I’ve been on the road since the beginning of July and while I’ve planned to keep up with this blog, the lack of structure in my life has resulted in even more procrastination than usual (yes, I realize that I’ve been on vacation since early April! And even though there was work involved, my time in Ambon was so delightful that it seemed like a holiday, so I guess I’ve been on holiday since the end of January). However, my travels end in two days and the lack of documentation of this trip feels absurd—so I’m blogging about my trip, one leg at a time, several weeks late. The memories are a bit hazy, but I suppose it’s better late than never (I’m so full of cliches these days)! So with that said, I suppose I should start with my trip to Shanghai.

(As an aside, before my trip to Shanghai, I did travel to Michigan to attend my cousin’s graduation and to Indiana to attend Rachelle’s super amazing wedding. During both those trips, I didn’t really do much sightseeing; they were personal trips and thus I’m not particularly inclined to expose all of the gory details! However, I will say that I had an amazing, amazing time during both trips and both definitely ranked amongst the top trips this year! I suppose travel is not always about yourself; sometimes you travel for friends and family. I found that those trips are sometimes more fulfilling than the ones you take for yourself, as sentimental as that sounds)

In actuality, I’ve been planning to take a trip to China since July of last year, back when Air Canada had sub-900 tickets to Beijing (round-trip, taxes included!), but timing never worked out (namely, essays and then when I graduated, work). Thus, when I had the opportunity to go, I jumped and landed in Shanghai. Beijing was always my city of choice, and I thought about going there for about two days. After all, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City are iconic. However, I ended up choosing Shanghai for several reasons: (1) my Queen’s roommate/housemate was teaching international school there and I would thus have a local to guide me (2) a friend from high school, Kathy, wanted to go and I would therefore have a travel companion (who could speak some Mandarin to boot!) (3) I figured Shanghai would be a good “introduction” to China, due to my inability to speak Mandarin and my fear of language barriers. I’m actually glad I chose Shanghai, as my trip really was enjoyable and balanced. I got to spend time with old friends living in China (Rebecca, Queenie and Hilary), sightsee (the Bund, the 2010 World Expo, the Shanghai Museum), and shop (an activity in which I exercised reasonable amounts of self-control). All in all, I had a really enjoyable time—not bad for my first trip to the motherland! (Well, my great-great-grandparents’ motherland I suppose. Being Indonesian-Chinese really can be a conundrum in terms of place, but that’s a topic for another time).

Returning to my favourite format of choice, some highlights of my trip to Shanghai and its surrounding towns:

• This goes without saying, but getting to spend time with Rebecca, Hilary, Queenie and Kathy was absolutely splendid. It was especially lovely seeing Rebecca, Hilary and Queenie as I hadn’t seen them for over a year! As I lived with Rebecca for four years, it was wonderful to hang out with her after two years of sporadic emails and gchats! Also, even though I only got to see Queenie for a night, I was so fortunate that she landed in Shanghai (on a two-day stopover on her way to Toronto from Tianjin, where she has been teaching for the year) only a day before I had to leave for Jakarta. But yes, food with friends is one of the joys of life—especially when the food consists of chocolate and carbs.
• China is known as a culinary mecca, and I had some great food in Shanghai. I didn’t have as much local cuisine as I would have liked, but it was all good, regardless. I especially enjoyed eating at Din Tai Fung with Hilary and was super pleased to find out that they had franchises in Jakarta as well!
• I had an amazing time in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a city approximately one and half hours away by train. There isn’t really much to do there, but it was definitely one of my favourite days of my whole trip—even with the rain! I explored the beautiful pagodas there, had a leisurely stroll by the beautiful lake, and had an incredible lunch there where I had a cup of Hangzhou’s famous Longjiang green tea, often considered one of the best—if not the best—green tea in China. High praise, indeed! It’s definitely worth a trip out there. Unfortunately, due to the rain, I didn’t get the best pictures, but wow, what a lovely, lovely place.
• I also had a really nice time in Zhujiajiao, just one of the water towns outside of Shanghai. It was only an hour away by bus, and I definitely have Kathy to thank for getting us there! While Zhujiajiao is quite touristy, it is a amazingly picturesque town. The architecture is breathtaking, and I absolutely understand why it became as touristy as it did. The gondola ride, which cost about 10 Canadian dollars, was worth every dime—especially since I got several really great shots.
• The World Expo was very, very overwhelming, but was definitely an experience. The sheer amount of people and the wait times were definitely aggravating, but some of the pavillions were jaw-dropping. I actually really enjoyed the Canadian pavillion—it really was lovely, and unsurprisingly so, considering that it was designed by Cirque. I found the France Pavillion to be overrated, but I suppose that could be due to the hour I waited in line for it. I thought the Indonesian pavillion was really impressive and enjoyed the Chile pavillion very much. I was also particularly excited about the pavillions, because the theme of the Shanghai World Expo is “Better City, Better Life” with a great deal of the exhibitions dealing with questions of transportation and urban planning. After working for Sustainable Tranportation, I felt like I could really engage the questions and thus could better appreciate the creativity and work that went into the pavillions.
• Similarly, Shanghai has an incredibly good transportation system. The subway is very accessible and has a great deal of reach. Furthermore, cycling has significant mode share. I was very, very impressed!

Of course, there were things I didn’t particularly enjoy about Shanghai. While I hate to dwell on the negatives, these experiences are part of my trip, so briefly, the things I didn’t really enjoy:

• The Shanghai Science and Tech Museum. We went on a Sunday, so the sheer amount of people made it very difficult to enjoy anything. I think I would have had a different experience if I had come on a weekday instead.
• The pushing and shoving on subways, in restaurants, everywhere was surprisingly draining. While I know that’s just the way it is, there were moments were my patience was tested—to say the least! It was exhausting to have to be aggressive all the time.

But other than that, Shanghai? A really great place to visit and a great start to my summer holidays.

I’m back in Toronto! I might do a retrospective blog entry, I might not. At the very least, I’ll post more photos.

Oh, and fyi, my travels start again in July! Back to Asia, but this time: a trip to China!