BuzzingInShanghai

Telecommunications in China

2009-11-15T19:41:00.004+08:00

I was afraid to write about this while in China because I wasn't sure how legal my telecommunications setup would have been perceived by the Chinese authorities. While Internet is widely available in Cafes and hotels, the chinese government keeps a tight leash on what sites its citizens can visit. While I had heard about this before, I had no idea how tight their control was. China restricts access to most of the sites I planned to use to keep in touch with family and friends. Blogger, Blogspot, Twitter, Youtube and parts of Facebook are blocked. You still were able to read my blog while I was in China, so it means I found a way around the firewall :) Indeed, after a bit of investigation (kind of difficult since most sites dealing with the subject are blocked), I found a solution: Skydur. Their small fee was more than worth the freedom to visit any site I wanted and the installation was pretty easy, even on my Linux powered netbook.

The story is the complete opposite for cell phone communications. I knew that I could use my unlocked phone in China and simply get a SIM card, which are plentiful and available everywhere in China from cell phone stores to newspaper stands. While plans are varied and quite hard to understand for a foreigner, rates are really cheap compared to Canada. I was able to find a SIM card for about $10 that was loaded with a bit less than $5 of prepaid airtime. I found later that if I went to the market instead of the official provider, I could have gotten the same card for about $6. The $5 of prepaid airtime was more than enough to last me through the entire trip and make and receive many calls from friends and relatives as well as make internal to China long distances to arrange hotels, tours, etc. Everytime I made a call, I would think it was my last, expecting the $5 to have run out but when I left there was still gas in the tank. Amazing! For overseas called, I used a callback service that allowed me to talk as much as I wanted with rates at about 11 cents per minute, charged to my credit card once a month. This worked really well with my prepaid plan which as far as I understood, included unlimited incoming calls.

Last day in Beijing

2009-11-12T00:26:00.005+08:00

For our last day in Beijing, we decided to visit a park near our hotel: Beihai Park. It's a pretty old park and features a beautiful lake and a small hill where a white dagoba rests.
This tree is really old and has a famous history of having provided shade to an emperor. Mildly cool.
This temple contains a -no photographs allowed- jade buddha of 1.5m that was a gift to the emperor. Apparently the buddha has no flaws whatsoever.
Beautiful scenery all around
This cool turtle lion is guarding the templeThe way to the dagoba has all kinds of interesting caves
And they all seemed to contain a different sculpture. I liked this one
The view from the top was interesting
Even if it doesn't look like you can get inside the dagoba.
The way down features some nice rock formations that are really interesting to walk through
And the lake side is a beautiful walk on its own
For dinner, we found a Thai/Indonesia place where we had a really delicious mixed grill. Look at this platter. Delicious.
And after dinner, we caught an acrobatics show. No cameras allowed, sorry. Here's a picture of the pamphlet to wet your appetite.
These gymnasts/dancers were really talented. One of the stand out performance involved about a dozen girls riding on a single bike in an inverted pyramid. Wow! Some juggling, tap dancing, contortionists, loose rope jumping and playing with props like lights at the ends of a rope rounded the show into a really good night out.

Tomorrow is travelling back to Canada. While I will miss China, I am ready to go back. I may do a few more pieces of debriefing / thoughts after the trip but it most likely won't be until at least Saturday.

Summer Palace, Peking Duck & Home sickness

2009-11-10T22:18:00.009+08:00

Today when we woke up in Beijing, we knew something had happened overnight, having been woken up twice by thunder. I wasn't prepared for this sight when I left the room!
I'm not sure what will happen to all these bicycles over the Beijing winter
The rain and snow definitively cleaned the air up with the air being pretty breathable today, yay!

Even with all that snow, we decided to visit the summer palace. It definitively looked more like a winter palace today!
It features beautiful buildings and a rewarding view once we climbed the main hill.
Some of the areas were closed, probably because of the weather. These boats seemed stuck in ice at the moment.
I must admit the traditional chinese style has lost a bit of its appeal after more than 4 weeks here. Still, with the snow, it gave the traditional style a renewed twist
The emperor really knew how to live in style with beautiful buildings and twisty paths everywhere
One could easily get lost with all these paths, but I can think of worse fate than being lost in such beautiful surroundings
The palace also features a man made lake with an island in the middle
Simply beautiful!

For dinner tonight, we decided to try the famous Peking Duck. After asking around at the hotel, we settled on a place nearby called Da Dong that both the concierge and travel book both spoke highly of.
We had some trouble actually getting to the place. With the snow, the Beijing taxi fleet was obviously overstretched and our hotel couldn't even reach the switch board. They suggested hailing one from the main road about a block away. When we got to the main street, we quickly realised that all the taxis were either occupied or not even interested in stopping despite our obvious call signs. Even after they would stop, once they would learn of our destination, they would say it is too close and drive away! What kind of city is this when taxis are refusing fares? With a flag fall of 10 yuan for the first 4km, you'd think they love short distances to get more money for less mileage? The restaurant being somewhat close by, we decided to walk it after too many frustration dealing with the cabs. We relied on strangers for directions every now and then (good thing we had the Chinese address on a piece of paper provided by the friendly concierge)!

When we got there, we noticed that this was quite the high class dining establishment. I loved the setup with a fish pond surrounding the 4 ovens used to cook the birds!
From our table, we could see the working chefs and guess at which bird would end up in our belly :)
Once the duck was ready, a server side chef carved it up for us
At which point our soup arrived. You gotta love the Chinese style service. Try as they might and be friendly and smiling, they should take a lesson from the French and learn to stagger the dishes into appetizers, main dishes, desserts, etc. When eating in China, they bring whatever is ready whenever it is ready. Sometimes the soup comes last. Sometimes the sweet tarts are the first thing brought to the table. They have no sense of timing for food. The sweet and sour soup was delicious even if ill timed.
There is surprinsingly little meat in a Peking duck. I was under the impression that ducks were birds bigger than chicken and that one ought to feed a family of four comfortably. All we got once our table side carver was finished were two small plates likes the one in the picture
The proper way to eat a Peking duck according to the waitress and what everyone around us was doing is to make little sandwiches with the pancakes (think shawarma or fajita) and add the condiments that you like from a provided selection of cucumbers, onions, thick soy sauce, garlic paste, etc
This seemed completely wrong to me. The duck was absolutely delicious. The crisp skin was tasty and melted in your mouth. The little meat we were given was moist and absolutely deliciously flavored. To mix it in with the pancakes and condiments that way would deny our taste buds of the various levels of flavors from the duck and drown it amongst too many tastes. Not to say that the exquisite texture would be completely lost. I had mine as is, eating the pancakes and condiments on their own as well.

Once we were done with the main dish, I kept thinking where's the rest of my duck? Alex explained that this was most probably it, but there may be hope in that the Hong Kong style 3 piece meal includes a duck stir fry at the end with the left overs from the carving. We were not so lucky and I quickly realised this was it when we received this beautiful and smoking fruit platter
My Peking Duck experience was almost a total disaster. I had heard great things about the bird and the way it is prepared, but did not expect such a tease of a meal, especially at such a relatively high price tag for China. Maybe I need a whole bird to myself next time or find somewhere that does Peking Turkeys.

What I did have was delicious but not filling at all and I went to KFC after to fill up the hole left in my stomach.

With only one full day left in Beijing, I'm wondering where all my home sickness is... There are a lot of things I miss about home (family, friends, clean water and air, salads and the pets for starters) and there are some things I can't wait to be without (playing charades with everyone, cutting in line, spitting in the street, YUCK!). Yet, I am not feeling an overruling desire to be home. I think having this blog and receiving your comments (THANK YOU!) has helped feel connected. Plus the phone calls at odd hours to my family on a semi-regular basis (sorry!) has helped me stay current on local news. While I do not miss TV, I know my PVR will have a pile of programs for me to work through.

Going back to a routine will be difficult but also welcomed. I can't wait to be able to chit chat with the girl on the bus and understand what the intercoms are saying at shopping centers. It's funny that sometimes the little things makes the biggest difference.

The Wall

2009-11-09T17:52:00.007+08:00

In China, there is a saying that you haven't seen China until you have seen the Great Wall of China. And today, I have seen China (and the Great Wall). Let me tease you with this one picture before I tell my tale ;)
The day started with another visit to a silk factory. Apparently that helps defray the gas costs of the journey.
We then drove by the business district where we saw the tallest building in Beijing
And these cute towers
As well as the new CCTV building with a very daring architecture, right beside the old one that burned down during a fireworks celebration
We then drove to a restaurant beside a ming vase factory (sorry, forgot to take pictures) and then reached our destination: Mutianyu
That's me at the base of the mountain
Can I spread the moment a bit further before showing you the actual wall? We took a cable car on the way up. Travel in style or don't travel at all!
And then we were on the wall!
Wow. What a feeling. What a beautiful sight. What clean air! I don't know if it's my oxygen starved brain after too many days in dusty Beijing but I felt terrific. I was running up and down the stairs like a maniac, breathing relief and taking in the sights. WOW! Words cannot describe it.

