Journey to my roots: Day 11 (Wanchai-Causeway Bay-Mong Kok)

Today turned out pretty well for an unplanned day. Took the star ferry over to Wanchai and grabbed some breakfast at cafe de coral. Then took the tram to Causeway Bay to check that area out. Couldn't stand the heat anymore so checked out the very well air conditioned Times Square while I was there and wondered why people say it's cheap to shop in hk.

Ate at a wonton place (which I later found out was quite famous - sweet!) then ate dessert at 許留山 - best dessert ever at a good price! Took the tram down the other way to survey 中環 then took the mtr back to Kowloon and reached shopping paradise in Mong Kok. Walked for hours and still haven't gone through a 10th of place. Here is where I truly understand why people say it's cheap to shop in HK!

Day 10 (Shanghai-Hong Kong)

Experienced Shanghainese traffic and taxi driving today. It was intense with a lot of honking and lane weaving. Felt my blood pressure and heart rate elevating. Don't know how the locals can deal with this everyday.

Finds of the day:
- Trolleys for carry on baggages - my backpack was getting heavy.

- Coat hooks on the plane seats.
- Cup holder on the tray tables so you don't need to pull down the table just to hold a drink.
All they need now are personal TVs.

Due to the extreme weather of hk, our 2 hour flight became a 5 hour flight with taxi-ing. Ended up spending the whole day commuting. That's good I didn't plan anything for today (I.e. Raymond Lam concert). Didn't know lunch would be provided on the plane, so we grabbed something to eat before boarding. Ended up eating 2 lunches. Oh well, eating lots is allowed when one is on vacation. Plus, the delay has caused us to not be able to really eat dinner, so that extra food was much needed.

Journey to my roots: Day 9 (Expo)

It was today when I realized that I have been well-sheltered from the true Chinese culture in past week in China as a result of being on a guided tour. I was sheltered from the crowds and how you need to cope with it; hence, the saying 上海看人頭。We were given free time to explore the expo site today, so we split up with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, there were too many people so we didn't get to say our goodbyes or thank our very awesome tour guide. Such a shame.

Find of the day: 30 cent peach popsicles!! So good!

Impressed with: toilets-clean and gave visitors the option of toilets or squatties. Automatic flushing with the opening of the door = great idea.

Not so impressed with: how people used the water stations. The lip of the bottle filler might have been too low so I might have been a good idea to enforce sanitary precautions.

Other notes:
First non-Asian meal. Albeit it was KFC, it was a nice change. Looking for a table to sit at was insane.

Pavillions visited:
China - the Chinese government recently agreed to let certain international tour groups make reservations to see the pavillion without having to endure the crazy lineups for this ever so popular host pavillion! Thanks! It was amazing - from the intelligent "train ride" up to the pavilion to the nice IMAX to the awesome ride through beautiful scenery to the gorgeous animated painting, it will be hard for the other pavillions to live up to this.

Vietnam - cute little pavilion with next to no lineup. Too bad there wasn't a lot of information about their culture, which I was hoping to learn about.

Canada - loved the VIP treatment. The guard originally told me to lineup but as soon as I said that I am Canadian we got led to seperate entrance. I was already so happy outside seeing that so many people wanted to come to see our pavillion. Once I got in I felt so proud that couldn't rip the grin off my face. My bro claims that I'm a true Canadian. Pretty nice graphics and videos. Wish the pavillion was bigger.

Netherlands - really impressed with the concept of having many small rooms with different Dutch objects, artwork, and inventions (from the floating rock to Van Gogh hair to the crystal dress). Also liked the idea of having a rest area below the pavilion with little sheep kids can sit on.

Experienced the Shanghai expo bus and metro system. One word: insane.

Journey to my roots: Day 8 (Wuxi-Shanghai)

Chinese specialty #5: pearls. Saw for the first time in my life, golden pearls. Also learnt that purple pearls are relatively more rare; hence, more special.

Had the best meal of the trip so far at a floating restaurant on Taihu. Here, we had the famous Wuxi ribs, as noted by the saying 無錫看骨頭。With beautiful scenery, amazing food, and normal toilets, I have no complaints.

The hotels we stayed at on this trip have been awesome - they provide you with everything from combs, shaving kits, toothbrushes to slippers! They were just missing one thing - swim caps. Again, we find ourselves in the same situation where swim caps are required to swim in hotels here. At least I was able to use the gym today.

