Sunday 7/18/2010. Pudong Airport is quite modern and seems to be well designed. Clean washrooms. Took MagLev train which reached a top speed of 430 km/h. Train looked a bit old, with some tattering in the upholstery already; let’s hope track maintenance is more diligent. Short Taxi ride from train station to Citadines Hotel. Anne already checked in earlier in the day. Hotel (an apartment) is reasonable, but very far from town – map at hotels.com website indicated a different location. Didn’t do much during the day – basically trying to make up for the sleepless flight. Lunch and dinner (takeout) at the hotel restaurant.
Monday 7/19/2010. Anne met up with her colleagues for lunch while I stayed at the hotel. Met up with her at the LaYa Shopping Center where we had coffee. Shanghai has been having very hot weather these several days (reaching 37C which is about 100F), so we were expecting an uncomfortable afternoon. We first visited the Bund with many buildings from the early 1900s. We then took a ferry ride across the Huangpu River – cost RMB2 one way.
PingAn Insurance Building. Greek columns galore. Who was the architect?
Pudong Skyline, dominated by the Pearl of the East Tower.
Took taxi from Ferry Terminal to the EXPO (Door 4). Very few people at the entrance, and surprising very few people milling about on EXPO grounds. Turns out they were all standing in line. We picked the pavilions that didn’t have long lines and ended up visiting most (if not all) of the –stans. Other places included Mongolia, East Timor, and Iran. We did wait for about an hour to get into the Kazakstan Pavilion and decided it wasn’t worth it. Dinner at an EXPO restaurant.
A few observations. (i) Attendance to the EXPO was very low after the opening days. There is a lot of talk in trying to make the target number of 70 million, the government has been giving out a lot of free or discounted tickets. Our tickets today were gifts from a friend, for instance. Now they are on track to make the number, but – at least in my case, and in some of my friends’ cases – in exchange has made the experience bordering on unbearable. (ii) Queuing is still a strange concept in China. To be able to jump the line seems to be a national sport. I used to think it is people are so conditioned because of the lack of resources, now I am not so sure. Actually I remarked sarcastically to a mother that she would bring her daughter up thinking that’s the way things should be. (iii) Anne thinks many things are there for “perfunctory” reasons. Shanghai thinks it is an international city and thus needs to be bi-lingual, so announcements and signs are also in English. But the English items are just of minimal help. During the EXPO people were just going around gathering stamps instead of trying to understand other cultures. (iv) You see exceptions every now and then, but people are in general not very friendly. Most of the time the answer we get is “I don’t know.”
Tuesday 7/20/2010. Visited the Pearl of the East TV Tower. We wanted to get the RMB150 ticket and they were sold out. When asked when they would be available the agent didn’t know. So we got the RMB135 ticket. It quickly dawned on us they probably sell so many of the RMB150 tickets every hour and then stop in order to control people flow. After standing in line for a while, we took the offer of an “upgrade” to 3-station ticket and a buffet lunch. That allowed us to jump to the top of the queue (actually we went to another line which was very short.) The views were quite spectacular, although the hazy day limited our visibility. I gathered enough courage to step onto the plexiglass flooring with a direct view of the ground 340m below me. Buffet in the revolving restaurant was okay. Visited the Shanghai museum after the tower, rather interesting and informative display.
In front of the Pearl of the East Tower.
View of Pudong Traffic Circle from the Tower.
Tall buildings in Pudong viewed from the Tower.
This observation deck is at 350 meters.
It took me a while to gather the courage to step on the plexiglass floor. These are my legs.
Cicada pupae shells left behind after the insects emerged as adults.
We went to the EXPO again, they didn’t sell tickets at Door 4 (who would have thought) so we walked to Door 5. This time we found ourselves near the EXPO axis and the China Pavilion. We strolled around and were quite impressed with the Axis and the Cultural Center. We then took a bus to the Pacific Area. Visited the Pacific Pavilion with its collection of small nations such as Marshall Islands. A stamp collector’s dream. We also saw Indonesia which was reasonably interesting. Dinner at an EXPO restaurant also.
EXPO Axis. No idea what this represents, but it looks nice and changes color.
EXPO Cultural Center. Quite an impressive building. The black band you see is a glassed in corridor.
