Dynamic Tourism, China, Business

Day 4, February 20

Days 4 and 5 were both pretty busy with specific Olympics events.  Before I headed up to Vancouver, Mariska and I had bought Ice Dance (training) tickets for Saturday, February 20th, starting at 7am!  Although 7am didn’t happen, Jaime and I did make it there by about 9:30am and with 3.5 hours of women’s figure skating (training) and ice dance, I think we saw a fair bit and had a good fill of ice skating.   It was absolutely beautiful, particularly the couples, some with just incredible lifts and unbelievable poses.  The Canadian couple had a good performance, though I wouldn’t have picked them to win gold (which they did in the end).  Jaime and I enjoyed commenting on the outfits, synchronization, themes, and overall match to the music.  What were the Germans thinking in their costumes? Russia & US, boring! China, ugly! Hungary, cool 80s theme! The folk dance couples were cute too.

Late afternoon Eddie and I decided to press our luck and head down to Canada Hockey Place to try to get tickets to the Latvia-Slovakia hockey game for less than $80.  We succeeded!  Had great seats for $75.  We saw poor Latvia take a whoopin, but it was exciting to be in the crowd full of energy, cheers, and get great shots of the athletes and attend what would be my last Olympic event for this time around.

Day 5, February 21

My last day, and with a 5pm departure time, I wanted to see some of the National houses.  The first we went to was Korea, which was meant to be a showcase of Korean heritage, high tech, and winter sports as Korea bids for the 2018 Winter Games (along with Munich, Germany and France).  It was somewhat disappointing and didn’t have nearly the exhibits I expected, or even a very good showcase of the culture or bid location.

Next we went to the House which will be hosting the 2014 Olympics: Sochi.Ru or more familiarly, Russia. With the help of a friend, we avoided the 2 hour line and got in with Media passes.  That was pretty awesome.  The pictures of Sochi look stunning, and there was a good display of Russian culture, both positive and negative.  Watch my video on flickr to see a Russian culture music troupe.  That was the positive.  The negative was the coldness and the attitudes of the Russian hosts.  They were very unfriendly, only mildly helpful, and seemed to want to be rid of us as soon as possible.  And we were wearing media passes!  One would think they’d want to encourage people to come to the 2014 Games and thereby give a good impression of Russian hospitality, it didn’t work out that way.  Particularly as ‘media people’ we have the power to influence others’ thoughts and perceptions, therefore they should want to influence us positively–but just disappointing.

Vancouver did a superior job at hospitality, in terms of its people, efficiency of public transportation, positive energy, parties etc.  Even my mom’s friend commented, “Almost everyone I spoke with is going to go to the next olympics in Russia due to the fun and excitement they had in Vancouver.”  My response, did any of them actually go to the Russia House (Sochi.ru)?  If so, I think they may have a different perspective of what the Russian Olympics will be like.

Russia will have a big PR campaign ahead of it, but each host city always faces huge challenges and still manages to pull off a great, world-class event.  Regardless where the Olympics are held, in my 2 experiences thus far  (Beijing), they are fantastic!   I hoping my next Olympics will be Rio de Janeiro in 2016!!

See Vancouver Day 1, Day 2-3, or all of my Vancouver Olympics pics on Flickr.

Day 2:  February 18

After all the excitement of Day 1, Day 2 was a little bit slower.  In the afternoon there was a Canada Hockey game for which some Canada Hockey fans had organized a hockey Tweetup.  Yes, its just what it sounds like, lots of people on twitter sit around a big screen watching hockey, drinking, cheering, and tweeting.

Next was probably the highlight of that day: Vancouver Victory Ceremony.   The VVC is held at BC Place and includes the medals presentation and a concert.

First about the concert, throughout the Olympics each day was themed based on one of Canada’s provinces.  This means that there were special activities or performances provided by that province.  On the day we went to the Vancouver Victory Ceremony, it was Prince Edward Island Day. Therefore, the performers hailed from PEI; in this case, a boy band called Hedley.

The best part of the February 18th VVC, though, was the medals presentation.  As an American, I was proud to hear the national anthem played twice for our gold medalists on that day.  One gold medalist was speed skater Shani Davis, and the other–probably the most famous US winter athlete–snowboarder, Shaun White!!!  It was also cool for me to see the medal presentation of the Women’s 500M short track race that’d I’d seen China win the day before.

