻

Pictures 2, 3 and 4 are by @in_the_bottle.

#RaeShanghai

Me: So anyway I was at the Shanghai Museum today because I’m so interested in Chinese history and culture!!!

—

Sorry for denying you, fandom. 😅 It’s just the stress of being in a much bigger enclosure than I’m used to…!

#RaeShanghai

Original post on federatedfandom.net

Host family dad, G: So, you came here to study Chinese. What are you going to do when you go back to Switzerland? Read Chinese books?

Me: Well, I already have a Chinese teacher at home. And I read Chinese books, very very slowly.

G: Do you watch Chinese films?

Me: Yes, and series!

G: Oh […]

Bronze statuette of bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, late Northern Wei Dynasty (518 CE). There is a little lion figure in front of the platform where the figure stands.

Label for the statuette: Avalokitesvara (worshiper: Zhang Kuang) Bronze 1st year (518) of Shengui Reign, Northern Wei This statuette, dated to the late Northern-Wei period and featuring natural elegance and delicate beauty, was influenced by the Southern-Dynasties sculpture.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties sculpture gallery, looking at Buddhist statuettes. He’s not here per se, but I am spiritually visiting with my ornery dude Yan Zhitui.

#RaeShanghai

The Shanghai Museum East Gallery, a large blocky building of rippled concrete, photo taken zoomed out in a way that makes it look very pointy. The sky behind it is blue.

A large model ice cream on a gold plinth. Both the ice cream and the cone are a dark green.

Giant Food at the Shanghai Museum East Gallery! It’s a bronze-themed ice cream. I might have to come back and try the real thing. 👀

#RaeShanghai #GiantFood

Original post on federatedfandom.net

My plan for today is to go to the Shanghai Museum’s East Gallery! It’s the new one in Pudong and is huge, because everything’s bigger in Pudong.

For some reason, what I really *want* to do is work on a fic… well, the reason is both that the exchange deadline is looming and that I finally looked […]

Don’t ask me why Wu Song from The Water Margin has a ‘tomb’, because I don’t know. 😅

Pictures later, my phone is just drinking battery right now.

#RaeShanghai

Visited the boys (Yue Fei and Wu Song).

Visited the girls (Su Xiaoxiao and Qiu Jin).

Visited the ducks and goldfish (ducks and goldfish).

Now to walk along Su Dongpo’s causeway.

#RaeShanghai #WestLake

You can’t see it in the pictures, but half of Zhejiang is here with me. Touristing like the locals do! 😄

#RaeShanghai

Pavilion and sign for one of the Ten Views of West Lake: the breeze at Qu Winery.

View of a bridge and pavilion across the lake, with green hills in the background.

朋友们！我到了西湖旁边！！

#RaeShanghai

A larger-than-life-size Buddhist statue carved into rocks on a hillside, with trees and stone steps in the foreground, and a person walking with an umbrella to one side.

Steps and Buddhist statues carved into the rocky bank of a river, with trees and greenery growing on the rocks as well.

I’m on a bus and so wet my fingers are pruny. Delighted to report that the bus stop I’m travelling to is literally called 岳坟 (Yue Fei’s Tomb).

#RaeShanghai

Original post on federatedfandom.net

Turned out I could have walked into the building the roof is attached to and found a dry seat and a hot latte, at any point in the last hour and a half. 😂 This is truly the stuff holidays are made of (my family did a lot of camping in Great Britain. I don’t know any other way to be than soggy […]

Currently trapped under an overhanging roof at Lingyin Temple for the last half hour or more, because WEATHER.

#RaeShanghai

Many brass sculptures of seated Buddhist figures.

Many brass sculptures of seated Buddhist figures.

Many brass sculptures of seated Buddhist figures.

500 luohans is a lot of luohans.

(I’m at Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, and this is the Hall of Five Hundred Luohans.)

#RaeShanghai

我：到杭州。
天气：下雨了～！

#RaeShanghai

Classmate just told me, “I watched the first episode of that show you recommended me, The Untamed!” so that’s how things are going here. ☺️

#RaeShanghai

A grey cat with folded ears and green eyes, lying on the windowsill counter of a small bar. The cat looks supremely unimpressed by the kissy noises I’m making at it.

The same cat on the same counter, in morning light. There are some wine bottles and menus there as well. The cat is lying in sphinx pose and staring pointedly away from me. Inside, you can see an exposed brick wall and two people at the bar.

就是这家酒店的猫对人们并不感兴趣，我还觉得很可爱。😍

#RaeShanghai

我这个僵尸在学校。😄

#RaeShanghai

Here’s the video, by the way! I think there are two more in this series. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdAsbWr9aE

#RaeShanghai

My host family’s mother, showing me holiday pictures from Macao: “This is… oh, how do you say, 普通呀?”

Me, groggy from jetlag: “Grape… tooth?”

Host family’s daughter, ten, whip smart: “Portuguese.”

Me, internally: “Damnit, Ziran Jay Zhao literally has a video about this.”

#RaeShanghai