A Tale of Three Cities: An August (and early September) Spent in Beijing, Shanghai, and Paris!

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for returning to my Astronomer in Beijing blog! I hope this post finds you well and that those of you who are teachers or professors (or involved in schools in any way) are having a good start to the semester. Additionally for all of you who celebrate, “L’Shana Tova”, I hope you all had a lovely Rosh Hashanah and I’m wishing you all a Sweet New Year. While I’ll be saving my reflections on the High Holy Days in Beijing until my next post (believe me, there’s a lot in this one already), I did want to say that we were able to have a guest Rabbi join us in Beijing for the first time while I’ve been here. Although I love having community led services, it does ease the burden a bit of needing to know every song! Anyway, as the title of this month’s blog post entails, I did a lot of traveling since my last post! I’ll go in chronological order, but just know that it’s been a fun, productive, and exhausting last couple of weeks. Also, if you’re wondering why this post is a bit delayed, I was at a conference in Paris the first week in September (more on that below) and between finishing up my presentation and traveling back to Beijing, didn’t get a chance to finish everything up.

Helping Jesse Move From Shanghai

As many of you are probably aware, my brother Jesse is no longer living in China. He moved from Shanghai about a month ago to start his new postdoc position at the University of Nottingham. It’s definitely a bit strange and lonely to be the only Golden-Marx in China and to now not live in the same time zone. In a lot of ways, Jesse was my China safety blanket. For most issues that I had, Jesse’d already come across them, so I’m incredibly grateful for all of his help and support while I’ve been living here. Thankfully, I was able to head down to Shanghai to help him pack up his apartment and get ready to move with his two cats to Nottingham (spoiler alert, they made it safely and are enjoying life in the UK). Thankfully, Jesse had done a fair amount of packing when we visited the UK earlier in the summer, so much of the week was spent figuring out how to cram the rest of his stuff into 3 suitcase (thankfully I convinced him he could buy cat litter in the UK and did not need to bring it from China) and clean up his apartment. While sweeping and donating clothes and cat supplies was relatively easy, it was a bit trickier figuring out where to throw away his giant cat structure (though his neighbors did take tons of tupperware and an air purifier). He also had to deal with a ton of paperwork to export Charlie and Scottie (his two cats). While I’ve still got about 9 more months here, it was good to get a sense of that process (it’s going to be hectic).

Beyond just packing (which took an unsurprisingly long amount of time), Jesse and I still found time to do a few fun things in Shanghai! While our food tour of Jesse’s favorite vegan restaurants in Shanghai will be included in the vegan food section (we really were trying to get stuff out of his apartment, not add more things), we also got to see a lot of fun sites in Shanghai. Some of these may look a bit familiar from my previous trips to visit Jesse, while others were new to me! Most importantly, I finally got to visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University and give a lunch talk! While Jesse has sent me many photos of SJTU and I got to see the old part of the campus (at least from the outside), I hadn’t gotten to see the main campus. It’s really far from Jesse’s apartment (his commute is much farther than my own – but I really do I like the Xuhui area that he lived in). The campus is really nice. Much like Tsinghua, it’s huge (though I think Tsinghua might be larger) and has some really cool statues and a beautiful lake in the middle (it was really hot and I wouldn’t have minded diving right in).

As my lunch talk was Friday morning (I came down on a Thursday), we followed up my talk with a lovely Shabbat service at Kehillat Shanghai! It was so wonderful to get to hear everyone wish Jesse well and see that the community will still go one even without him! It was also nice to meet a few more of the people that I’d seen when we did Zoom Shabbats during the lockdowns in person! And to top it off, we had a delicious (and beautifully braided) challah homemade from one of the community members.

On Saturday, Jesse and I did an all day trek around Shanghai. Our first stop was the Jewish Refugee Museum. While I have a more complete post about that from when I visited Shanghai back in March, Jesse and I wanted to stop by because the last time I went, I wasn’t able to visit the Ohel Moishe Synagogue (which is the historic synagogue from the Shanghai Ghetto). While I’ve only included a few highlights here, the museum really does a great job highlighting the struggle of the Jews who fled to Shanghai, as well as their lives in Shanghai under Japanese occupation. More importantly, it was really nice to see the synagogue! I really loved the stained-glass windows! It’s too bad that the Kehilat Shanghai community isn’t able to have more events there, but it is lovely to see as a testament to the Jewish refugees who lived there. Also, for anyone looking closely and wondering, “If it’s so hot, why are they wearing long sleeves?”, Jesse and I bought some cooling sleeves. While I’m not entirely sold on them, they did help a little bit (though mostly to make places where it was cold colder!

