The Expo

The day finally arrived. Today I went to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China with Tom, Fanny, and Thomas.

Before I even arrived at the Expo, my day was off to a flying start. We had planned to extend our stay at our hostel for a few more days, but we found out that no twin rooms were available. Our plan was to meet up with Fanny and Thomas at 8am, which meant we had to pack up our room fast.

We hastily packed our room and set out to Fanny's hotel where we would leave our bags all day. One step out of the door and one of the receptionists at the hostel calls out to ask us if we've found a place to stay yet, just as she hangs up a telephone. It turns out somebody just canceled a reservation and we could continue staying in our room for one night. Back we went, dropped off the bags and headed to meet our friends, if only fifteen minutes late.

As it stands, we do not know where we'll be staying tomorrow night and are hoping that something clears up by morning. There are dormitory spaces available, but Tom prefers the twin, so the search will continue.


On to the Expo! Before the 35 degree weather got to us, we managed to enter the following five pavilions:

• Australia - was recommended by others, and had an awesome theatre, but awful content
• Belgium - free chocolate!
• Italy - the favourite by far; simply gorgeous; really awesome vertical orchestra.
• Canada - the bike-driven video was neat, and so was the reactive pond, but the gloomy closing video was in poor taste. Oh, and there were these men wearing very strange costumes running around, which was surprising.
• North Korea - hide your children, hide your wife

It seemed for the most part the pavilions were more interesting from the outside.








Anyway, it was a good day. I've been inundated with activity for the past few, however, and I really could use some rest, so I'm just taking it easy tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will include a visit to the Bund.

Beijing

Well today has been fun. Got up early (7:30am) and left immediately for the airport. My flight for Beijing left at 10:05am and I managed to arrive at the gate at 9:47am. PHEW!!

Upon arriving at the Beijing airport, my goal was to find out how to reach the metro. One of the signs pointed to something called the "Airport Express", and that sounded promising so I headed there. I guessed right and soon enough I was on the metro. Three transfers later (I had got off at the wrong stop first, since the signage was unclear), I arrived at my stop: Qianmen station. Now the only thing I had to do was find my hostel. Unfortunately, my only resource for navigating was the map in the Lonely Planet, which just wasn't good enough. I wandered around for around an hour before I found the hostel and thank goodness I did.


My time here is short, so all that wandering is going to make it difficult to see the sights I want. I managed to see Tiananmen Square today, and hope to see the Forbidden City on Monday before leaving back to Shanghai.


After checking out the square, I thought that a delicious meal of authentic Peking duck was in order, so I headed to the nearby Qianmen Quanjude location.


The food was spectacular. They carve the duck directly in front of your table and then one of the people working there will show you how to construct a delicious peking duck wrap, if you so choose. Did I mention how good it was? Unbelievable. It's all about the sauce though, so if you do have some, make sure to get extra! Oh, and be sure to arrive early, since there are outrageously long line-ups to get in.


The 25 minute wait before I was seated put some pressure on my pre-arranged Kung Fu show reservation at 6:30pm, but I managed to make it back to the hostel with a few minutes to spare. The show itself was pretty interesting. Contrary to what I expected, it wasn't just a slew of disjoint martial arts acts; instead, it was a story based around a monk who studied Kung Fu. The performers were great, and I'd recommend the show to anyone with some time to spare in Beijing. I booked my ticket through Leo Hostel, where I'm staying.


I'm pooped now. Will be heading to bed shortly, as I have to be up and ready for 7:30am tomorrow to head to the Great Wall. So far, Beijing is awesome.

* * *


Wowwwwwww! The Great Wall was unbelievable. I hiked 10km along it and it was just fantastic. The views from the wall are unparalleled and the wall itself is outrageous. I can't imagine how anybody was convinced to build such a thing. Well, I suppose if it's life or death, you'll choose life and build the wall, but lugging stones up several small mountains must have been challenging.

I'm sharing a room with two American girls and one from France, and as it turned out, we all went to the wall today. So we climbed together for the most part, which really made the trip more enjoyable. It's always better to share something beautiful with somebody than to just experience it on your own.

Now, some pictures:










And what better way to cap off a trip to the Great Wall of China than to sit in Beijing traffic for 1.5 hours? It was dreadful, but the bus had a constant stream of South Park on our way to the Wall and the Simpsons on the way back, which helped take the edge off. When I finally arrived back at the hostel, it was too late to make it to the Beijing Opera, so I just accompanied my roommates to Quanjude for a second night of Peking duck (it was their first, however). The verdict is in: Peking duck at Quanjude is unbelievably delicious.

My two big hitters left to see are the Forbidden City and then, if time remains, the Olympics grounds. I'll be visiting the Forbidden City tomorrow morning, but my flight to Shanghai takes off at 3:30pm, so I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to see both.

Anyway, all in all, Beijing has been a really great experience. Everyone I've met at the hostel has been very friendly and I've had a great deal of fun.


* * *

Today was moderately disastrous, but started well. Somehow, I've found my way back to Shanghai with a cold can of Suntory in my hand.


It all began with some dumplings-- what better way to start a day? I love dumplings. As planned, I headed to the Forbidden City and arrived at the gates a few minutes before they opened. I purchased the audio guide and explored the old "city" (it is actually called the Palace Museum). The guide was pretty cool! It activated commentary depending on where you were located within the premises. The Forbidden City itself was impressive, but became a bit monotonous by the end as all the buildings look similar.







