Last Day

Announcements: Heading back to the states tomorrow

My apologizes for not blogging yesterday. It was a long day at the expo and I was very tired. The World Expo was honestly a bit of a disappointment. If I had to give it a rating I would say a C+. The best part about it was just the fact of being at a World Expo. Also, the buildings that each country had designed and had built was very impressive. The architecture of some of the buildings was awesome. Besides those two things the Expo was not what I had expected it to be. There was not wait to get inside the actual Expo grounds, which I had feared might happen. But once inside all the buildings of the popular countries had very long wait times. I had anticipated a showcase of new technologies, but it was more of a showcase of culture. I'm not saying that a show case of culture is a bad thing, I find that very interesting, I wanted to see what kind of technology would be in store for our future. Also, the Chinese people like to use umbrellas to block out the sun. So while standing in lines I would often get poked in the face or eye. But enough of my ranting and raving. I'm sure you're more interested in hearing about what we actually saw at the expo.
The first building that we went through was New Zealand. While waiting in line there were native New Zealanders doing the Haka and other dances. Inside the building there wasn't much to look at. There were just screens with pictures on them. Next we went to the China pavilion. It is a huge buildings and inside they show case each of their provinces, and the unique culture from them. It was interesting to see the vast array of people's and culture that make up China. We spent a good amount of time in there taking pictures and walking around. After that we went to the Korea pavilion. We didn't go inside because the line was too long, and the wait was about two hours. I was a bit upset that it had such a long line, but we went up to the second floor of the pavilion and had Korean food for lunch. It was pretty cool sharing a bit of Korean culture with the guys. After lunch we went to the Japan pavilion. The wait for the line was posted at one hour and thirty minutes. We thought the wait would be worth it because the Japanese are known for their innovative technology, and always seem to be at the cutting edge. However, we ended up waiting in line for a little over two hours. They were giving out free fans which were nice, but I was nearly trampled by a group of middle aged Chinese women trying to race towards their free fan. After that we had to wait in line even more, while standing waiting there was a Chinese man that was grunting and coughing right behind us. While doing this he kept pushing forward and it seemed like he was.....well you get the picture with the grunts and the pushing. We all had a pretty good laugh though.
The Japanese pavilion was the most impressive, once we walked inside they had a replica of a filtration system that turns sewage water into drinking water. They also had a model of a "green" city and an electric car. Next, we went to a room where two people demonstrated the use of using your hands to move objects on a screen. It's a Microsoft thing, but I forget the name. Anyways, it was really neat and the T.Vs that they used to display it were picture clear. I believe they said they had five times the resolution of any T.V. that we can buy now. After the demonstration was over they had us go to another room where they did a No/Chinese Opera infused play. It was kind of weird, the theme was some little girl asked a boat man to help her find some bird that went extinct in Japan. Yea, sorry I can't really elaborate on this.
In total the whole Japanese experience took us about three hours. We were impressed and also disappointed with the wait time, so we called it a day and went back to the hotel.