After that the 4 of us went for a late dinner at the Revel Room, man! was it hard to find a place to sit down and eat that didn’t have a 45min wait at 9pm.  Later we saw some of the anti-Olympics protesters on Hastings with the slogan, ‘Homes, not Games.’

Day 3, February 19

This was the first day that I didn’t have any scheduled events or official Olympics events to attend, but still managed to find fun stuff to do!  Because my friends had media passes for the BC Media Center, they invited us in to join the Wine Tasting of BC wines.  We tasted some absolutely fabulous ice wines, as well as official wines of the Olympics Games, namely the Sumac Ridge sparkling wine, which I subsequently bought.  If you’re interested in learning more about the making of the wine and our wine tasting, watch our video on UStream.

Also in the BCMC was the Stanley Cup.  I know some (Canadian) people would freak out at this comment and the below picture, but I was simply like, oooh what’s the shiny trophy with all the writing on it?  I’m not from a hockey family, and not from a hockey part of the country, I don’t know what to tell ya.

For dinner, we joined friends in a pub, talking about the Olympics, taking pictures with Quatchi (the Olympic mascot), and met more awesome Canadians.  Later that night, I met up with Jeff who I know from Shanghai to go to one of his friend’s houses overlooking what was Yaletown LiveCity.  That night was the (unbeknownstly to me) famous DJ, Dead Mou5 performing.  After that was a fireworks and water show.  Over the lake they turned on the fountains and then projected Olympics images onto the flowing water–that was pretty cool.

Full Olympics pictures on Flickr.  Day 4 and 5 coming up…

Yesterday was my first day at the Olympics and it was amazing!  The day started out with a photo walk around downtown taking pictures of the Olympic flame,

then down to Robson Square to see the Chinese gold and silver medal pairs figure skating champions do brief performances.  Canada’s national youth skaters also performed, with as man as 10 of them on the ice as once!  It was very awesome for me personally to see the Chinese team and to hear their introduction in Chinese as we all celebrate the Year of the Tiger (so they said).

Then we went to the British Columbia Media Center! And watch some snowboard half pipe on TV before getting some lunch at a pub in Gastown and watching hockey on TV.

Late afternoon I headed to the Pacific Coliseum as I was fortunate enough to wrangle a ticket to the Short Track Speed Skating.  At Wednesday’s Short Track was Women’s 500M quarterfinal, semifinal, and final–yes we did get to see the final, including flower ceremony.  In the end China won gold, and the home team, Canada silver!  It was also Men’s 1000M and Men’s 5000M semifinal relay.  In the relay 4 teams compete at once, each with 4 guys on the ice so you can imagine it was quite crowded.  But due to a disqualification, the final will be even more crowded: 5 team, 4 guys each!  What you learn when watching Short Track, is its not over till its over!

Inspiring event! Great day!  Full photos on Flickr. Keep reading, Days 2-3, Days 4-5, or the full post of Day 1 on VancouverAccess

The Year in Review: 2009

January started out with a New Year’s Day flight from Phoenix to San Francisco, which included watching the USC Rose Bowl game as soon as I got off the plane in San Fran.  Then more game watching downtown with my awesome cousin Kelly and her friends.  The next day I grabbed my passport from Alec who I hadn’t seen since 2006, many thanks to him for getting my Indian visa.  That same day I caught my 1st transpacific flight of the year and headed back to Shanghai.

Back to work in Shanghai for a week, then birthday celebrations galore start.  I’m not sure how its possible but I managed to have 3 celebrations during the week of my 25th bday: dinner on the 13th with a few girlfriends, then co-party night with Sian, Sherry, and Yi, and finally birthday brunch.  Thanks for organizing that brunch, and every other one, Sherry!  This is was also the first time in 2.5 years in China that I really got on a work permit.

Late January, at the start of Chinese New Year, Sian and I headed off to India for a whirlwind 10-day trip around Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, and Jaipur.  India is an immensely fascinating country.

From February, as everyone got back to Shanghai from CNY, we started having more tweetups, including Twestival, where I met a lot of the people I’d only ‘met’ online, including @IrisJumbe and @PDKay.  At the SXSW Shanghai party at M1NT in late February I got to meet a lot more of my twitter friends, including those who don’t live in China and make better connections with them.  To round out February, I changed the theme on my blog to center around life-streaming, (which I’m now coming to hate…)

In March we had our first !talk! Chatfest and finally launched the open beta of the teaching platform.  Despite this, the !talk! situation was in somewhat of a flux, so after awhile I decided to work less hours there and spend more time on my multitude of other activities.  Since November of the previous year I was already teaching English a few nights per week.

