My favorite airport in the world is in Japan:  Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport.   My family and I love it so much we plan out how much time we actually get in the airport on our way in, and out, and how we can extend/maximize our hours there.  And, each time we’ve passed through there are new finds to experience.     Our most recent trip took place over Spring Break and was the first time we flew direct from Shanghai in to the international terminal.   Maybe I’ve been in China too long, schlepping through Pudong and Hongqiao Airport, but I thought these waiting benches (below) at Chitose’s international departure terminal were pretty impressive.  I particularly liked the double surfboard wooden bench which looks to be inspired by the Ainu—- an indigenous group from Hokkaido.   Not sure what kind of wood this is,  but the surface is randomly chiseled giving it a beautiful textured surface.   The lower left image is the terminal’s vaulted ceiling.

Our other new discovery was located at the Airport’s “Smile Land” section – Royce Chocolate World.  If there was anything to miss a flight for, this would be it.  Featuring a chocolate museum, factory and shop.  The factory was right out of Willy Wonka’s.  Although heavily automated, it was absolutely fascinating.   I’m actually not a chocolate addict, but there is something about Royce Chocolate World, that makes one go slightly crazy.  The shop had an impressive selection of fresh chocolates–white, milk, dark, mint, with fruits, nuts..etc. and packaged delicately and so beautifully in a way the Japanese do so well.   I was controlled and walked out with some chocolate covered potato chips (heaven), chocolate lollies covered in fruits and nuts and a few milk chocolate varieties.    Cannot wait for my next holiday to Chitose Airport to Sapporo.

Having been hidden behind a construction wall the last few months when I tried to show out-of-town visitors how cool The Glamour Bar is, the wall is finally off and the newly done over Glamour Bar is a refreshing re-do to an already beautiful bar/lounge.   A new entrance makes you zig and zag now until you get to the main lounge which seems to have opened up quite a bit—-perfect for their numerous special events, readings, talks and recitals.   The blend of Shanghai art deco and modern chic is balanced and inspired.

The mirrored bar in the shape of a ship.

Their beautiful cut-glass stemware in hues of blue, yellow and orange looks like a chandelier as it hangs over the bar.

If you’re in Beijing on December 10 come out to the first Handmade Holiday Fair from 11am to 6pm at No. 32 Qianliang Hutong, Dongsi, Dongcheng District (tel: 6404-6297/13436702545)  featuring the very best in art, designs, home furnishings, clothing, plants and more.  Visit the Paper Tiger Shanghai table and say hi to Juliet!  Food and free mulled wine will be on hand to keep shoppers happy.   Map to the cafe below.

12月10号周六11点到晚6点 又到了为亲爱的人挑选礼物的季节。我们搜罗远近，找到最珍贵，最有个性的手工礼物。第一个纯手工礼物市集，艺术的，设计的，家居的，织物的，植物的，还有更多！ 欢迎早来参加抽奖。可口小食，圣诞热酒。温馨提示：只能接受现金。另外，胡同里不好停车，请乘坐地铁或公交，或者无惧严寒的你骑车来吧！ 地址：北京市东城区，东四北大街，钱粮胡同32号.  电话： 010 6404 6297 / 134 3670 2545

Quick, get this one into your calendar

Our family didn’t get the chance to travel back to the US this summer so we wound up doing what we have been wanting to do for years—visit Niseko, located in Northern Japan’s Hokkaido region, in the summertime.  We flew into Tokyo’s Narita Airport (visit Narita’s Origami Museum and Shop, located in the Int’l Terminal—it’s a paper lovers dream) and from there hopped on a domestic flight to Sapporo’s Chitose Airport.  Niseko is about 2.5 hrs by car from Sapporo.   If you’re like our family and in desperate need of a break from city living, give Sapporo a miss and head straight over to Niseko.

R and I first visited Niseko in the winter of 1997.  It was a sleepy little town back then with the most amazing powder snow and the place where I learned to snowboard (or rather, put snowboards on my feet and attempted to make it down a mountain without killing myself).  We hadn’t been back until now and it’s changed tremendously, but thankfully has maintained its charm (at least in the summer.  I hear it has a something completely different going on in the winter).   Almost all of the houses I fell in love with were obviously newly built and for the vacation crowd.  I loved the originality and creativity of the houses and in true Japanese-style, its inspired use of space.

