Mittwoch, 11. August 2010

Shanghai part 2: Busy days in Shanghai

Early on Sunday morning, at about 09.00 (to escape the burning sun!) it was time to do some sports. Wouter and his friends meet up every Sunday to play football. It's a mixed group of Expats from France, Germany, Netherlands etc. Unfortunately Wouter and Pasci were not in the same team.

It was great to do some running around and chasing a football after 4 months of not too much exercising. Pasci clearly struggled with the hot weather conditions, but still managed to do well and capturing a goal for his team. Unfortunately it was not enough to win today!

Pasci focused on the ball / Pasci fokusiert auf den Ball

Wouter can run like a horse...up and down the field. Impressive! / Wouter kann rennen wie ein Pferd...das Spielfeld hoch und runter. Beeindruckend!

News: FcBasel transfers a new star player for the coming season! / News: Der FcBasel kauft sich einen neuen Starspieler für die neue Saison
..and for the youth team: Peter! / ..und für die Nachwuchsmannschaft: Peter!

After that, everybody was were hungry and we went for a nice brunch close to the French Concession. The enourmous breakfast was exactly what was needed after doing some sports...

Too hungry to take pictures of breakfast...it was gone quickly! / Zu hungrig um Fotos vom Frühstück zu machen...es war schnell weg!
Sophie catches a star! / Sophie greift nach den Sternen!
After breakfast we only managed to walk for a few minutes before Wouter was craving for his first beer of the day. Therefore we stopped at a cool garden-pub. Wouter got his beer and Mishell and Pasci shared Sangria - Summer feeling!
Not only dady was thirsty.../ Nicht nur der Vater war durstig...

University friends...Mishell boasts that she has visited Wouter every year (6times) since he is in Shanghai / Freunde aus der Universitätszeit....Mishell gibt an, dass Sie Wouter jedes Jahr besucht hat (6mal) seit er in Shanghai ist
Summer feeling with Sangria! / Sommer-Feeling mit Sangria!
We spent the afternoon discovering the French Concession which used to be a foreign concession in Shanghai (1840 to 1946). It's a very interesting part of the town, because buildings, trees etc. are different from what you see elsewhere here. Occasionally we had to stop to top-up Wouter's beer tank.

The stroller offers enough space for two / Der Kinderwagen bietet genug Platz für zwei

Milf?! :)

Shanghainese back alley / Shanghainesische Seitengasse

Mishell attempting to steal the police bike / Mishell beim Versuch den Polizeitöff zu stehlen

Sophie snoozing off... / Sophie am dösen...
'Cheers my son!' / 'Zum Wohl, mein Sohn!'

*gluck-gluck-gluck*

Family discussion...hungry NOW! / Familiendiskussion...hungrig JETZT!
How recycling works in China / Wie Recyclen in China funktioniert

Mishell obviously enjoyed playing with Peter / Mishell hatte Spass daran mit Peter zu spielen
We went for dinner at a nice bar/restaurant where you can sit outside close to the Bund and get a great view of Shanghai by night! Awesome!

Shanghai by night
Our time in Shanghai was clustered with visits to a taylor, because Pasci got his wedding Tuxedo tailored here. Shanghai is quite famous for their tailoring. But since Pasci is a bit unproportional the tailor took several attempts to complete his work! A bit of a nightmare for us... but finally he managed to produce a sexy 'James-Bond' like Tuxedo!
Peter having a bath / Peter am baden

Pool party - where are the drinks? / Poop Party - wo sind die Drinks?
Happy Peter after his bath / Peter ist Glücklich nach dem Bad

hmmmm....does it look right? / hmmm.....schaut es gut aus?

'My name is Bond, James Bond!' / 'Mein Name ist Bond, James Bond'

Since we were in Shanghai and the World Expo is accidentaly here as well, we thought we should take this chance and go to have a look what all the fuss is about. Neither Mishell nor Pasci had a clue on what to really expect. The entry tickets were not cheap, about 160RMB per Person.
Full of eagerness to explore the Expo we went there on Wednesday - it was the perfect day to go. Although it was only the 4th day since the opening there were hardly any people (at around 2 o'clock). We were impressed with the sheer size and efficiency of the entry procedure (same procedure as at the airport!).
Then our jaws dropped when we saw the map of the Expo area and realized that you need about 2-3 days to see everything. Instead of having a clear plan we decided to just walk around and see whatever Pavillion we like.

Huge Exop area - it didn't even fit on one picture! / Riesiges Expo Gelände - es passte nicht einmal auf ein Foto!

Sophisticated system that guided you to the Expo area / Intelligentes System, dass dich in die Expo bringt
On the way to security checks - no people, Great! / Auf dem Weg zu den Sicherheits-Checks - keine Leute, Super!

