China

Day 5:

In Shanghai, the buildings are entertainment

I woke up this morning to Chandler’s housekeeper yelling at me in Chinese at 5:40AM as we had a 9AM flight for Shanghai. Chandler’s parents dropped us off at a bus depot where we boarded a bus for the airport. We made it into the Shanghai airport around 11AM, and we boarded another bus to take us into Shanghai where we got on the Shanghai MRT to take us to the hotel to check in.

We are staying at the Huana Hotel on the edge of town. It’s a bit out of the city, but it’s not much of a problem with the MRT. Shanghai has really good public transportation, and the first thing we had to do was buy an MRT card, which will work for anything except a taxi. Anyway, the hotel is also very nice.

By the time we were all settled it was about 3PM, and we wanted to go into the city, so we hopped back on the MRT and went into town. We headed towards the Yuyuan Garden Shopping area which we heard was pretty cool. It was a very large shopping area and we walked around for quite awhile. We were also hungry so we grabbed something to eat. The Yuyuan was very cool and also pretty crowded. There was a temple nearby that was pretty large, but by the time we found it, it had closed.

After we had had enough of the Yuyuan area we started walking towards the financial district in the center of Shanghai. It was a very pretty skyline and we kept walking towards it until we got to a river and couldn’t easily cross (apparently called The Bund). There were lots of people on the river walk around this time (about 6PM) and we couldn’t really figure out why We thought the city was cool during the daytime, but it was even more amazing about an hour later near sundown. In Shanghai, when the sun goes down, the lights come up, and buildings are the entertainment. It was an awesome show, and some of the best free entertainment I’ve ever seen. Every building had something going on and buildings change colors, and do crazy things. Totally awesome!

After the crowds started to subside on The Bund we decided to try and find “fake street,” a place where people sell all kinds of counterfeit stuff. We found the appropriate bus and got off where we thought it was. Chandler wanted to walked down the street we were on, but I could see lots of lights on the next corner and wanted to walk in that direction. The next corner happened to be a shopping district called Shengdena Shopping Disctrict. This was also amazingly cool. The lights were spectacular and all the colorful neon signs with Chinese characters were especially cool. This is where I maxed out my camera memory. It was so cool, there were so many lights! Oh, and we did actually find fake street nearby, and it was so shady that I pretty much had to force Chandler to walk down it. It wasn’t all that scary, but it was shady, and we didn’t buy anything. Shengdena was far cooler. We ate something and walked around forever. We left the area around 10PM as we didn’t know what time the MRT discontinued operation, and it was really busy. We made to our transfer and some girls told us (and by us, I mean Chandler, in Chinese) that we were just barely going to make a transfer by about a minute to get back to the hotel, but they were also going there so we should follow them. It was a close call, and the trains were really busy (especially considering that they’re probably about 500 feet long).

We got back in around 11AM and were pretty whipped and we knew we wanted to get up early the next day for the Expo so we just hit the sack.

I’m still behind by a day, but I’m tired, so I’m going to bed. Also, the Chinese government really DOES censor Facebook, so I’m unable to update with pictures. Correction, I just tried to update the blog, and that’s blocked too. Not sure when this will actually go up…

Cheers.

Day 7

Shanghai Expo = a lot of hype

We got up kind of early because we knew we wanted to be at the Shanghai Expo kind of early, but by the time I got Chandler out of bed and we ate and rode the MTR, it was about 11:00AM, and the gates opened at 10. We got in and made our way to the China exhibit, as that was the thing that we both really wanted to do, but you needed a reservation, and tickets were all sold out, so we were kind of bummed. We ended up heading over to some other exhibitions that Chandler had heard were cool and checked those out. We saw the UK, France, Poland, Spain, and Ireland. Nothing was particularly worthwhile. It was just propaganda for each country, and the worst part was not only waiting in line, but having to put up with the Chinese people. In a word, they suck. They’re very pushy, and the cut in line. When you’re waiting in line, you can always feel them right behind you. At first, the wait wasn’t terrible. For our first exhibit we only waited 20 minutes, but later in the day we were standing in line for an hour to walk through an exhibit that took about 5-15 minutes to see. There weren’t a whole lot of international people there. It was mostly Chinese people, although we did run into a group of Australians that were nice. We also met a girl named Fangli, who heard us talking English and spoke little bit as well. She was there by herself and had been there the day before and recommended exhibits that were good, and we ended up spending part of the day with her. We were going to go multiple days, but it was less than thrilling, and after a full day there we decided that we didn’t really want to go back. There were just too many people. It was worth the roughly $25 cost of entry just to say that I had been to a world’s fair, but it wasn’t worth it to go again.

