Shanghai and Mighty (Days 15-18)

We started our explorations on Sunday, July 13 by patronizing the Guinness World Record Highest Library on the 60th floor of our hotel, the JW Shanghai Marriott. Over the next week, I tore through Dr. Paul Brand's part-biography, part-medical history Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants, a great find off the shelves of the 757½-foot high library.

Sadly, 'Garfield Shoves It In'
was checked out.

In the library, as if we were part of a spy movie or ghost story, a host showed us a secret hidden bookshelf panel that swung open to reveal a door to the hotel's outside observation deck. 

We took in the view of the city looking out over People's Square on, looking back now, one of the few days where the pollution was "bad." Our first and last day in Beijing were the only other noticeably smoggy days where one could taste and smell the oily air and visibility was limited. Otherwise, pollution was virtually a non-factor throughout the trip.

It burns!

That afternoon we enjoyed one of the most lavish meals of the month on the 30th floor in the Marriott Café; an international buffet with a variety of dishes from India, Japan, China and beyond. We had our fill of oysters, crab, shrimp, sushi, pâté, lamb, beef, vegetables, pasta, desserts and bottomless glasses of champagne for the adults. The service was impeccable and the view was lovely, so we milked it for all it was worth and decided to not regret spending almost US$400 for a meal like that once a decade or so. 

After another visit to the pool (where we went through our usual routine of begging the kids to stop jumping in and out of the water, quit throwing kick boards and cease yelling at each other before the staff inevitably joins in), I set out alone into the hot and smoggy night air in search of a grocery store.

This posting near the hotel pool offered both 
emergency preparedness and a new nickname.

On the advice of a bellman, I hopped on the subway for a few stops and then took a short walk to a Carrefour, an old friend from Europe and the main department store in Shanghai. The shop I found was a multilevel Walmart on Chinese steroids. Over all, it was a somewhat confusing experience; I had to check my backpack in a locker, where I needed assistance to understand the ticketing procedure, found the maze of busy aisles oddly organized and had to ask for help finding broccoli. I decided to take my time to explore every corner of the store and see all of the merchandise. Just about everything considered edible is available including bullfrog, pigeon and live turtles, and one can buy everything else from hiking gear to house paint. 

Kids' bikes from US $32 to $92,
luggage for $36 and fabric softener for $4. 

Bottled water and beer: sold everywhere
in China, available in bulk at Carrefour.

At the checkout line, while waiting to pay for some semi-familiar food and beverages to take back to our kitchen I watched a store manager and young couple shout at each other for about five minutes. I was glad to get past the cashier without committing whatever offense had made the manager so irate. (It was one of a number of times we witnessed a loud verbal sparring match between various Chinese citizens. A couple of times I was able to take a photo or video but I failed to capture The Grocery Conflict.)

These guys were about to throw down by the Bund
but they kept it to a heated staring contest. 

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On Monday the 14th (day 16, the halfway point of our journey), we woke at 3 o'clock in the morning to watch Germany's World Cup final victory over Argentina. The play wasn't as exciting as some of the early round matches but we enjoyed seeing the championship atmosphere. It became a sports morning when we switched to MLB.TV to catch an Angels victory over the Texas Rangers. We are excitedly following the Halos' chase of the Oakland A's for the best record in baseball and I may or may not have used my brief forays into Buddhism and Shintoism to give our favorite teams some extra karma. 

Thanks to us the Colts are
Super Bowl bound.

Not coincidentally, that afternoon the kids and I visited Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist temple on the eponymous West Nanjing Road, one of the busiest in Shanghai. The temple was first built in 247 AD and then moved to its current site in 1216. Soaring glass, concrete and steel now surround the temple, which has crumbled a couple of times but was rebuilt over the centuries until taking its final form during the Qing Dynasty. Further changes took place when the structure was converted into a plastics factory (!) in the early 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, traditionalists in 1983 led a charge to eventually return the structure to its original purpose. According to the back of my ticket (kids were free, mine was ¥50 / US$8), "since 1998, a large-scale reconstruction work had taken place in the monastery area, the main facade, bell and drum terraces...the Dharma pillar...Thai Buddha Hall, Golden Buddha Hall and so on had been continuously completed." 

That's their way of saying renovations are ongoing as there are always improvements to be made. The stone exterior and the woodwork, while built with ancient techniques, felt "new." However the temple and grounds instilled a deep sense of spirituality with artwork, idols, altars and offerings that provided direct links to the past.