After visiting the Jewish Refugee Museum, Jesse and I went to the Jade Buddha Temple. Like many of the Buddhist temples I’ve visited in China, I love the aesthetics, with the large smooth walls (in this case they were yellow) and the stone inlays that highlight different animals from Buddhist lore. I also really love the red paper talismans that are attached to the little lions throughout the temple. Also, the tall buildings allow you to feel removed from the surrounding city, which makes for a more relaxing atmosphere. While I don’t have any pictures of the Buddhas (the temples are open and people are actively praying, so I always prefer not to take photos out of respect), the highlight of the temples are the two amazing Jade Buddhas. The temple dates back to 1882 and each of the Buddhas was imported from Myanmar. While each Buddha is incredibly ornate, I loved that each was also strikingly different, offering a different view of the Buddha.

While Jesse wasn’t going to be leaving until Tuesday, we knew that we’d need to spend Monday packing up and clearing out his apartment (we had a few different donation services coming to pick up some clothes, cat toys, and bedding), so Sunday would be the last full day of exploring Shanghai (and also really Jesse’s last time to see the city – while I obviously enjoyed all of the sightseeing, I really wanted Jesse to get to fully say goodbye to the city that was his home for the last four years). We started by heading over to Xujiahui Park, one of the parks that Jesse used to run in. While I’d seen it in early spring, it was equally pretty in the summer and I love the cute bunny statues throughout the park (though I do wonder if there will be little dragons next year – this year is the Year of the Rabbit, next year is the Year of the Dragon).

After a delicious lunch at LN Fortunate Vegan Cafe (see the large Vegan Food Section below), we made our way to the Yu Gardens. Since Jesse and I wanted to get to see Jesse’s old stomping grounds where he lived his first year, we stopped by Fuxing Park to see the statue of “Uncle” Karl (Marx & Engels).

We then continued on our way to the Yuyuan, the Yu Gardens. This was a bit special for both of us as the Yu Gardens is one of the first tourist sites that both of us visited in China, so I was really happy that we could go back. While the gardens haven’t changed too much since I was there in August 2021, the crowds certainly did. This was really the first time on this trip that I could feel the overflowing crowds of people all throughout the city. As a refresher, the Yu Gardens date back to the 1500s, and were originally part of the home of a Ming era governor in Shanghai. However, they were officially opened to the public in 1961 and have since become one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Shanghai. The Yu Gardens house a traditional Suzhou-style garden and include numerous cool rock “statues”/ outcroppings, as well as more traditional Chinese architecture. In coming here after visiting many of the large palaces in Beijing, it’s interesting how different the scale is. Places like the Forbidden City, Old Summer Palace, and New Summer Palace exist on large plots of land, while here, they make use of every square inch to show the different gardens. Perhaps my favorite thing are the ponds filled with hundreds of goldfish. I love to see the swarms of fish as people toss them bread crumbs and other foods. We also got to see some really cool dragon ornamental details that I don’t remember seeing on my first visit – an added bonus of getting to return to a place and look for exciting new things!

One of the cool things about the Yu Gardnds is that it includes a bustling “Old-town” style marketplace just outside of the gardens. Jesse and I have always loved exploring these markets and getting a few last-minute souvenirs and gifts for people. However, one of the highlights here is that a few of the places include more exhibit like installations, including an amazing display of chocolate animals! Additionally, we were able to see a few more giant lantern displays (though not in the style of Lunar New Year, but summer fruits!) that they have in the public portions of the gardens.

After such a fun day, Jesse and I continued our exploration by going to see the Bund lit up at night! While I visited the Bund during the day last time, there really is something magical about seeing all of the buildings lit up! The only issue was that it was SO CROWDED! If I thought the Yu Gardens were packed, I was sadly mistaken as it felt like the entire city was on the Bund! Despite the crowds, the photos are definitely worth it! We also made sure to stop by the Peace Hotel, which was once the hotel operated by the Sassoon family, one of the two prominent Jewish families that lived in Shanghai in the late 19th and early 20th century. While it was a full and tiring day, I’m so glad that we did a tour-de-force walking tour, so that we could get a real sense of Shanghai and the area that Jesse lived in.

One of my favorite parts of Shanghai is that there are so many amazing statues, art installations, and graffiti around the city. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Beijing, but Shanghai has a level of playfulness that doesn’t exist outside of 798 in Beijing. Also, although we didn’t go, I do love the way that the Jing’an Temple is lit up at night!

While Jesse and I did a lot of sightseeing, I also got to go to F45, the gym that Jesse went to in Shanghai. It’s an Australian based gym that focuses on 45 minute workouts. Although I do a lot of weightlifting and running on my own, this was the first time I’ve been to a gym of any kind since March 2020 (and I can’t remember the last time I went to an actual work out class), so it was really nice to get back into that setting. The classes were definitely tough! I wish there was an F45 near my apartment, but the Beiing one is about an hour away (and not in the direction of Tsinghua), so that makes it a bit too tough to go to.