Cheers.

Day 8

Capitalism at work in China

After our travails at the Expo the day before, we woke up to light rain. We ate the complimentary breakfast at the hotel and looked for something to do that was inside. We decided to check out the Shanghai Museum. We hopped on the MTR to the People’s Square, and walked through it to get to the Museum. The Square was actually beautiful and huge. It was really pretty, kind of like Central Park, or Rock Creek Park. The Shanghai museum was on the opposite side from the MRT station, so we got to see quite a bit. Apparently the museum has an exquisite collection of bronze and porcelain from ancient China. It was all very impressive, and we were there for probably about 4 hours, but I really liked the furniture exhibit. I make furniture, so I really appreciated the 400 year old desks and such that didn’t have any screws holding them together. In all, it was very cool.

We departed and headed towards the Nanjing Shopping District on the other side of the People’s Square. We headed into a mall area where people were selling all kinds of goods in very small storefronts. All the clothing and such were fakes, and it was really funny and blatantly obvious that they were so. I did, however, find some scrolls with Chinese characters on them, and I haggled one lady down from 300 yuan to 40 for one of them.

We walked around for quite a long time after this looking for something to eat and ended up in something like Shanghai’s version of a night market. It was pretty similar to that in Taiwan and we found somewhere that we thought looked good and ordered up some food. It cost us about $10 to eat dinner and it was amazing. All the people there were really interested to see a white guy, and I got pretty good treatment – the people running the place let me try the dish that they had prepared for themselves to eat.

We had quite a fiasco trying to get on the MTR from here as the line on the map was not open yet. We ended up running into some friendly Hong Kong girls that spoke English and knew how to navigate the area despite the absence of the MTR line; however, when we got to our transfer to get out of town, we had missed the last train. Fortunately, we had been debating the idea of going to a bar/club district anyway that was fairly close to this MTR stop, so in light events we did so.

We ended up going to a bar and only 1 beer as they were kind of expensive. It wasn’t very busy for a Friday night (apparently China isn’t a very big party culture), and some girls working there came over and seemed to be relieved that they had someone to talk to. Chandler talked to them for a long time in Chinese as they didn’t know very much English and they also showed us how to play a dice game that was kind of fun.

By the time we left there it was almost 1AM, so we took a cab back to the hotel and hit the sack.

Cheers.

Day 9

The French Concession, Shanghai World Trade Center

We slept in a bit, but got up in time for breakfast. We weren’t sure what to do for the day, so we looked up some stuff and decided on heading towards the French Concession. It was an French enclave from the 1800s to the 1960s, and boasted very nice residential areas, tree-lined streets, and some art deco architecture. It was also the home of Sun Yat-Sen, a former president of China and one who was pro-Democracy. He also founded the political party that eventually fled to Taiwan (if I remember all this correctly). Chandler was kind of excited about touring his home in the French Concession so we headed there. It was interesting to see some of the things that he did, and his actual home where he lived with all the furnishings well-preserved, but I think Chandler enjoyed it more than I did.

We were there for about 2 hours and walked down the street towards a tea room for a spot of tea and some light fare. The place we ate at was very cool and only cost us each about $6, but had awesome food and atmosphere, and was somewhere that would have cost us each $15 in the US. From here we walked down the main thoroughfare for a bit and walked in a few stores. The street was called Hauihai, and was kind of like M Street in Washington, DC. It wasn’t too interesting, as most of the stores were things that you could find in the US, and there were a lot of people.

By the time we were done fooling around there, we headed towards the downtown financial district because we knew we wanted to go to the top of the Shanghai World Trade Center and it was a very nice day to do so. We walked around in that area for a while and checked out probably the largest mall I’ve ever seen in my life. It was huge, but slightly more interesting than Hauihai, as there were some different shops that I had never heard of. We headed down to the SWTC and made our way up to the 100^th floor of the building, which is the highest observation deck in the world. The views were spectacular and we timed it well so that we were there just before sunset, so we got the daytime views and we waited long enough for it to get dark so we could see everything at night.

