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| Shanghai Nanjing St. The humanity! |
All in all, I’m glad I came but am ready to go home. Shanghai is a spectacular
city and although I was a little disappointed with our tour – we went to a
garden and a Buddhist temple, woo-hoo – we had two free nights and I had a
ball.
The pedestrian street and the riverfront were incredible and
filled with more humanity than many people see in their entire lives. The
pedestrian street, in particular, was just crazy insane. Kind of like a Mardi
Gras parade every day and night, but with no alcohol. There were people
dancing, singing, doing karaoke (obviously, this is different than singing!),
playing games, eating, laughing, talking and standing in line for moon cakes.
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| The bull marks the stock exchange |
It’s almost the Mid-Autumn festival and moon cakes are the
big thing. They’re little cakes filled with everything from pineapple to pork.
If you’re not sure what they are and are expecting a moon PIE, you’re in for a
big surprise.
Met up with a friend here and did happy hour with him, where
I had a fabulous non-Chinese burger before a little walking tour of the city
with him. It’s really a fantastic place.
And teeming with people. Did I mention that?
It seems even the small towns are. We went to a “village” of
1.5 million. That’s where I had a bite of scorpion. It tasted like crunchy
spice. Not bad, but I was spitting out little shells for a while afterwards.
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| A bamboo eating machine |
The Terra Cotta Warriors, in Xi’an, were definitely the No. 2 highlight I
thought they’d be. Over 600 of life-size guys (complete with infantry, cavalry,
archers and command center were commissioned by some dynasty emperor to guard
his tomb but subsequently destroyed when the next dynasty’s followers smashed
them to pieces.
In the 70s, someone unearthed a head, which led to digging,
which led to several football field-sized tracks of tunnel filled with pieces.
Archaeologists have been putting them back together and in their original
formation, which is pretty incredible.
So that was cool, as were Chengdu’s pandas. I’ve seen the triplets in Guangzhou, but they had
more here, including some cubs and little kitten-sized babies. One guy, whom I
admired greatly, managed to sleep standing up in a tree.
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| Catching a nap |
Really, everything went fairly great and it was all it was
cracked up to be. Had I gone alone, I would have done some different stuff but
I went with a tour because I speak no language and didn’t want to deal with it.
I think it went well, although when the tour group split – 26 went on a cruise
and then 13 went directly to Shanghai
– I was ready for that.
Some people just don’t need to be touring in groups, or in Asia. It was surprising to me that some don’t do any
research about where they’re going. It’s no secret that Asia
– along with much of the world – has squattie potties, but some people were
completely shocked by this and a small handful of those refused to use them.
Since they are few and far between, a 5-minute bathroom break on the road
turned into a 20-minute one because people would stand in line to use the one
Western toilet over the 49 squatties.
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| Terra Cotta Warrior army |
Waiting on others is the part that’s frustrating about tour
groups, and this one was no different. We had 15 minutes to explore Tiananmen Square on our own, but when 38 out 39 gathered
on time and one person was wandering, the lot of us had to stand in one spot
for another 15 until she turned up. We could have just had 30 minutes, which
would have been ample time. How it was got frustrating.
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| Terra Cotta Warriors |
But it’s give and take with a group, with the usual suspects
doing the giving and the taking. Oh well.
And now I am going to settle down for a nap on the train
We’re at the moment going 306 km an hour, which would be around 190. It doesn’t
seem like it.
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