100% Design Shanghai

   I had a magnificent  Saturday and not just because I was able to talk to Donald 3 different times throughout the day. I found out about a interior design expo called 100% Design Shanghai that was going on in town about a week ago and made plans to go today. It was sold as an contemporary platform for innovative interior design products who's Creative Director is Michael Young (who is famous in Shanghai for all-things design related). It's been going on now for the past 2 days and today was the last chance to go. Of course when I left my apartment it was the exact moment that it started to rain, lightly for now. I was taking the subway to a familiar part of town and didn't think that the rain would be an issue. After a couple of transfers I come above ground to find that it's now pouring rain and I have at least 5 huge blocks to walk ahead of me, luckily I remembered my umbrella...so off I go.

Left, luckily there were signs to lead the way. Right, entrance.

This is the venue. It promised to be just as exciting as the show itself.

 Here's what I read about the venue before going:
Architecturally, SEC is blessed with a unique characteristic. With its magnificent and elegant Russian styles and exquisitely graceful decorations, SEC was awarded in 1989 the title of one of the "Shanghai Ten Best Architectures in the period of 1949-1989". In 1999, it is again ranked among "Shanghai Ten classic Architectures with Gold Medals during the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the PRC".

Even after preregistering, registration was SO slow. But I got my badge and headed in.

Pierre DeCelles drawing live. His medium was marker.

Check out the venue, it was incredible:

OK, back to more interior products of the show itself.

 Don't we all need a fur lined sofa and a fancy cage with doves (really white pigeons)?

This was made of Italian crystal, it was very beautiful

Left, art made by a design firm that specializes in glass chandeliers and other glass hanging art.

Right, stone for countertops. Donald and I was something like this in Portland and the cost

was $10,000 just for the slab, didn't include any of the cutting work. Very cool looking but we may

want to splurge on a nice gas range instead.

Was it so wrong for me to really want these gold ram shelves?!
Sorry Donald!

Cardboard chairs.

Left, a tiled chair. Right, yes that's a bag with an integrated rubber glove (odd).

This was a painting on display by an art gallery, I almost walked right by before realizing
what this really was. It is a painting of a character called Gloomy Bear by famed Japanese
artist Mori Chack. The painting was done by a Chinese artist names He Wei (link to more art).
Gloomy is a violent pink bear that eats humans. The painting was 5' x 6' with a cost of
150,000rmb (about $23,500 USD). I had fun pretending to be an art collector in order to find
out all this info. Just never thought that Gloomy could be turned into fine art!

Gloomy in his true form:
 

More cardboard displays, that seems to be a theme at the show.

 These next 2 photos are of the most interesting and innovative product that I saw at the show. The wood seats seem so simple but had a lot of thought put into it. It was portable and easy to store yet if purchased in multiples could really provide a good amount of seating. These were created by 2 college girls from Indonesia, they were also the ones manning the booth and talking to people. They were receiving a lot of attention and already sold out of all of their stock, just from this one show. They call it Perfecto and each unit price is $60 USD.

More cardboard.

   After finishing up at the show I head out. I step outside and it's pouring rain still and now the streets and side walk are flooded. I've heard that when it rains here that getting a taxi is near impossible but that was my only choice to get to where I need to go to sign up for the Shanghai Marathon. I walk about a half block before my shoes are soaked and my jeans are on their way to also being quite wet. I search for a cab, finally had to give up and start walking in the direction of the subway. I walked 4 huge blocks w/o one single empty cab driving by and had to cross the street and wait about 5 mins before I finally got one. Thank goodness b/c I didn't want to get any more wet then I already was.

   Next it was off to sign up for the Shanghai half marathon that is happening on Dec 4th. It seems like this event will be really interesting b/c I can't imagine that the city does well with closed roads. I actually read that the first year they did the marathon that nobody mentioned it in the news so many people in town did not understand what was going on and tried to drive and ride their bikes through the course. Of course, that only took one time before officials realized that they need to give people some heads-up so nothing like this happens anymore (fingers crossed!). It's always a new perspective on a city when you are running through it for a race, you get a whole new respect for the area around you. What I'm not sure about is how to rig running with a camera...i can't imagine not having any pictures to prove that I ran it and document what is going on around me. If anyone has ideas please let me know. My camera is the size of a medium sized fist, maybe i'll just have to carry it in my hands, although, I know that it will throw my balance off and give me some should pains. Hmmm...really need to think about this one.
   Anyways, you can't sign up online like you do in the States, you have to go in the registration office with picture ID and a stamped doctors approval letter, which I had gotten on Friday, hand in your documents and pay. I also had to give a 100rmb deposit for the timing chip that I will receive. I was told that I'll receive it back once I cross the finish line. Is that a funny picture in anyone else's head? It's like getting paid to finish the race...see this is why I will need my camera! Everything that I do here is an adventure, even finding the registration office was not simple. I had the address printed from online, it was part of the Shanghai Stadium. The exact wording given was "on the right side of the entrance of Shanghai Stadium" so I figured this wouldn't be too hard. Just find the entrance and go to the right of it, right?! No, that would be too simple. So I show up to the stadium and it's this HUGE complex, there is the stadium, a indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium, baseball and soccer fields and 4 hotels. I still figure that I just need to find the entrance to the stadium so I walk around and around and around...finally about half way (b/c the stadium is so huge) I've passed what looks like 4 different entrances to the stadium and no registration office. Keep in mind this is still all in the pouring rain. I finally come across a hotel that integrated into the stadium and decide that their concierge might be able to help me. They had no clue where I needed to go but I did have a phone number of the office so they called and got directions for me, drew me a little map and sent me on my way. It still took a couple of tries to translate what exactly was drawn on the map but I eventually found it. NOT ANYWHERE near being described as  "on the right side of the entrance of Shanghai Stadium".

 I was SO excited to find the office. It was a little whole in the wall but I'm now signed up!

The massive Shanghai stadium. Ground level is littered
 with restaurant, food markets and retail shops.

Just before getting on the subway I found this vendor. I just can't pass pounded sticky rice treats w/o 

getting something. This one had multi layers of peanuts and coated in some brown powder. Really good,

especially for the cost (3rmb = $0.47).

    On my way home I did a little bit of shopping then hopped in cab. I was even able to just tell the driver my address and cross-street...didn't even have to pull out my written address that I carry with me :)  I was quite proud of myself. I usually say my address but then back it up with the written version but they guy seemed to fully understand me so I left it at that.

   I had also decided, after my cooking class this past week, that i needed to buy some traditional Chinese ingredients. So I walked over to my local Tesco market and purchased, Chinese cinnamon, whole Anise, cooking wine, spicy bean paste, dried hot peppers, num peppers and ground num peppers. I used some of the theory from my class to make a Chinese version of the seafood broth I had in mind. It turned out good!