The first guests arrive: Vera, Øystein, Søren, Yannick and Annika in Shanghai, Jan. 22 - Feb. 1, 2006

And so on a chilly winter day full of snow and ice, Vera and Øystein set out from frost bitten Norway to visit Elisabeth and I in Shanghai. An ice storm in Copenhagen delayed their arrival by a day but they finally made it. Søren followed a couple days later, the weather cooperating, but an SAS pilots strike threatened his plans, fortunately intercontinental flights were unaffected. So he also made it, as did Yannick and Annika joining the fun from our friendly neighbour city Beijing, a day after moving into their swanky new flat their.

What ensued follows in this selection of pics...

Day 1 : Straight to dinner - a tasty Mongolian hotpot...







Not wanting Vera to suffer long, we went straight to the fabric market the next morning to have some clothes tailored...



The next day was one of my favourites, 'the bird-flu tour of Shanghai', a special creation of my own, through a friendly crumbing area just down the street from our (not crumbling) place...and Mrs. Klabochova, of course those are fake chickens. Really.





Actually Øystein was a fast study, quickly developing a chop sticks technique that the locals would be proud of...



Yes, that's actually a scale model of Shanghai in the background...



Mr. Dinesen arrived...



Yes, there he is...



And off we went to prove that once deep-fried twice in bamboo, the risk of bird-flu from the local fowl drops to nearly zero while the taste becomes simply magnificent...



Here we have the Jinmao Tower, the tallest building in Shanghai, 3rd tallest in the world apparently, coming it at a cool 88 stories...



And here we have the view from the 87th...



And here we have the bar on the 87th...



Fashion victims or go-go dancers???



At which point things really got going...



And then John Travolta dropped by...



Annika and Yannick's dramatic arrival in the middle of a
fantastic Japanese dinner. I can tell you, after a few weeks
of only seeing strange faces, a familiar face is welcome more
then what words can explain...



No, this is not Copenhagen.



Curious about this one? Come to Shanghai and all will be
revealed...



The boys, sharpening their technique with a couple of friendly,
outgoing locals...



Okay, I can't possibly explain what goes on during Chinese
New Year, but the following pictures should offer some clue....













That's the party-girl herself in the middle, Shanghai's it-girl, Maria.



Yes, our kitchen counter was designed for a Chinese woman
measuring in at well below 150cm...



This is what a Chinese train heading down to Hangzhou
(and couple hours south of Shanghai) looks like at 7.28AM,
the day after a rather rowdy party during Chinese New Year...
yes, the PA system was a women with a megaphone. Nice.



A pretty sombre crowd...



When we arrived, some genius got the idea that we should
try turtle soup...





Mmmm, delicious claw...



Some Chinese people wanted us to be in their picture,
so we put them in ours as well...that's Maria, Sioban and
Owen who joined in for the trip.



Canadian Oyster?! Really!



Yes, when you are 10 people you can actually take over
a crappy empty bar and turn it into quite something. Here
we see our little crowd has actually formed a conga-line...



And indeed, that does seem to be the Macarena they are
dancing now...and nobody had just gotten married either...





One for posterity here...



And then home again...