Signage in China...

Beautiful WuXi ~

WuXi is a famous city with a long history in sourthern China. The sparkling pearl of the Taihu Lake is a famous spot in WuXi, situated in the southern part of JiangSu Province, ( in the middle of Shanghai-Nanjing Railway). It's about 2 hours drive from Shanghai with SuZhou in between. The landscape of the city embodies the beauty of the Yangtze River, the Taihu Lake, Turtle-Head Penisula Park, LingShan Grand Buddha Statue.. fountains, gardens and its characteristic of the unique features of the water village in soutnern China. It is one of the China's ten major tourist cities and been listed as one of the "China's Excellent tourist Cities" :) It's worth to pay a visit...

Not much photo was taken... because of my CAMERA !!! Guess I need to get a new one before my next trip! :p

Hostel

Singapore food in Shanghai

'Sun Kueh', a Singapore chinese side dish. Found this at "Frankie's Place", a Singaporean Restaurant here in Shanghai. They cook very nice "cha kueh tiaw" too. A lot of variety compare to other Singaporean restaurant in town - Best Singaporean Restaurant I have ever had in Shanghai.

FRANKIE'S PLACE
Address: No.546 Huang Hua Road (off Hong Jing Road) 201103
Tel: 021-54761068
Rating: *****

You know you've been in China for too long when...

Some interesting articles submitted by expats in ShanghaiExpat.com.......

You know you've been in China for too long when:

• You blow your nose or spit on the restaurant floor (of course after making a loud hocking noise)


• You look over people's shoulder to see what they are reading


• You throw your trash out the window of your house, your car or bus you are on


• You would rather SMS someone than actually meet to talk 'face to face'
• You wear nylons when it is 30 degrees outside


• You honk your horn at people because they are in your way as you drive down the sidewalk


• You regularly fumble for five minutes to find 10 cen despite 10 people waiting in line behind you


• You have a pinky fingernail an inch long


• You ride around on your bicycle ringing a bell for some unknown f***ing reason


• When shopping at Carrefour some laowai stares you down for catching you looking into his basket while you wonder to yourself what laowai's eat.


• You haven't cut you finger nails in 8 weeks.


• In a meeting you say everything will be 'wonderful' and give no details.


• You forget that the other person needs to finish speaking before you can start


• You burp in any situation and don't care.


• You see one foreign person eating Pineapple (or whatever) and say "Yes, all foreign people like Pineapple


• You start to watch CCTV9 and feel warm and comforted by the governments great work.


• You think Pizza Hut is high-class and worth queueing for.


• You go shopping to buy gifts for a future business partner, just to 'smooth things along'


• When you sit in the restaurant with your finger up your nose to your elbow and stare at the laowai. Then you pull it out, inspect it, roll it into a ball and casually flick it onto the wall or the closest person's plate


• In the rain, you spot a vacant taxi which is 10 minutes away and you have already planned how you are going to jump out with great enthusiasm in the road, elbow everyone else trying to claim it, and wave your hands everywhere in a 'look at me I'm a goal keeper' kind of fashion
  

• The footprints on the toilet seat are your own.


• You no longer wait in line, but go immediately to the head of the queue.


• You stop at the top or bottom of an escalator to plan your day.


• It becomes exciting to see if you can get on the lift before anyone can get off.
  


• It is no longer surprising that the only decision made at a meeting is the time and venue for the next meeting.


• You rank the decision making abilities of your staff by how long it takes them to reply "Up To You".


• You no longer wonder how someone who earns US$ 400.00 per month can drive a Mercedes.


• You accept the fact that you have to queue to get a number for the next queue.


• You accept without question the mechanic's analysis that the car is "Broken" and that it will cost you a lot of money to get it "Fixed".


• You find that it saves time to stand and retrieve your hand luggage while the plane is on final approach.


• You can shake your hands almost perfectly dry before wiping them on your trousers, or you have your suits made with terrycloth pockets.


• A T-Bone steak with rice sounds just fine.


• You believe everything you read in the local newspaper.


• You regard traffic signals, stop signs, and copy watch peddlers with equal disdain.


• You have developed an uncontrollable urge to follow people carrying small flags.


• When listening to the pilot prove he cannot speak English, you no longer wonder if he can understand the air traffic controller.


• You regard it as part of the adventure when the waiter correctly repeats your order and the cook makes something completely different.


• You have more knick-knacks than your grandmother.


• You are not surprised when three men with a ladder show up to change a light bulb.


• You understand all the above listed references.

Hygine habits of the Mainland Chinese

Had my lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant yesterday above XuJiaHui subway. The food sucks! The curry that I've order are not fresh at all and 'taste' overnight! We ordered some Vietnamese grill chicken wings but ends up fried chicken wings. After I went home, I fall sick. I consider how bad it was based on how many washroom trips I make, and a slight fever as well. My friend had the same problem as me, kind of food poisoning. I will NEVER ... and EVER... dine in that restaurant again!

Shanghai is dirty. I can't imagine how dirty the restaurants kitchen are in this entire city. Since the mainland Chinese here love to split, especially when they are sick or have lots of phlegm. In addition, for some reason they don't seem to think that having a cold counts as being sick. Therefore they take no precautions to protect others when they have a cold. People tend to sneeze... and sneeze, and sneeze... inside subways! These scenario have all been very annoying and certainly raised my frustration levels at times.... People eat from the same plate as others with their diseased chopsticks, shack hands, etc....All of this happens with no increase in their hygiene habits, such as hand washing. SO, you will never know what happen in the KITCHEN !

