Computer Solutions

Soon all of China will be on holiday for about 10 days. The government has rather a complicated approach to the ‘golden week’ holiday- in theory from Oct 1st-7th- as various people need to work weekends either side of the holiday, or not at all, or just have 3 days off, or 6- or…Anyhow, in practice it means China is really shut down from Oct1 until the 9th, and the following weekend will be quiet too, so really China is shut until monday October 12th! Yes, quite a big holiday. Not everyone will have the same time off, but essentially with all that time on your hands what is there to do if you didn’t book a hotel-flight 6 months ago, and suddenly find yourself stuck in the 18 million strong metropolis of Shanghai?

Shanghai Eye has helpfully compiled a list of a few cultural activities, (hint-you can also use google for more information, google is your friend):

Art Galleries/Museums
Many private art galleries will be shut Oct 1-4 or thereabouts, so check beforehand if they are open.
But there are numerous shows left over from Shanghai Art Week that you may have missed worth a visit:
1. MOCA Shanghai

Fantastic Illusions – Media Art Exhibition of Chinese And Belgian Artists

The exhibition Fantastic Illusions is part of Shanghai eArts Festival2009, as well as one of the programs of 2009 Europalia.China.
In the exhibition Fantastic Illusions,seven Belgian and six Chinese artists build illusory spaces for the visitor. With the two curators, the exhibition attempts to discuss the relations between the “virtual reality” technology and media art development as well as how they are interacted to each other.
Exhibition:
Sept.13th, 2009 – Oct.11th, 2009 MoCA Shanghai

2. Shanghai 1979-2009 show
Daily to Oct 10.
Artists include:Qiu Deshu, Zhang Jianjun, Shi Yong, Yu Youhan, Yang Zhenzhong, Qian Weikang, Wang Nanming, Ding Yi, Zhou Zixi, Chen Juyuan, Zhou Tiehai, Song Haidong, Yang Hui, M Group, Gong Jianqing, Hu Jianping, Shen Fan, Sun Liang, Ni Weihua, He Yang, Gu Lei, Xu Zhen, Yang Xu, Jin Feng, Li Shan, Tang Guangming, Shen Qibin, Tang Maohong, Li Piughu, Jin Shan, Li Mu, Bird Head, Liang Yue, Song Tao, Xiang Liqing, Liu Jianhua, Zhang Xin, Jin Feng (Junior), Hu Jieming, Huang Kui, Yang Fudong, Ni Jun

3. Shanghai Art Museum
If you want to see some revolutionary art pop along, they have done their ubiquitous best

4. Private galleries-
It seems private galleries will be resting, in part around Oct 1-4. Galleries with good shows on at them inute include Shanghart M50 (Morganshan road 50 & 796 Huaihai Road); James Cohan has a good show of young americans; Gallery 140m also. Another show left over from Shanghai Art week worth visiting is the Liang Shaoji show at Zendai MOMA- check out how he trained those silkworms.

UPDATE:
Missed this show entirely but definitely looks worth a visit- til Oct 12.

Net surfing
If your feet are tired after all that walking you may want to surf the net. Net surfing is not that popular with the government, but anyhow, there are a few sites available which can be worth a look. In a fit of boredom I have even compiled their alexa rankings- in no particular order.

1. ESWN the 16,282nd most popular site in China.

2. Smartshanghai, ‘popular with the kids,’ and adults too, and stuff, has all the food and drink listings you need, and a bit of art stuff too, now the 2,715th most popular site in this country of 2 gadzillion people. Weird. Anyhow they also have maps.

3. For local news, if they can be bothered to update, Shanghaiist can come in handy, the 6,464th most popular site in the PRC, woo.

4. Black and White Cat the 178,200th most popular website in the Peoples’ republique.

5. Danwei.org, now only the 29,676th most popular site in China, erm, as it is now blocked- but it is the 250th most popular site in Lichtensten. By way of compensation head over to the mirror site, unblocked.

6. A bit ‘techie’ but has the occasional cultural gem – try CNreviews (not art reviews unfortunately, mostly about ipods and things) the 15,286th most popular site in China.

7. This site – #21,494 in China. Yay.

8. For pictures of shoes and unique observations on Shanghai life try ispyshanghai.com, the 62,145th most popular site in China.

9. If you depart Shanghai for Beijing try Sinopop for museum guides, etc… no China data from Alexa unfortunately.

10. Last but not least- a good popular cultural observation type blog by Shanghai Eye’s host server no less. Yes, computers now think, isn’t that a bit frightening? Ranked 171,499th in China, but once those computers start talking to each other look out.

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