Life in Shanghai

Hey Jewelry Lovers, 

I was just looking through some of my old blogs and realized I haven't been writing much at all lately.
We've moved to Shanghai (from Guangzhou) just over a month now. Shanghai is Great and I am Loving things here. Of course it takes some time to find your way around a new city this big, busy and crazy, but it's feeling like home now!

I have found a couple of jewelry markets. The first market I went to was amazingly disappointing! I was told it was a great wholesale market and I could stock up on everything and prepare to make some awesome malas. But, when I arrived at the market and started having a look around- it was not what I expected. It was a touristy market. The prices were Outrageous and the quality was Awful! I relearned my lesson, if the people at the market speak English....Stay Away or you'll be charged a small fortune! 

After a lot of research, asking questions I found another market. With my fingers crossed I headed to the market. It was So Much better! Smaller, but better. I found some simple beads I really liked- white pearl shell, coral and turquoise. So, I asked for a hundred of them. And they started counting beads! "No, No, No!" I say. "100 strands." Their faces went blank and they told me that might take a few days to a week to get that many beads! 

I did get the beads and was very happy to find market like that. I'm just used to larger wholesale. And all in all Great Shopping Trip!

Bitten by the Travel Bug again...

Bitten by the Travel Bug again...

I think I've been bit by the travel bug again. I am itching to go back to Shang-ri la or go to Tibet, India or Nepal. Someone who I have met since moving to Shanghai, is actually half Nepalese and half Chinese. She has family still living in Nepal and goes frequently to visit. She has been showing me photos and Nepal looks Gorgeous! I can't get over how many temples there are and how different they look. She was telling me some are Hindu and others are Buddhist. To me this sounds amazing, a blend of two amazing cultures and religions. 

Well, right now I don't have the time to travel, so I have been downloading some Tibetan and Nepalese movies and books. I know, downloading, you're likely thinking that's such a bad thing to do. But, I'm in China, these movies are banned and English book are hard to come across, especially books on this topic. 

I have a list of movies that I can't wait to watch! 

 me last year in Kunming at an amazing temple!

Kundun - The Movie

Kundun - The Movie

I think I have a new favorite movie! Kundun. 

As I mentioned in an earlier blog I have been on a Tibetan and Nepalese movie kick and it started with Kundun. I had never seen the movie before, I don't know how I missed seeing it since it is a Martin Scorsese film and it came out in 1997. But, it is my new favorite.

If you haven't seen this film yet, I highly recommend watching it. The story tells what happened in Tibet from 1937 to 1959. It starts with the Tibetan monks searching for the 14th Dalai Lama. They are looking for a young child, the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. They find a young boy near the Chinese boarder after one of the monks who is the regent of Tibet has a vision. The boy and his family move to Potala Palace in Lahasa where his begins his life as the Dalai Lama. 

The first half of the movie was amazing. The little boy is so cute and plays the character role so perfectly. In many other movies about the young Buddha, the character is so serious and mature for a child. But, I found myself actually laughing out loud at his actions and responses. I think one of my favorite scenes is when the boy runs into the room during lunch and starts grabbing food from all the plates. He takes a mouthful of pork and the other boys tells him, eating pork will cloud your mind. So the young Dalai Lama take a whole hard boiled egg and crams it in his mouth and again the other boy says, eating eggs are also bad for you. Right at that point his mother walks in and the young Dali Lama can't even close his mouth because the hard boiled egg is so large. The boy who played the young Dalai Lama actually reminded me of one of the kids I used to teach, especially in this scene. 

As the boy grows older he begins to take an active role as a leader. At the time in China, Chairman Mao Zedong is wanting Tibet to join China. In a few scenes the Dalai Lama goes to Beijing or Peking as it was called then, to meet with Mao Zedong. The portrayal of Mao Zedong, the office, the meetings are still what China looks like today. When the Dalai Lama was driving up to meet Mao Zedong, the children who were lined up singing, that is exactly what events still look like here. All school kids still wear the same scarves. Later the scenes back in Tibet when the Chinese have entered, the voices over the speakers just gave me chills. 