Beyond F45 and our sightseeing tour, Jesse and I obviously spent a lot of time packing up his apartment and playing with his wonderful cats, Scottie & Charlie. I’m happy to report that this time both Charlie & Scottie were happy to see me and much warmer. During my last visit, Scottie hissed at me much of the first two days, before finally deciding to sit on my lap. This time, he immediately recognized me and was very friendly. And of course, Charlie took advantage of a new back to crawl on. They are very cute and fuzzy cats! While they seemed to enjoy having me there, they definitely were getting a bit concerned as more and more of the stuff in Jesse’s apartment started to disappear. While Jesse’s last blog post has a more thorough description of his journey to get him and his cats to Nottingham, I was definitely a bit nervous since Charlie was not enjoying being in the carrier at the airport. Thankfully, all are doing well and enjoying life in the UK!

While I’m very glad that I got to spend Jesse’s last few days in Shanghai with him, it was definitely a bit bittersweet now that he isn’t here. We spent much of Monday and Tuesday getting everything ready (with some delicious meals sprinkled in), but I don’t think it really hit me that Jesse wouldn’t be here until I saw him walk through security and realized that I was still here. It was definitely a very sad last night in Shanghai for me (because Jesse’s flight was in the evening, I decided to take the train back in the morning – I stayed at a hotel quite near his compound). I really miss having him here, but I am glad that he’s doing so well in the UK.

Back to Beijing: August’s Vegan Market

Despite all of my travels over the last month and a half, I was able to do some fun things in Beijing, too (although a lot of time was spent working on various Astronomy projects). Thankfully, after missing the May and June vegan markets due to travel (and the July market being cancelled), I was able to go to the August Vegan Market! These are one of my favorite events and I got to see a few friends and have some delicious vegan food (and pet some cute dogs). The highlights for me were two delicious vegan crepes, one with vegan speculoos (cookie butter) and another with eggplant, vegan cheese, and a pepper sauce from my friend Lionel (he also gave me a ton of recommendations for vegan food in Paris, some of which you’ll find below), an amazing vegan crunch wrap burrito and fudgesicles from Grassroots, and some delicious vegan sushi (that looks almost too real)! Unfortunately the September market was cancelled due to construction at the venue, but I can’t wait until the next one.

Vegan Dumpling Making Class

In August, I got to take part in a vegan dumpling making class through the Vegans of Beijing. Unlike our usual cooking classes, this was hosted at a lovely tea house on the outskirts of the city and was a bit more laid back than our usual classes. We made tofu, mushroom, and bok choy dumplings and smashed wasabi cucumber! Unlike most of the cooking classes, where I make my own food, we worked together to prep all of the ingredients and make a giant batch (~ 200) dumplings. While the filling is pretty straight forward – we used a food processor to mince up all of the ingredients and then sautee them, the assembly of the dumplings was quite difficult (at least for me). We used pre-made dumpling wrappers and placed them in the palms of our hands. We then put a small amount of filling in the center and pinched them shut to seal in the dough. While mine weren’t the prettiest, I think they turned out all right! They definitely were tasty! I can’t imagine how long it must take to make dumplings for large families on the Lunar New Year! One of the highlights of this class was that since a lot of time was spent assembling the dumplings, I was able to chat with some of the attendees and here about their own experiences making dumplings as well as their journeys towards veganism.

Exploring 798

That same weekend, Pablo, Richard, and I went to 798 to explore and see a few different art exhibits. I’ve broken the picture blocks up into the different exhibits. The first exhibit was an amazing display of anime animation cells (mostly from anime from the mid-to-late 90’s when they still did hand drawn cell animation). It featured some of my favorites including Dragonball Z, One Piece, and Astro Boy! As should be pretty apparent from this blog, I’m a huge anime fan and while I’ve gotten to see a lot of American comic book art in person, I haven’t seen nearly as more original manga or anime artwork. It’s really cool to see the animation cells, especially some of the looser ones and ones that highlight shading and shadow! Interestingly, the exhibit also included some original colored pages from various Marvel comics from the 1990s (Spiderman, Venom, and Silver Surfer). This was especially cool to me because it dates from the era before digital coloring, so you could see the various references to different colors right on the page (most comics today are colored digitally, so when you buy the original art, you’re buying the black & white pencils and inks). While they weren’t comics that I had read, I did recognize Paul Pelletier’s art (more recently, he had a great run on Aquaman)!