Wednesday 7/21/2010. Went to People’s Square and visited Shanghai Museum. Quite disappointed at the haphazard way things were grouped together. One usually expects to learn something after visiting a museum, not this time. I remember going to it before and it certainly didn’t leave any lasting impression either. Developed a cramp in my right calf, very painful to walk. Had to rest at Raffles Plaza across the street from the museum; had lunch and then went back to the hotel.
Took taxi to Big Thumb Plaza and had dinner at a restaurant serving Northeastern cuisine. The “Fish Boiled in Water” dish was very spicy.
In front of the Shanghai Museum. The visit was a disappointment.
Thursday 7/22/2010. Woke up early (at 5:30 am) to get ready for early trip to Pudong Airport. Taxi took about 40 minutes (no traffic, hotel on Eastern part of town). Check in, security, and boarding processes were quite smooth. However, at 9 am the pilot said we were all ready, but airport traffic control couldn’t tell us when we could take off. According to a flight attendant I talked to, this happens quite frequently with Shanghai. Other airports at least will give an estimated time. And there was no obvious reason for the delay: early flight, good weather, airport didn’t seem particularly congested. In any case, when we got to Royal Park Shatin, it was about 4 pm. It should take that long (close to 10 hours) to go door-to-door from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Landing was relatively smooth given that there is threat of a hurricane (cyclone). Hong Kong Express is a decent airline from this limited experience.
Friday 7/23/2010. Went to Langham Place to have Samsung Cell Phone repaired. Then to Causeway Bay to have lunch with Tim. Went to The Peak and had dessert with Elaine. Evening spent eating a quiet meal at Café d’ Coral. Feeling a bit sick – coming down with a cold.
Saturday 7/24/2010. Had a rough night last night with my sore throat and coughing. Woke up after a fitful night’s sleep. Went back to Samsung to get the repaired phone. It was a good thing I asked the customer service rep to try the wifi feature: it still didn’t work. Eventually they got it fixed and it seems to work okay now. Lunch at Jockey Club with Larry and Elaine. Came back to hotel to rest up. Dinner at Japanese Restaurant in Shatin Plaza. Anne went to airport to pick up Joe and Jessica.
Sunday 7/25/2010. Tim picked me up to go to Tai Po to look at his project. Also saw cleanup work with bulldozers and trucks after the heavy downpour on Thursday. A person was washed out to sea. Anne, Joe and Jessica checked out of hotel and checked in at the YMCA. We met up with them and drove to Aberdeen Boat Club where Alyson joined us for the boatride to Lamma Island, lunch and then a short anchor at one of the Lamma bays. Got back to the hotel and changed to go the dinner at The Country Club where most of Anne’s family showed up: Uncle Richard & Auntie Fannie; Ellen; Jane and her daughter; Larry, Elaine & Larry Jr & Justin; Kenneth, Anna & Kenneth Jr & Eric; Gordon and Alex & Lucas.
Joe and Jess swimming in one of the bays at Lamma Island.
Dinner at the Country Club. Relatives from Anne's side of the family.
View of harbor from YMCA hotel room.
Monday 7/26/2010. Started off the day with Joe & Jessica dropping off the laundry they have accumulated over many days. Breakfast at Breadbox which was Malaysian/Singaporean. Then ferry, shuttle, and Peak Tram to The Peak. Walked a bit. Took 15 to head back to town. Anne & I split up from Joe and Jessica. Lunch at Café de Coral. I came back to the hotel to rest while Anne went off to Jordan to check out a bookstore. Dinner at Serenade Restaurant at Cultural Center.
Tuesday 7/27/2010. Dinner with Kenneth & Jr at China Club. Needed to borrow jackets.
Wednesday 7/28/2010. Went to Ngong Ping 360. Quite windy, sky was clear, though. Was about to take bus to Tai O when sky really darkened. So we took bus back to Tung Chung instead. Dinner at Canton Restaurant at Harbor City.
Inside a NgongPing360 cable car. It was quite windy this day.
Thursday 7/29/2010. Dim Sum Brunch at Jade Garden, Star House. Took train and then light rail to Wetland Park. I sat inside the café while Joe, Jessica and Anne walked around the grounds. Went to see Tim before heading back to the hotel. Dinner with Larry and Elaine at the Shanghai Club. Joe just found out his flight will be delayed for 11 hours. He managed to rebook themselves on a 9:30 am CX flight.
Friday 7/30/2010. The day started with Jess calling to say Joe was not feeling well. With Panadol and a hot shower he recovered enough to make the flight. Anne and I were in a full flight also; I didn’t get much sleep. Took train and then walked home.
