Shanghai: Hospitality

Shortly after arriving at our hotel I called the number that my friend had supplied. The voice on the other end was warm and welcoming, saying that he would be over to pick us up shortly. His name was(is) Mr. Wang. He whisked us away to his home where his wife had prepared an incredible amount of food to share with us for dinner. I won't even begin to tell you what we all had, you can sort of see it in the picture, all you really need to know is that it was the best meal I had ever had in China, by far!

After a great meal and conversation with Mr. Wang and his family it was time to pack it in for the night so on the way back to the hotel we took the scenic route. All the while Mr. Wang pointing out the historic, famous and cultural places.

The Bund was real nice at night.

The financial district.

More luxury cars here than I have seen anywhere.

Nanjing Road at night.

As we were being dropped off Mr. Wang insisted that he show us around the next day and take us to the train station, we couldn't not say yes. The next morning, Mr. Wang and his wife rolled up at the agreed upon time and once again whisked us away on what would be a day full of adventure. Our destination for the day was Yuyuan Garden, while the area around it has a shopping mall type feel, the inside of the garden provided a nice relaxing environment for a stroll.

 Trying to say no, they still got 3 more types of dumplings for us after this...

Follow the facial expression...

After exploring the garden, taking a picture or two or five having a dumpling or two or five it was time to say our thank-you's and good-bye's to the Wang's and catch our train.

The time definitely far surpassed any of the things that I had hoped to do in Shanghai! It was a really neat experience of hospitality, here were people that we had never met before taking care of us as if we had been friends for years. Came as strangers and left as friends, makes you stop and think. Next stop Beijing!

Shanghai: The First Hour

Our first stop in China was Shanghai, which we flew in to shortly after lunch. Besides the money that the ATM gave me, everything else was exactly(in a way) the same as Korea. The written language made little sense to me, the people all looked the same, and I still didn't understand what any of them were saying. But all that was okay, we had done our research and found that China, like Korea, is also in Asia, so we expected some similarities.

We took the Maglev(magnetically levitating train) from the airport which is an very efficient was to get in to the city. The coolest part about it was that, besides going 300 km/h, it was on a track with banked corners!

Our plan was to explore the financial center in the Pudong area and go up in the Oriental Pearl Tower(no known relation to the Oriental Pearl Restaurant). Upon exiting the subway we found the sky to be eating the tops of all the steel behemoths protruding from the earth. Rather than go up the tower to see in to the belly of the sky we headed back in to the belly of the earth and made our way to our hotel.

We were staying at The Shanghai Chungshengkan Hotel. Having booked the hotel online we were trusting that the address they provided was correct as the provided maps were different from site to site. Thankfully the locations given were all on the same street so we figured we would just stroll down and find in to problem. The hotel was located on a road perpendicular to the famous Nanjing Road(#46 of 730 Shanghai sites according to Trip Advisor) so we set off.

Given the price that we had paid we expected to be far from this road and so that is where we looked. When we finally got tired of wandering around we decided to ask for directions. Turns out that the line up on the corner for the snack stall Shendacheng was longer than the distance from Nanjing to our hotel. Fantastic location for the price!

Line up on Nanjing Road

The hotel(taken from the same place as above)

Back when I was still in Canada, a friend mentioned that if I was ever in China I should let her know, so I did. As it turns out she has connections in Shanghai and arranged for a history teacher to show us around. When I say show us around, I really mean take us in to his family because that is what he did. It was unbelievable! But more on that as I have time...

China: Going Down

I don't have time to do a full post on our time in China right now but here is a picture of us going down an escalator in the Shanghai airport.

Ship Tour

While my parents were here, a friend offered to tour them around a ship that his company was almost finished. It was fantastically good! If you get an opportunity take it, chances are it will beat anything else you had planned for that day.

Unfortunately for her my mother had not quite finished the list of chores I had given her so she couldn't join us(my house my rules). Or perhaps it was that she didn't have the same excitement for it that my father and I did, either way she stayed home.

Thar she blows...

Boats are big!

and long!

First Class!

The Lifeboat: Get in, pull a cord and drop 50 feet to safety...

Looking through one of the hood scoops at the engine.

The drivers seat.

The view.

With a load you won't see any of this.

Safety first in Korean.

Parents in Geoje Pictures

When I met them at the bus station they said that they had just gotten there but when I later looked at there pictures something didn't add up. Any one who knows what my father is holding knows that they did have a bit of time before I showed up.

We managed to find some time for an episode of Top Gear before my mother decided that our time was better spent fixing the fan...

We tried to go to Oedo but a typhoon in Japan made it impossible for the boats to leave the harbour so all we could do was take a picture and look for something better. Which we found quite quickly in the form of a lighthouse. We didn't get any pictures of said lighthouse but here is a picture of some cliffs beside it.

Around this time we made our way to a place called The Meat Home which is an all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant. While the quality might not be the same as you would find in a restaurant like The Keg, they don't have The Keg in Korea so it is hard to compare. All the cuts are very thin and they cut everything with a scissor.

The way you eat it is you take a leafy green, put a slice of meat on it, add some rice, pepper, garlic, and sauce. Wrap it up and stuff it in you mouth. My father got a great picture of me in the process but I am to reserved to share it with you... They also had some seafood options which my father and I partook in for the novelty of it(not for the taste).

On the way home from dinner I discovered that Annabelle had broken a leg. This allowed me to send my father to find a great deal on a new tire during his free time. I ended up leading him on a bit of a goose chase by telling him to go to a shop that as it turns out no longer exists. He must have ended up finding a give away somewhere though as the tire was fixed when I got home even though I hadn't given him any money.

Another thing my father loved, being a retired safety officer, was watching the apartment buildings next door get painted. Can you see why?

We also climbed a mountain during their time here. You might think from the pictures that they(the pictures) were the reason for the hike but it was actually to have a picnic.