There are watchouses every 100m or so where groups of soldiers would stand guard and warn other outpost with smoke signals if enemies were approaching

These watchouses are pretty small, here's a view from the inside
And here's another view
And me standing around looking happy
The wall itself is beautiful. The area we visited is fairly recent by wall standard, having being erected only 500 or so year ago and renovated about 20-30 years ago if I understood the guide correctly.
Here's an attempt at an artistic shot
We climbed pretty high up, probably because I am the EndorphinBuzzer and will not turn down a reasonable challenge. The guide never went that high up before and Alex didn't really have a choice to follow if he didn't want to look like a coward. I'm really happy we chose to get our own private guide for the day, we may not have had the opportunity to spend so much time there otherwise.
I will never forget how beautiful the wall is, snaking across the wilderness. How could they build such a long and beautiful thing before the invention of machines?
You can see here in the distance that the wall splits or forks into two children. The guide said that Mutianyu is particular for that.
Look at all those steps. All those bricks had to be carried by workers and their mules. Wow.
And the wall just doesn't stop. I think I heard that it is over 5000 km long. Do I sound amazed already? I am!
As if the wall itself wasn't enough to amaze me, there was wonderful sights everywhere I looked! Look at this lonely tree on the mountain top!
Then I looked at the wall again, snaking away from me, wanting me to climb it some more!
I took some breaks while I waited for the rest of the party to catch up to me ;)
And once I reached the highest point accessible to the public, I was rewarded with beautiful views. I still can't believe they built this gigantic structure so remote in the mountains so long ago. I am losing my vocabulary. Sorry.
Unfortunately for me (fortunately for the rest of my party) this was the highest point accessible.
So it made a good picture opportunity for the rest of the wall being restored (too wild to walk on the guide told us)
Here is a really bad picture of me, but I like it because you can see the wall snaking away in the background!
It was snowing on our way down. Cute.
Another shot of the wall snaking away before we part?
On the way home, we visited a tea house. We tasted some yummy tea but unfortunately the price were crazy ever for tourist standards so I didn't get any. Hopefully I can find the same leaves on the street for more reasonable prices.
The saying is true. You haven't seen China until you have seen the great walls. Of all the sites around Beijing, I think Mutianyu was the best for us. The EndorphinBuzzer on his own would have chosen a more adventurous path like Simatai to JingShanLing but with Alex in tow, the cable car accessibility and the low number of tourists of Mutianyu turned out to be just perfect!

I am now fully re-oxygenized with clean mountain air and ready for another 2.5 days of exploring Beijing before coming home where I will face the difficult task of returning to a routine life after 5 weeks on holidays. How will I ever be able to go back to cooking for myself, getting up in the morning and working to earn my keep?

Tian'anmen and Temple of Heaven

2009-11-08T20:33:00.005+08:00

Today we went back to Tian'anmen square in the hope to be able to visit the Mao mausoleum. Unfortunately, being late risers, we were a bit late to the party, not knowing the visiting hours end at noon. We still spend a bit of time looking around the parts that were closed last night.

I think those are part of the 60th celebration. There are huge screens replaying highlights of the parade and cultural programming
This is the monument to the heroes
This nice sculpture is beside the mausoleum
This is the mausoleum (I think)
We had some soup noodle for lunch at which point I decided to go back to the hotel for some R&R. The foggy Beijing air is not agreeing with me at all. Alex continued on to the Temple of Heaven where he brought back some really nice pictures
I joined Alex for dinner (thanks for cellphones to be able to find him!). I looked in the shops for the last few days for the trendy face masks that locals are wearing without finding them so I settled on a scarf for my weapon against the Beijing air. I look like a bank robber! We had a simple dinner with crab and shrimp ball soup
Chinese style chicken wings
And this dry bbq duck
I'm pretty excited about tomorrow since we get to see the great wall!!

Hazy, Lazy and Dog meat!

2009-11-08T10:44:00.006+08:00

After visiting the Olympic Park and having a small rest (my respiratory system is not agreeing at all with Beijing's hazy and humid air!), we headed over to Tian'anmen square and the Quianmen shopping street for a bit of shopping.

Tian'anmen at night is kinda of like being on a movie set with all the lights everywhere. With the haze, it felt like we were in Stephen King's The Fog where monsters would come out of the mist.
The buildings were lit up as if it was christmas
I think this is the monument to heroes
And this is the people's great hall where hawkers were selling tickets to a special event that must have been going on
When we got to the shopping street, the first thing we noticed is all the rules!
The street itself is beautiful and again, lit up like a movie set
There were lots of people milling around, looking for the perfect souvenir or good deals
We found a quiet place to have dinner where Alex pointed out that they had dog meat on the menu. Thinking of Amy the Shih-Tzu glaring at me, I didn't order any dog meat, opting instead for pork buns. However, there must have been a mixup in the ordering system. When my buns were delivered, Alex noticed the symbol for dog on the sticker beside the dish. We confirmed with the waiter that it was indeed dog meat (although if we asked him if he liked it last time he visited the moon, he probably would have said yes as well). So there we go, I had dog meat! I can hear Amy whining that I ate one of her cousins.
The buns were pretty good, if a bit salty. Alex didn't want to taste them at all. We also had more traditional pepper steak
Beef with mushrooms
And eggplants with garlic
As well as delicious sweet and sour soup that I forgot to take a picture of.

I really didn't think I would have dog meat when I woke up this morning!

Brunch, Hazy Tian'anmen & Zoo

2009-11-07T08:56:00.013+08:00

On Friday, we got out of the hotel a bit later than usual and started hunting for a restaurant where we could have a dim sum brunch. We didn't really find one but we found a compromise where we had this meal.

Not sure what veggies these are but they were cooked in a delicious fish sauce
Egg tarts for Alex since I don't like them. At the speed he gobbled them up, I think they were fairly delicious
Fujian rice with shrimps
Buns for me, Alex had only one. They were a bit dry and not quite as savoury as I had hoped
And these fairly bland steamed dumplings were pretty good once they were dipped in hot sauce.
After our meal, we made a small detour through Wangfujing road to do a bit of shopping. It was fairly quiet this early in the day but we still managed to spend more than we should have.
We saw this funny store "Beijing special product tourist goods supermarket"
And finally reach Tian'anmen square. It's different being here for real as compared to seeing it on TV. The place is HUGE!
Obligatory photo with Mao!
It was really hazy so we decided to skip the in depth visit and come back on a less hazy day if there is one.
Our next stop was the zoo where for only 15 Yuan (less than $3) you can get access to the grounds and the panda house. Pandas are a big draw at the Beijing zoo!
All they seem to do is sleep and eat. Reminds me of a cat I know :)
And if you need souvenirs, there's plenty of shops selling them for surprisingly reasonable prices (no negotiations though)
There's instructional exhibits as well to learn more about the pandas
And this "olympic panda house" where you can see them up close!
The zoo that is over 100 years old also features plenty of other animals. These ones made me miss the little furry creature that lives in my house.
Alex said this one looked a little bit like me.
And these looks like they were up to no good!
There's also scenic grounds to walk on.
The only part I didn't appreciate was the tiger house
I felt that the cages were way too small for these animals
And the ones that howled the loudest got to go outside for a stroll. Lucky them!
Also caged were elephants
Rhinos
And Hippos
The Giraffe had a bit more ground to run on
After the zoo, we headed back to Wangfujing road. Quite a different sight at night
We found this little food alley where exotic snacks are on offer
Looks at all the variety of meats on a stick! (yes, some of them are bugs!)
And they even had Chinese shawarma!
I totally wanted to eat a scorpion until I saw them wriggling on the stick, still alive!
I'm not sure what they do with the scorpions and I didn't see any locals get them so my courage dissipated. Maybe we will go again for another visit where I will have the guts to try it! It would help if I could ask questions like how are they cooked and are there any bits I'm not meant to eat :)

Forbidden City and Downtime

2009-11-06T09:32:00.008+08:00

The Forbidden City (or Palace Museum as it is now called) is a nice 15 minute walk away from our hotel, so it made sense for that to be our first visit in Beijing. It's quite something to see it on TV, but the palace really has to be visited in person to grasp the size of it all.
The whole forbidden city is surrounded by this huge wall (3.4km in length)
And a moat to keep intruders away
Inside the palace is a variety of buildings and beautiful decorative features
Some buildings and open spaces were used for state affairs
While others were used for the more personnal needs of the emperor
The palace also features a clock museum
And the retirement quarters have been turned into a gallery of precious artifacts such as these valuable seals
Everywhere I looked was beautiful decorations like this colored porcelain wall
There's also some beautiful gardens
And fantastic looking buildings to relax in
There's big walls dividing the various sections of the palace. We were explained by a friendly volunteer that access was restricted to most of the palace to women and eunuch (castrated males) to prevent questions about paternity of the empress and concubine's offspring. Eunuchs held prestigious positions in government and were greatly rewarded with prestige and treasure but at what cost!!!

The forbidden city is an amazing way to spend a day. I'm glad we went during a weekday, I can't imagine how busy it gets on the weekends!
After the visit to the Forbidden City, I wasn't feeling so well, coming down with a mild fever, headache and cough. It must be something I caught on the plane or just general tiredness. I went back to the hotel for a nap while Alex explored the shopping district at Wangfujing. He forgot the camera so no pictures but we'll be back for sure, it sounds like a wonderful place to spend an evening. I'm much better this morning. We hope to make it to Tian'anmen square today and then the zoo to see the pandas!

Beijing

2009-11-05T10:44:00.007+08:00

We are now in Beijing. Wednesday was a travel day and despite switching our plans from a 16 hour train ride to a 2 hour plane trip, by the time the time to reach the airports, the 2 hour early check-in and delays because of air traffic congestion, it took us nearly the whole day to make it to our destination.
When we got to Beijing, we noticed that it wasn't as cold as we feared, even if there was still some left over snow from the weekend.
It took us a while to negotiate our way to the hotel (The Emperor). The cabs here are different than Shanghai. Not very available and when you do find one, they don't want to use the meters. The rate they were suggesting were preposterous so we took the subway to the nearest station from our hotel and tried to find a cab willing to take us the rest of the way. Turns out our hotel is either not well known to the local cab operators or wasn't far enough for them to take us. We finally relied on help from one of the bell boy at a hotel right outside the subway station to negotiate for us. It required a lot of hand wringling and a call to our hotel (good thing we had cell phones and the hotel #!) for the driver to know where to go.

