One week back

So I realize that while I was in China I had way more time to blog then I do when I'm back here.  I guess with the softball season starting, volleyball at nights, and the random dinners and get togethers I attend it's difficult to keep this up to date.

Anyways I thought I'd take this chance to add a few more photos and even videos of some of the things we saw and did while we were in China.

One question I've always been asked is about the toilets.  China mainly uses squat toilets.  They actually prefer to use them over "regular" toilets.  Their theory is that nothing touches anything so it's more hygienic.  The problem is that most squat toilets I saw were a nightmare.  Here's a picture of one that's actually really clean.  I guess pre-demolition, don't worry I don't have any pics of it post war. lol.



I actually had to use it once.  What a horrible experience.  First of all, the bathroom I was in was very dark, it was hot as there was no ventilation, dudes were smoking in there like chimney's, and you need to bring in your own TP.  Let me tell you, my legs were burning like crazy and I was sweating.  Sorry not exactly the prettiest of pictures.  And to top it off the sinks were full of cigarette butts and the water didn't work.  Crazy...

Then you have the total opposite.  One day we went to the World Financial Tower and since this building was completed a few years ago it has a lot of modern features.  One for example was this toilet that sprayed water out to clean your butt and then had a dryer function as well.  You just have to try it because it's so interesting.

Okay enough of this poopy talk.

Here's a video of us at a Teppenyaki joint.  The flames generated some serious heat.

Here was us eating a dumpling place.  I posted photo's on an earlier post of the place we ate at.  You can see the kitchen in the back and might be able to see the large pile of ground meat to the left where the ladies make the dumplings.  I thought if anywhere I was going to get sick from the food it was this place, but I was all good.  They dumplings were fantastic.  Not exactly a tourist place.

Here's another not so touristy place we ate. Yep, the restaurant beside those pile of jeans.

It was a noodle place and we just ordered by pointing at this menu. I think I ordered on of the ones near the bottom right.  The numbers you see on it are the prices in RMB.

Once you placed your order this young guy would come out and start making your noodles from scratch.  He had this big piece of dough that he would nead with his hands and eventually he would make them into noodles in which he would throw them into a pot of boiling water on the sidewalk.  Really neat to watch.



Another really neat thing to watch was this lady who made us our breakfast.  They were like breakfast wraps but obviously Chinese style.  They were really good and cost about 3RMB (50cents maybe?)



One of the days we went to the "fake" market.  It was actually a 5 storey shopping mall but it was all little stores that sold pearls, silks, bags, watches, and whatever else you could think of.  I don't recall buying anything from here but it was pretty neat to see.  Here was one of the random things we came across.  An escalator to no where... only in china.

I'll hopefully add some more photo's this week, but it's late and I've got to be up early in the morning.

Time to come home

Today is our last day here in Shanghai, last day in China in fact. I think Percy and I are both ready to go home. There's a lot of things I'm going to miss here. The cheapness of everything, the food, taxi's, goods, etc. I'm going to miss the nice weather that we've had the past few weeks, and the fact that we haven't had to think about work for 3 weeks. We actually were talking about it today and I think we've both forgotten the passwords to our computers. Helpdesk we'll be calling you on Monday! I think most of all what I'll miss is seeing my friend Julian, his wife Kristi, and their son Daley. They been so good to us and welcoming us into their home. I spend fours years of university with Julian and we've had some crazy moments together. Just spending the past week with him brought back a lot of those memories. And now having an opportunity to see his boy grow up and play, it's pretty amazing.

We're also going to miss hanging out with Percy's nephew and his room mates. All great people who are genuinely super nice and welcoming. Having spent a week with Percy's nephew in the older part of Shanghai and then staying with Julian for another week in the newer side of Shanghai was a great idea and gave us an opportunity to see some of the similarities and differences within Shanghai.  I think tonight is suit up night, have fun fellas!!

What we're not going to miss… some of the smells (stinky tofu!), the constant clearing of throats and spitting, the public washrooms (except at the world financial tower), the driving, the constant stares where ever I go, and the inability to communicate in English. I'm sure there are a few more but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

Sine we've been here at Julian's we've had an opportunity to enjoy some more western foods and visit the market and even his school.