After the comic book exhibit, we stumbled across a Peter Rabbit exhibit for kids. Those of you who know my Mom, know that she is a big fan of Beatrix potter and I grew up reading those books (I also distinctly remember visiting Beatrix Potter’s house in the Lake District and a Beatrix Potter museum when we went to London when I was 7). I knew I had to check out the exhibit, even if I was the only adult without a child (Richard and Pablo decided to skip this one). It was a really cool recreation of the entire Tale of Peter Rabbit book! I loved seeing the illustrations blown up and some of them recreated in giant dioramas!

Sticking to the theme of book illustration, the next exhibit we checked out was Superpower!!! an exhibit of comic book artwork from EJ Su (a Taiwanese American comic book artist best known for Tech Jacket with Robert Kirkman). While I’m not super familiar with his work, I love looking at original comic book art, so this was super cool!

We then stumbled into an amazing exhibit of ukiyo-e (Japanese print) art, featuring. a number of works from Hokusai (including the Great Wave and the Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji). I had seen an amazing exhibit of his work at the MFA in Boston with my Mom when I was in grad school, so this immediately took me back. I love the simplicity and elegance of the wood block print style, especially in regards to landscapes (and it’s an interesting contrast to the modern comic book panel)!

With Richard, Pablo, and me all being Astronomers, we knew we needed to check out the amazing Space exhibit that was being housed at 798. Unlike the earlier exhibits I’ve shown, this was more of a hybrid exhibition and probably something a bit closer to what you might usually find at a science museum rather than an art gallery. The early parts of the exhibit focused a bit on Chinese space travel, but as you progressed through the exhibit, there were rooms highlighting the curvature of space time (complete with bouncy floors and images of super massive black holes), asteroids, and potential moon bases! This was a visually stunning exhibit and as an Astronomer who loves outreach is a dream come true. I wish I could do some kind of English-language talk about this exhibit because it so well highlights some of the coolest parts of astronomy, without going too much into the mathematical weeds.

The last big exhibit we saw was the Cats of the East exhibit. As a cat-lover, this was a must see for me. It featured a lot of traditional Japanese art focusing on cats as well as some amazing modern art. I loved seeing the cuteness and playfulness of cats expressed across time, especially since the compositions were dramatically different (the Japanese prints had the cats hiding or acting playfully within the full composition, while the modern pieces were focused on the cats as the subject entirely). The exhibit also included information about how to adopt cats here in China from shelters, which is great. One of my favorite exhibits was a life-size recreation of an animal scene featuring anthropomorphic animals (pandas, cats, and dogs) at a bar!

As 798 is also just amazing place to walk around in, I also saw a ton of cool other posters, statues, and souvenirs that I wanted to share with you!

Septembre au Paris! First Structures in the Universe 2023

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I spent the first week in September at the First Structures conference in Paris! This was the first international galaxy cluster conference that I’ve gotten to go to in person since 2019 and only the second conference that I’ve been to since starting my postdoc (thank you COVID travel restrictions). I really wanted to go because as I start my job applications in the coming weeks, I wanted to both remind people that I’m still doing cluster science and to get a better sense of where the field is. Since a lot of the other researchers in my group focus on other high-z systems, I haven’t gotten to be surrounded by cluster people in a very long time. The conference was fantastic! It was organized by Simona Mei at based at the Universite Paris-Cite (see the photos below), which is a bout an hours walk along the Seine from Notre Dame (but an hour’s walk outside of the heart of Paris). I was able to present my work on Project Morphology (my study of the shape of protocluster galaxies in the early universe) on Tuesday, the 2nd day of the conference, and I got a number of good questions that will help me shape the paper as I write it up in the next month. There were also a number of really great talks on various properties of protoclusters (galaxy demographics, defining a protocluster vs a cluster, how do we find protoclusters, the role of AGNs, and the build up of hot gas in clusters) throughout the week both in person and remote (there were ~ 80 people registered for the conference, with ~ 50 being in person). I also got to hear about some of the other cool science being done with the very same protoclusters that I’m studying (thankfully in a non-scooping capacity). I learned a ton of stuff and have some new ideas spinning around my head that I hope I’ll get to explore a bit in my next postdoc. I also got to meet some great cluster scientists and reconnect with others that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. I’m so glad that I was able to go! Maybe even more importantly, thanks in part to this meeting, I officially joined my friend Brian Lemaux’s C3VO protocluster collaboration, so I now have more data available to try to answer some of these questions!