Today: We woke up a little later today and tried breakfast at some street vendor. Actually it wasn't a street vendor, it was a restaurant, but the owner was just doing a quick grab and go breakfast. It was really cool watching her make our breakfast in front of us. It was like a breakfast burrito, but the outside was crunch. She put some dough on a hot surface, and spread it around very thing. Then she cracked an egg on top, put some veggies and other ingredients in there, folded it up, and gave it to us. All in all it took her about 20 seconds to do, and it was very tasty.
After breakfast we went back to the Expo. I know that I said it was lame the first day, but we decided to go and take a look at the American pavilion then the pavilions that were dedicated to various industries and corporations. The American pavilion did not look too impressive from the outside. When we got inside they showed us a movie of people from New York trying to say, "Hello, and Welcome to the World Expo", in Chinese. It was pretty comical for the Chinese people and I thought it was funny too. After that, we went to another room and they showed us another video. This one had a greater message that as individuals we can make good choices and work together to further the greater good. Us five guys started to laugh when President Obama came on the screen to deliver his message because all the cameras started flashing. The Chinese people were taking pictures of him. But it is nice to see, and hear as some people had said earlier, that they respect Obama. Also, they congratulated us on electing him.
I won't get too political for those Republicans out there. hahahaha After that video we went and saw another one. It was a video of a little girl's vision on turning an empty lot into a city garden. There were no words too the video, but it too had a message of people coming together to build something. I thought that these were good messages for people to hear. Once we were done with the videos we went out to an area where they showed pictures of ordinary Chinese people living in America. Apparently, they were encourage to submit there photo for this display.
After we were done with the American pavilion we went to the corporation and industry area. Just like its pavilion, Japan had a very long wait. This time we did not wait in line. Instead we went to the Outer Space industry building and the Korean industries buildings. Their displays inside were very disappointing. They did not show any high tech gadgets, but rather they just had interactive videos of what could be possible.
Disappointed, we decided it was time to leave. We had our last supper together and went to a shopping mall to buy David a shirt from a store called "I'm David". While in the mall we went to an Adidas store. Right when we stepped inside we heard one of the girls that was working say "Mei Guo Ren" (that means Americans). We had grown accustom to the people swarming around us trying to get us to buy stuff, but in Adidas all the store people scattered. I don't know if they were being rude, but we just thought it was hilarious and kept repeating "Mei Guo Ren" while walking through.
After the mall we went back to the hotel to pack up our stuff. I don't want to go home yet because I have gotten used to being in China. I'm not looking forward to that 11 hour plane ride from Tokyo to Minnesota. But this trip has been a great one. The group of guys were great, and it has been fun traveling with our teacher. I feel like I have a better understanding of the Chinese people and how they live their daily lives. Not too differently from you and I. I just hope in the future America and China can work together in harmony, with understanding of one another, to achieve great things.
Thanks everyone for following my blog! We leave for the airport at 7 am tomorrow morning so it is time I got a little bit of sleep. I'll post more pictures when I return because I can only attach two per email. Check out my facebook in a day or two because I will have videos and all my pictures on there.
Take care
Steve Hanson

David enjoying some dinner hahaha
Could someone please post on my facebook wall this announcement "STEVE IS IN CHINA UNTIL THE 1ST OF JUNE. HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO ANYONE ON FACEBOOK UNTIL HE GETS BACK TO THE U.S." I'd really appreciate it. People seem to have forgotten that I am in China because I have received many notifications of people trying to contact me via facebook.

1. Statue at the end of the Nanjing Massacre Museum. It is 30 meters high to represent the estimated 300,000 Chinese that were killed in a matter of weeks
2. View from the top of Dr. Sun Yet Sen's Mausoleum. If you look closely you can see a path that extends past the entrance gate to the stairs. That's where we started our walk

1. Dr. Sun Yet Sen Mausoleum
2. Ancient Chinese painting in the Shanghai Museum

Announcements: None haha

Today was supposed to be a laid back day. However, we still walked around pretty much all day from noon to 10 pm. We started the day by traveling to the People's Square and walking around the park. In the park there were a lot of people by the entrance. We thought that there was a big event going on. But we found out that it was parents doing matchmaking for their kids. There were ads and pictures all over the place. I found that really weird that parents still did that for their children. People's Square reminds me of Central Park in New York. It was nice to get away from the concrete jungle and for some time just get back to nature.
After People's Square we walked towards the Bund. It goes along the river and we got a better view of the Shanghai skyline. The weather today was a bit cloudy, but it was not raining and the temperature was nearly perfect with a slight breeze. Really made the walking today quite nice. After walking the Bund we went back to Nanjing road where I purchased a suitcase. The one that I brought to China had a slight tear on the top, but had been getting progressively worse the more we traveled. Eventually it ripped a third of the way down the sides and my clothes were visible. Nanjing Road was a sea of people today. It was tough to navigate down the road lugging around a big suitcase. After we made it through Nanjing Road we came back to the hotel to drop our stuff off and grab some dinner. Not knowing exactly everything on the menu I took a shot in the dark as to what I ordered. I've basically done this at every meal, but I have yet to be disappointed. The food in China is super good, and in actuality, many of the dishes are not too far from the American Chinese food that we eat. The basic premises of the dish is recognizable, but less fried. Surprisingly the food it China is kind of greasy, but I suppose that's what you get when you're trying to eat for only $3-4 a meal. haha
Once we were done with dinner we took the subway to the French District. I thought that the architecture of the buildings were nice and the roads were lined with a canopy of trees. However, the atmosphere was not my personal style. It was a classier area with high end days and restaurants. In the French District there were a lot more western tourists.
We didn't stay too long in the French District and decided to head back to the hotel to get some rest. We are going to the World Expo tomorrow fairly early. I know this isn't a terribly long blog, but like I said before it was kind of our day off before we spend long days at the Expo. I am absolutely excited to see what the world has to offer in the future. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and I'm sure I will have a lot more to write about tomorrow.
Stay Frosty
Steve