Make an offering, touch the idol, 
be a musical prodigy.

Make an offering, bow to the idol,
be a fruit-stacking sensation.

Offerings have been generous enough for the admission ticket to congratulate the "enormous number of Buddhists (who) have shown their devout faith of the Dharma. Their donation has accomplished the sterling silver Buddha statue weighted 15 tons for the monastery."

The glow of sunlight hitting a thin layer of tarnish
made the silver look bronze or gilded that afternoon.

The 8.8-meter, or 28.9-foot, statue sits in a structure made of dark Burmese teak supported by 46 columns; the Precious Hall of the Great Hero. Surrounding the Buddha are prayer banners, wood and metal statues, elaborate paneling and three intricately carved and painted wall hangings depicting scenes from the Buddha's life.

Detail with facial expressions.

Today, the devout can gain potential admission-ticket immortality by donating to "the following project of making a solid gold Buddha statue weighed 2 tons (that) is currently in its fundraising process." Count us in.

Our following project involved exploring a mall adjoining the Jing'an Temple subway stop. It was filled with pricey shops and restaurants but we eventually found the busy, less expensive basement food stalls. Our senses were quickly drawn to a bakery with such an irresistible array of breakfast, lunch and dessert buns that we ended up contributing to their fundraising process multiple times over the remainder of our Shanghai visit.

The mall price of acute inflammatory arthritis
is too high but the mascot is adorable. 

"Yippee!" yelped the youngsters upon the 
yielding of yuan at yummy Yamazaki.

After another swim and upon Betsy's arrival, we walked to a bookstore that we found online in our effort to find some Mandarin DVDs and instructional materials. The shop was in a five-story building and  pretty much felt just like any other large book chain - only everything was, of course, in Chinese. Quinn was able to ask the sales lady for guidance and we left with a bulging bag of mostly Disney movies and workbooks for vocabulary and character reinforcement. (As if the land of Chinglish is the place to turn for such things!)

Do these street vendors know
they're offering rejected parts?   

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at a small street-side food stall that offered about 20 different bowls or platters of various local foods. I chose two dishes, ordered some steamed rice from room service and proceeded to disrupt Kung Fu Panda with my enthusiastic enjoyment of the garlic-and-ginger-infused crunchy fungus and chewy tofu skins.

Just like mom used to make.

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The next two mornings, we were up early to watch live English broadcasts of the MLB Home Run Derby on a rainy Tuesday the 15th and then the All Star Game, featuring MVP Mike Trout, on Wednesday the 16th. The other Tuesday highlights were avoiding the persistent downpour by sticking to the indoor pool and using the subway for our second bakery visit for some egg and meat sandwiches, breadsticks and chocolate pies. 

We had to get out on Wednesday so the kids and I decided to check out the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. We discovered animal exhibits, space and communication technology, medical displays and a ping pong robot that humbled both boys. All of the descriptions and guides were in Chinese and several of the video stations and interactive opportunities were out of order but the museum had a nice flow and the displays were generally user-friendly.

This is what happens when 
science meets technology.

Sadly, these and three toy souvenirs were
the only pandas we saw on our trip. 

Our favorite parts were the rooms with dozens of stuffed and mounted animals from all around the world, the pathology displays with examples of real arteries, veins and organs and the space equipment including satellites and rockets. After a 2½ -hour visit, we wandered around the adjoining subway area where we found a shaded garden and one of the area's several fake-goods markets, complete with aggressive merchants enticing passing shoppers and tourists into every store. 

Our choice of eateries won out over a nearby competitor, which lost - or maybe gained - a point for promoting this entree on their front wall:

While a bargain at just US$2.60, we deemed this
R-rated dish to be unsuitable for minors.      

After the waitress told me which chair I was to sit in (so I could be in a better position for them to serve me all the dishes for distribution she said, when asked by Xander)  we finally ordered some duck to go with some wide noodles, a big bowl of eggplant and our favorite, sword beans. We would be advised later that we should have had the famous Peking duck of Beijing but we agreed the meat and sauce were pretty tasty - once we picked away the thick, rubbery skin that is included here with poultry dishes.

A major theme of this trip: Pretty Tasty.

Hope you're enjoying. There's still more to come covering our last three days in Shanghai and our week in Tokyo.

