China Segment

6:20am is the time they began. Hammering, at 6 fucking 20.
Apartments in Shanghai somehow need to be renovated every 5 years, so drilling, pounding, whacking and hammering pretty much never stop, especially in the summer. But there are rules. The city allows you to do renovations or other similarly loud work from [...]

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The bugs are back. Must be time for the rainy season.

Last June I noticed something that had escaped my attention in years gone past. One night when we went out for dinner, my wife and I noticed a huge number of bugs were flying around certain trees. We came home to be [...]

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Though city planning seems to be a modern obsession of the Shanghai government, it wasn’t always so. Different periods of growth and expansion overlap everywhere, adding to the charm and unique nature of Shanghai, but also resulting in awful contrasts of architecture and design.
In the picture above, the interior buildings were likely the first [...]

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With all due respect to the deceased, there are proper ways to remember and there are improper ways to remember. What I witnessed the other night certainly qualifies for the latter category.
When getting out of the elevator as I was going to my in-laws’ new apartment for dinner, I was greeted by billowing smoke. [...]

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Looking for a luxurious apartment?
Well, look no further. Just down the road from China Segment’s current offices, are the beautiful serviced apartments of 41 Hengshan Road (衡山路).

From their own site:
The product of a team of international architects and designers, the building salutes its neo-classical heritage with detail in Baccarat chandeliers, a bronze hand-crafted [...]

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A short post today about a topic close to China Segment’s heart - the relationship between food and how freaking cold it is in the non-insulated, non-centrally heated apartments in Shanghai.
Kitchens are invariably located near the front door, often away from the bedroom or living room (that you might actually heat).  So in fall, winter [...]

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Oh how I wish windows in this city were made to seal.  I put my hand near them and feel the heat seeping out.  Our apartment has become a giant vortex of heat leaving… and we haven’t even turned the heaters on (I think today’s the day for that).
So we’ve got this little sun room [...]

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I wish.
It’s starting to get cold in Shanghai. The leaves are falling, the temperature’s dropping. And that includes indoors.
For some reason in the 1950s the central government decided that South of the Yangtze River residential buildings would be constructed without central heating or insulation. That means that apartment buildings are nothing [...]

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A metaphor for China’s growth?
A couple of years ago when I used to live in the Jing’an area of Shanghai my apartment got a face-lift. In order to paint, the crew set up a little scaffolding… like say 1,000 pieces of bamboo. The picture above is the view from below apartment looking [...]

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Driers are still a rarity in China.
1. For the initial cost of the appliance
2. For the eletricity bill
3. The real reason - most people in China think air/sun drying is much better. Why? Well, fresh air leave clothes and blankets smelling nice and clean (though given the amount of particulates [...]

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