Shanghai - written Dec. 6

Shanghai

The plan was to take a sleeper to Shanghai, but I found a cheaper ticket to Hangzhou and it was a flight. Same price, ten hours faster, yes please! A quick hour plus flight was not without entertainment. Several of the passengers looked totally confused on the plane. Many of them needing personal assistance to find their seats. An old man in front of me struggled for ten minutes trying to figure out how to use is headphones before a flight attendant spent an additional five minutes instructing him. I'm not trying to laugh at my fellow passengers as taking occasion for many. Certainly familiarity with air travel is something I take for granted. A flight must have been a special

Going south, I was hopeful that I would avoid the snow and be in a more comfortable climate. This was only partially the case. The temperature was barely enough that there was no snow. Instead I had the pleasure of freezing rain for a couple of days. Out of self pity, I checked the temp in Chicago, where I thought for sure it would be colder, but I was wrong.

As I've mentioned on several occasions, my super time in Beijing was a direct result of the great people I was spending time with. As I went south, I was worried that I would be completely on my own again. It took me all of two minutes in the Hangzhou hostel before I met Ofer. We were quickly drawn to each other and spent the next week together. I tend to have warm feeling to the Israelis that I've met. Fortunately China is not plagued with the hordes of Sabras known to haunt India and other cheap parts of the backpacker world. Plus Ofer was extremely patient with my Hebrew and our Chinese was on a similar level. We had a great time laughing at newly created sayings in Chinglish, Hebrish, and Ivru. It was nice to work a bit on my very rusty and limited Hebrew skills. Now that I've checked the Great Wall off the list, I'm thinking it can be replaced with studying yoga at an Indian Ashram either filled with Israelis or conducted in Hebrew. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Hangzhou is famous for West Lake, which is surrounded by gardens and hills. This city, with over six million people was a former retreat for royalty and aristocracy. The west, leisure and scenery sprouted an artistic tradition that still thrives today. Despite the superlatives, it is very pretty. Unfortunately this fact is hard to appreciate when huddled under an umbrella and shivering from the cold. The area is also known for it's teas, which is properly sampled and enjoyed in a traditional teahouse.

I'm not sure if this concept exists in the states, but if it doesn't someone needs to import it. Imagine an elegant restaurant or country club where you can spend the morning or afternoon/evening sitting back enjoying tea while munching on a never ending supply of food. Sounds heavenly right? Initially, Ofer and I were resistant on whether to stay. The listed price was about ten dollars and it appeared that it would double if we stayed for longer than an hour, which seemed pricey to us. How foolish we were. After some confusion, we determined the price was actually $10 and the food, atmosphere and company was so pleasant, we stayed there almost four hours. The teahouse's buffet was filled with at least twenty dishes, mostly delicious, and others (like chicken feet) not. In no time we had a table filled with small plates of everything. Our favorites were the fresh fruit. We happily spent the evening munching kumquats Asian pears, lychee while sipping our various teas out of cups that would not have looked out of place in a dollhouse. I think if they had a hot tub and massages, we would still be there. Alas they didn't, so we went to Shanghai the next day.

What's an Expo?

Did you know that the next world expo is taking place in about six month in Shanghai? Neither did I until I came here. The city/country is making such a big deal of the event, it's impossible not to be excited. They claim it will be attended by seventy million people. I still don't really understand what the Expo is. I have no idea which cities have hosted in previous year.s If you told me that the last expo occurred whichever year Edison unveiled the lightbulb, I would have had no reason not to believe you. As a result, much of the City is experiencing a face lift. Too bad for anyone planning to visit in the next six months, great for visitors after.

The city has a major chip on it's shoulder. It's competing with Beijing for political importance, fighting Hong Kong to be the financial hub of the East, and want to challenge the likes of New York and others for the title of World's Greatest City. All the outward focus seems to have created a soulless, commercial hub, albeit a populous one with some nice infrastructure. I'm not exactly sure what I mean when I say the city has no soul, but it doesn' t have the synergy of some of the other places I visited. It maybe a result of the population running after money, but I think you can say the same thing about Hong Kong and that city's just great. Whatever the reason is, foreigners really enjoy it and you can see the Western influence here like no other city in China (HK doesn't count). I get the appeal. Shanghia is definitely Chinese, there's the people, the food, etc, but it's not in your face China. It's clean, there are Western places, great shopping. I can picture a Western tourist coming here and no where else and regaling their friends back home about how different the East is. All the while never having to learn a lick of the language or straying too far from their four style hotel and lifestyle.

For it's size Shanghia doesn't have the types of sights one might expect. It is home to one of the coolest museums that I've been to- the urban planning museum, and some pretty interesting Jewish history. That being said, I had a great time in Shanghai, again it was because of meeting Ofer and I. We had a 'meeting' at least once a day for almost a week. We crashed a surprise birthday party, had our first KTY/Kareoke experience, and practiced our minimal Arabic with a shockingly fluent Chinese gal. It was all great. Who knew we were so popular? We were also entertained by the strange people we kept meeting in the hostels. Hostels have some bizarre people, and for sure these are some of the most interesting sights to see when traveling. We shared a room with a Frenchman who would spend his days drinking baijo (think rice vodka) and playing arcade games and in the evening at clubs cavorting with Chinese ladies. A recent college grad who was trying to establish himself as a club promoter from the hostel. A Chinese guy named Lyon who spoke excellent English but with a bizarre British-Australian accent (for the record his teachers were either Chinese or American) who was writing a book about his personal wacky philosophy/spiritualism, which I believe centered around him being a prophet. Ofer and I had numerous discussion trying to psycho-analyze the local patients.