When we got here, we immediately realised that the trouble in getting here was well worth it. Check out this cool hotel room!
I was really happy to see that they had received my package containing all the souvenirs and some clothes that we didn't need in Xi'an. I didn't want to risk the overweight fees from the airline, so I had them shipped ahead of time. You guys can all expect to receive your souvenirs :)
My first impression of Beijing is that it is similar to Shanghai with a few less sky scrapers. There is lots of construction here too!
They also have modern looking buildings
And are still celebrating the olympic spirit if these signs in the Subway are any indication.
We walked around a bit to familiarise ourselves with our new home for the next week and dined in what was called a Tourist Restaurant by the Beijing Tourist Authority.

These noodles were a delicious start to fill our famished traveller's stomach
These crunchy duck spring rolls were also very delicious
A familiar dish came next, Kung Pao Chicken
Then this cuttle fish soup that had hints of lemon
And finally, this fried mandarin fish in sweet sauce didn't stand a chance even if it came last

Towers of Xi'an

2009-11-03T22:27:00.013+08:00

Xi'an has towers that provide landmarks in the middle of its walls. You've seen the Bell Tower before from my first entry about Xi'an
And there's also its sister tower, the Drum Tower.
Today we decided to visit both towers.

The Drum Tower is full of drums! For a small donation you can even bang the giant drum.
The roof features a bunch of cool details
And the top balcony offers great views of the city below
Inside the tower is an exhibit on, what else, drums!
I really wanted to bang on that one
The next stop was the Bell tower which has, you guessed it, a big bell!
You could bang the bell for a small donation, we didn't. Inside the tower was an exhibit on pottery and one on furniture (no pictures allowed for the furniture!)
Apparently, the Chinese invented the chairs. There were early model chairs on display. Mildly interesting would be an overstatement.

The views and architecture of the building itself were the real attraction...
The next stop on our daily visit to the city core's sights was the small goose pagoda where we climbed 14 (or was it 15?) of these narrowing and uneven staircases
to make it to the broken top floor
where we got some pretty amazing views

We wandered the rest of the grounds
Where I was able to bang this drum for a donation half of what was required at the bell tower, what a deal!
The bell is rumored to resound for 5km!

Admission to the grounds also includes the Xi'an museum
We visited a few exhibits about pottery
Buddhas
Calligraphy
and Chinese paintings
The highlight of the museum is surely the grounds where beautiful picture opportunities abound
Next, we made our way to Tang Dynasty Xi'an which is a fancy restaurant that offers a show after dinner (we didn't go to the show!) The restaurant looks really good and lots of attention on the details from the table centerpriece
to the fake gold walls
and matching plates and bowls
I'm not sure what parts of the chicken was floating in my chicken coconut soup but it tasted all right
The tofu and seafood in a soupy sauce were really really delicious
So was this bbq pork in honey
These noodles with beef were also pretty good
And this chicken drumstick stuffed with shrimps were awesome!
And lots of fruits for dessert, yummy!
After dinner, we made our way to the big goose pagoda
Where we watched was is reputedly the largest musical fountain in Asia (how many are there?)
The show was pretty cool but a bit underwhelming. It sounds cooler on paper I guess. We wandered around and found some pretty creepy sculptures depicting scenes of the every day life of regular Chinese
The whole area felt pretty festive with carnival like games for the foolish (or confident)
It's a beautiful area to spend a lazy evening
Tomorrow is a travel day to Beijing. I can't wait to see the capital!!!

Archaeology day

2009-11-03T10:10:00.006+08:00

Monday in Xi'an was a day full of archaeology. After a cool run to start the day, we headed on a guided tour of Xi'an most famous archaeological sites.

First stop was the Banpo museum where we learned about this matriarchal society that used to live in the area.
We learned all kinds of interesting things about their culture and saw some artefacts such as pottery and human remains
As well as reproductions of the village
And excavated foundations from original houses
After learning about the Banpo, we started out journey to the Terracotta warriors. The Terracotta warriors are a big draw for tourists in Xi'an so they milk the phenomenon accordingly. Look at this statue in the middle of a roundabout
The next stop on our itinerary was a factory of Terra Cotta warriors where we learned about how they are made.
And were given an opportunity to buy warrior replicas of all sizes
We then went to a disney like hall where they reproduced the tomb of the second emperor (not sure there is a link with the warriors but it's nearby)
And after a group tour style lunch, we finally reached the exciting destination, the excavation site of the warriors
You really have to be there to appreciate the scale of the project that the emperor undertook. The area is vast and buildings have been built over the finds to protect them. Once inside, we saw all kinds of interesting information about the warriors
Apparently, this knealing archer is the shape of the map of the province if you look at him a certain way
The emperor even built a command HQ where Terra Cotta generals could direct the Terra Cotta troops. I think the emperor was a little bit crazy.
We finally saw the main hall where the warriors are being dug out. They estimate a total of 6,000 warriors between the different sites but this one is by far the largest
It's really impressive.
They also have other China odds and ends in the museum. This olympic flame was interesting for me
On the way back to town, we stopped at this hot spring where we could wash our hands in the supposedly healthy water.
And we topped the day off with a delicious dinner in a HongKong style restaurant
And a visit to the night market where we bought a bunch of stuff we didn't need (those Chinese sales person are very good!) Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the night market.

Hua Shan (Mountain)

2009-11-02T19:04:00.009+08:00

On Sunday, we went to Hua Shan to take in the beauty of China's mountains.
This is the highest peak that will be easily accessible to us while we are in China so we were pretty excited. We booked what I thought was a transport only tour to the mountain. Turns out we were in a Chinese tour bus and had some stops that we didn't really plan for.

We packed for cold weather, knowing that it might get chilly up the mountain.

The first thing I noticed on the road was that the country side near Xi'an looks about the same as the developing countries I've visited south of the United States such as Mexico or Cuba.
We stopped en route to the mountain to this supplier of last resort, selling foods, drinks and gear for those that came ill equipped to tackle the mountain.

Then, we learned (through lots of confusion) that we were stopping at a temple before reaching the mountain where a chinese tour guide would explain all the inns and outs of the temple. We visited on our own.
Next up was a quick lunch in a restaurant off the highway before reaching our desired destination: Hua Shan (Shan means mountain!)
Wow. What a beautiful mountain
We took a mini bus and then a cable car to a point about 200m from the peak
And then proceeded making our way through the paths that were sometimes quite vertical
I wouldn't go up (or down which was actually the most unpleasant) this path again, especially knowing there is an alternative path!

We reached as high as we were willing to go (it looked a bit dangerous and there were way too many people going to the highest west peak). Quite a few really interesting sights!

Some people left locks to leave a mark on the mountain I guess

And there's even a hotel all the way up there, not for people with too much luggage!
We still managed to get to the North Peak and get some really decent views.

We got down the mountain a bit early for the meetup point with the bus so we shopped around a bit and found some really decent deals (or so we think!) in the shops near the bottom of the mountain.

Being a true geek, I brought my garmin GPS with me to check out the elevation. Look at this graph!
I was surprised by how accurate the GPS was when I saw this sign and compared to what the watch was telling me...

Once we got back to town after a 3 hour bus ride, we found out that the weather had dropped!!! It was cold in Xi'an. We warmed up by going for a delicious bowl of noodles!

Halloween travel day

2009-10-31T22:05:00.008+08:00

What better way to spend Halloween than travelling? We got up somewhat early today and finished packing up before heading to the airport. We decided to take somewhat of a detour in order to experience what may be the fastest train in the world: Shanghai's MagLev!
The train levitates on the track, based on magnetic fields, cool!
It's actually pretty roomy too even if the journey is about 10 minutes
The only entertainment is watching the speed meter go up and up and up. The fastest I saw it go at is 301 km/h
When we got to the airport, my friend Haibao was waiting for me, all decked up in christmas gear. Even if we are 12 hours ahead, isn't it a bit early for christmas?
Flying on China Airlines was a really good experience. Check-in was a breeze and despite all our worries about overloaded luggage (we actually shipped one of the bag to our destination in Beijing to avoid surcharges) we came in under the maximum limit. Plus we got really good seat at the emergency exit. Check out all the leg room
The airport is a bit out of the way of the city but it's really well organised with a bus leaving every 15 minutes from the airport to the Bell Tower (~$5) which is in the centre of Xi'an's walled city.

The area around the airport is a mix of industrial and farms
And lots of construction. I'm starting to think the whole country is under construction!
Our hotel is right across the tower, check out the view from our room :)
This is the modest roomAnd the hotel from outside
We had a quiet dinner at a Hong Kong style restaurant where they were playing Mr Bean! Very delicious cream of corn
Followed by a duck bbq style
and a medley of seafood with tofu
And a coconut bubble milk
We walked around a bit outside and enjoyed the city a little bit. This city looks beautiful at night
And the Halloween spirit is in the air
Then, we turned in early for bed since we are going to Hua Shan tomorrow and have to get up early to catch the bus!

Suzhou and Zhouzhuang water town

2009-10-31T21:23:00.011+08:00

For my last day in the Shanghai area, I had booked an organised tour of Suzhou and a nearby water town. I was reminded of why I don't usually go for the guided tours and why I prefer self guided tours. While it was nice to have an English speaking guide that would answer my questions and offer insights during the visits, it was definitively annoying to have to follow the group. I always like to look around the corner to see what is going on and if there is another corner in sight, I also like to look what's going on around that corner! Having a strict itinerary to follow and a set path was definitively tough for me. The guide made it clear that if I left the group, I was on my own and that there would be no meeting points or any such thing. While I did see some of the main attractions in the towns I visited, I feel that I would have like to distribute the time differently. There's a temple of mystery in Suzhou that sounds like a hoot to visit but my guide didn't even know where it was and wouldn't make changes to allow me to visit it.