With the start of spring, I still didn’t feel that my health had completely recovered from all the illnesses of the winter, so I decided I needed to take drastic actions (haha). For Qing Ming festival, I booked myself a week at a cleanse resort in Thailand.  It was a much needed flushing out of the system that kept me much healthier in the ensuing 8 months, especially compared to the previous 8.  Besides meeting some like-minded people during the detox, I also met some other awesome people at the #BangkokTweetup, some of whom have become really helpful to me recently.  This spring, I also got to connect with fellow Shanghai transplant Arizonan @Mark_E_Evans and another China-interested tweeter @lparsons, whose dream is to move to China–good luck to him.

By late April / early May, when the Dragon Boat festival rolled around, Jai, Allison and I headed to Seoul for a 4-day weekend.  They say Seoul is a city with no soul, but I loved it and think that’s in large part due to our excellent tour guide, my long time friend, Irene.  Check out the DMZ tour, really interesting, including a step into North Korea.  Literally the day after I got back from Korea, I did my first set of factories tours in 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that gets produced in China!

In Late May, I spent a weekend in Hangzhou with Al & Jane, when they generously took me around to all their favorite sites and restaurants.  Tea plantations, China’s Grand Canal, Pagodas, and spicy wings, the spiciest food imaginable.  I was crying, literally.

As June rolled around I was just starting planning tech events for the Shanghai community and welcoming 妹妹 (little sister) for her summer in Shanghai.  Eliana arrived on June 3 to spend 5 weeks with me and exactly the day after she arrived, we set off to see the ‘real’ China.  The real manufacturing China, that is.  This was my second factory tripping of 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China!

Around mid-June the Geeks on a Plane tour rolled through town to attend Shanghai Barcamp on June 14, and then celebrated the end of the trip with the Geeks and Glamour afterparty at M1NT.  It was awesome to meet entrepreneurs, VCs, and other twitter friends from the States including @DanMartell.

Throughout June and early July, Eliana and I went revisiting or exploring new parts of Shanghai.  And of course, we went to Beijing and saw the not-to-be-missed, Great Wall of China, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, and she went swimming in the Olympic Watercube.   I also got to see to see Ian, Leslie, Jeremy, and Jenny, and join yet another Tweetup to meet twitter friends in Beijing.  To check another place off my list, we took the train to the old walled city of Pingyao. At nearly the end of the trip, on the bus ride to the airport, my cosmetics case got stolen from my backpack A very sad day.  In this case, Eliana was the rock–thank you girl, I love you!

Just around the 3 year anniversary of my life in China, the internet went on lockdown in China and ever since then Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, and since even earlier Youtube have been inaccessible, seriously hindering multimedia communication with the outside world.  Mid-July Eliana went home and I took my 2nd transpacific flight, this time to Vancouver.

On the bus from Vancouver to Seattle there was free wifi! And unrestricted access to twitter, facebook, youtube, which was like heaven until my laptop battery died and I realized my power cord didn’t work in N America… A busy 3 days in Seattle with my Dad and friends, Burt and Dawn: food festival, hiking Mt. Rainier, and the 4am launch of !talk! Marketplace for companies, but the weather was gorgeous, the food good and fresh, and the air clean and refreshing.

Next it was time to fly up to Alaska for my grandparents 60th Anniversary.  We went ATV-ing near Denali National Park, watched the sunset at 11pm, pet huskies, took the Denail Express train to Whittier, cruised on the Diamond Princess, went to Glacier Bay National Park, sea-kayaked in Ketchikan, went Geocaching, and had a good week of family time.

For the first week in August, I reconnected with friends from China now living in Victoria and Vancouver, including Heike, Brook, Scales, KK, and Danielle, and made other new friends through them, include Mariska.  The Pacific Northwest from Seattle, to Vancouver and the Island, all the way up to Alaska has truly spectacular natural beauty, clear blue skies, snow covered peaks, stunningly colored flowers, green trees and grass, fresh healthy foods, all enough to satisfy me with what often seems lacking in the grimy urban grey of Shanghai.  Catching up with friends from China who are no longer living there really helped me to get perspective on life there and what is most important.  Getting on my 3rd and last transpacific flight of the year to head back to Shanghai, I was feeling very refreshed and refocused with resolutions for my life in China.