We picked up our suits yesterday and the day before. One of the suits fit perfectly and the other ran a little small in some places. They tried to fix it, but I'm just going to chalk it up to incentive to lose some weight. One of my jackets looks amazing. But I won't ruin the surprise, you'll have to see it when I'm out and about. Or come over for a private viewing. Lol.

Playing with Daley has been a lot of fun. I sometimes have a hard time believing the Julian's a father. Good thing he has Kristi around to help him out. Actually Kristi probably has to take care of Julian and Daley… just kidding. They're amazing parents. Here's proof of Julian's handwork.

I'm sure there will be more for me to write as it's a long long ride home. When I get home I'll upload more photo's as the internet connection back home is so much faster.

We're at the airport now just chilling in the lounge.... have I mentioned the toilets here before??  That'll be my next post... lol.

Qin Warriors

We're back in Shanghai now after flying to Beijing and Xian.  While in Xian I probably saw the most interesting thing (to me at least) that I think I'll ever see in my life.  The Terracotta warriors of the Qin dynasty.

These Terracotta warriors have also interested me ever since I heard about them.  I have a few replica figures at home that were given to me as a gift. Even they were really neat. But to honest nothing compares to the real thing.

I don't even know how to explain seeing this airplane sized hanger with these trenches dug in the ground with hundreds of these Terracotta warriors.  They believe in the first pit to be approx. 4000 warriors however I think only 1200 have been uncovered and pieced back together.  In total there are 3 pits that have been discovered with approx 6000 warriors believed to be in these pits.  Each warriors id different from the next.  There are different ranks and details that distinguish each of them from one another.

I'd have to think that if you ever visit China, besides the great wall, you need to visit Xian and the Qin warriors.

Photo's

Here are a few photo's from Beijing.

Percy and I in Tiananman Square

Inside the forbidden city

Olympic Stadium

Vicky our tour guide

I'll post more photos later when I get a chance.

Beijing

We finally made it to Beijing yesterday.  We booked through a tour company which booked our hotel, driver and tour guide for 3 days.  It was a little bit of an adventure when we arrived at Beijing airport.  After the numerous flights that I've done over the years (Percy even more) we rarely ever get a chance to see our names on a board or something like that when we get off a plane.  I think I've had it done once or twice, and I think it was in India.  Anyways we were told that our tour guide would be waiting for us with a sign as we left the luggage hall.  Nope… no names or tour guide.  It's a good thing we had our cell phone still and the tour guides cell phone as we were able to figure it out that she was at the wrong terminal.

Given time constraints we went straight to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Tiananmen square is famous for it's protests in 1989 where some student protestors were killed by the Chinese Army.  The square is the largest open air city square in the world.  The square is basically a lead in to the forbidden City.

The forbidden city was busy as it was a Sunday.  Lots of Chinese tourists.  They seem to be every where.  The forbidden city was the residence of the emperor of China. Lot's of colourful buildings and gates are within the walls of the city.  Little things, such as the number of animals on the roof, indicate the importance or greatness of that building.  As did size.  More important buildings were much larger then the less important ones. From north to south it's about 1km in length and from east to west I think it's around 800m.  It was great to see one of China's most famous tourist sights.