The day started with a bus ride to Suzhou. There was lots of traffic on the highways around Shanghai
The area around Shanghai is definitively booming! There's also a lot of constructions, both roadworks
and buildings
Our first attraction once we got to Suzhou was the Garden for Lingering In which is beautiful. This garden took 3 generations to build to its current state and features some very beautiful views for, well, relaxing and lingering around :)
There is also some entertainment in the form of live performances of traditional music
Beautiful paths for leisurely walks
A nice water plan
And some beautifully landscaped grounds
The rock formations are very interesting. Hard to believe that it is all naturally carved out by the water
The guide pointed this one out as being very precious and unique. One of three pieces of its length with the much sought after holes and elongated form. The other two are in Hangzhou and Shanghai.
Everything is beautifully architected in the traditional Chinese style and carvings are everywhere
I liked the inspiring signs here and there around the garden

Next up was the only remains of the city wall and gate. We spent roughly 5 minutes there which was no way enough for me to satisfy my curiosity.

I still managed a few pictures :)
Next up was this attraction where we spent way too much time: the Silk factory. Upon arrival, we were shuttled to an eating area where a below average meal (that we couldn't even choose, it was a set menu!) was served. We then visited the museum and I learned way more than I ever cared to about how silk is made.

From the larvae to the worms to the cocoon.
All the way to extracting the silk from the cocoons and making it into carpets or other garments.
There was even a demonstration of stretching to make silk comforters.
We were then led like sheeps to the hungry wolves with 25 minutes of shopping time in the souvenir shop. I couldn't leave the compound since it was accesible only from the tour bus as far as I could figure out. Good thing I had a book to read :)

The next leg of the trip was going to the water town.
This was definitively my favorite part of the day and where I felt the most rushed. I could have spent an entire day wandering the beautiful streets around the village
And admiring the beautiful waterways that criss cross the town
I took a million pictures here but nothing really gives justice to the peaceful and out of time feel of the village where boats are floating at a relaxed pace between the buildings.
And that is the very next thing our guide led us to!
Our friendly rower even sang us some traditional songs after a bit of encouragement in the form of a small tip. I was thankful he was a better rower than singer otherwise we may have ended up swimming the rest of the journey ;)
The boat ride did offer us a different view of this beautiful and peaceful haven
After the peaceful boat ride, we were rushed to the exit gate where we were given a whole 5 minutes to explore the market (no commissions here for the guide I guess so there's no point in spending too much time!)
I found this delicious looking treat that no one could describe the content, not even the guide!
Turns out it's kinda of a cross between corn chips and donuts. Sweet yet a bit salty. I love it.

Even with the 2 hours we spent in traffic, I was back in town for dinner which I had with Alex in a pleasant Tony G chain in the French Concession.

Back to Pudong

2009-10-30T00:03:00.010+08:00

For my last full day in Shanghai, I decided to go back to the place where I fell in love with the city, before I started having problems with the polluted air or poisoned water. The shiny skyscrapers took my breath away the moment I glanced at them and even today, after seeing them quite a few times, I was still amazed by how much of a human achievement it is to have built up all these buildings in so short a time.

Due to a problem communicating with the taxi driver, I ended up at the Science Museum proper instead of the subway station of the same name. No problem, I figured, I've been using the station for close to 3 weeks, might as well check out the museum on this last excursion. The museum itself seemed a bit childish so I didn't see the exhibits but I was looked around and took a few snapshots.
The bubble is really cool and very Shanghai.
And it looks equally good from the inside
The museum also has a cool looking Imax theater
When I got to downtown Pudong, my only real choice was which of the two towers (World Financial Center or Jin Mao) to visit to get another view of the skyline. I settled for the tallest one, the World Financial Center (to the left)
Even though you can see the towers from practically anywhere downtown, it was quite difficult to actually get to them because of all the construction. At least I was on foot and quite a deal more mobile than these poor folks stuck in these metal boxes on wheels
Across the street from the two towers is one of the newest Shanghai buildings that will surely up the ante, it looks taller and even more daring on the poster on the construction fence
When I got to Jin Mao tower, I was taken back by the sheer size of it. It's one thing to see it kilometers away but to stand at the base and look up is very impressive. I can't believe someone climbed it!!
This giant magnet beside the World Financial Center is meant to symbolize the attraction of Pudong for commerce and businesses
There was also a fair going on to celebrate the first anniversary of the tower with an international bazaar that was just a few items from some country in those small stalls. No products from North America, a bit dissapointing.
In Shanghai-style, the wait area and lift to the observation deck is very science-fiction like

Even the uniform look like it belongs on Star Trek
The price of admission was well worth if, even if it's just to see the Jin Mao tower up close. What a mammoth of steel and concrete!
There was also a nice view of the park next door
The Oriental TV tower was also visible despite the haze
And I saw some structures that were not visible from the TV Tower. Those condos are exactly what we need in Ottawa!
Those buildings looked like lego blocks!
And those guys had to work at 450m in the air. OUCH!
I felt on top of the world, I'm really glad I decided to visit the area a second time!
When I was done at the observation deck, I walked to the riverside to see the Puxi side once more. It wasn't even 5 o'clock yet but it looked like sunset because of all the Haze (a Shanghai fixture it would seem)
I saw this tiny McDonald's that serves only ice cream
And found a nice garden to relax in and do some people watching while I waited for Alex's work shift to end
I also walked around a bit on the beautiful paths
And finally got some delicious Cantonese dinner once Alex made it to downtown. I was so hungry I didn't even get a picture of the delicious fishy corn soup. We then had Eggplant with pork (yummy and spicy!)
With some fish balls with crunchy sesame sticks
Shrimp dumplings
And the best steamed bbq pork buns I've ever had. Sorry Min, yours are now number 2!!
The traditional finishing touch of watermelon was nice
We then walked around a bit on what has to be the most romantic walk in Shaghai at the riverside to enjoy the night time Puxi skyline
And I couldn't resist taking more pictures of this iconic view. I must have this exact picture a million time already but I love it!
After that, we went to a cute little place called Half where the Shanghai LGBT group had its monthly meetup. We played some wii with friendly strangers and enjoyed some drinks while playing four in a row. Games are a big part of the bar scene it seems here and they make a really good ice breaker to start a conversation. We could learn a thing or two from the Chinese!

Not to panic if I am a bit quiet over the coming days. Busy days and travelling between cities means that I may not have time or the technical means to update these pages right away but I will make every effort possible.

Expo 2010

2009-10-29T12:27:00.000+08:00

Expo 2010 is a big thing for Shanghai. All construction projects are going full tilt to complete the work in time. Jackhammers and other construction equipment can be heard late into the night, even on weekends. It's no surprise the city is so focussed on meeting their deadline with Haibao (the official Expo mascot, pronounced High-Bow with the ow sounding like wow) everywhere to remind them of what is coming.

They even set up a bunch of timers to press the urgency of the coming expo
Haibao can be seen here in his traditional form:
There are hundreds of these types of sculptures around town at office buildings, malls, hotels and other attractions.
Haibao even grew out of these bushes here
And here he is inside the urban planning exhibition hall
He even takes precedence over some of the Buddha's in this temple
Needless to say the cute little Haibao is easy on the eye and I got attached to the blue creature enough to get my own souvenir keychain and one of the plush dolls.

Back to Old Town

2009-10-28T23:29:00.008+08:00

I have to admit that after almost 3 weeks in Shanghai, I've pretty much seen all of the sights I wanted to see and then some. I've also shopped enough to empty my wallet twice over and any future shopping trips are becoming dangerous since everything here looks so good and is so cheap (if you haggle for it), my sense of restraint is definitively being challenged!

So today, I went back to Old Town and the Yuyuan Bazaar.
I never get tired of the contrast between traditional chinese architecture and the modern skyscrapers in the background.
I wanted to pick up a few items that we weren't sure about the first time we visited and there was also some wandering around that I wanted to get done without the weekend crowds in the way.
I went up and down Old Street and saw this delivery bike for McDonald's.
I visited a few of the stores with knick knacks, chinese arts and crafts as well as other interesting items.
I came across this temple of the town Gods.
Apparently, it is common in China to have a designated God to oversee the town's resident's health and prosperity. Shanghai's God is Qin Yu-Bo (jinshi in Zhizheng period) from the Yuan dynasty. I think this is his statue.
Also in the Temple of the town Gods, I saw these Gods of the Sexagenery Cycle to Safeguard one's health and well-being.