Back in Shanghai, I jumped head first back into activities related to tech, work, events, and, from all my discussions with friends who formerly lived in China, recommitted myself to learning Chinese.  I found a private tutor to work with 2 times per week, started reading Chinese magazines and newspapers, listening to ChinesePod again, decided to more actively seek out opportunities to practice Chinese including looking for new Chinese friends, and eventually more Chinese shows and movies.  I am listening to countless podcasts on entrepreneurship, as well as lectures on world history and geopolitics to start brushing up my knowledge for the foreign service exam.

With my September trip to Hong Kong to see Coni, Brenda, Amjad, Daniel, Stanley, etc, and Stephanie (who I hadn’t seen in 5 years, since USC), I finally gave into pressure and got an iPhone.  Podcasts, apps, Chinese dictionary with handwriting, plus GPRS allowing me to be chatting to someone through Skype while walking down Nanjing Road, I can’t believe I waited so long.  iPhone convert, admitted.

By the time October holiday rolled around, my work permit was expiring, and still reeling from all the traveling I’d already done this year, with additional complications, I was compelled to spend China’s 60th Anniversary National Day in Shanghai, much to my chagrin.  (Randomly, I just realized the CCP was founded the same year my grandparents got married).  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I got to reconnect with another friend who used to live in Shanghai and was back for a visit: Matthias.  October and November were spent with friends who were in town visiting, including a week with that friend from Germany, Ian down from Beijing and his friend from USC, then in November Sean came back for a visit and the HSBC Golf Tournament, followed by Luke from Toronto (I met but hadn’t seen since 2006), who came to visit family and attend his sister’s wedding

In late October, USC opened their first office in Mainland China.  Also in late-October, I went to yet another manufacturing town, this one specializing in textiles for the Keqiao Tradeshow and also saw the canal town of Shaoxing.  A month later, Bryan, Vivianne, and I were off for a day trip to the Commodity City: Yiwu.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China! Since getting back to SH in August, my Chinese slowly showed signs of improvement after months of stagnation, I signed up to an internet dating site (thinking about it now, am I that desperate?), and I continued to spread myself over many different involvements.

For Thanksgiving, I met mom in the Philippines for my last international trip of 2009, bringing the total to 50 countries in 25 years.  Ten days in the Philippines renewed my health (after 2 brutal days of facing the Chinese hospital system just before the trip) and helped me to realize I was stretching myself in too many different directions.  This feeling was further brought home by another conversation in early December that’s been forcing me to take stock of where I am, where I’m going, recognize my passions, and figure out what I want out of life.  As 2009 draws to a close and I face yet another round of visa applications, I’m reading Think and Grow Rich (again) and Getting Things Done, and most importantly I’m reflecting on those issues and what they mean for me in 2010.  The most influential and memorable book I finished in ‘09 was The Go Giver–great book, go read it, especially if you do business or work in social!

Happy New Year!

Writing this made me realize there were a lot of photos from this year, I hadn’t yet put on Flickr, so if you didn’t click on any of the links above, go look at my photostream now, its been updated: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tofflerann/

Don’t forget, 2010 is the Shanghai Expo and among other reasons, a great opportunity to come visit me in Shanghai! I’d love to host you if you’re coming this way.

I love cities, and I especially love them at night when they’re lit up and sparkling, dazzling my eye with their flickering lights and myriad of shapes.  So whenever I’m in one of those spectacular cities with the amazing view, I make a point to find the best vantage point in the city and go up there at night.  Some of my favorites are listed below:

Shanghai: Hyatt on the Bund, Vue Bar, 33rd Floor.  This hotel sits north of downtown and due to a particularly well placed bend in the HuangPu River, both new Shanghai (Pudong) and historic Shanghai (the Bund) are . Watch my video to see what I mean.

Bangkok: Banyan Tree Hotel, Moon Bar, Rooftop. From the Banyan Tree website, “The Moon Bar is one of the highest al-fresco rooftop bars in the Asia Pacific, offering a stunning venue with panoramic views” and I have to agree.

Hong Kong: 1 Peking Building, Aqua Bar, 29th Floor. This bar has a great angle and nice height from which to view Hong Kong Island.  The view from here is one of the most memorable and recognizable anywhere in the world.  Make sure you get there before they start turning off all the lights.

