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| Chairman Mao at the uni |
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| Pudong district buildings and the Huangpu River from the Bund |
It has been a long, long week since I got back from China. I spent the last two days of my Shanghai trip confined to my hotel room with food poisoning which was not fun. I also fainted at Shanghai Airport and woke up on the bathroom floor (with a sore head) surrounded by kindly airport officials who called doctors (help comes in multiple figures in China). Mortified! Anyway, I was let on the plane but it was a long, hard flight and the combined smell of noodles and perfume almost did me in. I got home eventually and have had a bit of a lost week of sleep, sickness and general dullness (with two exhausting forays to Dublin for a gig and a wedding.) Whatever bug I picked up does not seem to want to let me go :(
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| Huge duck, Fangsheng Park |
Anyway, up to that point the trip went well. We got to see a little of the city (vast, smog-lidded, high rise blighted) and we enjoyed the International Short Story Conference as always. It's lovely to re-connect with old friends/short story lovers.
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Aquarium eel
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| Looking up a shark's rear end at the aquarium :) |
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My fave thing and I didn't have much :(
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| Communing with penguins |
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My husband and I had some time to explore Shanghai so we went to a bazaar (again, vast) and to the aquarium (I love belugas and they had three), to lovely Changfeng Park (beside our hotel) and to the Bund to see the amazing modern buildings. The heat was incredible (30 to 35C and humid) so we would walk for a bit, then hide for a bit in anyplace that offered air-con.
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| Bazaar |
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| Bazaar |
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| Jetlag, oncoming illness, and pre ice-cream mania... |
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| Large waffle cone in YooShake - is this the food poisoning culprit?!! |
Food was difficult for us as veggies so we did not dine well overall and I have no idea where I picked up the bug. Maybe an ice-cream bought from a park stall? Or one eaten in YooShake? Who knows...
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| Ann Luttrell at Dashu Wujie |
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| Baby courgettes and mushrooms |
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| Lotus hearts |
The Irish contingent were delighted to have dinner at gourmet vegetarian restaurant
Dashu Wujie at the invitation of
Zhao Lihong, director of the Shanghai Writers' Association. The food was incredible: lotus hearts with asparagus, teeny tiny courgettes, tofu and seitan done in many ways, avocado wrapped in beetroot etc. We talked Cork (Zhao Lihong has been published there),Yeats, Wilde and the Irish language with the help of interpreters.
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| Jamie O'Connell introducing me and Alan McM |
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| Alan McMonagle |
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| Me reading my story 'Napoli Abú' from the conference anthology |
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| Tracey Slaughter, NZ |
At the conference, which took place in the East China Normal University, I enjoyed many readings by the likes of Gish Jen, Yiyun Li, Robert Olen Butler, Clark Blaise, Felicity Skelton, Katie Singer and her daughter Kayla, and my friend Alan McMonagle (we read together).
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NZ panel: Tracey Slaughter, Jack Ross, Frankie McMillan,
Leanne Radojkovich, Bronwyn Lloyd |
I really, really enjoyed the panel of New Zealand writers who were as down to earth and vibrant as one might expect. NZ author Frankie McMillan also gave an interesting paper on flash fiction which is having a renaissance in her county. Inevitably at a conference so vast it is impossible to get to everything but, considering I felt pretty unwell most of the week, I got to lots.
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| Clark Blaise, Robert Olen Butler, Gish Jen and Yiyun Li |
There weren't many books for sale at the conference but I managed to get
Gish Jen's s/s collection
Who's Irish? and it is totally brilliant - funny, deep and informative on the Chinese immigrant experience in the States.
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| Wigdresser |
Shanghai was as hectic and strange as I'd expected (it was my first time to Asia). The clichés stand up: lots of overloaded bicycles transporting odd goods; funny signs 'translated' into English; lots of hawking, nose-clearing and spitting; copious amounts of bullfrog and pig intestine on restaurant menus; a sweet and friendly populace.
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| Welcome sign in the s/c beside our hotel |
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| Sugar Report - a café in the s/c and its cryptic/appropriate message |
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| Sweet shop |
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| A very empty Shanghai Tesco |
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| The whole 10 Yuan shop (or a €1.40 shop) |
Because my eating forays were so haphazard over there, I took pics of cakes especially for John Foyle, who always enjoys the foodie aspect to my travel posts. Here you go, John. Enjoy!
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| Chocolate bread at Ichido, French bakery |
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| Cream buns at Ichido |
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| Ichido |
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| Bun(ny) - I was too sick to eat anything but his bready ears :( |
