Goodbye Shanghai

Before we pack up, Mark takes an early morning walk in the markets near our hotel. This is one of the bits of Shanghai which still has the old peak-roof houses with balconys and back alleys. Note that every building has pipes jutting out from the second floor - that's for hanging the family laundry so it can air-dry.







Off to the airport - the kids pose with the family luggage.

Cool stuff in China

As we leave China, I wanted to post some of our random photos of things that we thought were interesting here. Hope you enjoy them!

UMBRELLAS

The Chinese are serious about their umbrellas - both for rain and for sun-shade. Several buildings have secure umbrella "parking". I think the doorman kept track of the keys...



STARBUCKS IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD

Although I rarely visit Starbucks in America, I am powerless to resist them here in China, since Klekolo has yet to open a Shanghai branch. I am thrilled to find that I can have an Iced Soy Latte to combat the Shanghai heat at Starbucks all over the city.



GREEN IS GOOD

The Expo is serious about pushing the sustainability message. Although almost all of the pavilions are running significant levels of air-conditioning, they don't want you worrying about global warming. These demonstration units are scattered throughout the campus:





REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

Don't waste your trash in Shanghai. There are an amazing assortment of trash sorters, and Kobi takes to making sure I don't put stuff in the wrong bin - "Stop Mom, that's for compost!"

I already posted the solar-powered, toilet-wayfinding system trash bins, but here are a few more of my favorites:

at the airport...(note that they specify how to recycle your umbrella when it breaks...which it will)



at a historic temple...



Please divide your trash into "Organic" and "Inorganic":



Even without a garbage can in sight, you'll find signs reminding you to sort your trash!



DON'T BOTHER TIPPING...

At the airport, good customer service should be rewarded by pushing a button. This machine sits on the immigration inspector's desk. Push a button to rate their service to you. Coincidentally, Tenzin is reading "Grounded", a travelogue that Matt Niland just gave me, and the author saw these same machines and posed the question: if I push "bad service", do I wind up in some immigrant holding cell?



SHANGHAI DOES ORGANIC

In addition to the endless number of McDonalds that we patronized (sigh), we also dined at this locavore, hi-design organic restaurant



This is Tofu-veggie Casserole:



LOOKING DOWN IS BIG

If you are lost in Shanghai, look down. Someone has probably put some arrows on the ground, telling you where to go. In upscale spots, the arrows are illuminated and can be reversed depending on the flow. No one seems to be listening to these arrows, but they are there.

The EXPO entrance is over there:



Stand to the side and let other people exit the train, before you get on:



Baggage check is that way (quick, other way!):




BUS STOPS CAN BE FUN



SUPERHIGHWAYS AREN'T JUST FOR CARS

This elevated walkway -- under the big road -- keeps pedestrians in the shade.



FLOWER POTS & BENCHES

Here are a few of the interesting ways that the EXPO brightens up dull corners.

A screen of flower pots in lattice:



here's a closeup of that...



Planters bunched up look so much nicer!



Yin and yang benches...from a distance:



EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Green tea donuts...



WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?

Often, in China, we have no idea what is going on. Our hypothesis about this subway-level vending machine is that it is a convenient way to pre-order your takeout dinner on your way out of the station. You can swipe your credit card and there's a KFC logo among the others. But other guesses are welcome!

Into Every Life, A Little Rain Must Fall

Part of the travel experience is learning how to deal with a crisis, right? Actually, much of the travel experience could be considered crisis, in varying levels, and usually manageable.

Today, the meter tipped from "adventuresome" to "hassle-filled" when Maggie's purse was lifted during a visit to a bazaar in Old Town Shanghai.

Unfortunately, it not only contained her spending money and critical ipod and headphones, but also my I-phone. We spent the next few hours getting cozy with the local security officials. It was a little eerie finding out that they had video footage of nearly every inch of the place, as we endlessly watched playbacks to try to discover whether the purse was retrievable. There's Maggie walking with the purse visible...then a few moments later, it's gone. Somewhere in the blind spot on the cameras, it vanished.

After we took a deep breath, and suspended my phone and changed all my passwords, we hope there won't be any long-term repercussions as my i-phone makes its way through the black markets of Asia. It could be worse, right?

You can't let something like this ruin your day, and we abandon our more-complicated sightseeing plans and instead spend our last evening in China at our beloved EXPO.

There are no lines, and we wander into a dozen or so pavilions. But first, we have some milk tea with our new/old friends at the Sri Lanka pavilion. They are sorry to hear it's our last visit, and Tenzin promises to try to make a trip there soon.