Chinese specialty #6 - Chinese medicine. We had a foot massage but I didn't get to enjoy it because I was too busy listening in on how the doctor was convincing my dad to buy herbs. It was not until this trip that I noticed the reversal of roles. When we were young, our parents would look after us, but now it is our turn to look out for them.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough interest in our group to go to see the Shanghai bund. That's too bad, but we got to see a lot on this trip already so I should be grateful.

Journey to my roots: Day 7 (Nanking-Wuxi)

Tidbits:
-According to our native Nankingese tour guide, Nankingese people are known for always speaking their mind and being blunt (and she definitely did have her own opinions and wasn't afraid of voicing them).
-according to my bro, Chinese tour guides probably all majored in marketing because they all like to give us hardcore advertising before we reach a specialty store. Today we learnt about the benefits of jade (Chinese specialty #3).
-we passed by a dental clinic in Wuxi called Aiya dental clinic. The direct translation is "love your teeth" dental clinic but it also is the sound one makes when in pain. Love the pun.
-Chinese specialty #4: Chinese Zisha teapots. Despite its name, apparently the green ones are the most precious. No hardcore marketing this time which made me more inclined to make purchases. Maybe it was reverse psychology. We also learnt that the Chinese character for tea consists of the words grass and 88. It means drinking tea will let you live till your 88 i.e. giving you longevity. Cool eh? I love how Chinese characters have so much meaning embedded in them.
-note to self: need to bring card key envelop and swim caps to swim in Chinese hotels or at least the hotel we stayed at tonight... After 10 minutes of conversation with the hotel staff in mandarin and 2 elevator trips, guess my plans to go swimming didn't work out as planned.
-almost end of the trip: overall great cultural trip and had the chance to interact with people of all ages using Mandarin, Cantonese, and English.

Journey to my roots: Day 6 (Suzhou-Nanking)

I don't think I'd ever get used to squatties because you've got to see the excitement on my face as soon as I see a stall with normal toilet bowls.

Chinese specialty #2: Went to the silk factory and learnt how silk is made. Living in a luxurious environment is a great catalyst for making luxurious purchases. Great marketing technique.

More watermelon??? Today we had the first meal in china where we did not have watermelon as our dessert! Didn't know watermelons were so popular here! (after note: this was the ONLY meal where watermelon was not served XD).

Nanking:
I've always felt that learning about the Rape of Nanking is a very emotional experience. And hearing about the incident from a native Nanking person and visiting the memorial site was definitely a heartfelt journey. Just listening to the stories gave me a great sense of discomfort. Imagine how I felt walking into the room with 10000 real corpses and seeing the tall tower with the word "peace" on it in the memorial site.

Next, tour of a garden 留園 - the garden which has been passed down 3 generations. Because 南京看石頭，there were many artistic pieces of rock here.

Then we had dinner with more watermelon. Staying at Holiday Inn tonight but the quality is so much better than Canadian ones. As an western franchise, they really try extra hard to add Chinese touches to their decor unlike the previous hotels we stayed at. Like my dad said: if you're already Chinese you don't need to wear Chinese clothes to look Chinese.

Ended the day by visiting a local night market! Authetic chinese experience minus the non bargaining vendors.

Journey to my roots: Day 5 (Hengdian-Suzhou)

Tidbits:
-People were right about bargaining especially in tourist areas. I was able to bargain something down to 25% its offered price today.
-canadian hotels should adopt the key-in-slot-for-electricity idea.
1. Save electricity.
2. Prevent misplacing keys.

-this is the most chinese food I've had in my life. 5th day straight of meals entirely of chinese cuisine and still counting.
-since when have I become so germaphobic. It's actually quite stressful to be a germaphobe. Good luck to all of you in conquering your fear.
-going on vacation makes you lose track of time. Took us 5 mins to figure out that it's Friday.

-Suzhou supposedly has the most beautiful girls in the country because of their beautiful skin.
-Suzhou is such a beautiful, big, and modern city. I love it!

Highlights:
1. Our tour guide buying us green bean popsicles when the heat was getting unbearable.
2. Times square light show

3. Grand Metro hotel - one of the nicest hotels I've been to. 6 stars according to the tour guide. Is that even possible?