Shanghai Times (Days 12-14)

The longest leg of our trip, a 12-day stop in Shanghai, began with our late Wednesday-night arrival at the Marriott Executive Apartments near People's Square in the heart of the city. Our suite had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and, to our surprise and great delight, a washing machine/dryer! 

We immediately lit some incense and said a prayer of thanks.

Although we were completely unable to decipher the settings and dials, I secured a manual in English (regrettably, no Chinglish) and proceeded to plow through two or three small loads a day for the next week.

Shanghai, the largest city proper by population in the world with over 24 million inhabitants, is known as the Pearl of China. It is a modern metropolis serving as China’s commercial and financial center and a symbol of the country's economic success, but also has its own deep history and long standing traditions. To me, if Beijing is your grandparent's house with old books and heirlooms on dusty shelves providing constant reminders of generations past, then Shanghai is your rich uncle's modern pad with both a shiny new sports car in the driveway and several cherished family mementos carefully displayed.

Our hotel in the background. Vaughn had to ditch the souvenir Mao cadet hat because placing it atop
his juan tou fa (curly hair) proved too irresistible to the citizenry of Shanghai.   

On Thursday, July 10 - a workday for Betsy - the kids and I started off in the heat and humidity for a walk through People's Park located adjacent to our hotel. The beautiful park was developed beginning in 1952 and currently features a waterfall, a lotus pond, fitness areas and a small amusement park.

One of the "fitness areas." We wondered if their wives know about their daily gambling exercise.  

Our plans to meet up with our friends from Guilin came to fruition as we miraculously rendezvoused with Danne, Layla and Ahmad Johnson on Nanjing Road, a nearby pedestrian shopping plaza. After bathing in the air-conditioned comfort of a three-story M&M shopping emporium we made our way back to People's Park. All five kids screamed and hollered their way through a thrilling swing ride before we wandered toward the exit through the beautiful park grounds.

NOT a busker; only in the parks do people seem to play for pleasure instead of pocket change.

Danne had a lunch place in mind in the French Concession, an area once designated for, go figure, the French that still retains a unique charm with its tree-lined avenues, small cafés and many fine old houses. The Johnsons had experience riding the subway and were happy to guide us on our initial plunge. Having navigated the much older subways in London, Paris and Brussels two summers ago, I can say that the 11-year old Shanghai subway is far cleaner, a bit cheaper (kids ride free!) and has an easier payment system. 

I'll never forget spontaneously belting out the Laverne and Shirley theme song with Danne and sharing obscure childhood memories as we walked past the Shanghai Museum on our way to the subway station. We also got a laugh out of being the ONLY non-Chinese riders on the train (which pretty much always seemed to be the case) and we wondered what the locals must have made of this crazy Brady Bunch of smiling American faces. Danne's choice of eateries did not disappoint as we all devoured the fried rice, sautéed sword (green) beans with minced shrimp, braised pork (amazingly fresh and deliciously fatty) and mixed pan-fried mushrooms. We said goodbye to our friends as we separated before boarding different subway lines with plans to meet up later at the Bund. 

Tragically, that meeting was not to be as our good luck ran out and we failed to find each other that night. We have little doubt that the Hughes and Johnson families will ride again and can't wait for our next adventure together. 

On that foggy night, we did make it to The Bund (more on that area later) to pose for some photos - some with just us in them! - before we strolled back to our hotel along the brightly-lit Nanjing shopping plaza.

Everyone say "qie zi!"
The word for eggplant is the Chinese equivalent of "cheeeese!"

***************

Day 13 was a quiet one as the kids and I beat the heat by exploring the businesses adjoining our hotel; we flipped through the menus of ultra-fancy restaurants, peeked into the Ferrari and Maserati dealerships and found the best places to pick up snacks and drinks. After an afternoon swim and a dinner cooked in our very own kitchen that satisfied our cravings for good old pasta with tomato sauce and steamed broccoli, we settled in for a movie and a good night's rest.

***************

Betsy had organized a tour of the towns of Suzhou and Zhouzhaung on Saturday, July 12 and we were up bright and early to meet our guide in the lobby. Joined in the van by a family of three from Panama and a lady from New Zealand, we were whisked 75 miles west to Suzhou, the “Hometown of Silk.” Our first tour stop was the Master-of-the-Nets Garden, a World Heritage Site that contains a series of halls skillfully sculpted since 1140 to synthesize art, nature and architecture into one grand masterpiece.