NYC: Arthur’s Landing, Weehawken, NJ.  The best view of New York City is actually from New Jersey.  Yes, that means you have to cross the river but the view is well worth it.

Where are your favorite city views? Do you have any for London? Paris? Dubai? Rio de Janeiro? Singapore?

Look inside any garment and there’s a good chance you’ll see a “Made in China” label.  Garments of all sorts, qualities, and brands are made in China.  Most of the garment manufacturing is centered around the Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou/Shenzhen) or Ningbo.  Despite this, and the tight watch designers keep on their production facilities, many people assume (sometimes rightly so), that its easy to shop for their beloved clothing brands right here in Shanghai.

Overruns, 2nds, and ‘it just fell off the truck’ do end up in Shanghai.  However, they are not easy to find: some hunting and lots of patience are required.  Recently I had a very satisfied shopping customer looking for specific brands, namely Banana Republic, LK Bennet, Reiss, Joseph, and Diane von Furstenburg.  We did manage to find a number of the brands she was looking for, at places besides the outlet malls.  While I never guarantee these are ‘real’ (whatever real means in this country), its worth taking a look.  Right?

For discount designers tucked away in small shops, try XinLe Road, ChangLe Road, HuaShan Road, JuLu Road, Maoming South Road and Fengxian Road.

For additional help shopping my shanghai, and the best prices, please contact me!

The list of my cruises thus far…

July 99 :: Alaska :: Celebrity Mercury
July 00 :: Greece :: Royal Olympic
July 02 :: Baltic :: Celebrity Constellation
December 02 :: L.A. - Mexico :: Carnival
July 04 :: Mediterranean :: Celebrity Millennium
December 05 - January 06 :: Mexican Riviera :: Celebrity Mercury
May 06 :: NYC - Canada :: Carnival
December 06 :: Caribbean :: Star Princess
December 07 :: Antarctica :: Antarctic Dream
December 07 - January 08 :: Panama Canal :: Azamara Quest
July 09 :: Alaska :: Diamond Princess

And that doesn’t even include Yangtze River cruises or other minor river trips.

I have done a fair bit of cruising, especially for my age.  And I thoroughly enjoy it, not to say their couldn’t be improvements, but it’s an all-in-one vacation that keeps the whole family together and yet the flexibility that allows us to do our own thing. I look forward to pursuing the rumors of a summer river cruise for our next family vacation.

Last month in celebration of my grandparents’ 60th anniversary, we did a 12 night cruisetour through Alaska. The itinerary is below.  Picture set is on Flickr

July 21st - Seattle/Mt. McKinley - Fly from Seattle to Anchorage. Scenic journey north to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge
July 22 - Mt. McKinley
July 23 - Mt.McKinley/Denali - This morning, continue by motorcoach to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.
July 24 - Denali - This afternoon, take the Natural History Tour into Denali National Park.
July 25 - Denali/Whittier - Transfer to the rail station and board the Denali Express for direct rail service to your awaiting ship in Whittier. - Set sail this evening. Departure 9:30 PM
July 26 - College Fjord, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) - Bob’s birthday
July 27 - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
July 28 - Skagway, Alaska - Grandma’s Birthday
July 29 - Juneau, Alaska - Don & Caren’s Anniversary
July 30 - Ketchikan, Alaska
July 31 - At Sea - Grandparents’ 60th Anniversary
August 1 - Vancouver, British Columbia

From the original Starbucks at Pike’s Place, Seattle

to the globalized (localized) version of Starbucks in Seoul, South Korea.

Pingyao 平遥, located in Shanxi 山西 Province (not Shaanxi 陕西, where Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors are), has been on my list of ‘must-see’ places in China ever since the list began. (Haerbin Ice Festival & Huangshan-Yellow Mountain are still on it).  So with a ready traveling companion and I already making the trip to Beijing, I decided to add in a stop over in Pingyao.

Pingyao is one of China’s many UNESCO World Heritage sites. It was the first banking center of China, with its heyday in the 19th Century.  The town quickly fell into poverty and therefore escaped modernization and development, which helped to preserve the city’s original structures.  Pingyao boasts its the only city with the original city wall still intact, and the only remaining original example of traditional Han Chinese architecture from the 18 and 19th Centuries.  (Compare Lijiang, which was built by Naxi Minority of China, and has been largely reconstructed–and expanded.)  While I won’t pretend to believe that Pingyao is all the original or that none has been ‘restored’, Pingyao still maintains its charm.  While we were there it was quiet, peaceful, picturesque, and often times we could be walking all alone down an ancient alleyway–something unheard of in China’s metropolises.

