Having settled in my room in the staff hotel at the university in Ningbo, I’ve had a chance to quickly go through my photos to put up some of the Shanghai new year crowds I mentioned in the last post.

This photo shows the crowds on Nanjing Lu (street), the long pedestrianised shopping precinct.

The road was packed with people enjoying the cold, but mostly clear evening. The atmosphere was very nice. Some, but by no means all of the shops were open, so I think people were more enjoying their day off and spending time ambling with friends and family than out with any great purpose.

Xintiandi is a very upmarket bar and restaurant area, ironically centred around the school were the CCP had one of their first meetings. My colleague and I passed through the area twice and it was relatively quite, though on one day there were some men performing with a Chinese dragon.

Like Nanjing Lu, but unlike Xintiandi, the retail area built in traditional style near the old town was also very busy. Here most of the shops were open and people were eating traditional foods (and many street food vendors were in sight). The area was adorned with Chinese lanterns. As much as the density of people with the colours was intriguing, it was far too crowded for my liking. I will return though, the area has a number of excellent dumpling stores.