Brothers and Jade 747s
Note to self: When searching for a place in Shanghai and intuition conflicts with advice of brother, who has lived here for two years, trust brother. This would have saved a $6 cab ride today (reference earlier entry on cabs to know that this is a really, really, expensive cab ride). But it was in a really, really cool taxi with a pretty cool driver, so I guess it was all good in the end.
Anyway, most of you are probably aware of those Chinese scultures carved out of jade. They usually depict some mythical animal, like a dragon, or maybe a three-masted tall ship. Some traditional, old-fashioned looking thing from antiquity. Thus giving any office/fireplace mantle/foyer/parlor the stuffy feel of the Emperor's court. Regal and reserved, certainly, but a bit too antiquated for someone trying to be part of the jetset chic. Months ago, I made the off comment that they should carve cool stuff out of jade, like, for instance F-22 fighter jets or Boeing 747 aircraft. I mean, get with the times, right?
Well, it wasn't jade, but today I saw a crystal sculpture for sale at Cheng Fang Temple, one of the most popular tourist traps in town, depicting what appeared to be a Boeing 767 or Airbus A300 or A330 aircraft. One step in the right direction. Bravo!
Comments
A slight clarification on what I meant by "really, really cool taxi" in the first paragraph. It was one of the EXTREMELY few taxis in Shanghai that is NOT a VW Santana. In fact, it was a minivan, and it was pretty awesome. We were a little skeptical at first, because, well, frankly, this thing just didn't look like a taxi. But the driver showed us all the necessary stuff to prove that he was, in fact, a taxi, and not only that but working for Da Zhong, which is one of the more respectable companies. I think we probably insulted him by being skeptical, because he's actually a step up from the run of the mill cabbie...
Posted by: jet | July 21, 2002 11:48 PM