Today I’m introducing Transpacifica’s third banner image. This wall near the Moganshan Lu (莫干山路) art district in Shanghai caught my eye. That placard advertising English tutoring is hanging several yards off the ground.

We’re also saying goodbye to the previous image. Here it is full-frame below, in a wallpaper-worthy high resolution version.

Today, just as my wandering was turning into a walk home, I passed the Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing, a bookstore in an apparently never-used parking garage. Needless to say, I was not able to resist. Though its selection of foreign-language books is apparently zero, the range of subjects and the atmosphere of the store and the cafe inside are better than anything I’ve seen for a long time. This is located on the north side of Wutaishan (五台山). More pics after the break.

Driving up into the store.

(I have no idea what’s with the cross.)

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I’ll be switching the banner photograph periodically. Today we say goodbye to the first, below, and introduce number two. The old photo is from somewhere in Oregon looking west. The new one is from national day in Beijing: the flag in front of the door I share with several others in the hutong.

Oof. I’ll be back alive soon with much to come. Meantime, I’ve been doing some local tourist stuff in Beijing, and the pictures are showing up on my Flickr account. If you’re in China, use Firefox and this extension to view the images. This photo is from the summer palace (颐和园) where a man may have just realized he has to walk up those stairs.