One of our favorite photos so far. Hooray for Pano. 

Each of the rooms blends elements of feng shui to create the most ideal arrangements. The windows and doorways - all of which have a raised trestle to ward off evil spirits (bad form to tread on them, by the way) - are all carefully oriented with the surrounding water, rocks and vegetation to create inspiring views at every turn.

We were then transported to the "Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory Co. Ltd." The factory, built in 1926, now combines fascinating elements of the ancient practice of silk production with the obnoxious heavy-handed salesmanship of a Chinese tourist trap. Still, it was worth it to see the complete process of sericulture (silk farming) including mulberry cultivation, the silkworm life cycle, silk reeling, silk weaving and silk quilt making. Our first sight was a mat of wriggling worms munching on mulberry leaves. 

After one month, the larvae stop eating and spin the cocoons that are sorted and harvested. A quick steam bath loosens the silk and kills the pupae inside. Workers then brush each cocoon to find one end of the single, mile-long filament and thread eight ends at once into this reeling machine that winds them together.   

The reel deal.

Those thicker threads are then fed into automated looms that use programmed punch cards to create the intricate patterns seen in silk clothing and blankets. Other cocoons are treated and stretched into sheets for quilts. 

Several child labor laws were broken at No. 1 Silk Factory Co. Ltd. that day.

The end of the tour is a typical Chinese sales assault where purchase is highly encouraged. (Anywhere there are shops, the proprietors will holler at and motion to foreign passers-by in broken English to spark interest in their wares. A bargaining process usually ensues unless the prices are clearly marked. Buyers should rarely pay more than ⅓ to ½ of the original asking price.) At this silk factory, the prices were clearly marked and we purchased one of the king-sized, medium-thickness quilts for a reasonable US$130. 

The next stop was a really tasty lunch that featured yu xiang you si, a new favorite. Yu xiang literally translates to the unappetizing "fish aroma" but it is a flavorful sauce that is incorporated into many meat and vegetable dishes. This one had thinly sliced pork and vegetables and was so good we didn't even stop eating to get a photo. Sorry, foodies!

The final tour stop was a visit to the “Venice of the East.” Zhouzhaung, the most popular ancient water village in China, has preserved a direct link to the past for more than 900 years. Classic courtyards, carved-brick archways and Chinese-style gondola rides offer a unique perspective of life in this fascinating town surrounded and divided by lakes, rivers and canals.

Over 800 households still call Zhouzhaung home so one gets a glimpse of the ancient way of life while still having the opportunity to explore the many shops, food stalls, temples, famous houses and historic bridges. The Twin Bridges, comprised of Shide Bridge and Yongan Bridge, are the most famous and considered the symbol of Zhouzhaung. Together the two bridges resemble an old-style Chinese key and brought notoriety to the region when painter Chen Yifei's depiction, Memory of Hometown, gained international attention upon being displayed in New York in the mid-1980's. 

  
We visited a beautiful open-air opera house where we saw a brief musical performance before we boarded a gondola for a pleasant and scenic 20-minute canal cruise through the town.

An even briefer performance.

Our request for 'O Solo Mio' went unfulfilled. 

A short rainstorm brought a bit of relief from the relentless heat and drove us into the shopping area where we were accosted from all sides. We ended up getting this artisan down to 100 yuan from over 300 for a trio of intricate glass orbs that are painted from the inside. Each of the kids got their Chinese names inscribed in these treasured mementos.

It takes a steady hand!

We were all happy to get back to the hotel at the end of a long and interesting tour, eager for a few days with very little planned except for wandering around Shanghai, doing some knock-off shopping and meeting some of Betsy's friends and colleagues for dinner.    

We Kowtow in Lantau (Days 10 and 11)

On Tuesday, July 8, fully intending to get caught up on our hotel-sink laundry effort, I signed the kids up for a two-hour Chinese Art class in the Kids At Art studio in our hotel. (That effort would be thwarted as I spent most of that time trying to contact Wells Fargo in an effort to allow us withdraw even more funds even more frequently.) However, with a promise to return with full payment, I left the kids to enjoy the full focus of the attentive staff. 

I asked the teachers to use Mandarin as much as possible as they guided Xander, Vaughn and Quinn through new techniques with ink and paint. The kids created several paintings each with the intent of presenting their favorites to Betsy for her upcoming birthday.