Last night we also decided to walk around to see what Beijing was up to.  Our hotel was close to a famous walking street call Wangzhiou or something like that.  I can't really remember. Again, my friends mentioned to me that I should try the Peking Duck while I'm here.  So we found this restaurant that looked like it would be foreigner friendly.  Sure they were nice enough, but they spoke almost no English at all.  It was hard enough to explain to them that we want two bowls of rice.  I think my Chinese sucks so bad as I thought I was ordering rice the guy looked at me like I'm crazy.  Even a coke was tough to order.  Thank goodness the menu had photo's and English translations, but the translations were literally what the Chinese name converted to English.  So something like heavenly beef to make you sizzle, lol, or something like that.  A description for beer was like yellow hair flowing in the wind.  Okay so I'm making these up but the menu was really something like that.  All the food that came out was really good.  The Peking duck came last which sucked as we were almost full.  But one of the cooks came out with it on a cart and started to slice it up in front of us.  We had the flour wraps, onion, cucumber, and sweet sauce to go with it.  All really tasty and even Percy enjoyed it.  I Percy that they normally do something with the leftover meat on the bones but I wasn’t sure what they'd do here.  Sometimes in Toronto we get it stir fried with some other stuff and we eat the filling with lettuce wraps (Or I am thinking of something totally different??).  Anyways we didn't think anything else was going to come so just before we asked for the bill a soup came out with the rest of the duck meat.  It actually looked decent.  It might have even been congee like as I thought I saw some rice, cabbage and duck floating around in there.  We told the waiter that we were full and didn't want it, I think he understood.  We even think a few of the waiters were eyeing it so they could eat it.

After dinner we walked along the walking street and saw some interesting food "stalls".  They were serving up squid, meat, or fruit on skewers.  They also had dumplings, stews, soups, and maybe even stinky tofu.  Percy looked a little ill from it so we didn't hang out too long.  I actually wasn't feeling too well myself but it might have been from dinner.  As I write this in the morning my stomach feels a little better but I'm skipping breakfast today as I don't want to get sick while at the Great Wall.

When I get a chance I'll throw up some photos, but we'll see as this internet connection is a little sketchy at best.

Suit Up!!

Since planning this trip to China a few friends had mentioned that I should look into getting a suit made here in China as it's super cheap.  When we got here Percy's nephew and his roommates said they wanted one too.  So yesterday we decided to go to the Shanghai Fabric mall and get suits made.  I think there was 6 of us in total that got one.  A suit costs about 800RMB and a shirt 100RMB.  So around $130 you get a suit and shirt... it's crazy.  I think they're supposed to be done in a week.  We have to go back for a fitting then.  Everyone was pretty excited about the suits and we've decided to do a suit night when we get them.   I'll let you know how that night turns out.  My buddy Julian also has a guy that he uses for suits.  We're thinking of getting another one done by them to see if there's any difference.  Plus the price is so good, who wouldn't want two?

The last 2 days have been just walk around and enjoy the city.  I think we've done a lot of the major tourist stuff.  We went back the Bund during the day and there were a lot of tourists out and about.

We also got a chance to go sit in on one of Alex's english classes.  I think the kids were between 4 and 7.  They were so cute and hilarious.  They all seemed so excited to be there.

After we spent some time in the class we decided to go to the Shanghai Circus.  It was really amazing.  Unfortunately they wouldn't allow and pictures to be taken inside.  The acts were a combination of chinese dance and acrobatics and throw in some crazy flexibility and you get quite a show.  Here are a few photos from off the web.

One thing we were missing since we've arrived here was an authentic Chinese dinner.  So last night we went to a restaurant with Alex and his roommates and had a great dinner.  The food came out hot and delicious.



From L-R: Alex, Ben, Selena, Ellen, Dave

 For the 7 of us the meal came to 300RMB, which is approx $50cdn.  It's amazing how cheap and good the food is here.

The night before we decided to hit a Brazilian BBQ joint.  These places are fantastic.  I've been to ones in Portugal, Chicago, Niagara Falls and the one in Toronto a few times.  This one seemed to cater to more foreigners but it was still great eats none the less.

Today looks like a rainy day and I'm not sure what we're up to today.  I'm still looking to get out to Beijing really soon.  Hopefully in the next day or so.

Shanghai

Shanghai is a pretty amazing city. I think it's separated by a river. One side is relatively young, in that most of the buildings and development has occurred in the last 25 years. On the other side of the river is the older part and where you'd find some more historic sights.

Percy's nephew Alex lives in the Hongkov (sp?) district which is great as it's within walking distance to the metro and surrounded by local food stalls and small businesses. It takes some time getting used to crossing the street and seeing how people drive but to be honest it's not too bad.

We've had this crepe thingy a few times for breakfast. The lady makes it right on her hot plate.

