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Now, onto this weekās adventures!
Life in Shanghai
This was another normal week. Like many weeks, I read a lot of papers. I was trying to determining what research avenues I will explore as a postdoc at SJTU. For the Astronomers reading this, I’m going to measure the Luminosity function for cluster member galaxies as a function of magnitude gap (and possibly redshift) for clusters identified as part of SDSS-redMaPPer and the Yang group catalogue. This is my first project working with my postdoctoral mentor/boss, Prof. Ying Zu. I’m excited to get started! Additionally, I’ll also be investigating the connection between the velocity caustic (yay the Chris Miller Research group) and the Splashback Radius in simulations (as a long term project).
That’s enough Astronomy for this week, so on to the adventures!
Despite the lack of Thanksgiving to mark a transition to the Holiday season, I’ve now seen seasonal lights in different parts of Shanghai that I’ve visited. Unlike in the US, in China, Christmas is a purely commercial holiday. It’s also unclear to me whether the lights have anything to do with Christmas or are up year round. I’ll keep my eyes open and report back in the spring.
In addition to the first Holiday lights, I saw more cool buildings/sculptures/posters this week!
My first adventure this weekend was to visit the Shanghai Natural History Museum, which is located inside the Jing’an sculpture park. Unfortunately, it was raining, so I only briefly visited the sculpture park, but it’s only 1.5 miles away, so I’ll definitely be back!
As many of you know, I spent a summer doing Astronomy research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. So, I’m quite fond of these kinds of museums. I had a fantastic time spending much of Saturday morning/afternoon visiting the Natural History Museum. It’s a very modern museum, with 5 floors of exhibits!
You start on the 5th floor and work your way down. First, there is an Astronomy or history of the Universe exhibit with telescope models, pictures and descriptions of stars, planets, galaxies, and clusters, as well as maps of where the telescopes are in the world. I was impressed by the level of detail for the museum! I knew I was in the right place when I saw the MILLENNIUM simulation image (on the right) as I entered!
Following the Astronomy area, you transition into the River of Life, which includes models and taxidermy of all kinds of animals native to China and throughout the world. The display was very adventurous and an excellent use of all the space! Also, as you can see , the museum was packed full of kids off from school for the weekend!
Below that exhibit is another area populated by fossils of dinosaurs and other animals. It was a really interesting juxtaposition to see fossils right next to models and highlighted how we learn about species by studying their fossils! Additionally, a lot of the information presented about the animals a). was in English! and b). discussed which species were native to China and where.
On an even lower level, was an area focused on the speciesnative to Shanghai . There was also a large exhibit detailing the different conservation and environmental efforts the Chinese government are instituting to reduce their carbon footprint and help endangered species. While I’m not sure how enforced these policies are, it was great to see them mentioned.
The bottom floors focused on animals in different environments. They had a huge African Savannah exhibit, which featured a movie! In that room, they dimmed the lights and showed a video of different animals hunting and grazing in their natural habitat. In addition to the Savannah, there were dioramas of the arctic, tundra, rainforest, and local Chinese climates (including mountains where pandas live).
The bottom floor also highlighted other beautiful aspects of nature! Seeing all the shells reminded me of all my visits to Siesta Key Florida with my parents and grandparents as a child and trying to find the biggest most beautiful shells!
Pinecones from the top 
Pinecons from the Bottom 
All butterflies 
More butterflies 
The museum also featured cultural exhibits describing the history of agriculture and how rice and and corn were brough throughout the world. There were also works of Chinese art and different clothing on display. While I’ve seen these types of items at the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai History Museum, they were still really cool!
I had a fantastic time at the Museum. While the Shanghai version isn’t quite as large as AMNH (I visited the whole museum in 3.5 hours), the modern feel was welcome, making it a place I would definitely recommend visiting, especially if you’re with kids!
While noone came up to ask for a photo this week, I had a much cuter interaction with a little boy (~5-7) at the museum. In the Arctic exhibit, a little boy with his father came over and said “Hello” and “Nice to meet you.” A few minutes later he came running over and introduced himself. A few minutes after, he came over and said goodbye. I later waved to him when I passed him resting with his Dad. It was fun to be viewed as someone interesting, but not have to deal with cameras this time! š
While it was a rainy weekend, it stopped late Sunday morning, so I went for another run, 4.5 miles! It’s now actually starting to get cool. While it was still warm enough to wear shorts, I busted out my short tights for the first time. Temperature wise, the highs are still in the mid to low 50s, but it’ll start to be cooler at night. However, It won’t be getting below freezing (at least not as a high) for quite a while.
Food in Shanghai
My second adventure this week involved food! I tried a hot pot restaurant for the first time! An all vegan hot pot! For those of you who, like myself, were unfamiliar with hot pot, here’s how it works. 1). Select a soup base — I chose a fragrant maitake mushroom base 2). Select vegetables and proteins to add — I selected tofu, dried tofu noodles, lotus root, and cauliflower/broccoli. They had a ton of fake meats, like vegetarian seafood, and fake pork, but some of that looked too real to me, so I stuck with the tofu. 3). Make a dipping sauce — I made a sesame sauce, one of my favorites!
The maitake mushroom soup 
broccoli/cauliflower 
lotus root 
tofu 
tofu noodles 
sesame dipping sauce
Once the food arrives, you put the ingredients in progressively by how long they take to cook. I had no idea what to do at first, so at the restaurant I had to search what to do on my phone. š Once everything is cooked through, ~ 5-10 minutes, you take the food out of the soup, let it cool, then dip it into the sauce. I ordered enough that I did this twice. Then you can drink the rest of the soup (once it has cooled).
This was a really fun experience! I think it will be more fun to go as a group so you can try a lot of different options. In the future, I want to try more vegetables, such as different mushrooms and baby corns, as well as noodles and dumplings!
Jewish Life in Shanghai
For Shabbat this week, I joined my friend Julia at the Sephardic center (where I went for Simchat Torah). This is an Orthodox environment. We arrived after services (which start at sundown, so ~ 5:00 pm) and joined them for Shabbat dinner. It was a really interesting environment. During dinner people were speaking Hebrew, Chinese, Spanish, and some English. So, there was a lot of talking I couldn’t follow. However, the people were very friendly and the food was delicious. While I prefer to join Kehilat Shanghai and the Moishe House for Shabbat, it’s nice to know that there are other welcoming alternatives for me in Shanghai!
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my visit to the Shanghai Natural History Museum and hot pot experience! This should be another normal week. Iām hoping to make progress on my DES and SJTU research. I’m sure I’ll find another site to visit this weekend. If you have and questions or comments, please share them!
Until next week!
In peace,
Jesse
