In time, I plan on taking down our funky old apple tree and getting a good, shade producing pear tree in close proximity.  But I know nothing about pear trees and am wondering what kind to get?

Will be planting the pear next spring and letting it grow for a few seasons with the apple tree still up (we need the shade)  When it looks like the pear is big enough to compete, we will slowly prune the apple out of existance.

We'd like something that grows a nice tastey pear and would provide good shade.  Of course, it needs to be a species that thrives and is hearty in this area.

Any suggestions for what tree I should be looking to plant next spring?

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An ascendant man, living in a degenerate age, MUST, by definition, live in contradistinction to his times.

I grew up with a diverse orchard of kinds of pear trees, up in Leaburg, and the Bartlett was always the nicest tree, and certainly the nicest fruit.

Bartlett as the NICEST tree, you say?  That's very interesting.   I know I was certainly considering Bartlett - it's a pretty common pear, and that's doubtless for a good reason.  Hmmmm.

Do you have any history with these Asian pears?  We really like the pears, but have no idea how much extra trouble such trees would be, or what kind of shade we could expect from them.

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An ascendant man, living in a degenerate age, MUST, by definition, live in contradistinction to his times.

Everything I've seen about the Asian Pear refers to them being grown -stateside- in Southern Cal. which implies that they need a warmer climate, or drier, then we have here. A Bartlett tree is actually hard to tell from an apple tree, very similiar.

Whoops! I finally got a clear mental picture of our old pear orchard, and I have to back off from some of my earlier statements: I remember now that the Bartlett had awesome fruit, but the trees were a little scraggly, the best looking tree was the Bosc, but I can't recommend the fruit: brown and sorta thin when 'green', and still brown and sorta thin when ripe. Not that there is any such thing as a bad pear. And to further invalidate my opinions, our orchard was about forty years old, so who knows what a young tree, of any variety, would look like.  lol