I was also told the the Dalai Lama was involved with writing the screen play with the writer and it may have taken more than 6 years to write! wow!

It is an amazing movie. The scenes in Tibet were amazing with the mountains and landscape. But, for me I love all of the jewelry! If you watch the film keep an eye out for all of the mala necklaces. If you notice at the very start the tiger eye mala necklace. The young Dalai Lama even takes the mala as he shouts Mine! That is the mala that the Dalai Lama actually uses, tiger eye 108 mala necklace. Take a look at the monks or even people in the background, nearly everyone has a mala, either around their neck, wrist or using it in their hands. 

The scenes that took place in Tibet the characters earrings were amazing! The earrings were huge with lots of turquoise and coral. For me this aspect of the movie was really inspiring and makes we want to get to work and create some new mala designs. 

 watch it! I promise you won't be disappointed! 

Vegetarianism in China

I was a vegetarian back in Canada for a few years. When I decided to move to China, I was still a Vegetarian and I thought it would be even easier to keep that life style here. I was wrong. I didn't speak a word of Chinese before I came. But, in my defense after we had decided to come to China we left about 5 days later. I did have time to buy a travel book and a simple learn Chinese book and only started to read them on the plane to Beijing. 

Some of the first Chinese words and characters I learned were about foods so I  could order off a menu. Wow, my husband and I have quite a few stories from the first few months from ordering at restaurants and just pointing to a menu and being very surprised.  We have eaten or ordered cockroaches, which tasted just like peanut butter, some type of maggot or worm that actually tasted like Cheetos, fish skin, which we were told is great for your skin, and the insides of fish, cows, chickens and pigs- hearts, livers, intestines, stomach linings, just to name a few and chicken feet, which you can even but at 7-11 and all other convenient stores. At one dinner I thought we had done really good and ordered a new dark tofu dish, but only to find out later that it was pigs blood. AH!

If your Chinese is good to okish, then you'll have no problem ordering a vegetarian dish. You can order a rice dish with streamed veggies at nearly every restaurant, but almost always you'll find some chicken or pork mixed in with either the veggies or buried in the rice and for sure you soup broth will have a lot of meat and meat flavor. If you tell the people at the restaurant that you are Buddhist they will try their best to make your meal meatless. And of course there are many vegetarian restaurants in every city and some of the most amazing in some of the temples. 

 this is my husband, on a trip to Shang ri-la, pouring Yak butter milk tea! Yum!

 And, here is Adam, warming his hand up on the Yak hot pot!

Dzi Bead Symbol Meaning

Some Dzi beads have circles on them called eyes and other dzi beads have pictures or symbols. The different symbols represent different areas of your life and helps you by taking away negative energy from that area, such as keeping away evil, lowering blood pressure or bringing good luck, wealth or karma. 

Here is a list of the most popular symbol dzi beads- 

Lotus Flower- will help purify the spirit and mind and keep them calm and peaceful. It is a symbol of peace. 

Bottle- will help to keep a long and healthy life. It is a symbol of wealth and a long life. 

Tiger tooth- will keep away evil spirits and help to advance in your career and bring in wealth and good luck. 

Wave- is a symbol of wealth, like water. The wave means the wealth will continually come, like water and keep flowing in forever. 

Dorje- is a symbol of wisdom. It has the power to defeat all evil spirits and trouble in your life. 

Urna- will clean your karma, body, mind and spirit and leave you feeling calm and peaceful. 

Buddha Eye- has infinite power to make everything in your life go smoothly and make all your wishes come true. 

Longevity- has a similar pattern to a tortoise shell and is the symbol of longevity. It will help you live a long and healthy life. 

Heaven and Earth- will ensure a prosperous business and great luck and wealth. It will bring you luck from both heaven and earth.

Ruyi- is also called the money hook. It is a symbol of continual wealth, abundant food and great luck. This is a highly sought after dzi bead because of the amount of money it will bring into your life.

