The project wrapped up just in time for the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Visitors will surely experience a more functional Bund as they marvel at the aesthetic buildings built in the early 20th century. This certainly is not a cheap venture either; the restoration is part of Shanghai’s overall RMB 300 billion World Expo investment.

Han Zheng, the mayor of Shanghai, pointed out some of the more notable changes to the riverfront:

• Area for public activities increased by roughly 40 percent; the Bund can now accommodate up to 800,000 visitors on peak days.
• Six-lane tunnel built beneath the Bund to mitigate traffic congestion on surface streets.
• Improvements to the public transport network and the flood-control infrastructure.
• Tree plantings along the banks of the river and installation of 2,000 park benches.

Video: Revamped Shanghai Bund open to public—CCTV

This rabbit is not too keen on ripping out a lot of the original greenery. However, the large open spaces makes the Bund seem more unified and accessible. The Bund is an iconic symbol of Shanghai, and the project will preserve and promote the city’s cultural heritage while improving urban infrastructure for the city. In fact, you can even say it is grander than it used to be.

So, what do you think? Is this Shanghai’s answer to Paris’ Champs-Elysees? Shanghai is the “Paris of the East” after all.

PS: Stay tuned for future posts from Rabbit and other animals from the world of the Chinese horoscope. If you’d like to be one of those animals, leave us a comment. All animals welcome!

As it continues to develop more and more into a super world power, China’s impact on the world is growing, effecting everything from the stock market, Internet, international business, to the value of the dollar. Chinese culture continues to submerge with other cultures worldwide, especially in America, where we are so very connected by the Internet and world trade. (See our earlier post, The Asian Hot Pot That is America.)

This dragon figures it’s time to brush up on the home country so began digging on the Internet in America (where the Internet remains mostly uncensored, even to dragons)!

Though written for college students, check out this great resource on China: 50 Lectures to Learn about the Past, Present, and Future of China. Got a greater understanding about what makes China tick! Even this Chinese dragon learned a lot from this resource!

So what’s your favorite resource for news on Asia? And how do you feel about Google getting out of China? How do you feel this decision will impact the Internet world?

Inside I found an amazing exhibit called Sonabai, Another Way of Seeing. For a decade and a half, Sonabai Rajawar only contact was with her husband and child! In response to this isolation, she created an entirely new artistic expression of color, light, and fun.

How amazing that she had no instruction or guidance, but was able to create such joyous art! Years later, quite by chance, the Indian art world discovered her and later gave her India’s highest honor, the prestigious President’s Award.

Sonabai’s story clearly expresses the capacity of human beings (including dragons) everywhere to meet their challenges head on and to draw from within themselves the strength and insight to change their lives.  Sonabai found ways to transform her oppression into expressions of courage, beauty, and joy in living. What an inspiration!

I love the way guest curator Stephen Huyler truly captured the feeling of Sonabai’s environment in hi very creative exhibit of short videos of the artist at work and village scenes, projections of village dancers, and photomurals of Sonabai’s studio.

How different life in this village is from life in America! I especially love the variety and brilliance of colors in the women’s clothing (even for picking rice). These truly amazed me, as I don’t think they go to their local K-Mart to buy their clothing and yet the colors seemed brighter than the average outfit around here. Also the looks of pure delight and playfulness on the faces of the women and children so expressed their pure pleasure in the simple things in life! (Dr. Huyler’s photomurals of Sonabai’s studio made me want to fly right out to central India to see these sights for myself and join the villagers in their dance!)

Seeing the works of Sonabai, as well as the art of her four students in this exhibit, gave me hope and inspiration. Sonabai’s story reminded me of the story of holocaust survivor Victor Frankl. He concluded that life has potential meaning and that therefore even suffering is meaningful.

So true for Sonabai who emerged from her oppression to inspire artists, as well as others all over the world, with her art and story!

Whose story inspires you? Please share your inspiration here!

I met the dear emperor in my younger days (around 250 B.C.), as he was starting to plan for his afterlife.

You see death was perceived as a prolongation of life, and an emperor’s mausoleum was his afterlife palace, mirroring the magnificence of his palatial life on earth. As an old Chinese saying instructs, “treat death as life.”

It was natural then for emperors plagues by war to make their tombs battle ready. In the early days , it was customary to put the servants of a king to death so that they might serve him in the afterlife, but human sacrifice was less common by the time of Qin’s death. Rather than sacrifice an entire army, my pal Qin decided to bury himself with a symbolic force of detailed, life-sized, terracotta soldiers and horses assembled to protect him in the next world. (Just more humane though the people that constructed this army might not think so!)

I missed the discovery in 1974 when these awesome warriors were found by a local farmer digging a well so I’m glad I can now see the finished product!

These dudes look so vibrant, almost alive! And I didn’t have to fly to Xian to see them! (Still a bit bloated from my Halloween eats so Washington DC is so much closer!)

Check them for yourself if you have a chance!