Desert to cool down in summer... ?

Home cooked Ban Mian

RED Banana

red banana

I bought this banana at Gubei Carefour. This was my first time I saw red bananas! But it taste just like a normal kind :) Nothing special... just different color.

Tokyo the Metropolitant

I was totally exhausted by the time i reached tokyo, it's already 9pm... It has been really tiring and i took absolutely AGES to find my hostel. its a bit rush because i had to check in before 10pm... again, the mrt route in tokyo make me headache !! its freezing at night, all in all a very looooooong day! i had a good night sleep~

This was the first time i got my own room, a very tiny private room... 2m x 2m... haha, i could not hardly believe it. everything is small in japan. but i love it here so far...everyone is so polite and friendly, streets are very clean, convenient stores are surprisingly fun and food is decent. people take time out to have lunch together.... everything is so kawaii (cute), vending machines everywhere, its new and exciting !!

i went shopping the next day--let me tell you, the shopping here is unreal. it's unending... neighbourhood by neighbourhood. you could literally spend several days shopping in SHIBUYA alone..... and GINZA, SHINJUKU as well......it's OVERWHELMING. oh my god~~ and the electric city IN AKIHABARA, i spend almost half a day to look at the cameras and mobile phones ... it's very cheap if you buy in duty free shop.

Foods are cheap compare to osaka and kyoto. i found 180 yen ramen !?!!? udons at 280 yen... mrt fares are cheaper too...

i shop like crazy on my last day in tokyo, and i got only half a day to do my shopping. but unluckily, shopping centers in tokyo are only open at 10am and close at 8.30pm......my flight back to shanghai is at 4.55pm (6 May)...... it takes more than an hour to reach Narita Airport from my hostel...

Kyoto The Ancient City

Kyoto is beautiful...., without doubt, the most romantic city in japan. a roughly 30 mins from osaka. because of its rich cultural heritage, kyoto was not targeted in the air raids of world war II, and as a result, it is still home to numerous priceless structures, temples and shrines. at the same time, kyoto is a bustling modern city.

i had my ramen at a small shop when i reach kyoto. its the most delicious ramen i've ever had. the soup is warm and the noodles r hot !! food and mrt are very expensive in kyoto. the most cheapest meal i had is 500 jpn yen for just a bowl of tempura udon ~

the most unexpected thing is, there's a lot of staircase !! haha, although i think the stairs are what attributed to me losing basically 1 pound per day during my 3 days visit in kyoto. i'd visited some temples which took 2 hours to climb to the top of the mountain... i'm glad i trained a bit back in shanghai cause i have been walking a lot of miles (or kilometers) since i got here.......

the backpackers hostel that i am staying in kyoto is very very clean. i met a few australians and british here. in the evening of 3rd May, l leave kyoto to tokyo. it tooks around 2 hours by shinkansen (bullet train)..... it's really FAST !!! normal train tooks 10++ hours to reach tokyo... can you imagine that !??!?!?!

Osaka - a city of stunning diversity and culture

I touched down at Kansai International Air terminal on friday noon, (29 april).... the word Kansai International Air Terminal is very very familiar to me. i did research on it for a project in school and it's designed by a very famous architect-Renzo Piano. and now.... i can't believe that i was stepping on this man-made island !!

well, japan... another very different place. I guess my experience really started at the airport...going thru customs, had my backpack searched.... but it was all good, they were friendly and i guess they were just doing their job.

i took airport limousine to osaka city center. osaka is a water metroplis. not only because of its proximity to the sea, but also because of the numerous rivers and canals that crisscross it. it was over the water that most commerce flowed to, through and from osaka. on the way to the city, i saw lots of sailing yatchs, industrial area, beaches....and flamingo ~~

my next big encounter was the mrt. what can i say.... its messy!! they have lots of routes, you got to spend some time to really look at the map. if you intend to travel to japan, make sure you get a 7 day or 14 day rail pass. travel without it is grosly overpriced. and much more if you want to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) anywhere else.

a few other strange things about japan. its not a very friendly place to visit if you are looking for friendly, hospitible locals. not many people speaks english here, and they always round of some japanese that i have no hope of understand. a japanese phrasebook would come in real handy. japanese are very kind and will try to help u as much as they can if u ask them. however, you will always seem to get strange looks from the locals, i guess i m 'gaijin' (foreigner)..... :)

so far everything has gone extremely well. the weather have been magnificent...sunny and warm during the day with a bit cooler evenings.

Shanghai Motor Show 2005

Lamborghini concept car Exhibition booth with water feature Mini Cooper

The exhibition was held in the neighbourhood of Pudong in Shanghai every 2 years. I heard this year's show demonstrated a huge effort to be an influential and a large scale international show. Not only have local auto makers stepped up the quality of their exhibition booths and presentation (with some English catalogues) but all international brands were flexing their muscle. More than 1,000 exhibitors from around 26 countries and exhibiting area of 120,000sqm made the auto show the largets one ever.