There are a lot of these Sexagenery Gods so I guess you can pick your favorite one to ensure your health and well-being. My favorite one was this one.
I know that my rabbit loving readers would pick this one for their worships.
I like the lions protecting buildings and businesses in China. This cute fellow was protecting the worship hall.
While I was at the temple, I was lucky enough to witness a musical service. It felt a bit noisy and out of tempo by western standards but it was very interesting.
I think I also saw the Buddhist equivalent of Cupid in this room.
Just outside the temple, I found this interesting square where a few folks were resting and some ladies practicing their dance moves. Cool!
I also saw these crabs on a stick, deep fried. Alex told me they weren't safe to eat and after last week's experience, I am definitively not as bold as I was to try "unsafe" foods, otherwise I would have tried it, looked crispy and delicious!
On my way back to Nanjing road where I was to meet Alex for dinner, I stumbled upon this park/garden. I swear I didn't look it up. I couldn't resist to go in for a short walk and some r&r. I got another rockstar picture taken with some chinese youths. I love this country :)

The garden features all the traditional elements with some water works
Some nice gardens with flowers and tress
And some walking paths
There's even some kind of tea shop / observations deck where you can look at the construction of what I think is an expo 2010 site
There's also this bamboo forest that was interesting, it's the first one of its kind that I noticed
I also saw some of Shanghai's feline population enjoying a nap in a comfortable looking spot
After that it was back to Nanjing road to meet up with Alex. Only thing is that he was delayed at work, so I had time to kill. I walked around a bit and listened to this balcony saxophone player for a bit
Then, I got a tea and sat down to watch the wildlife. And let me tell you, Nanjing road is a perfect place to watch Shanghai's busy residents, visitors and hawkers interact with each other. In the half hour I was sitting down, I was offered every type of good and services except maybe for insurance. Chinese people seem to see a foreign visitor sitting on a bench alone as an opportunity to a) sell you something or b) get to know you better (while maybe having ulterior motives of selling you something?). I had girls approach me to go for a beer (suspicious if you ask me!). I had the same laser guy come by half a dozen time to show me how powerful his laser was and why wouldn't I buy a bundle off him? One of the "come to my market for watches, bags and DVDs" guy sat beside me and told me his whole life story. He's from Hangzhou (1 hour train away) where he has a little girl that does really well in school and he comes to Shanghai for the tourists. He couldn't believe I didn't want any of his goods or services (don't ask what kind!!).

If you are looking for luxury, vices or a good time, Nanjing road is a good place to start. And for anyone that is new here, those guys are not being helpful warning you of pickpockets by telling you to watch your bags. They are offering to sell you watches and bags. Took me a while to figure it out 8)

When Alex got here we found an off the main road place for dinner and had a pretty decent if a bit spicy dinner.
Check out this massive bowl of hot and sour soup, enough for a whole dinner party.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Shanghai. I'm not quite sure what to do of it yet. I booked a trip on Friday to Suzhou (a water town 1 hour away) and Saturday is our travel day to Xi'an. We decided on flying since we found this website ctrip.com selling air tickets for less than $100. It takes less than 2 hour in a plane as opposed to about 14 hour on a train. Even if we get to see less of the country side, it will be easier to coordinate. Plus we get to see and ride the Maglev train if I can convince Alex that we can manage all the luggage in the subway.

Maple Street

2009-10-27T13:15:00.000+08:00

Just a block away from the hotel here in Pudong is Maple Street.
One interesting tenant of Maple Street is Dream Home Canada.
I understand that they are here to showcase Canadian building techniques to Chinese so they can benefit from our experience building wooden houses. They have setup some model homes as well.
The maple trees here in China have much bigger leaves than their cousins in Canada. Look at this leaf next to my foot.

Hangzhou part 2

2009-10-26T13:26:00.010+08:00

On Sunday, we got up somewhat early (we are on vacation after all!) to head off and have a nice walk around the west lake in Hangzhou.

The area is very tourist friendly and features beautiful sights in every direction. There's gardens everywhere
The obvious attraction of the lake itself
The architecture is traditional style chinese
With some exceptions
Even the boats are scenic
Not to worry if you get hungry or thirsty along the way, there are plenty of options for a pit stop, from the more formal restaurants and tea houses
to friendly little stalls with drinks and snacks
A series of causeways have been built to better admire the beauty of the lake
And a bunch of scenic crossings
Rest areas are easily available
And there are beautifully kept gardens all around the lake
As well as this pond full of giant red fish
Some statues as well to commemorate important Chinese figures
And even a turtle lake
There is attention to detail everywhere with beautiful carvings
Overlooking the lake is this temple/observatory topped with a golden spire
Some more pictures of the lake And this one at a nice garden
On the way back to downtown from the lake, we saw a few nice properties. It seemed to be no admittance so I assume they are either reserved for private functions or cottages for the ultra rich.

Hangzhou was definitively a bit more difficult to navigate than Shanghai with signs very often having no picture explanation or English subtext.
We took one last look at the lake before heading out for dinner
Dinner was difficult with the city being so busy with the tourists hanging around after the fireworks from last night. Our first choice restaurant made us wait for over half an hour until we gave up (we had a train to catch after all!) and found one tucked away in a more residential neighbourhood. It was much cheaper than our first choice anyways and most probably just as delicious

Shrimps with walnuts
Tender beef and vegetables
Delicious eggplant
And this cut up green veggie (bokchoy?)
On the way to the train station (on foot tonight!) we stumbled upon this night market offering anything from electronics to DVD/CDs, foods, clothing, underwear, handbags and watches.
We also saw that Shanghai doesn't have a monopoly on buildings with science fiction lights
At the train station, this little stall had everything for the weary traveller. Look at this double fried sandwich, looks delicious!

Hangzhou part 1

2009-10-26T10:38:00.007+08:00

Going to Hangzhou for the weekend was a nice adventure. It would allow us to familiarize ourselves with an important mode of transportation in China (the train) before we leave on our trip towards Beijing once the work is complete here in Shanghai.

Shanghai has (at least) two train stations, so it was important to notice that our train for Hangzhou was leaving from the South Train Station.
Not knowing what the commute time would be or how the system worked, we aimed to be there about an hour ahead of time. We did really good on connecting subways and not getting lost so we got there with an hour and a half to waste looking around. There is a small mall attached to the station so it provided us with the needed entertainment. Once we “checked-in” we were left in a waiting room with about half a seat for every person present. Bags are really precious in China apparently with many people using a seat instead of the floor to rest their bags. This resulted in us waiting for about half an hour while standing up. Alex found an attendant that spoke Cantonese (a rare thing in Shanghai!) so he used the occasion to get more details about the possibilities for our future rail trips at the end of the week. Then our train arrived at the station:
We were riding in second class since first class was all booked up. Not quite as bad as it sounds actually, it's still much more roomy than an airplane. There's an interesting phenomenon on Chinese trains that is some people are standing the whole way. Our guess is as good as yours but I think it's counterfit tickets and Alex thinks it's overbooking with the sale of standing room only tickets.

The ride was actually pretty fun. We only had about 1 and a half hour of travel time and it allowed us to see some of the country side. The first thing that amazed me is that there is no real undeveloped land between Shanghai and Hangzhou. It's all either cities, towns or farming. The farmers don't seem to use any heavy equipment, I only saw one tractor and it looked like a relic.
There are some really cute house on the “country side” between Shanghai and Hangzhou. The travel book describes the province as one of the richest in China.
Going on in Hangzhou this particular weekend was a special expo and fireworks show, which turned out to be both a curse and a blessing. The area was overloaded with tourists. Cabs wouldn't even look at our 10 minute journey, holding out for longer and more rewarding fares. After about an hour of trying to negotiate a cab, I was able to convince Alex that an alternative mode of transportation was safe enough:
The rickshaw ride was actually quite a bit of fun. We saw this new city from a different angle
And quickly realised that our hotel wasn't really that far from the train station.

The first thing I noticed in Hangzhou is how much cleaner the air is. It felt like I had been holding my breath for the last two weeks by breathing in only short breaths in the fear that I would choke on the pollution. In Hangzhou, I rewarded myself with long deep breaths and it felt great!

Once we go settled in the hotel, it was time for a tasting of Hangzhou cuisine.
First impression of Hangzhou cuisine is that it is not as oily as Shanghai's and it felt a bit more simple but still fairly delicious.

The Chinese get very excited about their fireworks with a lot of competing for a good viewing position, starting early in the afternoon. Some of the more enterprising people even brought ladders to climb the trees. The authorities later forced everyone down from the trees, I wonder what happened to the ladders.
We didn't evaluate where the fireworks would come from so we didn't get a really good viewing position. The authorities were really helpful is moving people around to avoid a rampage once the show started. I didn't really understand what the uniformed officer was saying but the pointing at the trees and circling of the arms was enough to figure out that we were in a dead spot. We moved back a bit before the show started and got a pretty good view even if the trees were sometime in the way
Chinese fireworks are serious stuff. People around here really know how to put fire in the sky. Between the deafening bombs and the various colors (with an emphasis on red and yellow it seemed), the show lasted a good 45 minutes. Accustomed to much shorter shows, we thought that it was over at least 4 or 5 times before the actual ending. Locals started leaving after about 20 minutes, probably because they wanted to beat the traffic rather than because of boredom.

The scene in the streets after the fireworks was one that reminded me of Ottawa on Canada day but on a much grander scale.
The account of our visit around the lake on Sunday will be coming soon, stay tuned :)

Renmin area, Urban Planning and a night out

2009-10-24T08:41:00.012+08:00

While I had been through Renmin (People's) Square before, it was mostly in transit to other places and I never really took the time to have a good look around. The area is rich with parks, museums and other attractions.
Some statues here as well
It's never hard to remember that you are in the biggest city in China, just look up for the skyscrapers surrounding the area
The area also features an amusement park for kids
Check out this guy making a delivery
Museum and other cultural buildings abound here with the museum of contemporary arts
The museum of shanghai
The theatre
And the urban planning exhibition hall which I visited next
If there is time only for one stop in Shanghai and you want to learn more about the city's architecture and main attractions, this is probably a good place to go.

It features a solid exhibit of historical pictures
as well as side by side comparison of then and now
Some of the material was a bit dry for me, but I expect urban city planners from around the world would really like those schematics
There was also a fair bit of mock-ups, mostly of new buildings but some of historical value
There was a special exhibit about the Expo 2010, which is not a surprise with the whole city trying to switch gears to welcome 70 million visitors, starting in 190 days. You can learn more about the expo itself, the goals and, since this is an urban planning exhibit, the expo buildings!