We took the 1163 overnight train from Beijing directly to Pingyao and we had pickup service waiting for us, provided by our hostel, Pingyao Zhengjia Int’l Youth Hostel (an HI Hostel, but no card required).  This hostel was excellent: very friendly staff (but almost no English spoken), set in a traditional courtyard house, exceptionally clean, social atmosphere, great value, and all around nice place to stay–it was rated 2nd Best Hostel in Asia on Hostelworld.com.

The nearest airport is in Taiyuan, provincial capital of Shanxi, which is 2-hour bus ride away.  To return to Shanghai, we took the bus to Taiyuan, then took a taxi to the airport.  If you arrive at the Taiyuan Jinan Bus station, the bus to the airport stops directly across the road.  If you go by taxi, put on the meter, then add 10kuai to the final fare, it should be about 30RMB.  Be careful, be careful, be careful on the bus.  There are some buses operating illegally around that region, and there are a gang of thieves who work the buses (and seem to have an agreement with the operators to turn a blind eye).  I was a victim of this.  This is now twice in <9 months I’ve had stuff stolen on a bus in China.  Take good care of your stuff no matter how large, small, or worthless–you’ll miss it when its gone, and it will be, if you don’t watch out.

Then entrance ticket to Pingyao Ancient Town is 120RMB and includes entrance to more than 19 different attractions, including walking on top of the city wall.  After about the first handful or so, most the attractions begin to look very similar.  Except for the wall, the temples, and the church, most of the attractions are courtyard compounds used for different purposes: long front wall, 1 gate, opens into small entryway followed by a courtyard with rooms on each side and a large room at the back, with another courtyard behind that and on each side. This pattern then repeats for the depth of the property and at each place.  It was a good method to prevent attackers and to maintain the inner sanctum of the business or family household.  Both businesses and residential compounds had this layout.

Perhaps the highlight for me was chatting with an elderly couple who had been married for 45 years and who were eager to chat and show us their courtyard house.  They were very proud of the fact that they had so many children who were now office workers in the modern city and had kids of their own–they had a grandson that was Eliana’s age.  They also insisted on showing us that they had modernized their house to have indoor plumbing, including a washing machine!

In the day and a half Eliana and I were in Pingyao, we saw a number of the Ancient Town attractions:

Residence of Lei Lutai
Yingxun Gate (End of South Street to climb the wall)
Qinhan Gate (End of East Street to get off the wall)
1st Armed Escort Ageny in North China
China Chamber of Commerce Museum
Ri Sheng Chang
Then lunch at DeJuYuan Hotel/Restaurant
Ancient Government Building
Fengyi Gate (West Street Gate)
Ancient City Building (at night)
Chenghuang Miao (Daoist Temple)
Bai Chuang Tong
Yong Long Hao Lacquerware Shop
and others…

Full collection of pictures from the Pingyao & Beijing trip on Flickr

Went to Hangzhou last weekend and had a late evening arrival Friday

Saturday morning started off with walks in the hills around the Longjing Tea Village.  Longjing is special kind of green tea that is grown in Hangzhou, of which the West Lake variety is said to be the best.  It is famous as a tea of the Chinese emperors, and it also has many health properties. To continue our study of tea we went to the China International Tea Museum, which has 2 floors explaining the history and preparation and proper drinking methods of every imaginable variety of tea. Tea did, in fact, originate in China where it was initially ground up, made into cakes prior to the development of the drinking style of tea. From China, drinking tea spread to Japan, Korea, India, and from India to Britain.

The afternoon took us back downtown to the incredibly expansive Grand Canal Museum.  The Grand Canal connected Hangzhou (south of Shanghai) to Beijing by water during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. While I didn’t get to see all of the museum, which doesn’t have much in English anyway, I did get to ride on the Grand Canal under old(-looking) bridges and past modern highrises and imagine when this was the most important N-S transportation way in China.

Late afternoon brought Al and I to a blind massage place, followed by a walk around the night market and dinner at Crazy Barbecue, where I had the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten, and I can handle spicy. I had tears streaming down my face 2 bites in, mouth on fire and blindly numb, drank 3 bottles of refreshments and was still dying. Eventually coconut milk eased the burden, but it wasn’t until much much later in the evening I recovered full feeling in my mouth.