Here are two of our favories from our last night:

*The Tunisian pavilion has a fountain in the floor where jets of water leap from a giant world map - from New York, London, Johannesburg - all converging on tiny Tunisia.



We love it just as it is, but the Chinese visitors surrounding the fountain are convinced that it is operated by sound, and soon they are all clapping and trying to make it go faster.

*Ever been to Slovenia? Perhaps we need to do a bit more research, but we are seriously considering a trip after we fall in love with their charmingly home-made pavilion (Tenzin says it's like every fourth-grader in the country brought in their school project.) Not that's it's low-tech exactly: it's kind of a light show on the theme of literacy - those are books hanging from the ceiling, and the floor is papered with text, and at every turn of the ramp, there's a photo of some local view of villas in the hills.



The amazonian Slovenians working the exit laugh with us when we tell them how much better it is than the US pavilion! We have to be dragged away.

In spite of all the time we've spent at the EXPO, we are far from seeing all the exhibits. We never manage to get to Iceland, which is reportedly kept at 21 degrees C., though we purchase several of the excessively expensive bottles of chill Icelandic water from the adjacent vending machine. We never get to see Mexico, buried under a man-made, bucolic hill. Norway, which supposedly has a cool I-phone app accompaniment, is always too busy for us. We never make it to the Coca-cola Happiness Factory, for which this kiosk is a mere advertisement.



In the end, though, we are without regrets. It's been a wonderful week.

Sunday in Shanghai

Divide and Conquer is one of our family travel mottos. Now that we've gotten our feet wet here in Shanghai, we send the older kids off on their own shopping expedition in "Old Town", while Mark & I take Kobi to a museum (with a toy store or two thrown in for good measure.)

We don't have any photos of the kids' trip, but Karma shows off some of the evidence above - maybe when we get back to the States, the kids will post their own "Haul" video. They had to buy a small suitcase while they were out to carry all their new stuff - but I have a feeling that they had more fun bargaining and choosing things than they ever will in using them.

Meanwhile, we took in the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum - yes, a whole 5 stories devoted to city planning. As you can imagine, we were in heaven.

They had a really cool system for displaying all the planning maps going back hundreds of years, including the colonial period and even earlier:



And one floor up was a scale model of the city of Shanghai - it has to be one of the biggest models in the world.



It covered the entire floor, and was so up-to-date that it included the entire EXPO site, including the China pavilion, which is the red square seen at the bottom of this photo:



We were mesmerized and got a much firmer grasp on how all the neighborhoods fit together. The other interesting thing is that it was a pretty busy museum! Turns out we're not the only people interested in how cities are put together!

On the other hand, it's clear that Shanghai has very little interest in maintaining any of its' historic residential neighborhoods - we have seen several of the few remaining areas in the process of demolition - it's a shame they can't find a way to creatively re-use them -- but skyscrapers seem to be the flavor-of-the-month here.

My one regret is that we somehow missed the transportation floor. We've really enjoyed the fabulous public transportation in Shanghai, but I know we've barely scratched the surface. This would have been a great place to learn more about the mag-lev train - I've seen the tracks around town, but not the train itself.

Just across the street from the museum, we wandered into a storefront which turned out to be a 7-story mall, complete with a food court in the basement.



This guy from Cold Stone Creamery looks like he's singing for a tip - just like in the US - but actually, he's saying to me "Nice I-phone!"



In the afternoon, we reunited with the kids and headed to the EXPO. Karma made friends on the train...



We planned an evening visit because we figured it would be much cooler then - but actually the thermometer reportedly reached 40 C. (about 104 F?!) while we were there. Wow. Sunday is the busiest day at the EXPO, since it's China's universal day-off. The news reported that there were 650,000 people in attendance, compared with 250,000 people earlier in the week.

We decided to head right for the Japan pavilion, hoping it would be less crowded than it had been earlier in the week. But first we stopped in at the beautiful Vietnam pavilion:



I wish I had a good photo of the interior, which was a vaulted ceiling with columns, all made from twisted reed. We caught a performance by a Hanoi-based xylophone player that Mark immediately emailed to Jay Hoggard. This guy was a rock star! If I can figure out how to post the video, I will.

Once in the Japan line, we settled in for the long haul by making friends with the people around us:




This was a terrific couple who came to Shanghai for a few days to see the EXPO, and we shared water, jokes and chips of ice over the next TWO HOURS of waiting in line.