While we got to see Notre Dame a bit earlier in the week (the conference dinner was near Notre Dame), it wasn’t until Friday afternoon that it really felt like we’d made it to Paris (for anyone wondering, this is the third time I’ve been to Paris, though the last time was in 2008, so it’s been a while). After the conference ended (with a wonderful discussion of the future of protocluster science), I went sightseeing with a number of other postdocs and graduate students (including one who is in Jesse’s research group – he was able to act as a courier for Jesse to send me something and I could send him something). We met up at Notre Dame and after getting some gelato to cool off (it was 90+ degrees the entire week of the conference and unfortunately, AC is not nearly as popular and prevalent), we walked along the Seine to the Louvre. As it was already 6pm by the time we got to the Louvre, we weren’t able to go inside, but we did enjoy some opera singing and got to take in the iconic glass pyramids. After that, we made our way to Sacre Coeur to see the sunset over Paris. Luckily for us, this was also the kickoff of the Rugby World Cup, happening in France now, so we were treated no only to a sunset, but jets flying over to create the “bleu, blanc, & rouge”. After dinner at an Italian restaurant (I got a crepe at sunset, too, because I was in Paris and I needed to get a crepe), we went to the Eiffel Tower. While we didn’t go up, the Tower is wonderfully magical as it shimmers in the dark Parisian night! All of this capped off an amazing conference and a wonderful day of sightseeing! Because my flight was in the early afternoon on Saturday, I was able to spend Saturday morning going to an amazing Vegan bakery (Land & Monkey – see the Vegan food section below), but I also got to see the Bastille monument and a Loubavitch Center (always nice to see a little splash Judaism in a foreign country)!

While not the purpose of any of the sightseeing, I’m a big fan of street art and got to see a lot of street art and other cool signs throughout Paris. However, my favorite experience was that when I was taking a photo of the art in the second row, a Parisian said (in French) that these graffiti were ugly and I shouldn’t photograph it. So I have to ask, what are your thoughts?

Life at Tsinghua/Astronomy Update

Although this was a travel filled month, it was also an Astronomy filled month (even if all of the Astronomy work didn’t take place at Tsinghua). As in the previous months, a lot of my time was again split between Project Radio and Project Morphology. However, I am happy to report that as of this past Thursday, Project Radio is OFFICIALLY DONE! The paper was accepted to the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) in late August (no additional referee comments – I guess it helps to be thorough) and I just sent the completed copy edits back to the editors on Thursday evening. For anyone interested, I’ve attached the open access version of the paper here. It’s a 37 page behemoth of a paper (costing a pretty penny – we have to pay to publish in Astronomy), but I’m so glad that it is finally out in the world and completed!

Beyond Project Radio, the rest of my time was spent fine-tuning the results for Project Morphology so that I had the results from two of the three fields that I’ve been studying ready to present at the First Structures conference! While it took a lot of time, I’m happy to report that the project has come together nicely and that we see some interesting differences between the two protoclusters, some which may point to differences in the evolutionary states of these two massive systems. While I still have a few more plots to make, I’m excited to start writing the paper up next week so that I can bring this project to a conclusion, too! I also am still working on Project Low-z, my study of bent radio AGNs in local clusters that I’m working on with Jesse. That project is also coming along nicely and now that I have more time freed up from the completion of Project Radio, I hope to make a lot of headway in the next month! Also this month, I was able to have some really productive research meetings with both Brian Lemaux (who is going to be one of my letter writers) and my PhD supervisor, Liz Blanton (another of my letter writers, my supervisor Zheng is the 3rd), to discuss potential postdoc projects and other high-z cluster/protocluster work! All in all, this was a really great month on the Astrophysics front!

Although not Astronomy related, I did want to share a few pretty pictures from Tsinghua’s campus, too!

Jewish Life in Beijing!

Since my last blog post, I attended four Kehillat Beijing Shabbat dinners (I missed two – one in Shanghai and one in Paris, but I’m saving Rosh Hashanah for my October post)! We had one of these at the Capital Club, and two at Roberta & Ted’s home. While I prefer being in their home, the view from the Capital Club cannot be beat! I love the way the large ring roads stand out in the view of the city! For the two Shabbat’s at Roberta & Ted’s, we had a mystery Shabbat featuring Gallileo, Belgium, the Kuomintang, Ramen, and Bruce Springsteen and a Silk Road Shabbat to celebrate Uzbekhistan Independence Day and the 10 Year anniversary of China’s Belt & Road Development project (a global investment strategy where China invests in construction and development projects along the old Silk Road). For these two Shabbat’s Ted really outdid himself with the cooking and the thematic titles (please look at the labels). It was so wonderful to be back with everyone at Kehillat Beijing and definitely a highlight of my August!

Goldie!

With all of my travel this month, this was probably not Goldie’s favorite month. However, when I return, she’s always quick to come running to the door and meow at my feet and paw at my legs. It’s so wonderful to have her here to keep me company. It’s nice to know that you’re wanted (even if it’s just to give a good belly rub and feed her). She always likes to follow me around and I love having her curl up next to me on the couch. I do want to note that all of my friends who came to check on Goldie highlighted how friendly she is with them (the first time I went away she hid whenever anyone came over), so I’m glad she’s getting used to more people (though I’m still her favorite person). Goldie continues to enjoy burrowing under the covers and playing in her tunnel and castle and it makes for such delightful photos!