We rode a ferry back across the Haungpu River and made our way back to the Yuyuan Garden for some dinner. We had another good and inexpensive dinner and decided to call it a night after that as it was kind of late, and we had a flight to catch the next day. Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Beijing for 7 days.

Cheers.

Day 10

Shanghai Airport

Due to unfortunate circumstances we ended up spending pretty much the whole day at Shanghai Airport, but after several hours on standby we did get on a plane and had an enriching conversation with an American expatriate that works for Pfizer in Asia. When we arrived in Beijing we were welcomed by Chandler’s parents and they took us out for some food despite it being about 12:30AM (or 0:30, as everyone uses military time here). Right now we’re going to bed as it’s about 1:30, and we’re apparently getting up around 8:00 for some antique auction.

Cheers.

Juifen

Day 3: Juifen

So far, I have neglected to mention how hot it is in Taiwan. It’s really hot!! Think 85-90 everyday with high humidity. My only comfort is that even the Taiwanese people think it’s hot. However, this day was gorgeous. It was so nice out, probably about 70-75 everywhere we went with light sun, absolutely the nicest day so far. Chandler originally wanted to go to the National Palace Museum, but I talked him into doing something outside for the day, so we went to a coastal area called Juifen for pretty much the whole day. Juifen is about an hour and a half bus ride from Chandler’s condo and was very pretty. Apparently the town experienced a gold rush in the 1960s, but now is a popular market area. When we got there we went right to the market street and it took us probably about 2 hours to get to the end after checking out some of the stores. As usual, there are lots of food vendors, and we had to try just about everything. I ate something that came out of a shell that looked like giant escargot which was good but chewy and we tried some local sausage things made out of boar’s meat. Oh, and there are bakeries with various kinds of cake and whatnot. I brought back a variety box of pineapple, blueberry, etc. cakes, but I have no idea where they went. The market was very cool, and we walked up and down it twice. I saw a belt that was pretty cool for about $9 that I almost bought, but decided to wait, and if I really still want it, I’m going to make Chandler go back later.

Juifen’s other attraction is Keelung Mountain. It is a mountain right alongside the ocean and it’s just under 2000 feet high. The entrance is just a short walk from the commercial area in Juifen. As there are no laws on open intoxicants in Taiwan, Chandler and I each grabbed a beer at a convenience store at the base and commenced the climb. Surprisingly it only took us about 35 minutes to climb to the top, but when you leave Juifen you are already about halfway up. The views that the summit afforded were absolutely worthwhile. You could see Taipei about 30 miles away with the Taipei 101. I must have taken about 30 photos of the Taipei skyline from this vantage point to ensure that I got some that came out. The views of the coast are beautiful as well and you can see Juifen behind you. In short, it was awesome. We stayed at the top for about half an hour and climbed back down, which took about 20 minutes as it’s really steep with hand laid stones everywhere that are difficult to traverse.

By this time it was about 5:30 and we fooled around in Juifen for about another hour and hopped back on the bus for Taipei. We saved about a half hour of bus/MRT rides on the way back because I was positive that if we got off at a certain stop that Chandler’s building would be just around the corner, and I was right! I wasn’t very hungry when we got back, but Chandler’s mother made us some beef dish that was really good, kind of a soup with a couple sides that were also tasty. I have to refuse a lot of food in Taiwan, otherwise you just keep eating. After that, we just watched some tv and went to bed.

Danshui in the Rain / The Dong Po Lo was amazing

First of all, why do I get up so early? It’s like 8:30AM…

It ended up being a relatively uneventful day, especially when compared to my first day. We went to lunch with a lot of Chandler’s relatives, which was spectacular. The Dong Po Lo was so good! It’s like some pork dish with syrup on it that is very tender. The restaurant was very nice as were his family. I must admit that I was kind of a novelty. Everyone wanted to meet me and the young children seemed especially interested.