Pipal- is good for travelling. It ensures a safe journey and will eliminate disasters. 

Crescent- will bring you great health, a prosperous life and good relationships. 

Green Tara- is a symbol of wealth and prosperity. It will ensure all your dreams come true. 

Charm of Evil Expelling- will ensure prosperity and will keep all evils away.

Da Ren- in English is called Big Man. He will be your guardian and ensure a smooth and successful life. 

Guruda- will help you keep bad luck away and bring you good luck and fortune. 

Sun and Moon- symbolize Yin and Yang. It will help you leave any suffering and find happiness through life. 

Overlapping Peak- will give you courage and make your wishes come true. 

Dharma Cap- will bring you peace and help you complete projects in your life. 

Ritual Object- has infinite powers to defeat all evils in your life. 

Black and White-  symbolize night and day and Yin and Yang. It will bring you good luck, keep balance in your life and ensure safe journeys. 

Stripes- can turn a bad situation into fortune and change bad luck into good luck . 

The antique market in Pudong (near my house)

I had to go to the vegetable market today to get some groceries. On the way back I passed the tea market. Usually on weekends they have a makeshift antique market. People from all over throw blankets on the ground and spread out their things to sell.

Today being Monday, I was really surprised to see how busy the market was. So many vendors, tons of people looking and shopping. I had to go see what was going on. There must have been about a hundred vendors, all with colorful blankets and their 'antiques' spread out for everyone to see. There were old Chinese books, vases, mala, dzi beads, paintings, snuff bottles, calligraphy brushes, bowl, statues, beads, door knockers, incense holders, you name it and it was there.

There is a large antique market downtown. Its open daily and it quite famous for foreign tourists. I'm told the pieces in that market are much large, lots of furniture, old doors, giant statues. But, the market has a pretty bad reputation for hugely over charging and they also class antique as anything over 1 year!

But, this market near my house today was quite a bit different in the items they were selling. One old man had a huge pile of rudraksha seeds. They weren't in the best condition or the nicest looking I have seen. They were all actually quite dirty, some were actually caked in muddy, dirt. But they were round in shape, really rough with lots of ridges and about the size of a golf ball. He had a large pile that was about as high as my knee. My fist though was maybe people are using them for medicine in soup or teas. I didn't see how it was possible to use them for jewelry, they were much too big. But, no one was at his spot and he was asleep and I felt bad for waking him up, it was just after lunch hour and that is nap time for the entire country!

A few stalls down I spotted an old man with two of these large rudraksha seeds in his hand. His right hand and he was spinning them around in his palm just like yin yang ball. I thought this was amazing. So I instantly started looking at everyone's hands. And, most of the people who had stalls and working in the market had a set of these rudraksha seeds and were spinning them in their hand! I have seem the yin yang balls that are colorful and metal and come in a Chinese silk box, but I have only seen these at markets geared toward foreigners. In almost 7 years living in China this was one of the first times I have seen someone just strolling around using these balls. I did one other time, but they were solid jade ball, also really impressive looking!

On the other side of the market I spotted a gold hat. Just like the ones the Terracotta Warriors are wearing. But, this one was all in goldish color, maybe made of copper or even painted gold. The vendors on that side of the market had some really interesting items. Things that I think should have been in a museum, if there were anywhere close to being real. But i think they were just crappy copies. And speaking of crappy copies and fakes-  I did see a  bag of Pandora beads that had been covered in dirt. She was telling me they were jewels. But, when I cleaned the dirt off, it clearly said Pandora on the side! I'm pretty sure they didn't wear Pandora beads in the Ming dynasty!

Overall, an interesting surprise to find on the way back from the market!

Shanghai and Lucky Buddha Beer

Last night I went out in Shanghai with some friends. We got a round of beer at the first bar we visited. I did a double take when our drinks arrived! They brought us Lucky beer. I have never hear of this beer or seen it, so I don't know why some bars here in Shanghai carry it.

But, the  green beer bottle is actually in the shape of the Laughing Buddha! It made me laugh!