This month, Goldie also got an early birthday present from her Uncle Jesse and cousin’s Scottie and Charlie. Since Jesse couldn’t bring his jumbo sized litter box with him, he thought I should take it and I’m happy to report that Goldie is very pleased with her new box. She’s also taken to treating my small red backpack as her favorite sleeping area and loves to curl up on it next to me! This month, I was also reminded by my friend Mio, who rescued Goldie, that she found her a year ago (it’s coming up on almost a year since I adopted her, too!). I’m so glad that I have Goldie in my life!

Exploring Beijing

While I did a lot more exploring of other cities this month, I wanted to highlight some of the cool ads, bike stickers, and other sights that I saw in Beijing this month! I hope you enjoy them!

Also, as the temperature starts to cool ever so slightly (80 – 85 instead of 90+), some flowers are again popping up throughout the city. I hope you enjoy seeing them!

Vegan Food

Between my trips to Shanghai, Paris, and some excursions in Beijing, I had a lot of amazing vegan food this month! Because Jesse wanted to do a tour of some of his favorite vegan restaurants, most of these are in Shanghai, but it was all fantastic!

On my first night in Shanghai, Jesse and I went to an amazing vegan hot pot place called Yan Ge Ge! For those of you not familiar with hot pot, it is a traditional Chinese buffet style meal where you choose various vegetables, tofu, noodles, and meats (no meat here) to cook in hot broth and eat as a soup! While not all of this food is for me, Jesse and I had an amazing time and enjoyed an array of exotic mushrooms, as well as some delicious Shanghai style noodles, vegan xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), and baozi! It was an amazing experience and my first real time doing a full hot pot experience (usually it isn’t too vegetarian friendly, as many places use bone broths).

For my second meal in Shanghai, Jesse and I did take out from Carrot & Cleaver, a healthy, western-style vegan restaurant. We got two delicious noodle curry bowls and a yummy fritter pita! We also got a berry mousse for dessert!

Although not an official meal, Jesse and I wanted to get one more jianbing before he left Shanghai! While the jianbing restaurant near him no longer has vegan Just Egg, a woman waiting in line helped us to order egg-free jianbing and we filled ours with potato, lettuce, and a crispy wonton! It was delicious!

Our third meal in Shanghai was at Vegetarian Lifestyle! We got tofu skin rolls with mushrooms, spicy mushroom skewers, seitan with basil, fried lotus root, braised tofu, fried shiitake mushrooms, sword beans, and mango & grapefruit juice! It was delicious! I think my favorites were the mushroom skewers, the tofu, and the sword beans!

On Saturday night, we made our way to Tacolicious, one of Jesse’s favorite restaurants and the place that hosted trivia for the better part of the last three years! Logan, the owner, is a Kehilat Shanghai member and friend of Jesse’s and though not a vegan restaurant, they have a lot of vegan offerings! We got Zrou nuggets (a mock meat brand here in China), limeade, black bean & corn salad, chips, and tacos with Nopales (cactus), Zrou, and Mapo Tofu! Everything was delicious and it’s a really fun place to spend a Saturday night!

On Sunday, before going to the Yu Gardens, Jesse and I went to LN Fortunate Vegan Cafe, a Hong Kong vegan restaurant offering a unique fusion of Chinese vegan cuisine! We got pear & watermelon juices, Hong Kong style satay noodles (with a ton of seitan), eggplant in a spicy sauce, and a vegan lemon cheesecake! It was amazing! It’s also so nice to be able to get vegan desserts at a restaurant (most don’t have them here).

After the Yu Gardens, Jesse and I went to Huiyuan Vegetarian, one of the first vegetarian restaurants that Jesse went to (it’s near his old apartment) and had another amazing meal! We got a cauliflower dry pot, sword beans, tofu and mushrooms, a super spicy peanut-filled dry pot, and seitan with bao buns! Another amazing meal all around! The bao buns and spicy pot were my favorite!

One of the nice things about the vegan scene in Shanghai is that it includes western-style, fusion, and traditional Chinese restaurants. We went to If Vegan and got a blueberry seltzer, eggplant in peanut sauce, ginger mushrooms, tofu/bamboo/mushroom curry, and walnut mushrooms. We also got two pastries, with rose & green beans! The food, especially the mushrooms, was amazing!

On Monday night, we went to Duli and had yet another amazing meal featuring Chinese-fusion cuisine. We got Mapo Tofu hummus (which I totally need to try to make the next time I make mapo tofu), corn and chickpea baozi, a mango & passion fruit smoothie, corn ribs, a cold noodle salad with seaweed, tofu, and pear, and Dan Dan gnocchi! I love how much Duli twists traditionally Chinese cuisine and everything was exquisite (but the baozi are my favorite!).

