Sky in Shanghai

Sky is living in Shanghai for a month, reconnecting with his childhood haunts. Here he is in on the Bund, Shanghai's famous riverfront with the new Pudong financial center rising in the background.

The building with the green pyramid roof is the Peace Hotel, called the Cathay Hotel before World War II. Sky and I used to eat at the 9th floor windows overlooking the Bund when he was little. I have always loved the view of the Huangpu, the muddy river that cuts through Shanghai with its barges and rusting freighters plowing up and down.

These are shengjian bao, Shanghai's signature fried dumplings. Sky didn't remember them from when he was a kid and was unimpressed. I love them.

He visited Shanghai Center, the complex where we spent a lot of time. This is the sign outside the elevators that we would take to my office on the 7th floor.

Dinnertime!

He walks to and from work. He is doing an internship with a TV station, International Channel Shanghai, or ICS, that is working on a PBS documentary about China. ICS is the foreign-language cable channel of Shanghai Media Group - the second most powerful media group in China after China Central Television, or CCTV. The tall building is where the Shanghai Media Group and ICS have their offices.

Here's Sky outside the building.

This is a picture he sent of his lunch at the canteen for Shanghai Media Group.

He seems to be having fun.

This is the office at ICS. Sky is helping do some editing and promos and generally watching how a documentary gets made.

This is Sky's desk and an image from the documentary on the screen. The guy in the shot, looking up at the tall buildings, is Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a very interesting guy who set up the internship for Sky.

Sky is living in an apartment with two young women, one of whom is an anchor on an ICS show. This is the view from the apartment balcony.

This is a close-up of the view from the balcony, showing the Jinmao Tower and the new Shanghai Tower beside it through the haze.

Sky took a walk one day to see our old place on Jianguo Xi Lu - Jianguo West Street - which is not far from where he is living now. This is the front gate to the house. I made the little building on the left a playroom for the boys, but we only lived here for a few months before moving to Paris.

Sky has taken to eating at a Hong Kong-style restaurant. This was his dinner one night. I gave him Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy," which I'm happy to see he's reading. I was embarrassed to admit that, despite several attempts, I have never read it myself.