Sunday morning the first stop was the 6 Harmonies Pagoda (六和塔), where I climbed all 13 storeys of the Pagoda and was rewarded with expansive views of the city. Then back down and climbing the hills behind the pagoda are lots of replicas of pagodas from all over China. While the Chinese claim the invention and/or discovery of many things, they admit that pagodas originated from India where stupas were a common facet of Buddhist architecture.   After wandering through the hillsides, we went and had a very sweet, very gooey, but very good donut–all the calories burned from climbing the hills, replenished.

After another massage, this time a surprisingly affordable Thai massage (yes, it was a very indulgent weekend), we went for Muslim food.  Amazing that you can eat such great hummus in a place like Hangzhou, along with Greek salad, mutton, and pita bread. While for us the Muslim food was certainly the appeal of the place, all the Chinese diners were eating Chinese food or spaghetti.  Even though  right after lunch has got to be the worst time for going clothes shopping, I wanted to go back to a store I’d bought a couple dresses at on my year before’s trip to Hangzhou.  Can you believe it–the store still existed and was still in the same place! So after doing a little shopping on HeFang Pedestrian Street, we decided to test our luck with the bewitching hour, the time between 4-6pm when its nearly impossible to get a cab in Hangzhou.

And with that, it was the end of my 2nd, 2-day trip to Hangzhou and yet I still haven’t seen everything worth noting in this historically rich city of China.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is, like so many things with Communist countries, the peak of irony.  It is, in fact, one of the most militarized places on the earth, loaded with landmines, and everyone pointing their gun at the other guy.

Friday, May 1st, the 3 of us, all Americans, made our way to Camp Kim - USO office in downtown Seoul. This was the starting point for the USO day tour to the DMZ - the demarcation between Communist North and Democratic South Korea.

It was fascinating to hear how North and South continually try to one-up each other and how tense relations have been between the two sides.  In one example, it took 3days of negotiations to figure out under what conditions a rock that was inadvertently kicked from the South Korean side to the North side could be returned.

The North has the Propaganda Village which plays recordings of Kim Jung Il touting his own praises to no one, as the village is empty, but it does have a 150M flagpole which is much higher than the South’s.  On the South’s side is Freedom Village where people do actually live and are some of the richest in the entire country, almost completely paid for by the government.  There is a factory run by South using North workers but the details on this seemed a bit hazy.

We walked through North Korean spy/invasion tunnels, which were found after a North Korea defector told S. Korea about them. We heard about the South’s grand plan to make the DMZ into a wildlife sanctuary after reunification–already many species of birds and mammals have found refuge there. We saw the train that runs into North Korea and will someday link the capitals.

But the most exciting part of the day was when we got to go into North Korea! They certainly like to play up the drama on these trips, including making us sign a waiver that read:

1) The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action. …

2) Visitors must comply with the following instructions: …

c. Fraternization, including speaking or any association with personnel from the Korean People’s Army/Chinese People’s Volunteers (KPA/CPV) side, is strictly prohibited.

d. Visitors will not point, make gestures or expressions which could be used by the North Korean side as propaganda material against the United Nations Command.   [Italics/Bold added for emphasis]

The Chinese part threw me.  Do they seriously still have Chinese soldiers defending North Korea?

While the drama and the threat were sure played up with ‘yes, you can take pictures here, no you can’t take pictures there, don’t piss off the North Koreans, try not to get captured by the North Koreans,’ when actually standing in North Korea, 20yards from a North Korean soldier, everything seemed calm and normal.  But still a bit ominous as the South Korean guards were quite intimidating and every soldier, both American and Korean, had at least a handgun on him.

After seeing this, I’m even more intrigued by the possibility of being one of 300 Americans per year who are allowed to go on an organized tour departing from Beijing to cross into North Korea along its northern border.

For the May 1st International Labour Day holiday, myself and 2 friends traveled to Seoul, South Korea, to a friend from college who lives there and another friend who came up for the weekend from Hong Kong.  It was also a nice escape from a holiday weekend in China.  Seoul is a clean, quiet alternative to Shanghai, with much better service, polite people and drivers, and excellent food.  While there’s nothing particularly spectacular or noteworthy about Seoul, its a good contrast to, and reflief from, Shanghai.  Seoul is somewhat expensive even with a depressed currency (K.Won), but it has many things that would be familiar to Americans: Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme Donuts (seriously how do the Koreans stay so slim?!?), Forever 21, American military, sports bars named Texas, etc.