Interestingly, and I didn’t notice this at the time when I was there, but there is absolutely no color palette in any of the houses outside what you see above–neutral greys, browns, some black.  The ones that did have color tended to be older properties that were around before the big development boom.  I learned there was some new housing codes enacted in the last few years (mainly having to do with housing heights) and I wonder if any of these new codes have anything to do with color??  Regardless, what these new properties lack in color, is surely made up in architectural design and creativity.

I was very disciplined and only purchased these 4 items – beautiful origami paper picked up from Narita Airport; name-engraved chopsticks with animal zodiac signs for my kids and a small purse from Otaru.   All of my other purchases wound up in my stomach.

There is an abundance of accommodation options in Niseko.  We used Hokkaido Tracks, who were helpful, friendly and had really beautiful properties that were very well equipped, well thought-out and functional.   Renting a car in Niseko is advised, but not absolutely necessary.  However,  you must have an international drivers license to rent.  We didn’t, so wound up getting around on rental bikes from The Bicycle Corner.  The super friendly owner, Tsukasa provided great service and immediately on-hand when we had a little trouble with R’s tires.  Niseko is truly a four season vacation spot worth visiting.

Got caught in the sudden rainstorm on Sunday while in the Bund and found shelter under an awning of a dilapidated, but beautifully old forgotten building across the street from the renovated and swanky LAN building on Guangdong Lu.  I wonder if my building sits in envy of LAN and wishing for the same fate….

Two years later, I find myself moving back to Shanghai.   I am excited to go back to my roots, to what is familiar, and to a place where I can freely cross the street wherever I want.    This picture was taken by R when he visited Shanghai in 1993—- a photo of the first stage of construction of the Pearl Tower.    It boggles my mind to see the most iconic landmark of Shanghai in its infancy amongst landscape that is so barren that you can see for miles.     Everything starts somewhere….

After almost 2 years in Beijing, I finally got myself to Panjiayuan Antique Market on Saturday with my friend Juliet.    More flea market than antiques, the open-air market features trinkets, ceramics, vases, books, textiles, silver, jewelry, furniture, jade and more.   No bargain basement prices here, unless you’re prepared to haggle hard for stuff that can also be found at Gaobeidian and Dongjiao market, at better prices with less hassle.  However, if you look hard, there are some cool finds that I haven’t seen before.   The ‘antiques’ of the market’s namesake are long gone, but still worth going to see for the number of vendors and the amount of wares laid out.  Also fun to do if you like a good ‘hunt’ for something unique.  The market’s open from 4:30am- to 6:00pm Saturday and Sundays and from 8:30am-6:00pm Monday to Fridays.   A few of our ‘finds’ below:

A) Cute ‘Nong Jia’ (country home) home-made crafts, textiles and bags found towards the back of the market.  B) Mix of old vintage signs, cameras and these old address plaques.  This stall owner had alot of these –would be fun to make something out of all of them; cover a wall perhaps or a door? C) No shortage of pottery, ceramics and plateware.  D) Lots of stones and rocks being sold outside by the wall.  If I had a garden or a fountain I would surely line it with these.

A) Horse-hair (the tail) brushes tied with twine at the brush table.  Good for cleaning jewelery?  B) Flat ceramic painted ‘dolls’ found outside by the wall .  C) Bought this cool little vintage (looking) metal food container.  It was randomly amongst some old looking tools.   D) Silver cutlery and serving spoons.  E) Wood-handled tools.

A) One of a few retro tables at the market  B) Etched ceramic vase found outside by the wall  C) Silver ornaments perhaps hung from belts  D) Taxidermic bird found perched along with fellow birds and a couple of dogs outside of the market.  E) Tibetan beaded headpiece.  F) Zeiss film projector found in one of the shops that line the market.

When R and I lived in Hong Kong in the late 90′s BC (Before Children), one of our favorite weekend activities was hiring a junk with friends and heading out towards one of the outlying islands for some wakeboarding, drinking, eating and socialising.  We were thrilled that a junk trip was organized by friends who we met up with in Hong Kong recently.  The woman above was one of the deck hands on the junk that we were on.  She is quintessentially the classic ‘fish mongers wife’ when I think of Hong Kong and it’s fishing villages and ports.

This ghostly building was right next door to the boutique hotel where we stayed at (Butterfly on Wellington) on Wellington Road, right next to the Mid-levels Escalators.  It’s clearly an original building—looking at the windows, and looks as if it would have some stories to tell.  The building is boarded up for renovations and what looks like a new “Old Street District”, from the banner hung up on the front door.

