Labour Day Trip to Anting (5/1/2012)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Happy International Labour Day! (Meaning a day off from work!)
It was one of those gray misty days with 97% humidity.
It took two Metro lines for us and Barbara & John to reach Caoyang station, where we met Tuk, Bruno and Jim. We boarded the first Line 11 train to come along, and eventually figured out we were on the right train for Anting, one of two terminal stations.
In Anting, we turned right to head south on Moyu Road, and under the Metro tracks were racks of rental/sharing bicycles. Someday we will have to learn how to use these bikes.
Passed a cement block factory, where it appeared the drivers loaded their own trucks:

One block at a time.
This guy will need to balance his load:

I found some four-leaf clovers:

A few kilometers from the city center, with only one road entering the development, we found Anting New Town. Also known as Weimar Villa, this is another of the "One City, Nine Towns" projects.
It is meant to look like a German town, but the German architect Albert Speer (son of Hitler's favorite architect) designed a modern German town.

With Bauhaus-style "candy-colored" buildings:

Built in 2005.
Since Anting is home to several Volkswagen plants, this New Town should have worked. But the Chinese have a thing about living in buildings that face south and north. Most of the buildings here face east-west.
Deserted pedestrian street:

Our "tour group" stands in front of a copy of the Goethe-Schiller Monument:

Jim, Bruno, John, Barbara, Kent, and Tuk.
Tamiko is in this photo:

(Thanks, Tuk! She has a timer on her camera!)
The original 1857 bronze double-statue by Ernst Rietschel stands in Weimar, Germany, celebrating two of the city's most famous citizens, writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.
Oops! We interpreted this "E-Shopping" as an online resource with the goods being delivered here in plastic baggage for pick-up:

But later we were to see the D-Shopping section of town, etc.
New Town canal scene:

"German" graffiti:

A pipe is out of alignment:

It was here that a policeman waved us away from entering an empty plaza, and then yelled at us for taking photographs!
There was a bit of commerce in this town:

It could by idyllic here:

I will sell my photos to anyone who wants to copy this successful urban design.
Park land:

Irises are beginning to bloom:

We left the New Town and headed back up Moyu Road, crossing a waterway:

This area of Anting is known as Shanghai Automobile City, so it wasn't hard to realize this sculpture is half of an auto wheel:

The auto carriers were very long:

This one carried new Skodas.
A lot of auto carriers:

Fishing in a canal:

Shanghai Automobile City headquarters:

Fresh melons:

We searched for the Wirtshaus Austrian-German Restaurant in the wrong part of town (east on Changji Road), but thanks to a phone call with Bruno speaking German to the proprietor, Erich Mayrbaeurl, we headed in the right direction (downtown on Xinyuan Road):

Ach! Schmeckt gut! And Kent has a new favorite beer: Krombacher.
(To our Erich: see how he spells Erich?!)
After a filling and not very expensive meal, Barbara & John headed home, and the rest of us followed Xinyuan Road towards the Anting Old Street.
Advertising for a new residential development:

We get the phone number, but not the tag line! And Park Centeral?
On the way, we were passed by a sort of carnival-looking dragon bus that carried a band playing music. The music on the bus then clashed with the music of a fashion show at a store.

The entrance to the Old Street, with Tuk:

Inflatables for the kids:

Fresh from the farm (mangoes and cherry tomatoes):

Fresh omelets:

Fresh strawberries:

Demonstrating a hair accessory:

Canal boats:

Canal scenes:

Covered corridor:

 Yong'an Pagoda:

Canal reflections:

Tamiko & Kent:

(Thanks, Bruno!)

(Thanks, Tuk!)
Bruno asked permission to photograph this ancient couple:

The Puti Temple:

Tossing coins:

(Sorry, I keep forgetting not to turn the camera for videos.)
Chanting monks in the Main Hall:

Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy:

The Hall of Heavenly Kings through the incense burner:

Offerings:

Chiwen (one of the nine sons of the dragon) as a bell ringer:

KSS

Courtyard and pagoda:

KSS

A local deity?

KSS

Oenethera speciosa/Evening Primrose:

Walking back, we passed this VW with Michael Schumacher's "autograph:"

Michael Schumacher was recently in Shanghai for the Formula One race.
Old Street bridge:

The canal was a bit trashy.
Squeezed through the crowds at the Metro station and headed home.
A typical outing in China. Thanks to everyone for joining us! And thanks to our cyber-travelers, especially to Cousin Mary!