She spreads batter over that hotplate and then cracks an egg over the middle and spreads it all over. She threw some unknown stuff into the middle of it (you can see them in the bowls to her right) and then fold it over and puts these fried tofu or something in it. It's actually really tasty. It costs about 3 or 4 RMB for it. So like 50 cents back home.

One day we visited the World Financial Tower. This building is approx 475m tall. I believe it has the one of the worlds highest observation deck. this building looks like a giant can opener. I don't think I got a photo of it from the outside but inside was pretty neat.  Actually it's in the pictures I took from the bund.

We've been to a bunch of places, like YuYuan Garden, Hongzhou, and a few temples.

We've also seen some funny things. Check out this photo of a guy on his scooter with his child sitting on a propane tank. Pretty crazy by our standards.

One thing I wanted to eat here was Xio Long Bao. One of Alex's roommates recommend a place. It's not a tourist place by any means and it wasn't exactly the cleanest place in the world. However the bao's were fantastic as were the dumplings/wontons in this soup. I think between the 3 of us we ordered 40 Xio Long Bao's and 2 soups. It came to like 50RMB, so like $7CDN.

Another night we also went out for Japanese Teppenyaki and we got to meet a bunch of Alex's friends. They were all here teaching English in different schools. A few British lads and a couple of American guys. All seemed like super nice guys. Turned out the restaurant was all you eat and all you can drink for 170RMB.

Last night I got a chance to finally meet up with Julian and his wife and son, Daley.

I'll get a chance to spend more time with them as we'll be staying with them when we get back from Beijing. We haven't pegged it down yet when we're leaving for Beijing but it should be soon.

China

So as most of my friends know I decided to take a trip to China.  More specifically Shanghai.  My friend, Julian is here with his wife and 1.5 yr old son Daley teaching at the Shanghai American School.  I'm not exactly sure when he started here but I'm going to guess over 3 years now.  Since I missed him so much I thought I'd come out to visit him.

It also turned out the my co-worker from work has his nephew here teaching English.  I think he's been here just over 2 years.  Since Percy (my co-worker) and I spend a lot time together at work (we sit beside one another) and have done some road trips together we thought this would be a fun trip to take together.  Since this was a vacation and not a work trip we decided to spoil ourselves and fly business class, it also helps that we have a bunch of Aeroplan miles. 

We decided to leave April 15th and we arrived here April 16th.  Yep, I'm writing this today from Shanghai China.  It took me a while to figure out that China censors what users can see on the internet.  So no youtube, facebook, or blogs.  Apparently you need a program to work around these social media sights.  Yep, you guessed it, I just figured out the work around (well, the guys we're staying with just showed me).  I'm trying this e-mail to blog program so even if I can't access my blog site I should be able to e-mail my updates, I've never tried it but we'll see how it goes.

I know I'm notoriously bad for updating my blog but I think at nights I'll have a bit more free time to update my blogs.

The flight over here wasn't so bad.  When you're in business class it's a whole different level of service and comfort, but don't get me wrong, you're still on a plane for 14 hours with limited space and tight bathrooms.  I think between the 4 or 5 cat naps, the 3-4 meals I ate, and watching 2 movies (Good faith and The Fighter) the time passed pretty well for me.  I was actually thinking that'd I'd get some work done on a proposal for work, but lets get serious… I'm on HOLIDAYS!!.

Percy's nephew (also named Alex) was great and met us right at the airport. We had to jump on this high speed train to get into town.  The highspeed train, known as the Maglev, hit speeds of 438km/hr but it was so smooth.  Really neat train.  Apparently they want to build one from here to Beijing and one to Hong Kong. 

Inside the Maglev.