There's also an exhibit about greening the city and reducing the air pollution. It's a noble (and quite urgent in my opinion!) goal but they were scarce on details except for this cute little mockup with wind and nuclear power sources
The highlight of the exhibition hall has to be the 4th floor mock up of the entire city
It features what I expect are scaled models of all the buildings within the selected area (my hotel is too far in the boonies, I couldn't find it!). It gave me a better understanding of just how big this city is! Here is a pretend night snapshot :)
There is also a dizzying computer generated virtual demo of the city that fly over the main sights of Shanghai and Pudong. I couldn't stand the motion so I stepped out midway.

Once the exhibit over, the penthouse of the building affords some nice views of People Square
As well a host an exhibit of interesting posters

After the exhibition hall, I did a bit of shopping in the D-Mall and Hong Kong Shopping Plaza which is an old bomb shelter turned into a consumer extravaganza. This alley is made to ressemble 1930's Shanghai.
When I stepped outside, I noticed that there was a fountain where there was none before!
I'm glad I took a picture because 30 minutes later the fountain was again inactive. I'm not sure why they keep it on such a schedule.

Alex then joined me for dinner in what is easily the best meal so far in Shanghai and most probably the best cantonese meal ever for me.
Sun Ya on Nanjing Rd was our selection for the night. Their Jasmine tea is literally a jasmine flower in boiling water

We had a crab meat over bokchoy which has so many interesting fish flavors every bite was different!
This thinly sliced beef cooked in pepper sauce with onions was one of the best beef dishes I have ever had. So tender, rich and sweet while still packing a punch, amazing.
The fried rice was pretty good with just the right amount of spices
And this sweet and sour pork was really good. Crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, as it was meant to be!
Interesting sign that may have been lost in translation. I expect it meant to say dine responsibly, don't drink and drive :)
After dinner, we headed for a night out on the town. No pictures since I'm not quite sure how Shanghai is open to gay bars and venues yet and those places were pretty hard to find in the first place so I'm not sure if they mean to be publicized much.

Eddy's bar is definitively the most accesible one, almost off the main road. It was an interesting place that could have been at home even in Ottawa if it wasn't for the mainly Chinese crowd. They make a very good cosmo and we sipped and watched as the bar got full and the chinese got their mating rituals underway. These guys are much more reserved than us north american folks from what I could see. Eddy's is mostly a sitting down (or standing up) and socializing place. Not much dancing despite the good beats coming out of the sound system.

When the place got really busy, we decided to move on to Studio Shanghai which is in an underground bunker, transformed into a drinking establishment. Coming into the bar, the first thing you noticed is that, like a souvenir store at a museum, they have an all night underwear store. They had a pretty good selection, but buying underwear from a bar seemed wrong so I didn't indulge. The bar itself is divided into a bunch of rooms with one area designated as non smoking (a rare sight in Shanghai!). The barman was very friendly and upon making the cosmo asked me if I needed it topped up with more vodka since he thought he went a bit light on the free pour. The drink was already quite strong so I declined but thanked him for the gesture! There was a nice dancefloor where we busted a few moves before calling it a night.

Today we're heading off to Hangzhou (West Lake) and I'm not quite sure of the internet coverage there so don't worry if there's no update before Monday, I promise I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get my internet back :)

The French Concession

2009-10-22T17:37:00.012+08:00

Today, I decided to visit the French Concession. Alex was joking last week that I wanted to go because my mother tongue is French. I really wanted to go because it seemed like a beautiful place and it actually is!
There seems to be a few less skyscrapers than other areas of Shanghai but there are actually still quite a bit!
The abundant side streets with lots of trees always seemed calm and peaceful
I was really amazed at this open sky escalator getting out of the subway
I tried to follow the Lonely Planet walking tour which is described as taking 3 hours to complete. I saw only three of the 12 sites mentioned in 5 hours. I guess I'm a bit slow. The tour started in the shikumen (translated stone-gate house) of Xintiandi.
The narrow pedestrian streets with courts reminded me of Europe. The restaurants and various home decor and artsy stores were hipper than hip and were not afraid to demand higher payment for their uniqueness.

The tour then took me to the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On July 23rd 1921, the CCP met here for their first congress. Forced out by the authorities at the time, they had to finish the meeting on a leisure boat (doesn't that sound romantic?)
The unassuming building from the outside is full of CCP memorabilia as well as self-reinforcing materials to convince visitors that communism was the best solution to the struggles of poor hunger striken, foreign controlled China of the time.
I loved the exhibit which prohibited photography. With a guard in every room, I felt safe. I was able to admire someone's mustace scissors and some peasant's work pants that outlined the terrible conditions prior to the revolution. There's a wax rendition of the table at which all the leaders of what became the CCP held their discussions. I almost got a China flag pin at the store at the end of the exhibit but I couldn't find one I liked.

On my way to the next attraction from the walking tour, I noticed this street exhibition featuring Italy's finest products from olive oils and alcohols
to coffees and ice creams
and even cars (the model is actually Chinese)
I totally lost track of where the tour was supposed to take me next at this point but I made my way to Fuxing Park
It is a beautiful park (had enough of parks yet, not me!) with lots of flowers
A fountain
Some sculptures (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels here)
Some nicely built rock formations
And of course, lots of water
The next stop on the walking tour was the former residence of Sun Yatsen, an important writer and political figure in China. I'm not sure I understand everything in the exhibit, but I think he played a big role in China's evolution. No pictures allowed here either, what is up with these Chinese and safeguarding their history so closely? The house is surprinsingly small for someone of his stature with only about 7 or so rooms that I could see after putting plastic slippers over my shoes.
The garden is also pretty nice (stadium size by Chinese standards!) and currently undergoing reseeding
I erred about the French Concession some more before coming back to Pudong for dinner. I saw this interesting scaffolding structure. Look closely, they are using Bamboo!!!
Dinner tonight was a fairly simple, yet succulent affair with a starter of sweet spare ribs (Alex laughed that I wanted this because it is very westernized)
Followed by a kind of seafood stew
That came on a burning device to keep hot
Also some vegetables
And finally fried noodles with seafood medley
On the way back from the Restaurant, this lion ate my hand!
We are starting to make plans to visit Hangzhou (West Lake) this weekend. More details and pictures to come upon our return!

Jade Buddha Temple

2009-10-21T21:56:00.019+08:00

Today, after a difficult run because of poor air quality, I ventured back into town to see the Jade Buddha Temple. As usual, I took a few detours whenever I saw interesting things.

The first thing that caught my attention is this old building called the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.
I'm not sure what the exhibition centre was exhibiting today but it seemed to be related to Expo 2010 and with a crowd of mostly Chinese and most looking like student groups, I figured it was nothing of interest for a foreigner, so I moved on...
When I got to the Jade Buddha Temple, which was built almost 100 years ago, I was immediately taken aback by the complete change of atmosphere. The way the temple is built with greenery and serene scenery took me to a relaxed contemplative state in a matter of seconds. Even the city smells were erased by the sweet aroma of offered incense.
I took a quick look around the temple and was puzzled by the red ribbons everywhere.
Even the decorative lions were sometimes silenced using the ribbons
Soon after my arrival, a singing/prayer service was held
I then wandered the grounds a bit
I slowly explored the various chambers with their intriguing and beautiful depictions of Buddha and the heavenly kings.
Does this guy look mean or what?
The attention to detail throughout is astounding. Backdrops, single pieces, even the building and courtyard are full of eye pleasing details
After I visited the main chambers, I headed to see the main attraction, the Jade Buddha itself. I'm not sure why but the giant statue requires a separate entry fee and photographs are strictly prohibited. I'm not sure why the Buddha would oppose its picture being shared freely but the place was rigged with more surveillance than a vegas casino so I did not try to break the rules.

After my visit to the Jade Buddha chamber, I went to what is called the 10,000 Buddhas Hall which is decorated with (I will believe it since there were lots) 10,000 Buddhas. Imagine wall to wall coverage of these Buddha statues, it can add up pretty quickly.
Interestingly enough our friend Haibao (the mascot for Expo 2010) was able to negotiate a deal with the Buddha to occupy some of the space in the temple.
Once my relaxing visit to this beautiful temple was over, it was time to go pick up my new suit!
I'm really glad I got them both from different places because the quality is a bit questionable at the first shop I visited. I was so pleased with the work the second shop did on my shirts that I asked for 2 more to be ready next week.

We went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I think we are on exotic overload and starting to try to regain some down home flavours. This typical thai restaurant could very well have been serving us from the middle of the Byward Market in Ottawa. I find that I am really paranoid about ordering food now that I got sick earlier this week. I had a Tom Ka soup and Alex has sweet and sour soup.
For main dishes, I had a Shrimp Pad Thai and Alex a curry Chicken.
Tomorrow I will try to go visit the French Concession, weather and digestive system permitting.

Bicycles in Shanghai

2009-10-20T16:34:00.007+08:00

Bicycles play an important part in the Shanghai transport ecosystem. While using a bicycle will put you on the bottom of the traffic food chain compared to buses and cars that turn without looking, bicycles are a cheap and efficient way to travel if you can manage to zigzag through the traffic.

There is a wide variety of bikes used here such as the eerily quiet electric bikes (you never hear them coming!), the regular pedal bikes, the electric and motorized scooters and even traditional motorbikes.

Most major streets in the new area such as Pudong even feature dedicated bike lanes that are used by pedal bikes, electric scooters, motorcycles and sometimes even cars that are in a hurry!
If you don't have a bike, it's usually easy to find somewhere to rent one with some high tech rental systems.
And once you reach your destination, it should be pretty easy to find a bike parking, you just have to hope that there is space left. Most areas have supervised bike parks that will ensure your bike is not tampered with while you are away.
If you happen to have mechanical problems or need some air in your tires, not to worry, there are repair stations peppered throughout the city. I've seen these operate late into the night.

Fish, Shopping & Poison!