Very efficient, thanks to enough entry points / Sehr effizient, dank genug Eingängen

The masterpiece - the Chinese Pavillion / Das Meisterstück - der Chinesische Pavillion


The very first Pavillion we discovered was the Malaysian one. Full of expectations we walked in there...but then, we soon realized that it doesn't deliver what it promises from the outside. The Pavillion looks very nice and impressive but inside is just useless. No real information about the country. It's a random cluster of 'Malaysian' activities or things to see, e.g. the F1 grandprix, Batik painting, Petronas Towers etc. Not very thought through and Mishell was definitely ashamed of her countries performance.
Mishell so close to home - infront of the Malaysian Pavillion / Mishell so nahe zu Hause - vor dem Malaysischem Pavillion
Outside top - inside flop..... / Aussen Top - Innen Flop.....
From there we went to the Australian Pavillion, which is just next door. The topic of the Expo is 'sustainability' therefore Australia showed there vision of how the future city would look like in a 3-D show. The show was just in Chinese (no subtitle), so a bit problematic for Pasci. Anyway, although more interesting and thought through than the Malaysian Pavillion, it was still not totally exciting.
Back to down under / Zurück nach Down Under
Futuristic show about the city of the future / Futuristische Show über die Stadt der Zukunft
Next in the line was the Finish Pavillion which was a big disappointment as well. No explanation to what exactly they are displaying and what the Pavillion is all about.
What to expect from Finland? / Was sollen wir von Finland erwarten?
Colourful Estonian Pavillion / Farbenfroher Estländischer Pavillion
The Polish Pavillion.... / Der Polnische Pavillion...
and the German one / und der Deutsche
And which Pavillion are we about to visit now? / Und welcher Pavillion gehen wir jetzt anschauen?
Of course we had to go and see the Swiss Pavillion as well. This was actually the first Pavillion we had to queue up for. About 45min. This Pavillion was very popular because it offeres a cable car ride at the end that takes you on the top of the Pavillion where there is an artifical alps-landscape. But first you need to walk through the Pavillion where Switzerland demonstrates their understanding of 'sustainability'.
The red dots on the spidernet collect the energy from the flash lights and produce light with it / Die roten Punkte auf dem Netz speichern die Energie der Blitzlichter und produzieren damit Licht
Our impression of that part was a little bit better from what we've seen so far. But then coming down to the next queue where you should be boarding the cable car, we found out that this thing was broken on that day! HOW BAD is that -> seriously bad publicity for Switzerland. And most annoingly no information at the front entrance of the Pavillion.
How far can Pasci see with the binoculars? / Wie weit kann Pasci mit dem Feldstecher sehen?
...impressive, he can see until Birsfelden (his home town!) / ...beeindruckend, er kann bis Birsfelden sehen (seine Heimatstadt!)
Which country could this Pavillion represent? / Welches Land könnte dieser Pavillion repräsentieren?
Viva Espana...
Lego seems to be very popular in Serbia :) / Lego scheint in Serbien sehr beliebt zu sein :)
Obviously we then had to go and have a look at the huge Chinese Pavillion. Unfortunately you can only go up if you get one of the separate tickets early in the morning. But at least you can go in and walk around at the groundfloor area. There every Chinese Province has its own exhibition area. Again the concepts of the different Provinces was just not clear and there was no message what so ever?! Disappointing...

The Chinese Pavillion...legends hold that the Pavillion was built without the use of nails / Der Chinesische Pavillion...Legenden besagen, dass der Pavillion ohne Nägel gebaut wurde

Cheesy presentation of each Province of China / Kitschige Präsentation der Provinzen von China

Mishell demonstrating her skiing skills learned in Switzerland / Mishell demonstriert ihre Ski Künste die Sie in der Schweiz gelernt hat


Nice architecture and lights / Schöne Architektur und Licht

Fancy fountain play with music&lights / Edler Springbrunnen-Schauspiel mit Musik&Lichtern
UFO sighting in Shanghai / UFO Sichtung in Shanghai

Pasci, Mishell and the UFO / Pasci, Mishell und das UFO
From our Expo trip we concluded that it's only worth going, if you are interested into architecture and you want to look at the Pavillions. Some are pretty awesome. But content wise the Expo is very disappointing. Most of the Chinese that we saw were just running around from Pavillion to Pavillion to get a stamp in their 'Expo-Passport'.
..bye-bye Expo....
During our Shanghai stay we as well decided what we want to do in the next three weeks that we have time to discover China. We thought it's the best to focus on one region for this trip and therefore we picked the Yunan region.
We came up with a rough time plan on how many days we can spend where and which cities we want to go and see. Since we expected to go cheap&local we upgraded our backpacking standards thanks to Wouter&Lucy. We borrowed backpacks from them as well as warm clothes (for the trip to Shangri-la). The plan was to head back to Shanghai after the three weeks to celebrate Wouters birthday, therefore we could as well leave some of the unnecessary luggage behind.

On the last day before our departure, we went to a Sichuan restaurant and had a last feast together. Food was yummy! :)
Wouter was very happy with the amount of food provided / Wouter war sehr glücklich über die Menge an Essen


Spicy Sechuan style ribs *slurrrp* / Scharfe Sechuan Rippchen *Slurrp*


Next stop: Kunming (Yunan Province)

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