That afternoon I continued to shirk my laundry duties, opting instead to sit and write by the pool as the kids frolicked in the cool water. When Betsy joined us after work, I commented on how very friendly the pool service staff was as they brought us our sandwiches, lemonade and beer. When we got the bill for HK$1,457 (US$188), we realized why. Holy hot pot, there went our dinner plans!

Pictured: $57 worth of beverages

Still the pool was the most beautiful one we’ve seen so far; overlooking the harbor and with a waterfall at one end. Plus we were treated like kings so we decided it was worth it and retired to the hotel room for the evening and curled up with some ramen and Chinese television.

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July 9 was busy and memorable Wednesday as we left the hotel early for a day-long tour of Lantau Island before departing for Shanghai that night.

Lantau Island is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and the largest among the approximately 256 outlying islands within the territory. The tour began with a 40-minute ferry ride from Hong Kong to Lantau through the busy harbor filled with cargo ships heading off to or returning from long voyages. Luckily for us on a day where temperatures climbed over 100 degrees, we hopped from the air-conditioned boat to an air-conditioned bus that offered salvation after each broiling tour stop on the island. A sign posted at the front of the bus offered this sobering advice:

I've always been suspicious of my right thumb and now I'm on high alert. 

Many of the 120,000 inhabitants of Lantau have jobs in Hong Kong (2 million total) and must make the daily ferry trip to work. They ride their bicycles from home and leave them parked together on the dock. 

But not a bike lock in sight.

Our guide says there is very little crime on Lantau because most people can trace their family lineage back for centuries and very few people migrate to the island so basically no one can get away with anything. There are, however, several prisons (apparently for criminals from elsewhere) including a juvenile detention center that offered a nice incentive for good behavior for the day.

The first stop on the tour was a refreshing visit to the pristine Cheung Sha beach. We were pleased to see a barrier ringing the shore after hearing about the six fatal shark attacks around the island over the last 15 years and happily waded into to the warm surf.

The bus then took us to the unique Tai O fishing village, a former haven for smugglers and pirates that is now a popular tourist destination. We enjoyed a short boat ride that gave us a close-up look at some the remarkable, yet dilapidated, pang uks; fisherman's homes that are built on stilts to better endure flooding. 

Fishing long provided the primary means of income in the village but overfishing has forced the inhabitants to rely on tourist spending. We passed stall after stall of very ripe, sun-dried, salted  examples of meager fish, shrimp and mollusks that neither we nor anyone else on our tour dared to bring back on the bus.

There's something fishy going on around here.

We visited a temple where we had our first experience burning incense as a symbolic offering. In Chinese Taoist and Buddhist temples, worshippers light and burn incense which they wave our raise above the head as they bow to the statues or plaques of a deity or ancestor. One makes says a prayer of hope or thanks and then places the stick or sticks in a receptacle in front of the idol.

Next, our bus climbed the winding road up the mountain to the Ngong Ping plateau for a visit to the majestic Tain Tian Buddha Statue and the nearby Po Lin Monastery, where we were served a delicious vegetarian meal.

The monastery was built in 1907 and plans for the Big Buddha were made over sixty years ago with the project finally coming to fruition in 1990. The 202 separate pieces of bronze were gradually shipped to the island and then trucked up the hill before they were assembled in 1993 to form the 112-foot, 250-ton statue. The serene and dignified Buddha rests on a bed of lotus flowers with his left hand in his lap, signifying the giving of the moral treasures known as dhana, and his right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction.

The structure beneath houses three separate exhibition halls of worship and six smaller bronze statues surround the Buddha praising and making the various symbolic offerings required to enter into nirvana. 

Our tour of Lantau ended with a ride aboard the Ngong Ping Skyrail, a 25-minute cable car that offered stunning views as we descended from Hgong Ping plateau to Tung Chung New Town near the airport, from which we would depart a few hours later. 

We shared our ride with a South African/Australian expat and her daughters, aged 10 and 8, who gained our admiration as they described their earlier four-hour ascent by foot to the Big Buddha in the day's intense heat and humidity.

Our flight that evening from Hong Kong to Shanghai took just over two hours, transporting five sleepy travelers to the third stop on our journey for new round of adventures, cuisine, friends and hilarious mis-translations.