Chinese New Year Festival 2013 (Andrea's Visit)

Yet another year has come and gone. With this Spring Festival brings the Year of the Snake. This year, I enjoyed another stay-cation in Shanghai, but with a very special visitor - my cousin Andrea! I just love having visitors. Aside from being able to spend Chinese New Year, my birthday and Valentine's Day with my favorite cousin, I loved being able to show her around the city that I love to much!

There is a couple things that I am a little bit embarrassed to admit about my hosting ability during her stay. First, the only bar that Andrea ever went to was Muya's. Don't get me wrong, I love Muya's, but it is my local dive bar no bigger than a storage room and no more sanitary than a Little Chief bathroom. Secondly, for the first three days of her stay, I fed here Papa John's Pizza, McDonalds and hamburgers. Now, this one was not entirely my fault. It was CNY so most places were closed for a couple days, so we didn't have many options. When Andrea was able to actually eat some real Chinese food, I was impressed with how open minded she was (not all are the same), and that she really loved it!

On the bright side, we were able to do some pretty cool things. She got to see fireworks up close and personal on several occasions right from our balcony. I took her to Yu Yuan to see all the lights displayed for the festival and my favorite rooftop spot over looking the Bund. We went to the Bund on New Years Eve in hopes of seeing fireworks, but there were none. We went to PuDong, to the IFC Super Brand Mall and to the glass catwalk of the Oriental Pearl Tower. I took her shopping at the Taobao market, we ate Xiao Long Bao (several times), and street food in Qibao.

My birthday was also during Chinese New Year Holiday... the big 2-6! James had insisted on planning something for me even though I just wanted a small brunch. I surely was surprised when I showed up to brunch with 30 of my closest friends and co-workers at Element Fresh! After brunch, we headed to Muya's to open the bar strictly for my birthday. Our friend Muya (who owns Muya's Bar) was on vacation in Spain for three weeks and she left Jon and me in charge of the bar. It was only right to open it up for me and my friends on my birthday! So we hung out, drank a bit, danced a bit and celebrated. That night, we went to dinner at a BBQ place, Stubb's, that everyone kept talking about.

Andrea's last night in town was Valentine's Day. James treated us to a Valentine's dinner at My Kitchen for Andrea's final Chinese meal. Yummm, I love my kitchen! After Andrea left, I went to the Irish Step Dance Show with my favorite single ladies. The show was fantastic! Then, we headed out for a ladies night at the Apartment.

Overall, a successful stay-cation!

CNY on the Bund 

My good lookin' Valentine's dates.

Just in case anyone underestimate the insanity of fireworks during CNY,  this video is a 30 second glimpse of a month-long event (from the view of my 12th floor balcony overlooking the city)...

Along the canals of WuZhen

Now I have seen my fair share of water towns as they seem to be just around every corner here in China. There are a couple reasons why I have disliked most of the water towns I have visited - they are small, crowded, dirty and smell like stinky tofu usually. On the other hand, I love them because I can really appreciate the ancient Chinese architecture. They really can be beautiful. So when we were planning a trip to HangZhou to visit yet another water town, I was somewhat less than excited. I was even less sure when I read reviews of it being the "Venice of China"- Oh great, more people, more stinky tofu - but I gave it a shot nonetheless.

After a night in HangZhou, a metro ride to a bus station, a very local bus ride to a ferry and we had arrived in WuZhou, and it was amazing! Perhaps it was the time that we had gone, but there was hardly anyone around. It was huge, super clean, complete with beautiful ancient Chinese architecture and sans stinky tofu! We spent the whole day wondering up and down the cobble stones, up and over bridges and in and out of small hobby shops of art and tea. Eventually we found our way to a small restaurant on the water and stopped for a drink, or two. I could have spent days there just walking around taking pictures, but here are some of my favorites...