For our last meal in Shanghai, Jesse and I were joined by his friend Heather (who’s married to his friend Shimi – he was out of town), their daughter Rae, and their Ayi for a farewell meal at Godly. Godly is one of the oldest Vegan restaurants in Shanghai and was also the first vegan Chinese restaurant I went to here in China. We had an amazing meal (we let Jesse pick all of his favorites) and got kaofu, vegetarian duck, dumplings in peanut sauce, seasonal Yunnan mushrooms, Sichuan eggplant, Sword beans, mapo tofu, and a tofu clay pot! It was an amazing meal and a fitting way to cap off my stay in Shanghai and Jesse’s time in Shanghai! My favorite dishes were the kaofu, vegetarian duck, eggplant, and sword beans!

I also want to highlight that with the heat in Shanghai, we got a lot of delicious gelatos, as well as my favorite, sugar covered strawberries!

Heading back to Beijing, when Pablo, Richard, and I went to 798, we went to Botanica, a vegetarian restaurant in 798. We had a delicious meal featuring sweet potato fries, orange juice, a chocolate acai bowl, two risottos (tomato and truffle), fried mushrooms, and soy milk and tofu stew! My favorite was the mushrooms and the soy milk & tofu stew!

Prior to seeing Oppenheimer (spoiler, I saw Oppenheimer -see the What Am I Reading/Watching section), Tom and I had an awesome meal at Beastease, a vegetarian noodle restaurant that I’d been wanting to check out! We got sour plum soup (it’s a juice), fried cumin mushrooms, noodle soup, sizzling tofu, eggplant, and sauteed greens! My favorites were the mushrooms, the tofu, and the eggplant!

As I mentioned previously, though Paris might not be as vegan friendly as the UK, I was still able to have some delicious vegan meals while at the conference. While French cuisine isn’t known for being free of milk and butter, it was nice that the organizers did have a few vegan snacks at the opening reception (lots of fruit and veggies). Over the week, I got a delicious vegan poke bowl and an amazing vegan nachos & chipathi wrap! For the conference dinner, I had a delicious avocado & corn salad, and an array of roasted vegetables, curried chickpeas, and rice (unfortunately, the vegan dessert was an apple 🙁 ). However, on Friday, I went to Season Square, an amazing vegan burger restaurant & cafe in Paris and got a delicious vegan burger with fries (I got a super chocolately cookie and a brownie to go, too!). Then, to top all of that off, on Saturday, I made my pilgrimage to Land & Monkey (see the array of photos below – thank you Lionel!). They have all of the traditional French desserts, but done vegan and it is amazing! I highly recommend it if you’re in Paris! I got an amazing chocolate tarte, a Monkey Cookie, a Chimp Cookie, a vegan carrot cake, and a delicious baguette sandwich with tofu for the plane! Also, though not shown, I was able to buy some vegan cheese to bring back with me (since that’s way cheaper than shipping it from outside of China)!

While I was traveling for a lot of the month, I did make some yummy food, including mushroom carnitas tacos, pra ram tofu, chocolate brownie cookies, kung pao tofu, and black pepper tofu & cauliflower. I also had a delicious vegan chocolate mousse cake here in Beijing that I wanted to share!

Animals of Beijing (and Shanghai)!

One of the most unique things about Shanghai is that it is populated by tons of stray cats. It’s a bit of a blessing and a curse as I like to see neighborhood cats, but some of them are definitely not taken care of by their neighbors and it really seems like nobody is doing anything about it. For our part, when Jesse and I were walking around, we tried to bring some cat treats with us, so that we could we fed some cats when we saw them. While not all of the cats can be the ones who are well fed and live at F45, we thought that anything we could do would help.

While I don’t see as many cats on the street here in Beijing as I did in Shanghai (maybe because it gets colder in the winter), I did take some cute photos of some of the other animals that I saw. Featured most prominently are Mimi & Honey (Roberta & Ted’s dogs), as well as a few neighborhood cats, and a duck!

China Drawings

With all of the travel and research, I haven’t had as much time to draw this month as I would like. Given that I’ll be ramping up postdoc applications soon, that likely won’t change too much, but I did want to share the one drawing that I finished this month! I hope you enjoy it!

What Am I Reading/Watching?