Other people were more shy - I failed at trying to start a trend of high-fiving as we snaked through the lanes - and was equally unsuccessful at getting a wave or game of Marco Polo going. I was worried that I embarrased this girl when I asked to take a picture of her Snoopy shirt (I cannot begin to describe how big Snoopy is in China right now)...



But after an hour or so, she and her whole family loosened up and I was featured prominently in their family photos.

Our running joke at the EXPO has been that we kept hoping we'd find a pavilion that was worse than the USA - so we'd feel a little better about ourselves. Japan shocked us by winning that prize! After the long wait, we entered the big, pink, puffy building to find....another line! With TV screens! Showing us commercials for the pavilion sponsors! For 20 minutes, they made us stand here, watching TV. Grr.



When we were finally admitted, we moved along with the crush looking at videos of peach blossoms and drawings of robot housekeepers. Every few steps, one of the "guides" would ask people not to take any photos. Now truly, this was torture for the Chinese audience here at the EXPO. We've learned that the whole joy of this experience for most visitors is to find a place to pose for a family photo, with peace signs extended. The Japanese guides weren't having any of it, and it was just painful. We ducked out a side door before they could herd us into yet another video screening room. Three hours wasted. Ouch!

There's nothing like a rotten travel experience to help you bond, so we spent the next few hours in high spirits, blowing through as many exhibits as possible before closing time.

Here's the summary:

*Sweeden gets 3 stars, which is an average of the one-star for this not-too-interesting retro stairway graphic...



and a full five stars for having a whole floor of their pavilion devoted to a swing set and giant slide. The theme? Innovation is about creativity and play! True that!






*Lithuania made us laugh when they devoted space to a hands-on basketball court -- apparently, it's big there! We hogged the court for a LONG TIME until Mark finally redeemed the family honor by scoring this shot. Lots of people took our photos - Look! Americans, playing basketball! (Next time, we'll practice first.)



*Maggie and I ran through the Netherlands pavilion: mostly scenes of Dutch life behind glass, including bicycles and modern furniture. We discover that the little rabbit that Maggie has been crushing on is Dutch! Hey Miffy!



Someone stops to take our photo, and it turns out that he's an Eminem fan! He and Maggie have the same favorite song!




*Meanwhile, Mark and the other kids visit Turkey, where they are making (and handing out) ice cream! Definitely a crowd-pleaser.



Finally, we ride the subway home, and Maggie and I make a late-night water-bottle run a neighborhood convenience store (yes, China is still a "don't drink the water" country, in spite of all the skyscrapers.)

That's where we discover that today's potato chip flavor is "Revitalizing Kiwi".

Visiting the countryside

On our second day with PK, we venture out of the city to see some historic sights.



Our two-hour drive into the countryside is a near-constant display of cranes and skyscraper construction. The "suburbs" around Shanghai are under aggressive expansion. One impressive feat - which we didn't photograph - is the devotion to maintaining the landscaping around the highway. For hundreds of yards in either direction, there are perfectly planted and staked trees, hedges, flowers and sometimes vegetable gardens, in incredible variety.

On our way to Suzhou, we visit Tiger Hill, the historic burial site of a local king. We cheat by taking a little bus to the top (did I mention the heat?) but only after the boys oblige requests to stand in family photos.



At the top of the hill, we explore the old buddhist shrine, which has been restored after the damage done during the Cultural Revolution (our guide explains).



Kobi never misses the chance to make a little prayer, regardless of the local religion....




...or ring the temple bell...



My favorite part of the tour is the Chinese solution to "sign fatigue", which in the museum business means that people just tune out signs that tell them not to do stuff. Each one of these "Keep off the grass" signs has a different bit of philosophical poetry, that makes you want to go up and read them.



Don't tread on the grass as they also have life!





Indeed, people are keeping off the grass -- I don't know whether it can be attributed to the signs, but it's impressive.

Next we stop at a Buddhist monastery/tourist attraction where the kids make a 10 RMB offering to ring an even bigger temple bell.



Maggie stops for the view from the temple steps:



Kobi pretends to be a crane, crossing the stepping stones.




The kids surround PK with fans, as is his due...



...and he takes us to lunch. PK calls this Square Fish.



Karma stops at a roadside stand to buy a lottery ticket, but I'm not exactly sure how we are supposed to tell if we won.



Finally, we arrive at the Garden of the Humble Administrator, a famous villa and classic Chinese garden (500 years old!) with ponds full of lotus flowers and pavilions perched on boulders.



The kids show off their fan technique.



Finally we head back to Shanghai (after a highway stop where our passports are checked...) and marvel at the Saturday night crowds on East Nanjing Road.