2009-10-20T09:23:00.012+08:00

Sunday was a more relaxed day for us. We slept in a bit and then headed to downtown Pudong to visit the aquarium. Our taxi driver looked kind of new and we got worried once she got a map out. Knowing the way she should have been going, having done the journey a few times already, we knew she was way off course. We ended up at the Subway station at the end of the line!
We looked around a bit in this open air mall that was very quiet.
At the acquarium, we visited the poisonous fish exhibit where some really interesting creatures were on display
The aquarium also features many tunnels where visitors can walk under the fish. There's even escalators and moving carpets!
This nice display of African Cichlids reminded me of home!
Lots of tropical fish on display as well
And this huge crab to give me nightmares!
The shark exhibit contains some amazing specimen
Check out the teeth on this guy
After the acquarium, it was time for a snack!
The bun was some kind of chinese veggie similar to spinach and the sticky rice was pretty good even if I've had better before. Not a bad spread for $4.

Next up we headed to SuperBrand Mall for a bit of shopping. This place is huge with about 10 levels of shops, restaurants and a cinema!
The mall was so big we couldn't see it all in one sweep. We stopped for some refreshments :)
The Kumquat juice was pretty good. I'd never tried that fruit so the light sweetness mixed with a tangy undertone was very refreshing.

Once we were finished at the mall, we headed across the river into Puxi for yet more shopping on East Nanjing Road.
Unfortunately, most of the shops on this road are really upscale. There is not much I could afford even if I could salivate at the beautiful items on offer. Look at this gold Hello Kitty display.
For dinner, I was craving something a bit more western so we went to Pizza Hut. After much debate with Alex on whether a salad would be safe since my travel doctor suggested I avoid them since they would probably be washed under undrinkable tap water, we decided that Pizza Hut was probably a safe place to have it. I had been craving the crunchy fresh taste of salad for over a week!
Alex had a mushroom soup to start.
We also shared a fried calamari
Then the pizza arrived. It was a bit dry by western standard with almost no tomato sauce.
The bad news is that even if the salad was totally delicious, it made me sick :( About an hour after dinner, I started having stomach cramps and developed a headache and a fever overnight. I spent most of the Monday sleeping in and even today (Tuesday morning), I'm not quite back to normal. There's no way to be sure whether the salad or the lunch (or even Kumquat juice) caused the food poisoning but since the symptoms started so soon after dinner, my guess is on the salad.

You can rest assured that I will wait until I am back home to satisfy my next salad craving!

Yuyuan Garden, River cruise and Pudong from up high

2009-10-18T08:49:00.011+08:00

What a wonderful and packed day on Saturday. Alex was off work and one of his colleague volunteered to show us around and boy, he did just that! The day started at Yuyuan Garden, built over 400 years ago.
The garden took about 18 years to bring to life, which is quite a contrast to the new pace of Shanghai construction that can build a skyscraper in a matter of months (if not weeks!). Despite damages done by British and French troops, the garden has been nicely restored.

I wonder who took the nose off this lion!
The park features a lot of nice water spots
And immaculate gardening/groundkeeping
The architecture is very traditional Chinese
With amazing detail and impressive handiwork everywhere you look
Most of the rooms feature old style furniture
And there is even a stage that the original residents/owners of the garden could have used to entertain guests
These fish must really love tourists that bring packets of food to create the feeding frenzy
Overall, a very enjoyable time at the garden despite the sometimes thick crowds. It was nice to hear all kinds of languages, including French and English.
Just outside of the garden is a very busy and lively bazaar
As well as quite a selection of restaurants. The one we picked claim to be the oldest restaurant in the area. We had quite a spread for only 3 people
We let our guide select the dishes and they were definitively on the exotic side. Clockwise, whole pigeon, tofu soup, bbq pork, whole shrimps, fish soup, pork and bokchoi, pickled crunchy vegetable and baby oysters in a sweet blood colored sauce.

What better way to digest than to go on a river cruise!
It gave us an alternate view of both Pudong
And Puxi
After the cruise, we went in the Oriental TV Tower (the pink bubble building!) where we were greeted by this explosive dog:
He didn't look about to explode so I didn't run away :)

The waiting area for the lift was very high tech! I think the theme is spaceport
We got some great views of Puxi and Pudong again. I will never tire of those skyscrapers

I managed enough courage to walk on the glass floor and lie down, 350m above sea level with nothing but glass between me and certain death.
Once the tower visit over, we went for a walk by the riverside
Next stop was East Nanjing Rd, a shopping district.
We walked around a bit until the time was right for a break and a well deserved drink!
With legs starting to feel the effect of such a long day, we started on our way home. Shanghai is an incredible city both during the day and at night.

Subway adventure to Hongkou stadium

2009-10-16T21:06:00.009+08:00

Since Alex has weekends free to explore the sights, I've been trying to go see the attractions that he wouldn't really want to visit. Today's chosen feature was Hongkou football (soccer for North Americans) stadium. This meant that I had to use the subway to connect to my destination. Sounds like an adventure!

The subway system in Shanghai is very user friendly. Automated tellers have instructions in English. You chose your destination and pay the adjusted fare (depending on destination, it may cost up to $1 with the cheapest fare $0.50). A card is issued and you are ready to go (you have to keep the card and surrender it at the final destination, I think they reuse them).

The subway system in Shanghai is used very heavily. Think crowds at the end of a rock concert but all the time.
These pictures were taken at People Square station which is admitedly the busiest but still it gives you an idea of how packed it can get once everyone pushes their way inside the train (think sardines, only tighter).

Once I got to the stadium, I had a reality-check type moment. I'm not sure what I was expecting but there was no event or anything else going on. So the visit was very brief. I was able to peek inside and walk around a bit.I knew this of course when I started to I had a backup plan to explore Lu Xun Park, named after Lu Xun, whose tomb was moved there in 1956. The park is fairly big and even with all the people hanging around it still didn't feel crowded. There's a lot of rules at the park, but I saw runners ignoring the speed limit, some folks were fishing and I even spotted a dog!
The park is beautifully landscaped and well maintained. Paths zigzag through the park and various attractions
An essential part of the park is the water where boats can be hired to navigate around (looks like FUN!)
Or as some prefer, fishing
I even saw people swimming. While the weather was beautiful, I'm not sure I'm courageous enough to jump in the water.

Other activities at the park include the sometimes heated card playing
This cool toy that is juggled around and makes alien sounding noises
And this amazing exercise area for adults fully equipped with all kinds of exercising devices
The park also has an art museum that may have been closed or just had an attendant that didn't want to let me in. I was able to take a snap of this statue outside.
There is also the bird hill to climb. There's not really a view up there but the air felt cleaner and crispier. Quite a few couples were also snuggling up there (tastefully of course!)
I saw my first Chinese cat. There were quite a few of them, at least 6.
And one really interesting feature of the park is these speakers, sprinkled throughout playing really soft and soothing xylophone type music. Really enjoyable. I couldn't hear the ding of the city anymore.
After the park, it was back to the street where I saw this ship. I'm not sure why or how it made it into the middle of the intersection but I found it interesting. Haibao was all over that ship so it must have something to do with the upcoming world expo.
I then proceeded to Duolun road which is an artistic hangout.
I visited the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art
Which was a bit dissapointing with items like this being the highlights
I can't really complained since it only cost Y10 to get in (less than $2).

The street itself provided lots of good vistas, it's as if this part of Shanghai can't decide whether it wants to be traditional Chinese or European.

Here's a picture of a smallish street marketI'm pretty excited about tomorrow's program that will start at People Square/Renmin Square. Please forgive me if it takes a day or two to get the next entry up, my weekend will be focussed on being with Alex while he doesn't have to work and I'll do the entries when I have free time, maybe as late as next Monday.

Tang Dynasty Restaurant

2009-10-15T21:20:00.004+08:00

At the risk of being called a foodie, I'll have an entire entry on the restaurant we found tonight, Tang Dynasty Restaurant. The restaurant featured a picture menu with English descriptions (very useful when the only communication method is pointing at what you want!)

The restaurant is huge
Unfortunately, they either didn't have a non smoking section or couldn't understand what we were asking for... We took a long time to look at the menu (all 20 or so pages) before deciding on what to order.

The first dish we picked was a seafood medley, served in a bird's nest
Then the celery with onions and walnuts
Followed by traditional Shanghai noodles
And finally this delicious pork dish, served skin and all. Yummy!
At the end they brought us some water melons with special wooden forks
This was for me the best meal since we arrived here in Shanghai. Alex thought the noodles were a bit under-seasoned and he's not a big fan of celery either so he wasn't quite as impressed as I was. All of this for under $30, I still can't believe how affordable dining out is!

Quiet day at the hotel

2009-10-15T13:36:00.008+08:00

After going out for a wonderful run where I got to explore another side of Pudong, I decided to play it quiet today and stay at the hotel.

My sister was curious about the hotel. I'm not sure if she is expecting the Japanese style bunkbeds with paper doors but to satisfy her curiosity, here's a short overview of my accommodations while in Pudong.

We are staying at the Ramada Plaza Pudong Shanghai. Here's a few pictures from outside:
There is a small gym and pool available on the fourth floor which is useful. The hotel also has a few restaurants and a lounge/nightclub that we haven't visited yet.

The room is pretty big and has everything you would expect from a hotel room anywhere in the world. Queen size bed, TV, mini-Fridge, Internet access, showertub, etc.
That little desk is where I write my posts unless Alex is using it, in which case I will use the bed :)
The washroom is pretty standard fare:
And the minibar has everything a weary traveller missing home could need, including Chinese wine!
Electrical outlets are surprisingly versatile. If you have a device that can use 240v, 50hz electricity from anywhere in the world, chances are that it will fit in the powerbar they provide:
The light switches are the opposite of North America, where up is closed and down is open. Another cool little thing is that beside the bed is a Do not disturb switch:
That will light up a sign outside the room instead of having to hang paper notices on the doorknob.
There is also a doorbell for service and guests which is weird to hear in a hotel room :)

China seems very committed to reducing its environmental footprint. Store keepers will often dim the lights when there are no customers (and open them when you walk in). This hotel features the usual green services where you can leave a card on the bed to avoid the linen being washed everyday and reusing the towels unless you leave them in the tub. It also goes a step further with this device when you enter the room:
Unless a card is inserted in the device, all electrical outlets (except for one), lights and A/C will be turned off. Now, we could play tricks with this and leave an air miles card in there but I thought the device was an interesting way to sensitise guests on their environmental footprints.

Pudong SkyScrapers

2009-10-14T21:07:00.002+08:00

My plan today was to go to the old town and find a tailor to make me some custom suits. I took the taxi to the nearest subway station and then I saw the city and decided that a new suits was no longer my priority, I needed to see the buildings!!!
Sometimes you have to follow your heart and throw the guidebook away and that is what I did today, I'm sure I missed some spots but then again I probably wandered places that the lonely planet editors never even knew existed! I am a big fan of skyscrapers and big buildings and let me tell you that Pudong has really got me moved today. You can find just about any type of building here. Let's start with the simple geometry...

Cube:
Rectangle:
Round
There's also all styles on offer from classical
To something I think is Greek inspired
This roman inspired building is currently under construction
And apparently will look like this when finished
This one is kind of gothic
And the JinMao tower (I think this is the one at least)
There's plenty of modern buildings as well

This one made me think of a world HQ for Dr. Evil, I'm not sure why. I tried to find out who was in it but apparently it is still empty
Then there's the more daring such as the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a hole in the middle
Or the World Financial Center (I think that's the name) that comes with a handle in case a giant ever wants to move it
There's also a contest in Pudong to find out which architect can build the bets UFO looking crown for its building:

This one I called the two part ice cream cone, one tower has the cone, the other the ice cream ball :)This building (opera house or theatre I believe) actually looks like a UFO!
This one looks like an antenna from Start Trek on the roof
Another thing I noticed in Pudong is that if a building is worth building once, why not build it more than once!

And sometimes even 4 times!
And the construction continues with the whole downtown looking like a construction yard.
As if all the construction on the buildings wasn't enough, they are also working on completing the maglev link before Expo 2010.
What is really amazing about downtown Pudong is that it didn't even exist 20 years ago! Here is a picture from 1993:
And here is one from 2 years ago:
Simply amazing. I want to come back once the MagLev is working and all the other construction completed!

On my return trip (I took the subway back), I found a shopping centre at the technology museum subway station and to my surprise they specialize in custom suits! So I got all my measurments done by two different tailors and ordered a suit from each of them ($80 for a custom suit, I don't think I can go wrong!).

Once Alex was done work, we walked for a long time to try to find a new restaurant. We walked in to an industrial part of town that didn't have too many restaurants and the few that we found on the way back to the hotel were either too smoky or just didn't look right. We ended up choosing one just a few steps from the hotel. It was our first bad choice in restaurants here. The food wasn't all that bad but one of the dishes that we selected came with green peppers, what we didn't know was that these peppers were the hot chili pepper variety. OUCH! We ended up eating only the meat of that dish. The two other dishes were mutt chops (pretty good if a bit overcooked and overseasoned) and some Chinese greens (acceptable).

The one main thing I heard about the blog is that everyone likes the pictures and want more. Hopefully I didn't drown everyone today with too much details. In case you actually meant pictures of me, here's one in the Lujiazui park in downtown Pudong.
You guys are not the only one requesting pictures of me :) Some Chinese tourist approached me with a camera and asked if I could take a picture. Sure, I'll help them out I thought and asked where they wanted to pose. They directed me to pose with a member of their gang and proceeded all giggling to take a picture of the foreigner. I wonder who's facebook page I will end up. This happenned twice today, no kidding. I feel like a rock star or something.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, any overview of the Pudong skyscrapers wouldn't be complete without having a picture of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower ;)
I don't know what I'll do tomorrow. Probably a run north of the hotel, we haven't explored that area at all yet. I have to stop going places where I can shop. Everything is so cheap I will end up buying the whole store!

McMansions?

2009-10-13T16:09:00.004+08:00

I went for a bit of walking around this morning and then a run this afternoon. One thing that has struck me while running is the prevalence of the McMansions in Shanghai. While I had heard before that the up and coming Chinese middle and upper classes were hungry for American style mansions and that this was an exploding market in China, I was still expecting more density than what I saw this afternoon.

For a population of 1B people, you would expect to see a lot of housing that look like this:
as opposed to this:

or this:
I'm not sure how so many people can have that kind of lifestyle. The energy demand alone would be unthinkable. And while China is a big country, it would probably run out of room pretty quickly. I won't even mention the transportation concerns that these types of low density housing creates! The contrast is amazing:
In case you are thinking that I'm exaggerating and that I took the picture of the one oversized house, let me show you Exhibit E that will give you an idea of the scale at work here:
The McMansions projects that I have seen and run through this afternoon are at least a few kilometre squared each.

Arrived!

2009-10-13T06:16:00.003+08:00

We are now in China! This upside down picture depicts how I feel on the other side of the world, happy, weary and a bit lost :)
The flight was great. I was a bit anxious to see how difficult it would be to be stuck in a tin can for 14 hours but thanks to a mix of not sleeping at all the night before and pretty decent on board entertainment, I barely noticed the time fly by. I got to watch ice age 2 (and fall asleep during!) as well as Night at the Museum 2 and the Proposal. The other movie was a political thriller and I wasn't in the mood so I slept some more. I also read a bit, but nothing like what I expected when packing 6 books.

The plane went northwest over Canada, Alaska and then Russia before getting to China. We could see some pretty nice mountain ranges and ice sheets.
Arriving in China, I was really surprised by how quiet the airport was. No blaring annoucements competing with elevator music, commercial booths and radio CB of security guards, just silence and hushed conversations. The whole ordeal of going through customs felt dreamlike and pleasant, maybe because it was actually 2am for my system? Once we got through the friendly customs, we were able to locate transportation to the hotel at a very reasonable rate, especially considering the white glove treatment. Hotel staff are super friendly, everyone is asking why we are visiting China, how long we will stay, if we need anything, etc. We went to the pool for a few laps to refresh from the long day before exploring the area around the hotel to find place for dinner.

Our hotel is nice.
The room is pretty roomy and we have a view on a building next door being built as well as the business park where Alex will work.

Alex taught me the symbol for restaurant so that I could manage to find food on my own tomorrow. Not that it would be difficult, it seems there are place selling food at just about every corner in Pudong. We ended up at a great looking place called Garden 5. We're not sure if Garden 5 is the name of the restaurant or the name of the mall or hotel that hosts it but the food ended up being delicious and very cheap. Alex assured me he understood the signs but I figured there was something wrong and the prices were either per person or per 100g because it seemed to be *that* cheap, but I guess that's China for you. We were quite perplexed when we ordered since they don't speak any English or Cantonese. Lucky for us they had a picture menu to pick from even if Alex didn't believe me that this was the way to order. We ended up with a good selection of shrimps, beef ribs and a green vegetable that may or may not be chinese baby bok choi or chinese brocoli.
We were assigned a full time staff to hang around our table that was in a private room. She didn't understand anything we asked, but she was very polite and refilled the tea without us having to tell her we needed more. All of this for about $30 canadian.

There's no plans tomorrow except sleeping in. I'm hoping for good weather since I think a run around the neighborhood would allow me to familiarize myself quickly with the surroundings. From what I've seen today, everything looks totally safe around here if I can manage to keep out of the cross hairs of the not-always-patient drivers.

In the mix during the flight was Karmaflage 2, Francis Cabrel's Les beaux degats, Dub Trees' East of the River Ganges, Thierry Cham's Autrement and Asura's Code Eternity, not necessarily in that order :)

Ready?

2009-10-09T19:23:00.003+08:00

I find it hard to believe that in 48 hours I will be on my way to China! This trip is a bit surreal for me since it was never really planned. I did my best over the last few weeks to prepare by speed reading travel books and doing online research. Still, I don't really feel it that the rubber will hit the road (or leave the tarmac) in less than 2 days.

Part of this dreamlike stupor is surely because the schedule is just jammed packed before the departure that there is just no time to reflect on what lies ahead. We packed the luggage last night (yes, we are *that* busy) and I kept thinking of my sister, joking around and telling me that it was okay if I forgot something since everything we have here is made in China anyways ;)
That's a lot of luggage for 2 people but since we'll be there 5 weeks and travelling North, we'll most probably experience at least 2 seasons. We decided to plan in case of colder temperatures.

So with this, I must admit that I feel mostly ready. There still is a bit of anxiety over being lost in a crowd that doesn't speak any languages I can understand but as a friend mentioned, I should be able to see over the crowd :)

Excited!

2009-10-01T08:54:00.004+08:00

I am so excited about my upcoming trip to Shanghai! I've known for about 2 months that I was going and now for a few weeks about the actual dates. With less than 2 weeks before departure, I find myself rushing to get all my work finished or at least in a clean enough state that I can hand it off to my colleagues so they can oversee the progress of projects while I am away (for 5 weeks!)

I'm not quite sure of what I will do yet once there. I'm definitively treating this as downtime more than a whirlwind tour of China, especially for the first few weeks. I hope that I'll be able to get lots of miles in even if from what I heard and read the streets of Shanghai are not the best stomping grounds for runners.

There's so much preparations to do for such a long trip so far away. Pets have to find sitters and accounts have to be in order. I will be back with progress in a few days.