This is actually a photo of me wearing the Nike Vapor Flash running jacket

Li Na on stage with my friend Alex Niu

Wuhan

Nike Wuhan Exclusive Women’s Trainers – 50 pairs only!

It was pretty awesome.

Invited Nike athletes included NBA Players LeBron James, Amare Stoudamire, LaMarcus Aldrige, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, as well as skateboarders Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, the Duke and Georgetown University basketball teams and Chinese track star Liu Xiang.

And they had activity areas and participation places for golf, tennis, football (American), baseball, soccer, MMA, women’s fitness, skateboarding, basketball and free concerts every night. It was impressive.

Georgetown vs. Liaoning

Girls handing out megaphones

LaMarcus Aldridge coaching the North U-22 team

P-Rod!

Skateboarding Venue

My friend Alex Niu on the video feed talking to the Yoga Teacher

Cooling down

Nike Skateboarding

Retail

Aaron Rodgers!

LaMarcus Aldrige coaching the North China girls team

Outdoor Branding

tofu fa – or silken tofu is a cantonese style ‘tong sui’ – or literally ‘sugar water.’ made with fresh tofu and served with a ginger simple syrup, it can be a refreshing end to a meal.

this particular shop specialized in tofu of all sorts – fried, baked . . .and dessertified.

the tofu fa here was excellent. served with a lot of different flavors

instead of the usual ginger simple syrup, i went with almond flavor.

Yan Wo Dou Bun Chong (causeway bay branch)
55 jardine’s bazaar
causeway bay
under $40 hkd

[post edited to change out the double photos]

while i was there over the chinese new year break, i shot some photos of the star ferry.

however, in berkeley, there is definately one place where the food is still good more than a decade after i graduated, and that’s top dog.

a tiny store on the southside of campus (there’s one on northside and the west side of campus now too) top dog was one of the go-to places for the dormitories and greek houses and apartment dwellers on southside – which consituted about 60% of the berkeley undergraduate population.

a one person staff, walls plastered with libertarian literature, and a menu of about 10 of the best sausages you could put between a hot dog bun ever. top dog continues to put out amazing sausages that still make me hungry – usually i order two bockwursts (1/3 veal, 2/3 pork, milk) but this time i went with a kielbasa and a garlic and a bockwurst. they have the best mustard (but be careful of the russian mustard – it’s FILLED with horseradish) – i like to make one dog up with stone ground mustard and sauerkraut and the other with russian mustard and onions.

however, when you come here, its a little bit like the “soup nazi” – not so strict, but its intimidating, once you walk in the grillman shouts at you “what do you want?” – and you should really have your order ready. most cal students/regulars will just return fire “two bocks” or “a hot and a kiel” or “a garlic and a brat” – order your dog first. then later when he comes back for money, you can ask for the drink or chips. don’t order the chili.

chris looks forward to her veggie dog:

libertarian propoganda:

two bockwursts ready for eating:

there’s 3 locations for top dog in berkeley, but i like the following one:

2534 durant avenue (near telegraph ave.)
berkeley, ca 94704-1715
(510) 843-5967

each dog is $3 (it was $1 when i was in school). the menu is here . i like the bocks, the keils, the tops and garlics and the calabreses, myself.

of course, i’m not really sure what is home anymore. let’s review a bit:

pittsburgh, pa

i left at age 2 or 3. don’t remember a single thing about pittsburgh. have never been back. so pittsburgh isn’t home. (although if i was mainland chinese, i’d be a pittsburgher)

la verne, ca/los angeles area

well, i spent from age 4 to age 17 . . .so 13 years . . . in the los angeles area. i certainly feel at home in la, but i no longer have any place of residence there. many of my friends no longer live there. and when i visit, i spend a lot of time on the west side of los angeles, which i enjoy, but it’s certainly not the la (suburban, boring) that i grew up in. so is la home? I tell people i’m from la, so maybe.

berkeley, ca

14 years after leaving college, a good quarter of my t-shirts still say “cal” or “california” on them, so i obviously have some affinity for my university. but i could never live back in berkeley, nor would i ever call it home. how about the rest of the bay area? it’s possible, but it’s not as much home as la. so, no.

chini town, huadu city, guangdong.

yeah, i was only here for 9 months. but next i moved here:

hong kong, sar

ah, hong kong. 1 year of residence in the 70s, 6 in the last 90s and early 2000s. a permanent resident. and i tell everyone that i’m half from hong kong and half from la. i feel at home here. the only thing is i don’t have a place to live here. so yes, hong kong is home.

sacramento, ca

i only lived here for a few months, but this is where my parents and my stuff is.

that’s not home. but it’s where i’ll be spending most of my time at “home” over christmas and new year’s at.

and of course, shanghai, prc

hmm. i’ve been here 3 years. i do somewhat feel at home here, but a lot less than los angeles, hong kong or even the bay area. but this is where i live. this is where a lot of my friends are. this is where my life is right now.

this is where many people would write some pablum about home being where the heart is, or where the family is, but honestly i have no idea where my home is.

2. apologies for the crappy photo, but this was taken with my iphone, one-handed.

location: dong bei ren
no.1 south shaanxi road, near yan’an road
shanghai

dish: giant dish of pork bones with meat straws (yes! meat straws!) to suck out the marrow.

dong bei ren is a fun restaurant to bring the tourists – they have the flaming dragon fish, then all the waitresses (who all look like rosy-cheeked apparitions from a 1960′s era issue of ‘china reconstructs’) come over and sing the fish song. they ran out of fish last night, but still came over to sing. the food is over-salted and not the best representation of north-east food, but with the singing, the beer opening with chopsticks, the central location, the dumplings and the sticky, crispy, sweet potato dessert, dong bei ren is good fun.

if you really would rather just eat without all the other trappings, i have a couple of other places around town that are more suitable, but when you get visitors, this is a great place to go.

special shout out to the haibao in the photo, andrew p.!