A Celebration & Thousand Island Lake

This week started with a wedding anniversary celebration - our 25th! Phil had flowers delivered and we enjoyed a quiet dinner on the river.

Even the sunset from our balcony was one of the prettiest we have seen.

Later in the week I attended an author's lecture on the book titled, "Stateless in Shanghai" at the Peninsula Hotel on the Bund. The view was spectacular, the English tea a treat, and the lecturer - inspirational. Liliane Willens was a spitfire and definitely set in her ways. Her book is about her life growing up in China from the late 1920's until she left in 1950. A few of us sat up front and were entertained by Liliane, now in her 80's, well after the lecture was over. She was a hoot!

View of Pudong from the Peninsula Hotel- the side of the city where we live

Assortment of tea cakes at Sir Elly's Bar

As we were leaving the hotel, my first Hollywood actor sighting in Shanghai was in the lobby -  Robert De Niro was sitting off to the side of the room where he was inaccessible to the passersby and I did not have the nerve to do anything but stare for a few minutes! My heart beating a mile a minute, but too shy to do anything about it.

Friday had us on the road to Qiandao Lake, called Thousand Island Lake about a 5 hour drive away. The area was once a valley that was flooded in 1959 for a dam project to produce power. The saddest part is at the bottom of the lake there is an ancient city built in 25-200 AD, 26 - 40 meters below the surface. The lake is known for its tasty fish, free of pollution and therefore deemed "organic". Hmmmm.

Islands are actually the mountain tops

We took a boat tour with Phil's work team and hiked on two of the "islands".

Replica of temples at bottom of the lake

Beautiful carvings on the temples

At sunset, our boat captain and his family cooked a traditional Chinese lake meal for us. In the center is fish head soup with bean curd - which I was thankful for because i actually like it and can make a meal out of it.

Sunset on the lake

Dinner being prepped on the back of the boat

Our Captain and Cook

Fish head (and tail) soup with bean curd

There were all kinds of sea creatures including full sized turtles, sea snails, frogs and a variety of fish. Thank goodness for cucumber, tofu and very good sweet potato chips! and Beer!!

We woke the next day and took a 3 hour bike ride around the island through the hectic traffic and onto quieter spots. One was so quiet (on the side of a highway) one of the gardeners decided to curl up on this comfy rock!

Sleeping gardener

At the end of this week we head to Huangshan - Yellow Mountain, for a long weekend. The weather in Shanghai has been relatively clear, less pollution than earlier in the month but it is still nice to get out of the city to breathe clean air and witness blue skies!

Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather, sights, sounds and smells! We truly miss them. As Liliane said, "You don't know what you have until it is taken away from you." Of course, she was talking about freedom and here I am complaining about fresh air!

xoxo