From there we made our way towards Danshui, which is like a wharf area where the large river in Taipei meets the ocean. We stopped and got some salty eggs on the way (pretty weird). We also checked out Guan-Da temple at the stop. From here we continued to Danshui, but when we got there it was raining so hard that we decided not to stay. However, we got back in the car and Chandler’s father insisted that we walk down the street. He drove us over to the street and dropped us off. Chandler, his mother, youngest brother, and myself shared 2 umbrellas, but we still got pretty wet. It was very interesting though and well worth it. There are a lot of food vendors there selling eccentric things. In the 20 minutes we walked around I tried octopus balls, fried bird eggs, a potato on a stick, candied tomato, and some strange rice thing. Since there’s an MRT stop in Danshui we’re going to go back some day when it’s nice because it looked really cool, and I didn’t really get a chance to check anything out.

We got back to Chandler’s around 6PM and I promptly fell asleep for about 2 hours. Chandler got me up and we went to a Thai restaurant near the condo that was very good and we stopped at a convenience store and picked up some local beers to drink when we got back. We just fooled around a bit back at Chandler’s and I went to bed.

Today looks promising. It’s mostly cloudy, but dry, and I don’t think it’s going to rain. I’m not sure what the plan is, but I heard something about climbing a mountain coupled with a hot spring??? Or possibly the National Palace Museum, which I understand is roughly equivalent to The Henry Ford…

Cheers.

Day 1

Taipei

Day 1: On a Clear Day, You Can See Taipei 101

Arrived around 11PM in Taipei after about 8000 miles and 16 hours on airplanes. Chandler picked me up at the airport and we arrived at his house around midnight. I went to bed pretty quick after we got there. Around 7AM the next morning, Chandler’s grandmother accidentally woke me up. She was really embarrassed and speaks very little English, and I don’t speak Chinese, so that was interesting.

Chandler’s parents’ condo is amazing and huge. It has an amazing view of Taipei, and you can see the Taipei 101. First thing in the morning, Chandler, his parents, and his grandmother took me out to breakfast to Mr. Brown Coffee then we went to a flower market. There were an awful lot of flowers, more than I’ve ever seen in one place. After that, Chandler and I went into the city around 10AM. We hopped on a bus to the nearest MRT (subway) station. I can’t imagine how many miles we rode the MRT, but it must have been about 20 total for the whole day, and it cost about $100Taiwan, or about $3USD.

Anyway, our first stop was Longshan Temple, a Buddhist Temple that was pretty cool. Chandler wasn’t very knowledgeable about what everything means, but we did light incense for the 7 gods. Our next stop was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, a giant city square roughly attributable to the National Mall with a memorial to President Chiang Kai Shek that is kind of like the Lincoln Memorial. That was cool, and very large. We also watched a Changing of the Guard that was very similar to what they do at the Tomb of the Unknown. From there we walked to the President’s Palace and Peace Park then to a mall to get some lunch. Beforehand Chandler got us each a giant bubble tea that was actually pretty good but was so filling that I barely at anything for lunch.

We had been playing phone tag with Alan all day and agreed to meet him at Taipei 101 at about 4PM. We walked around a giant (and very high-end (I couldn’t afford anything.)) mall at the base of Taipei 101 for a bit then went up to the observation deck on the 89^th floor. We were there for a couple hours and it afforded pretty sweet views of Taipei. When we got there it was light out, and we stayed long enough for it to get dark and the lights came on around the city.

From there the three of us rode the MRT to Shi-Da night market where we were going to find dinner. This was crazy. It’s a market that’s only open at night and is full of stores and eateries. We walked around and found a place that we liked and concocted a dish for $280Taiwan, about $9USD, that fed all three of us and it was awesome. It was a crazy place where you put your food in a basket and they boil it is some soy sauce like liquid. It was delicious. We had planned on eating more at other places, but we were too stuffed.

After this we met up with some Taiwanese girls that Chandler and Alan knew and went to a club for a couple drinks. I was totally whipped by this time as it was about 11:30 PM and I was a bit jetlagged so we only stayed for about an hour. I had a ‘Taiwan Beer’ on tap that was actually pretty good – better than Bud Light, anyway. We took a taxi back to Chandler’s as the MRT had discontinued operation by this time. I took a shower and went to bed.

Right now it’s about 10:30AM on Sunday and it’s raining. We’re supposed to meet a lot of Chandler’s family (like 20 people) for lunch in about 2 hours. The rain has put a damper on our afternoon plans, and I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do. The itinerary changes about every 15 minutes.

Cheers.