Grant and I had initially planned to go see the World Expo again today, but in an unexpected turn of events we ended up getting offered a ride to Hangzhou. So, in what I’ve learned is typical fashion for Grant and me when traveling (read: being spontaneous, which is a good thing), we decided to spend the day in Hangzhou rather than battle it out with other World Expo visitors.

We explored around West Lake a little before climbing a trail that went through this forested area a little aways from the Lake. The trail led us to the Baochu pagoda, which is this really awesome pagoda on top of this plateau-type thing. It’s definitely a hike to get up there, but the view of Hangzhou as well as the pagoda is totally worth it. (Thank God for that, because Grant and I were not a pretty sight by the time we got to the pagoda, due to the extreme humidity. Read: we were disgusting.) We climbed some more tall rocks that were near the pagoda for an even higher and better view of the city, which I loved.

It was on the rocks that we made our first set of Chinese friends. They were fascinated by Grant in particular, and right off the bat they guessed that I was at least part Chinese. This fascinated me; back home, most people don’t guess that unless I point it out to them. Even though their English was just about as good as our Mandarin, we managed to communicate and had a good time enjoying the view and taking photos.

After our hike, we explored around West Lake some more before deciding to go find a teahouse. Hangzhou is most famous for Longjing tea, as it has the best climate in the world to grow that particular kind of tea. So, going to a teahouse in Hangzhou was an obvious choice. We decided to go to Leifeng tea house, which was supposed to be near the Leifeng pagoda. Well, we went to the pagoda and did the requisite pagoda-y stuff, but we couldn’t find the teahouse ANYWHERE. We walked all over, consulted every map we could find, used our broken Mandarin to ask for directions (with varying degrees of success; even if they understood our question, more often than not we did not understand the answer), and did everything we possibly could to find that damn teahouse. In the end, we declared defeat. I’m convinced the teahouse doesn’t even exist, because Grant’s map skills haven’t failed us yet.

There’s also a story from our Hangzhou adventure that involves dumplings, onions, soy sauce, and being Caucasian in a Chinese establishment that not many Caucasians go to, but I don’t even know where to begin with that one. I think Grant might write about it in his blog, so I’ll link to the entry if he does.

Also, photos soon, I promise. I just need to get my butt in gear and upload them to my computer from my camera.

Just a quick rundown of my experience at the World Expo today, because I am tired and it’s hard to string a coherent sentence together. Also, as this post doesn’t have pictures yet, I feel like a quick bulleted list is the best way to go about describing today, rather than long chunks of text.

• Most of the pavilions look very cool from the outside. Some of the more unique pavilions (from the outside) include the United Kingdom and China.
• Almost all pavilions have some sort of theme that revolves around topics such as sustainability and being environmentally friendly. This isn’t surprising, considering the World Expo theme is “Better City, Better Life.”
• Since the school year is about to start in China, anytime from September onwards is a far better time to go to the Expo than in the peak of summer. I was told to expect hours upon hours of waiting time, but the longest I waited in line was for one hour. That was when I was waiting to go into the Italy pavilion, and it was completely worth the wait. The line for the USA pavilion was very long too, but Grant and I just showed our USA passports and we were allowed to cut the line.
• Some of the more impressive pavilions, out of the many I saw today: Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Canada, and Mexico.
• Some of the lesser impressive pavilions, out of the many I saw today: Ukraine, Cuba (but in fairness to Cuba, there wasn’t really an exhibit, just a bar-type thing), and USA. (I will elaborate on my feelings about the USA pavilion in another entry.)
• The restaurant at the Peru pavilion is absolutely delicious. It’s a good place to have lunch or dinner, and it’s not that pricey (relatively speaking).
• All of the queues to get into the pavilions have coverings to shield visitors from the sun. They also have these mist sprayer things, where periodically mist is sprayed in the air to help cool people off in the hot weather. Personally, I’d rather have a bunch of fans blowing rather than mist getting sprayed in my face. The added moisture of the mist does nothing to help the already very heavy humidity!

To say that I was surprised to discover that there is a propaganda poster art center/museum in Shanghai would be an understatement. Honestly, I had never expected such a thing. But such a thing exists, and that’s where Grant and I ended up spending the afternoon. There were a lot of posters of the propaganda that was so heavily used in the Mao era, which I found absolutely fascinating. It was great to be able to put all the stuff I’ve learned about China and its massive transformation in recent years in a proper context. I’ve never quite realized how creative propaganda can be, or how it can sum up the mentality of a generation with several images and carefully chosen words.

Also, I learned how to play pool tonight. I’d never played before, and while I am definitely not a natural at it, I don’t think I was half-bad for a first timer, either. Grant and I played as a team, and we actually won both of our games. (I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that we won both games by default.)

I haven’t had time to put up pictures yet, as it’s taking all the energy I have after a long day exploring Shanghai to write a blog entry, let alone go through photos and choose which ones to post. Once I get settled in Beijing, I’ll be going through these Shanghai blog entries and adding photos. I’ll make a note of when I do so in case anyone’s interested in going back through my entries and checking out the pictures!