As I spoiled earlier, I finally got to see Oppenheimer (in all of its IMAX glory)! It didn’t open until August 31 in China and since I’m never sure how long any foreign film play here, Tom and I went to see it the Saturday before I went to Paris! It was amazing! Now, I’m obviously a bit biased as I’m a Physicist and a huge Christopher Nolan fan, but I loved the way he interspersed the two, sometimes three timelines and allowed us to see the rise, decline, and fall of Oppenheimer at the same time. I was particularly taken with his use of sound and visual effects. The way he portrayed stars early in the movie reminded me of a play I’d see at the Central Square Theatre about Physics and I loved the abstraction in portraying the way that Oppenheimer thought. I think Cillian Murphy did an amazing job! Although deafening, Nolan’s use of sound to portray the quiet and then mass destruction of the bomb was riveting and I really liked the way it was contrasted with Oppenheimer’s realization about the destruction as he was giving his speech. I also loved that the Senate committee hearing featuring Robert Downey Jr.’s Louis Strauss was shown in black & white to contrast with the rest of the movie. To me, though, my favorite scenes were with Einstein! I definitely recommend the movie wholeheartedly!

Outside of Oppenheimer, I also watched a ton of movies on the plane to and from Paris. I watched Contact, the Legion of Superheroes animated film, The Man from UNCLE, the Russel Crowe Robin Hood, Ocean’s 8, Lady Bird, The Fablemans, The Whale, Wrath of the Titans, and Bombshell. I won’t dwell on each here, but I really liked Contact (though a bit too new age religion-y), Lady Bird, The Whale, and Bombshell! This month, I also finished season two of the Afterparty on Apple TV+. It’s a murder mystery show and this season it’s set at a wedding. It features an all star cast and is just a ton of fun! And they really did a good job keeping you guessing throughout the entire show! I also finished The Last Thing He Told me on Apple TV+, which was another great show! It’s a bit of a thriller/mystery about what happen’s when a woman’s (played by Jennifer Garner) husband goes missing, but has a ton of great twists and turns. I finished season 1 of Bosch on Amazon Prime, which is a great slow-burn detective show (if you miss your usual weekly cop shows with the writers strike, check this one out!). On Max, I finished The Plot Against America, which is based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. While the show slides a bit too much into contrasting with current events, it’s a unique look at the teetering edge of Anti-Semitism in America (although I couldn’t stand John Turturo playing a Rabbi). I also watched Superpowered, a three part documentary on DC comics on Max, which was great! On the anime front, I finished Kuroko’s Basketball, which is one of the best sports animes/mangas that I’ve read in a long time! I also watched the first half of season three of Dr. Stone (a cool sci-fi anime about the earth coming back to life after humans have been petrified for thousands of years) and Witch Hunter Robin, an anime about hunting witches in Japan. Finally, I watched season one of My Adventures with Superman on Max, which is one of the most fun and exciting Superman projects I’ve seen in a while. A perfect blend of Shonen style action with US superheroes. I definitely recommend it.

While I’ still making my way through Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty, I did read volume 2 of the 100 Bullets omnibus. It’s a hard-boiled crime story by Brian Azzarello and Eduado Russo and a must read for crime fiction fans.

East Meets West

Throughout my explorations of Shanghai, I saw a ton of cool Western media, including Disney, Mens & Women’s Tennis player ads (the Beijing Open & Shanghai Masters are coming!), and even the Little Prince!

In Beijing, I saw the usually array of Disney and Tom & Jerry, but also Friends figurines and an ad for Phantom of the Opera here in Beijing! I don’t think I’ll go, but it’s amazing how universal that musical is! And also, an ad for the Beijing Open!

Anime & Comics

As always, no Astronomer in Beijing blog post is complete without a look at all of the cool anime & comics figurines, posters, and other paraphernalia that I saw this month! And this month, I saw a lot! Starting in Shanghai, with tons of Dragonball Z, One Piece, and more! One of the coolest things Jesse and I saw in Shanghai were ads for an Osamu Tezuka Astro Boy exhibit. Unfortunately, the exhibit didn’t open until the week after we left, but it was still cool to see the giant Astro Boy poster!

And not to be outdone, I also saw a ton of anime toys and stickers here in Beijing! Including lots of my favorite, Dragonball Z! I also saw some cool lifesize Avengers and Transformers statues at the IMAX theatre where we saw Oppenheimer!

While not as prevalent in Paris, I did got to an amazing Manga Cafe and comic book store (for those of you unfamiliar, bande-desinee are huge in French and France is pretty much the center of the European comics scene) and I wanted to share some photos! I love that even though my French is a bit rusty, I can connect with people all over the world around our shared love of anime! I also loved the original art they have at the Manga Cafe!

For those of you who’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I know this was an especially long post! I hope you enjoyed seeing Shanghai, Beijing, and Paris! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to comment below or write me directly! I’d love to hear from you. This will be a bit quieter of a month for me with Yom Kippur next week and the upcoming onslaught of postdoc applications, but I should have some time for some fun meals in the meantime! For those of you who celebrate, I hope you had a lovely Rosh Hashanah! L’Shanah Tovah! And I hope that you have a safe and meaningful fast on Yom Kippur. Have a great rest of September!

In Peace,

Emmet