So, on my last trip to the U.S., I brought back some nice toys for Cherry and myself (for once, lol. Most of the time, I bring back toys - lots of them - for the kids).
Thanks to a
fantastic promotion, I picked up brand new 64GB customized Moto X Pure Editions and Moto 360 Sport smartwatches.
Our previous (and first) smartphone experience was with the original 2013 model of the Moto X, which was an excellent phone that featured near stock Android plus many very smart voice and gesture controls that Motorola added in. But the phones were aging a bit and no longer getting updates, plus the battery life was getting to be an issue, so we decided we would go ahead and get the upgrade, which gave us a much bigger screen, huge storage, and battery (it's nice to not
have to charge in the middle of the day!) as well as metal construction and more voice and gesture goodness!
It wasn't all gummy bears and rainbows, however... when we initially brought the phones to China, we had all kinds of reception problems. But those seemed to go away after about a months... weird!
The real killer part of the deal, however, was the Moto 360 Sport smartwatch - I got one in "flame" and Cherry got a white one.
Motorola was the first company to put out round smartwatches that could pass for regular watches, but the Sport edition packs a unique look that I've gotten lots of good feedback on. I never really "got" the point of smartwatches, but trying one for a just a few weeks really has me tagged as a believer. Being able to access your notifications by just flicking or gesturing with your wrist, respond to text messages by speaking at your watch - these are all features that I never thought I would like so much!
But, as its name implies, the Moto 360 Sport is really intended as an exercise companion - the default watch face (which can be changed/customized to use your photos, or whatever) provides a plethora of useful information, including your steps, heart rate information, and calorie burn. Of course, it also provides and indicator of how far from your daily goal you are - and you would not believe how addicting it is for a gamer like me to try to meet my daily goals every day. It comes with a companion app that tracks and compiles your stats for you, adjusting your goals as you progress, really speaking to the "level up" mentality in me!
So as you can imagine, smart watches in tow, we really got off on a fitness mission this summer. Nearly every morning this month, we've gone out running with the kids. At first, it was a challenge - the kids complained and could only run about 1km. A few short weeks later, however, and they're doing over two miles hardly stopping at all in between!
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| Warming up! |
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| Ready, steady, go! |
All this running has given us a side benefit - the kids endurance and ability to walk looooooong distances (like 5-10 miles a day) has allowed us to really do some serious sight-seeing! I recently finally took a few days off. At first, we were planning on visiting a nearby town, but instead, we decided to visit a few more local attractions in Shanghai that we'd never visited before!
Our first new local attraction was the fascinating Sihang Warehouse Battle Memorial. Back in August of 1937, during the early days of the second Sino-Japanese War (which is often largely associated with the beginning of the Pacific Theater of World War II), the Republic of China stationed about 420 soldiers and officers in a furniture warehouse across the Suzhou creek from the foreign banking buildings with orders to hold the position at all costs. These 420 soldiers became known as the "800 warriors" due to a ploy by the Chinese commander, Colonel Xie Jinyuan to mislead the Japanese invaders of his unit's actual strength.
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| Bullet holes still adorn the warehouse today, which is still in use as a furniture warehouse as well as a memorial |
By and large, hold the position the "800 Warriors" did, repelling the Imperial Japanese Army for over three days, until the Western powers, anxious of getting hit by the crossfire, persuaded Generallisimo Chiang Kai-Shek to withdraw, which he did, feeling that he had conveyed the message loudly and clearly enough - the Chinese are prepared to defend their land!
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| Some statues depicting the inside of the warehouse during its defense |
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| Some art depicting a printing press printing reports of the battle |
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| An oil painting of the battle site |
Our second day trip was more serene in nature - we visited the Confucian Temple and Longhua Temples. Both of these temples were built over 600 years ago (Longhua nearly 800 years ago, as it is the oldest temple in Shanghai today), and, despite their central location in the city, provide a pristinely quiet environment for prayer and contemplation, just as their sponsors would have wanted them to generations ago!
The Confucian Temple:
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| The main courtyard of the Confucian Temple. Note the more muted and simplistic color scheme, in contrast to the Buddhist temple shown later |
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| The hallmark of a Confucian temple is its classrooms |
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| Serene garden nestled in the city |
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| Writing your wishes is a common practice at Confucian temples. Most of the wishes have to do with being successful in your studies. |
And the Longhua Temple:
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| Hmmm... which fish shall I pick? |
Our third day trip was to a more modern shrine - one to one of my personal heroes, the one and only Jackie Chan!
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| Drunken Fifi against Dragon Lukas! |
The Jackie Chan Movie Gallery is a bit pricey, but it attempts to make up for it by having a ton of things to do inside, some of which seem to be not a little bit non-sequitur, like a series of ocean-related motion games:
But the actual gallery itself is thoughtfully laid out and interesting, showing exhibits from Jackie's early life through to his successes as a superstar. Many of the exhibits are also highly interactive!
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| Horse Stance! |
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| Preparing for Chinese Opera |
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| Performing Shadow Kung Fu |
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| Jackie Chan's childhood contract as a part of the Seven Little Fortunes troupe |
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| 3, 2, 1... Action! |
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| This was a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be |
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| Jackie Chan Stunt Team Gear! |
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| Perspective |
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| Some of the stars that endorse Jackie... that one at the bottom is really a ticket seller! |
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| Just some of Jackie's accolades... |
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| Fan loot |
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| Wall of Fandom |
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| Jackie's logo consists of a lot of symbology, starting with the name "Jackie" embedded in the Chinese character for "Dragon". Each portion of the character also represents something - like the dove on the upper left corner for "Peace" |
After visiting the Jackie Chan gallery, we swung by a place we hadn't visited as a family in a while - the Lujiazui Financial District! It's actually changed a bit since we moved from there more than a year ago, starting with the huge Disney store!
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| Clock tower at the Disney store at Lujiazui |
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| The one and only Oriental Pearl Towe |
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| Nothing like Din Tai Feng for dinner! |
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| I do miss this view... |
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| Another view that never really gets old! |
It was a great stay-cation, and the kids were able to power through all of it because of our family fitness plan, partially inspired by our new wearables!