Welcome to the Jungle....the Concrete Jungle

Announcements: We have arrived safely in Shanghai

We were running a little bit late this morning in Nanjing and had to make our way through rush hour traffic in order to make it to our train in time. We took another bullet train down to Shanghai. The ride was comfortable and it took about two hours. We arrived here a little bit before noon and the weather was cloudy and it has been misting or slightly raining all day. Once in Shanghai we went straight to our hotel, dropped our stuff off and went out to explore the city. We made our way to the Shanghai museum and saw from beautiful Chinese jade and bronze sculptures. We didn't have much time in the museum because it closed about an hour after we got there. After that we went up a building that resembles a fountain pen. We could only go up about a third of the way, but it was still a great view. Minus the clouds and mist. We made our way back down and talked to Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road compares to Wangfuxing market because there are a lot of lights. The street is closed off to cars, and there are a lot of higher end stores. We walked through Nanjing road and went to the outskirts of the Bund and the old French District. However, because the weather wasn't too pleasant we decided it would be best to come back sometime again when we could see things a lot more clearly. Some of us did some shopping, while the others went back to the hotel. I find it really cool that we are able to use the Chinese that we have learned in class to navigate so easily around the city. The Chinese people are very friendly and are more than willing to help. Also, they are patient and do not get upset when we lose a word or two in translation. I find this very contradictive to the United States where people generally are unwilling to help a stranger, especially one that does not speak English all too well.
But enough of that, Shanghai is a really cool city and it contrasts very differently from all the other three cities that we have traveled to. I know that I had said that Nanjing reminded me of Seoul Korea, But Shanghai definitely takes the cake on that one. Shanghai differs from the other three cities in may ways.
First, Shanghai is more humid. It is closer to the ocean, further south, and it has a river running right through it. Second, Shanghai is a concrete jungle. There are a few trees here and there, but there are just sky scrappers and pavement everywhere. Third, the people in Shanghai seem to have more money. From what I have noticed people are a little more image conscious and dress up more. Fourth, the girls seem to be more attractive in Shanghai...hahahaha Fifth, there are a lot more caucasians. I have noticed that the Chinese people do not tend to stare at our group as we walk by. Must be that they are more used to seeing foreigners. Lastly, Shanghai is a very developed city. There aren't as many street vendors, the city is clean, I don't get the occasional wafts of sewage, the infrastructure is a bit more developed, and prices of things are a little more expensive.
So far out of all the cities that we have been too. Shanghai seems to be the best. I am not a fan of the concrete jungle, but I like the modern feel and more diversity of Shanghai.
Well there isn't a whole lot to write for tonight. Our morning was filled with travel and we took it pretty easy this afternoon. We probably won't hit up the World Expo until Sunday and Monday because we feel that the World Expo will be very busy with people tomorrow. Tomorrow is a free day where we will go back to the Bund and French District area, and explore the city some more.

Stay Frosty
Steve

Here are a few pictures for you. After my pictures I posted some stuff about our last two days events