We stayed at a place called Open Guest House near Hanseng University. It was very clean and affordable and Danny was most helpful.  It was very convenient to 2 subway stops and we could get a 3-person room, so this place was a good choice.

Since we didn’t arrive til mid-afternoon the first day, we wandered around Hanseng University area, the figured out how to take the subway and wandered around some more before we met Irene, my friend from college for dinner.  She took us to SoSonJae - Herb-Flower Season’s Korean Cuisine.  It was excellent, with really unique dishes, unlike any other we had in Korea. The owner clearly took pride in his menu with explaining the history and uniqueness of the foods and which the royal family used to eat.  After dinner we wandered down through Instadong which is a popular tourist shopping area, snacking on waffles and other traditional desserts, then walked along the canal-river.  This was apparently a very romantic spot in the city as we saw countless couples sitting down by the river.  We finished the evening with a nightcap of Sochu-juice blend in a bar near our guesthouse.

The next morning the 3 of us got up earlyish and started on our way to Camp Kim - USO office, ie the starting point for the USO day tour to the Demilitarized Zone - the demarkation between Communist North and Democratic South Korea. This was one of the most interesting day trips I’ve been on and for many Americans a highlight of their trip to Korea.  More on this in a separate post.

Returning to town to clean up after walking climbing through North Korean spy/invasion tunnels, we stopped at a Korean barbeque restaurant, where they spoke no English.  Yet, we managed to have a good filling meal of grilled meat wrapped in lettuces with spicy sauces, various kimchees, soup, and beer.

For the evening, Irene had in mind for us to go clubbing at a popular club in Itaewon; however not realizing the dress code we were too casually dressed.  So we wandered around Itaewon-a popular nightlife spot for foreigners-for awhile and I came to understand why the US military was so disliked in Korea.  Later we sat in a bar that was about 80% American military.  About 11pm, it was curfew time for the military so a uniformed US patrol came in and took the active duty out of the bar. Interestingly, it was all girls who were trying to break curfew.

The next morning (Saturday) we took it easy before going shopping in Myeong-Dong to help my other 2 friends find nicer shoes and clothes that they could go clubbing in.  Then we got ready for out big evening. First, dinner at Zen Hideaway a trendy fusion restaurant in Seoul popular for its long leisurely meals and beautiful garden settings. We ate at the location in the even trendier Apgujeong-Dong area, known for its highend boutiques and popular cafes. Then we went to meet my friend from Hong Kong at the Jazz Bar at the Park Hyatt.  After 2 bottles of wine at dinner, sochu and other cocktails at the jazz bar, we were ready to go clubbing!

Well we thought we were ready, until the club in the Ritz-Carlton told my friend at 34 he was too old!  After laughing to no end about that we decided it was also probably the fact that he was an American male (and because of the bad reputation of the military all American men are perceived to be the same). So we went back to Itaewon, the foreigner friendly district to try our luck at Club Volume, where Irene had hopped to take us the previous night.  After arguing with the bouncer for a few minutes about my friend’s age, nationality, occupation, etc we were allowed to pay about $30 to get into this club. Woah! I haven’t seen a cover charge that high since Singapore or Europe. It was a techno-trance club with most people dancing, a few standing around or lounging around tables. There’s a video on my Flickr stream if you want to know what a club is like in Korea.

For our last day, we had to do something cultural so we went to the Gyeong-Buk Palace, National Folk Museum of Korea, and Korean History museum. By contrast to the expensiveness of everything else in Seoul, we paid $3 to get into the Palace, while the museums were free.  The cultural and traditional architecture of Korea is largely similar to China’s.

For lunch we wanted street food, fresh pressed juices, Korean rice cake, deep fried stuff on a stick, dumplings, the whole lot.  We walked and ate and looked at the outdoor fair before ending our day in a ritzy grocery store owned by the family conglomerate Lotte, and having our best waffles of the trip.   It was a very nice way to end 4days in Seoul.

Many thanks to Irene for all the planning and tour-guiding; you really made the trip! Thanks to Sian, @DianaKuan, and @Seungyonce for all the advice on what to see, where to eat, and what to buy.

Around the World: A Visual Representation