A turtle statue with a dragon head? It really doesn't get better than that.

After the Forbidden City, I decided to head to the Olympics grounds before leaving Beijing. It took me a while to get there, and on the way I ran into a public gymnasium. At first I thought it was a park for children, but then I realized all the occupants were adults and were exercising. I didn't get a picture of it, but I did get a picture of the five public table tennis games going on just a few feet to the right of it.


After many steps, and many metro transfers, I arrived at the Olympics grounds. It was pretty impressive-- the National Stadium is huge. I recorded a video to give you an idea, but the internet is too slow here to upload. Sorry!



It just so happened that the International Tourism Festival was taking place when I visited the Olympics premises, so I saw many foreigners dressed in traditional outfits to their corresponding nations. It was pretty bizarre, but very welcomed. I suppose America was representing by sending Mickey and Minnie to hang out with the tourists.


Getting back to Shanghai was no easy task. In brief, I got on the wrong subway and ended up missing my airplane. I then failed to call Tom to inform him. I was put on a plane that was scheduled to leave at 5:30pm. It left at 6:00pm. When I arrived in Shanghai, the metro to my hostel cost 4 yuan, but I only had 3. I then searched the airport for some place to break my hundred yuan bill. I bought a large pepsi at KFC and boarded the subway. I originally planned to arrive at the hostel at 6:30pm. In actuality, I arrived at 9:15pm.

Alive and well.

Mall, Thai, Acrobats

Delicious Thai food in another multistory mall before watching a spectacular acrobatic show at the Shanghai Center.






A great meal followed by a great show. Beijing tomorrow.

Miscellaneous Musings

Shanghai redefines skyscraper-- every building is enormous.

Monotype Corsiva destroys the image of otherwise respectable stores

I embarassed Tom by having this hilarious picture taken

Change of plans: A weekend in Beijing

I've decided that I will spend this weekend in Beijing. Tom won't be able to make it, since he has pre-arranged engagements with friends to attend to, so I will be going alone.

My flight departs from Shanghai, where we've just returned to, on Saturday morning at 10am and I leave Beijing at 4pm on Monday. The hostels I'm currently considering are very close to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which will be my first targets after arriving.

My current hit-list is:

• The Great Wall of China
• The Forbidden City
• Tiananmen Square
• The Olympics premises
• Beijing Opera
• Martial Arts Show
• Quanjude Restaurant (Peking duck)

Ooo and maybe I'll go find the CCTV building-- it looks crazy:

Image from e-architect.co.uk.

I'm also considering doing a cycle tour. If you have any suggestions of other restaurants or places I should visit, please let me know!

Visiting Zijinshan

With Tom feeling awful from the choices he made at the restaurant yesterday, we decided today would be a great day to climb a ton of steps at the nearby mountain in Nanjing, Zijinshan (Purple-Gold Mountain).


Our day began with 42 dumplings at an establishment on "cheap street" as per Lee's recommendation. They served maybe twenty different kinds of dumplings ranging from egg and leek to beef and carrot, and the rather distasteful pork and seafood. We ordered five different kinds and they all came on the same plate, making each bite a surprise. Nothing like biting into some raunchy seafood when you are hoping for something a little more appetizing, like the typical pork and leek.

After finishing up brunch, we headed to a local pharmacist to get Tom some medication for his intense and periodic stomach pains. It seems they gave him pills of concentrated garlic. So far they appear to be rather ineffective at helping with his stomach pains, but very effective at making his breath smell awful.


To the mountain! For the first time, and certainly not the last, we decided to take a cab. It was as Tom put it, "the most comfortable cab ride I've ever had, aside from the clear violations of traffic laws." The cabbie is surrounded by this plastic cage, as shown in the preceding photograph, and the air conditioning was blasting. The only communication made during the twenty minute trip was when Tom and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows as we continually made left and right lane changes with the right turn signal on for two minutes straight.


When we arrived at our destination, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, we began preparing our minds for the climb ahead of us. There were 392 steps ahead of us, and we would be walking up each one. Tom had the rather brilliant idea of filming the walk up so we could make a sped-up video of it later, but it turns out Windows Live Movie Maker does not support that feature, so we'll have to make it when we get back.


It turned out the climb wasn't too bad, although we were sweating profusely by the end. The view at the top was pretty awesome, if you ignored all the cheap merchants peddling goods around this man's tomb. It was somewhat surprising to see the lack of courtesy people showed given where we were, as there were people spitting saliva and gum wherever they pleased.


Not feeling completely satisfied with the number of stairs we had currently encountered, we decided it would be best if we went to the top of the 9-story Linggu Pagoda. After reaching the fifth or sixth floor, you stop expecting it to end and accept the grind ahead. We recorded a video of this too, so hopefully that turns out when we get a chance to edit it.


While there wasn't much to see at the top of the pagoda (besides a beautiful mountain view from one side), it was still very nice to be up that high, breathing almost fresh air for the first time in nearly a week (we love you Canada).

By the time we got down, we realized it was time to get back to the city since we had been invited to have homemade Swedish meatballs made by one of Lee's friends. They were tasty and we had a great time hanging out with a bunch of foreigners who hailed from Australia, France, Sweden, Germany and Spain (if I recall correctly). Dinner led to clubbing at the foreigner-favored spot Mazzo, where foreigners drink for free all night.

It was a good day (insert Ice Cube beat).