I’m amazed how many buildings can be squeezed into little Hong Kong with most of them being skyscrapers of metal and glass.  It was a joy to see every now and then some old buildings with real character, that haven’t been torn down yet for something new.

VISIT: 4.5-hours by high-speed train and taxi, from Beijing lies Pingyao— a wonderfully preserved  ancient city that dates back to 1824.   A UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, the city is surrounded by a completely intact 6km Ming dynasty city wall, and was once China’s financial capital during the 19th century until the early 20th century, when it all migrated to Shanghai.   The city now seems to mainly feed off tourism with almost every old courtyard turned into a hotel, inn, restaurant or cafe.   The area is also known by the location where Raise the Red Lantern and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed.  That being said, my family and I had a wonderful visit and it was nice to see some real city life in spite of all the tourists teeming about.  The photos above caught some slices of it.

EAT: Pingyao is located in Shanxi province–the area best known for ‘dao xiao mian’ or knife-cut noodles.  These are literally made by cutting slices off of noodle dough into a big cauldron of hot bubbling water (above).  The noodles are then taken out with a slotted spoon  and poured straight into a bowl with local dark vinegar, a bit of soy,  and a bit of chopped scallions and local meat topping it off (below).  Another noodle version is ‘mao er duo mian‘ or Cat’s Ear noodle—these are made by grating chunks of the noodle dough, with the pieces resembling cat’s ears, dropping into the cauldron of water (photo below).  The noodles were tasty, but enjoyed watching them being made more than actually eating them.

STAY: We stayed at the beautiful Jing’s Residence and lucky to get the last 2 rooms available.    A 19-room boutique hotel, Jing’s Residence is owned locally and managed by Relais & Chateux.

I had a chance to talk to the owner, Yang Jing who shared with me a little bit of Jing’s Residence’s history.  The hotel lies within the old city walls and was originally a shop and residence of a silk merchant in the Qing dynasty.   The pavillions facing the street was a shop, with the 2nd floor for storage and the first courtyards for the accounting office.  Behind all of this was where the family lived.   After 1949, the property became many different things– the current restaurant and back courtyard was a motor engine manufacturer and in 1970 it became a photograph shop when nobody had cameras.   The current kitchen and back courtyards lived an elderly lady and family, who was desparate to move to the new town for a more convenient life.  The current lobby was an eye clinic and a shop selling traditional Chinese medicine.    Jing’s Residence was originally meant to be a home, but lucky for us is now a hotel.  The restoration and re-building of the property is truly amazing, looking at some of the restoration images from their website.

I appreciated all aspects of the hotel’s interior design and the attention to detail.   It’s beautifully and tastefully done combining modern comforts with traditional style with touches of the local culture and handicrafts.   Antonio Ochoa is the interior designer and Dusseldorf-based Bruno Braun, the architect who worked on the inside layout.  The pavilions and courtyards were kept as they were and only underwent repair and deep cleaning.     My favorite was the ‘coal brick’ walls in the restaurant’s private room.  Inspired by the highly-pollutant honeycomb coal bricks that are ubiquitous in China, these clay-made versions were beautifully installed as wall features in the private room.  I’m a sucker for patterns and thought these ‘coal bricks’ laid out like that was stunning.  The lobby featured another inspired wall — swatches of silk, shingled on top of each other.

The recent Spring Eco Design Fair was hosted at The Waterhouse, a boutique hotel, which in it’s past life was a 1930′s shipyard building and warehouse.  Situated in the South Bund neighborhood of the Shiliupu district, the renovations were done by the architects Neri & Hu, with interiors and furniture by Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner and Antonio Citterio.   The building is an interesting mix of old and new that is sincere, without trying too hard (unlike the awfully looking Cool Docks next door).   The Danish-modern interiors is effortless and calming.

Shanghai is rife with awful signage and store fronts, so it was really nice to see this simple Waterhouse hotel sign that conveys the style of the hotel and its industrial past.  I come across so many shop signs around Shanghai and Beijing that have absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on inside its walls, so it was really refreshing to see something minimalist and straight to the point.

I got as far as the first floor, and squeezed in a few shots before the hotel cops banned me from taking further photos.  From the photos posted on the hotel’s website, it looks like a gorgeous place to rest your head as well as a place for dining and drinking.  The hotel was an Honorable Mention in Travel & Leisure’s Design Awards 2011 and is on Conde Naste Traveller’s Hot List 2011.  If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit.