Shanghai Expo Day 1 - June 11, 2010

Today was the first day of our Expo experience!  I was looking forward to going as I had never been to a World Exposition before.  (I don't count the time when I visited the Expo grounds in Vancouver, BC after it had occurred.)  However, I was dreading the crowds, the heat, and potentially waiting for hours to go inside popular pavilions.  Fortunately we did have one respite:  the weather was the coolest in years.  Lucky us!

What was unlucky was that we had a mosquito in the room last night!  Even Lisa and Michael had the same predicament.  Five-star hotels aren't immune to pests.  I had hid under the covers; my mom got bit on the face several times.  The room was decorated in such dark hues that any attempt to flush it out would be impossible, even with expert mosquito hunting skills I had acquired during childhood.  "Sucks" to be sweet.

We had breakfast at the hotel buffet, and it was so good.  In fact, it was the best meal of the entire tour, which was sad.  My friend Karen gave me a list of restaurants to try in Shanghai and we wanted to go to one last night, but when we asked the local tour guide about it, he said that none of them were good.  Sometimes I wonder if he had never gone to those restaurants but feigned expertise since he was supposed to be our tour guide.  There is no way that Karen, a fellow foodie, would recommend a place that was not yummy.  I'll try again next time I'm in Shanghai.  My Chinese visa is good for one year, so I'll be open to mileage running!

Back to describing the best meal on the tour...I'd have considered the buffet to be more like brunch than breakfast.  There was just so much food to choose from.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures as it seemed a bit out of place (for me at least) to whip out a camera in the middle of a 5-star buffet.  I will do my best to describe each of the food stations to you.

• Western breakfast - they had the usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage buffet trays.  Omelettes and eggs could be made to order.  Bread and bagels were available to be toasted.
• Noodle soup and congee - everything was freshly made so the cooks would tell you to come back to the station after a few minutes.  They'd boil the noodles, then put them in a bowl, pour broth, and garnish with vegetables, yum!  They also made congee too:  you could choose different kinds like preserved egg and salty pork, pork liver (they'd fry the liver right there), beef slices, etc.  A variety of savory toppings were available to sprinkle onto your selection.
• Dim sum - there would be 3-4 types to choose from, in bamboo steamers.  They'd have items like phoenix feet, vegetable dumplings, and sweet steamed buns.  They'd stack them right on top of each other on a plate and hand them to you.  There was a station where they pan-fried pot stickers, turnip cakes, and sweets like lotus seed cake.  To display baked dim sum such as egg tarts and BBQ pork pastries, they used a rotisserie normally found in concession stands selling hot dogs, which was a great way to keep them warm.  At first, I was grabbing the items while the rotisserie was spinning, but thankfully an employee showed me the button to stop the rotation.  I'm sure I looked silly, timing my attempts to fish out pastries like trying to hop into a jumping rope.
• Antipasto - there was a tray with several different types of cheese (hard and soft) along with the usual accompaniments like crackers, olives, cured meats.
• Salad and fruit bar - the usual spread for salad, and lots of freshly cut fruit, ripe and sweet.
• Donuts and pastries - they were displayed like how you'd see them at the grocery store or neighborhood donut shop - trays behind glass.  You just lift up the glass door and select whatever you want.  Unfortunately, I would always be full by the time I remembered there were donuts.
• Dessert bar - there would be at least six kinds of desserts available.  I thought this was only breakfast!?  Individually portioned cakes, pies, tarts, and mousses were just the right amount and not too sweet.  There were also baskets of different cookies.

I stuffed myself big time as I wasn't sure what kind of food I would find at the Expo.  I'll be seeing you again tomorrow morning, my lovely buffet.

The hotel provided a shuttle to the Expo.  It dropped us off near Gate 7, which is the group entrance gate.  There were 8 total gates to the Expo grounds.  (It wasn't until later that night that we figured out that Gate 6 would've been a better choice as it was the gate that served a Metro stop.)  There were so many people waiting in several lines deep in switchbacks.  The lines were for security, just like at the airport.  It took almost 45 minutes to get through, ugh.  Finally, once you reach the head of the line, you put your bag into the X-ray machine.  (No filled water bottles were allowed inside, but you could bring an empty one as there were many purified water stations.)  You were also frisked by a same-sex officer, front and back.  Then you stick your ticket into the turnstile like in Disneyland, and voila, you're inside!  The tickets (at least the ones we had) were one-time use with no return privileges.

Our tour leader Tammy got us some maps and we were released into the wild.  Where to go first?  We head over to Canada, but it was closed that day.  Closed?!?  We head over to the Caribbean pavilion, which had a very short line.  Once you go in, you realize why...because there's not much to see.  Usually, the line is there because people want to have their Expo passports stamped.  The good people at Expo figured that they could make money selling "passports" that could be stamped at every pavilion.  There are 5 passports to collect.  In addition, it was rumored that a fully stamped set of Expo passports would be worth thousands of dollars.  Given that the average Chinese person has a very low average salary, and that a lot of them may never have a chance to travel out of their country, the passports were a good idea.  I of course didn't have a need to collect passports, though it made me very thankful for what I have, that I have a real passport, and stamps from different countries inside it.  During these two days at Expo, there were many torturous, trying times (which will be discussed along the way), but I always reminded myself to be thankful.

A lot of the time, the lines into the pavilions would be hours long.  There would be announcements made periodically over the speaker system informing us of the wait times.  For some countries, the wait would be 4 hours, another handful with 5 hour waits, and a few pavilions with 6-7 hour waits.  6-7 hours?!?!  Do people go to the bathroom?  My longest wait was 4 hours and no one let anyone cut back in line, so I doubt people took a bathroom break.  I have held it for 10 hours on a plane, but I wasn't standing and was sleeping for most of it.  But standing in line for 7 hours?  The advice my mom had gotten from her friend who had been there for 6 days was not to wait in line too long for anything...just go see what you can.

Pavilions that we managed to get into:

• Hungary - We waited a little while to get into Hungary.  The theme was harmony.  I wasn't sure what the wooden sticks meant.  They moved with music, and had lights at the ends.  There were also interesting sculptures.  The steel thing in the middle is a new geometric shape called a "gomboc".

• Turkey - Once we got in, it was way too dark to take pictures.  The pavilion talked about the rise of civilization.  It was okay.  Near the exit to the pavilion, there was a stand selling Turkish ice cream.  Not sure what flavor it was, but it looked like vanilla.  The server would make all sorts of noise with the metal paddles he was using to scoop the frozen dessert.  Most amusing was seeing people all excited to get in line for ice cream because they thought it was free!  Once they found out it cost some 20 yuan, they hurried out of there.

• Shanghai Corporate Pavilion - Companies could also sponsor pavilions.  (In fact, one of the 7 hour pavilions was the Oil Pavilion.  I have no idea what was in there that was so popular.)  While  waiting in line to get into the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, there were TV's scattered around like in Disney World.  There would be a short clip playing, telling people to clap their hands to show how much power we collectively have, that we could change the color of the fiber optic lights that surrounded the building.  Ooh.  Once inside, there was an exhibit showing the highlights of Shanghai, and a 360 "Circlevision" movie.

• Caribbean Community Pavilion - As I mentioned earlier, there was no line here as this pavilion hardly had anything in it.  In fact, some of the island countries weren't even manned with anyone to stamp people's passports. (the main purpose of most of the people who entered this building)

 

• SAIC/GM Pavilion - Another company pavilion.  We waited a while for this one.  Since we had been running around all day and catching Expo shuttles and ferries, it got so tiring standing in line that I succumbed to whipping out a folding stool.  About 20% of the people had folding chairs of some sort.  I highly recommend having one of these to endure long hours of queuing.  They're not too heavy, and fit into a backpack.  My parents bought some in Hong Kong, but sturdier folding chairs could be found in stores near the Expo for 10-15 yuan.  Chairs were also sold inside the Expo, but for 35 yuan (still affordable!).  The piece de resistance of this pavilion was the motion simulator movie.  The audience sat in egg-shaped seats with seat belts.  When the movie played, the seats would move accordingly.  The movie was set in the year 2030, and society is now using smart vehicles that automatically drive, park themselves, can be loaded onto bigger vehicles to travel long distances, etc.  Great idea, but not sure if it will really happen in 20 years.  After the movie was over, the screen slid out of sight and revealed a stage where the automatic cars were demo'ed.  The cars are small-sized.

 

• "Case" Pavilions - Cities could also have their own pavilions.  Not sure why they were named "case pavilions".  The pavilions usually featured city highlights.  An interesting one was Shenzhen, China; they used art and architecture to show how their city blossomed.  A huge mural of Mona Lisa on the side of the pavilion was made by different people assigned to paint individual rectangles and were all put together.  There was also this artistic stairway with tons of textures, prints, and images on the walls.  There was no one around when we reached this exhibit; just as I was about to get a picture on the stairs, people start coming in and running up the stairs, thinking there was a door or passageway at the top.  Hello, it's art! (albeit public-friendly)  And I'm taking a picture here! 

• Outsides of Pavilions - We didn't get a chance to go into these due to closure or long lines, but they were interesting enough to photograph:  Ukraine, Norway, Germany, Pavilion of Footprint (one of five Expo theme pavilions), Oil, Vanke (some Chinese developer), Canada, Coke Pavilion, spiky England, and the jewel of the Expo, the China Pavilion.

Admission to the China Pavilion required tickets. 30,000 tickets are handed out each operating day at the gates at opening time (9am).  Our local tour guide told us people are lined up by 4 or 5am, and all the tickets would be gone 5 minutes after opening.  Crazy!  I wasn't going to line up for hours to get a ticket, and then line up again for 90 minutes to enter the pavilion!  Signs outside of the pavilion said something along the lines of "This pavilion will still be here after Expo is over!!!!", attempting to make people feel better about not being to get in.  We saw people trying to talk their way into the line, however, this was the most secured line out of all the pavilions.  The entrance to the line was manned by at least 6 military officers plus Expo workers.  If you insist to see the China Pavilion during official Expo days, here are some tips on TripAdvisor.  I think I will wait until my next visit to Shanghai, after the Expo is over.  It'd be also an opportunity to try out Karen's restaurant list!

• See how cool the weather was? (in Celsius)

We could not find any decent food.  Thank goodness I had eaten a ton for breakfast.  My parents had a newspaper insert that listed all sorts of good restaurants, but we couldn't seem to find them.  Expo was way too big.  For lunch, we found a cafeteria-style sit-down restaurant and I had a curry pork plate.  Bleh.  We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and had a bowl of noodles and xiao long bao.  Nothing was worth taking a picture of.  The meals weren't cheap by Chinese standards either, around 35 yuan each entree.  The cheapest meal I saw was bowls of ramen for 10 yuan.  They even provided the hot water.  There were lots of people slurping it down.  At least there were lots of free purified water stations so you could fill up a water bottle.

The return shuttle left too early for us (7pm), so we had to grab a taxi at the end of the night.  There was a long queue, and yet even though we were all exhausted, people still tried to fight their way up the line, even with officers policing the queue.  Why can't people wait with manners?  Eventually it'll be your turn.  We saw people stealing taxis and others trying to smash more people than allowed into a taxi.  There is a law that taxi drivers cannot transport more than the stated number of passengers on the side of the car, usually 4.  It was a relief to see that the taxi driver refused to provide service to the people who smashed into his car.  Said large party eventually broke up into two taxis.  We finally get to the head of the line and secure a taxi.  You can guess the rest; the taxi driver was unfamiliar with the hotel's location since it was so new.  After being up for 15 hours and feet aching, getting lost in a taxi cab was torture.  We had to call Tammy (our tour leader) to give directions to the driver.  We eventually find the hotel and take a refreshing shower.  I was not looking forward to another day at Expo after today's adventure.  Please let there not be a mosquito in the room tonight!

Wuzhen and Shanghai - June 10, 2010

The tour bus left the hotel at around 8:15am, destination Shanghai, with some sightseeing in between.  Our tourmates ranged from young adult to retirees and most of them were easy to get along with.  However, there was one man in particular whom we'll call Rich (for "rich man").  He looked to be in his 60's.  Rich would be on his cell phone constantly, talking business in the bus, during meals, while we were sightseeing, probably even in the bathroom!  I thought this was a vacation?  I don't know how his wife put up with it.  I was so glad that we weren't sitting with him during mealtime, as the tour group was split between 2 10-person tables and we were lucky not to be assigned to his table, though we could still hear him and that cellphone ringtone.  Hardly any of the tour group talked to him.  A few eventually made conversation with him around the 3rd day of the tour, probably after they heard him talking loudly about the millions of dollars of business he was generating.

We make a stop at Wuzhen, a 1000+-year-old ancient city that still has permanent residents.  Apparently the government pays people to live here (many of them are elderly), in order to keep the city "alive", but I don't know if I'd want to live in a tourist attraction.  We walked by a lot of the homes and could peek in a lot of them as the front doors were left open, maybe to catch the breezes, since I don't think they have air conditioning.  I couldn't call this home, with hundreds, maybe even thousands of tourists walking by every day if you have an apartment on a main walkway.  The city itself is what you'd expect an ancient Chinese city to look like.  You could film a kung-fu movie here.  The waterways going through the city add to its appeal.  There were exhibits where you could see how the people lived back then, the types of crafts they made, and antique furniture on display.  Our sightseeing tour included a boat ride down the main canal.  The boat guide unfortunately did not sing for us like in Venice; we did ask though!


After lunch, other sightseeing stops included two tea houses.  The first one sold green tea.  I believe a bundle of the "better quality" tea (about the size of a personal watermelon) was being offered for about US$100, ouch! The sales pitches were not as intense as in a timeshare sales office, but I was impressed with the tactics to get us to buy super-expensive green tea.   There were many "tea rooms" where tour groups were corralled into, with doors closed.  The employees worked in pairs, the main host pitching how good the tea was, and another person pouring samples of tea for everyone to try.  Apparently there's a trick to pouring the hot water into the tea cup as to not crush the leaves, a flick of the wrist or something.  To me, it was all just a show.  The best part was this "magic trick": the host put some uncooked rice in a glass and poured iodine in it, even "accidentally" getting some on her finger to show that it stained her skin.  Then she poured hot water into the glass, and the iodine spread.  She poured the water out and showed that the rice is also stained.  Then she poured hot green tea into the glass, and voila, you see the stain start to disappear and the rice is becoming whiter every second!  The host reasoned that if the tea can clean the rice of iodine, think of what it would do to your bodies.  After that, many of our tour members decided to buy the tea!  I'm sure tea does do something to the iodine, and in general is good for you, but having the employees tout that it'll get rid of diabetes, gout, heart disease, etc...it's not a cure-all.  I think people thought this tea would be a miracle elixir.  Some of them bought 2-3 bundles of tea.  We hurried out of there!  The second tea house sold chrysanthemum tea.  It was interesting as I had not seen tea made like that before, and it tasted good and had a wonderful aroma.  The prices were cheaper, but we didn't buy.  Another interesting thing about these tea houses is that they are set up like IKEA (or the exit from a Disneyland ride)...once you enter, it'll take you a while to get out of the building as they make you snake through aisles of merchandise.  We managed to get away with not buying anything except for a pack of cookies, which ended up being stale. :(

The bus makes it into Shanghai, and we stop at the Xintiandi entertainment area.  There are all sorts of stores and eateries here.  We take a walk around to admire the architecture.  This area is very much in contrast to what we saw in Wuzhen; goes to show how much has changed in the past thousand years.  I wonder what the United States will look like in a thousand years.

We did have lunch and dinner today, but no pictures as it was not very exciting.  I believe we had water shield soup again, so I did have to try the wormy leaf again.  I should mention the ritual of washing the cups, bowls, plates, and chopsticks; the waiter brings a kettle of hot tea and a large bowl to the table just for this purpose.  You can do it in however order makes sense, but what I do is pour the tea into the rice bowl, swish the rims and the inside of the tea cup in it.  Then take the plate, hold it over the large bowl, and pour a bit of the rice bowl tea onto it to swirl and clean it.  Then I pour the rest of the rice bowl water over my chopsticks into the large bowl.  And voila...place setting is now "sterilized".

After dinner, we head over to the riverbank to see Shanghai at night, with the Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower all lit up.  It's so beautiful.  What was funny was that some of the tour members didn't want to get off the bus to go to the riverbank!  Uh, this is quintessential Shanghai.  Even if you've been to the city before, it's still nice to see it all lit up at night.  What is wrong with these people?  They should drink some of that hundred-dollar tea and get more energy. ;) 

We head to the hotel, and guess what?!?!  We got LOST!  Again!  The local tour guide had to hail another taxi to get us to the Chateau Star River Pudong.  The taxi driver was also a bit lost as well.  This hotel apparently had been open only for a few months, which was why no one really knew the location.  We finally get there, and this is definitely a 5-star hotel.  The lobby was beautiful.  The staff were very friendly; the bellman accompanied us all the way up to the room, explained how things worked in there (like lights, TV), unwrapped brand new slippers for us, and refused to take the tip we offered him!  The room was huge and even had a glass bathroom (thank goodness there were shades in there as I was sharing a room with my parents!).  The bathroom had a TV that was hidden *behind* the mirror so you could watch it from the bathtub, furnished with a waterproof remote.  The beds were already turned down with cute boxes of white heart-shaped chocolates. The shower had awesome water pressure with a huge rain shower head.  The mini bar was complimentary - it included soda and beer.


Tomorrow is our first day at the Expo!  As usual, we'll have an early start, and I know for sure that it will be a very, very, very long day.

Hangzhou - June 9, 2010

At 3:45 in the morning, a taxi is slowly driving beside me as I am walking down a normally bustling but now deserted street with a backpack on and a carry-on in tow.  Dawn won't come for a few hours; the eerie streetlights wash the surrounding area in a bluish-gray glow.  The taxi driver is correct in assuming I needed a ride to the airport, wondering why I haven't noticed his presence.  I do notice, but I'm heading to meet my parents six blocks away, and then getting into one.  He drives off after a couple of blocks.  Oh well...we shouldn't have much trouble finding another.  I meet my parents earlier than planned.  4am was the appointed time, but it only took me 8 minutes to walk to our designated meeting place.  After a few minutes, we were able to hail a taxi to take us to an Airbus stop that operated the "overnight" schedule.  During normal operating hours, we would've been able to catch an Airbus where we hailed the taxi.  But since our flight to Hangzhou was very early in the morning, we had no choice but take a taxi to another neighborhood where the Airbus ran in the wee hours, as taking a taxi straight to the airport would have been much more expensive.  We were fortunate that we took the taxi earlier than planned as the Airbus arrived earlier than printed on schedule, and it didn't wait!  If we missed this bus, we would have had to wait another 30-40 minutes! 

The Airbus had an area where luggage was stowed.  The bus was double-decker, and most of the seats were upstairs.  (When heading up the stairs, make sure you grasp onto any handholds to keep from falling as the bus just takes off!)  There was a security camera pointing at the stowage area and it showed on a monitor upstairs.  I didn't think it mattered this early in the morning as most of the passengers were asleep.

We arrived at the airport and meet up with our tour guide Tammy from Sunflower Travel.  There were about 10 total parties on the tour, ranging from young couples, adult families, and retirees.  My mom's best friend Lisa and her husband Michael also joined us on the tour, which was a 5-day tour that was focused on the Shanghai World Expo but included a little bit of sightseeing around the Shanghai area plus Hangzhou, which was our first stop.  The flight was on Dragonair, and I had never flown them before, so had no good or bad expectations.  I was totally impressed with the level of service and we even got served food on a 2 hour flight!  Good food!  It was breakfast and we had a choice of a Western breakfast (eggs/sausage), dim sum, or congee.  By the time they made it to us, the eggs and dim sum were left.  I had my heart set on the congee, but I'll take the dim sum please!  It was amazingly good for airplane food, even had a piece of dragon fruit.  I can't believe they served us a full meal including pre-meal beverages and after-meal tea all in 2 hours gate-to-gate, on a full flight.  There were 4 flight attendants working quickly and efficiently, with a smile too.  I would fly Dragonair again.  (not that I had a choice coming back!)  One thing I noticed is that if there was slight to moderate turbulence (when I'm holding my cup down thinking it'll spill), the fasten seat belt sign did not come on, and the flight attendants still moved about the cabins serving meals.  If we were flying in US airspace, the seat belt sign would have come on in the slightest turbulence.

We arrive in Hangzhou and board our tour bus headed towards famous West Lake.  We even get a local guide on board to explain the history.  West Lake is so beautiful.  The surroundings are so picturesque: willow trees gracing the shores, magnolia-like trees with larger-than-large flowers adorning them, waterlilies, historic buildings, huge koi pond.  There was a peace that blanketed the area.  We also rode a boat around a section of the lake area.  I'll just include some pictures from there and not disturb your appreciation of them with text:

We got back on the bus and stopped at the Qiantang River, famous for its "tidal bore".  Around every mid-Autumn Day, the gravitational pull of the earth and moon cause a 30-foot "tide" to rush in from the bay, sounding like thunder.  Every year, there are people who try to challenge Mother Nature and attempt to "run" from it, like the running of the bulls in Pamploma, Spain.  Of course there are fatalities.  The government finally got tired of the stupidity and erected barriers around the riverbank to keep people from killing themselves.  Thus, the best picture I could get from the fences was this one, showing the breakwaters to slow the force of the tide.  The Qiantang River Bridge is in the background, built in 1937.

After dinner, we went to watch a  show.  We had seats with a good view of the stage and included a cup of chrysanthemum tea and candies.  The prices of the seats were posted in the row itself, perhaps to discourage seat jumping; I believe it was around 180 yuan.  That's expensive for there; people don't make a ton of money.  The show was okay; it was like "Cirque du Soleil meets Miss Hangzhou".  There were acrobatics and singing going on, but at the same time, beautiful women would be walking around right in front of them, so it was hard to concentrate on one thing.  Maybe the director was trying to entertain everyone.  What was really funny was that when the audience clapped, they didn't use their hands...they used these plastic clappers, like multiple flexible plastic hands connected together such that when you shake it, it "claps"!  So all through the show, I kept hearing plastic being slapped around and was quite irritating, and I don't usually get irritated so easily.  I along with a few other patrons continued to clap like normal; I wonder if people thought I was a party pooper.

We were so tired from traveling all day and were looking forward to getting some sleep, but the bus driver got us lost!  Turns out he is from a city called Shangdong, which is around 800 miles north of Shanghai, definitely not a local.  We had been driving for 45 minutes looking for the Sofitel Xanadu Resort, situated far away from West Lake.  The local tour guide claimed to have stayed there before, but did not remember the location, even though he is originally from Hangzhou.  Our tour group was grumbling and restless.  He eventually did an "Amazing Race" maneuver and hailed a taxi cab to guide the bus to the hotel.  Finally!  The hotel lobby is beautiful (as shown in these pictures I took the morning after) with grand flower arrangements and a sculpture that took 3 years to carve from a single piece of stone.  Sofitel Xanadu is considered 5-star, but the accommodations could have been much better.  The shower had a very slow drain where I was worried that the water was going to overflow onto the bathroom floor, and the slippers were in unsealed cloth bags and seemed "used" (you could see the bottoms of them dirty from use, in fact, either Lisa's toes got itchy after wearing them a while, yuck!).  Maybe we got the "budget" accommodations as reviews on TripAdvisor were generally favorable.

Note, I didn't take any pictures of lunch or dinner.  Surprising, isn't it?  I didn't find the food very good.  An example can be found in this link.  It may have been my picky palate, but I thought everything was greasy and the flavors were too strong and salty.  I know, I said something was too salty?!?  It may also have been because we were on a tour, and the restaurants selected cater to tour groups.  There was one interesting soup, which featured a leafy vegetable called "water shield", found only in this region of China.  The leaves, when cooked in the soup, curl up and are about an inch wide.  It was hard to get one onto my soup spoon since it was very slimy (warning, warning!).  I bit into one, and it felt like I was eating a worm; gelatinous texture on the outside, the rubbery leaf like a spine; how I would imagine a worm to be, not that I have ever eaten a worm!  I'm glad I got to try new foods, but I don't think I would jump up and down at the opportunity to eat it again.

Tomorrow will be another early start as my parents like to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, meaning "eat at 7am".  It will take three hours to drive to Shanghai, but with sightseeing sprinkled in between.  A long day ahead.