Alex (Percy's nephew) lives in an apartment complex with 2 other room mates (1 Canadian and 1 South African/Zambian guy) and they're both really nice guys who also teach English but at a different school then Alex.
After putting our bags down and settling in we decided to go out and get a prepaid cell phone as it'll help us on our travels and keep us in contact with Alex, my friend Julian, and anyone else that we need to get a hold of.  We also got a Metro pass which is basically a reloadable transit card which makes life so much easier when moving through the subways.  Plus, subway rides cost us about 4 RMB (or know as YUAN as well) which is less the $1 CDN (I think it's about 6.5RMB = $1.00CDN).
I forgot to mention that Alex speaks pretty good Mandarin, considering he's Italian and Bolivian.  Me, not so much.  There are certain words that sound familiar to me, but since my parents spoke mainly Taiwanese to me, that's pretty much what I understand.  Even though there's similarities in the language there's a lot of words that I don't know and don't recall.
Basically everything is pretty cheap here, the taxi's, the food, the fake goods (more on that later).  Apparently electronics isn't any cheaper here.  I guess if you're going to spend a lot on electronics you don't really want to buy it overseas.
Our first meal in Shanghai was at a place called Ajisen Ramen.  It was really good. I got a Curry Beef Noodle dish and Percy got some fried rice.  We also got a few dumplings to share around. I think in total for the 3 of us our bill was less the 200RMB, but I can't remember exactly.

Curry Beef Noodles

After dinner we walked through this pedestrian street near the People's Square (I think) which was really neat to see.  Lots of high end stores and lots of people asking us if we wanted fake watches, purses, or even "pretty women".  We declined these offers of course.

Percy and his nephew Alex

Walking through this area took us to the waterfront area called the Bund.  I think it was a redeveloped waterfront completed for the expo.  It was nice to walk along and look across the river where a lot of lit up buildings were.

The Bund

Well it looks like we're heading out now to go get some lunch.  I'll write more whenever I get a chance. Which I'm sure will be today as we're just taking it easy today.

Swab and Save!

So if you happen to have read my last post you know that my friend is still looking for a stem cell match.  Her friends and family are trying to spread the word and hopefully find her that match to save her life.  There's going to be a event on the 19 and 20th of Feb, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel at Hwy 7 and Leslie between 12-6pm in which members of Onematch.ca will be swabbing people for potential donors.  At the same time there will be a sample sale going on for you shopoholics!!

Feel free to pass the info around.  Thanks!!!

Help...

I probably have to admit that I'm not one to reach out and ask for help.  I know all my friends would help me in a second. But I think I feel like I'm burdening them and not giving them a chance to say no.  But on the other hand I'd help any of my friends that I could.  Actually I'd be upset with them if they didn't ask me to help them.  So really I can probably assume that when I don't ask them, they might get upset at me.

One thing that I'm asking people to help out with, or just consider is to go to onematch.ca and read up on being a stem cell donor. It's not for me, so don't be concerned about me.  Obviously some one close to me requires some help and this is one small part that I can do to help them.  If you decide to join all you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and they then send you a kit that contains a swab that you send back to them.  In the event you are a match they will contact you and you still have the option of refusing if you don't feel like going through with it.  The website has information about the process and should address any questions you may have.

Thanks, I really appreciate it and even if you decide it's not for you could you please pass it on to your friends as every one person that signs up, is one step closer to saving my friend's life.

Tar Sands

Again it's been a while since I've written.  I been doing so soul searching and trying to figure out the next steps in my life.  Speaking of the future I just finished watching the "Nature of Things" on CBC and it was a story on the Alberta Tar Sands. 

When outsiders think of Canada I'm sure a lot of things come to mind.  Hockey, Eskimo's, igloo's, beautiful and picturesque scenary that consists of lakes, forests, and snow covered mountains. What do I think of when I hear Canada?? I probably think of the same things, multiculturalism, poutine!, cottage country, NO right to bare arms, and maybe the country that I was born and raised in and that I'm proud to represent through work and when I'm overseas.  I didn't mention any of our sports teams, as to be honest we haven't been doing so hot lately... these Leafs are killing me.... just like the Blue Jays.  I still remember that game when Joe Carter hit that HR to win the World Series, I was in the Home Run deck with my buddy.  It was a great moment!!

Sorry, back to this documentary I watched.  It's amazing how powerful these oil companies are.  These companies (Suncor) can take a landscape like this:

 

To this:

 

I guess what amazes me is that the province of Alberta back these oil sand projects and companies like Suncor because it's a huge boost into the local economy, but it's not like this oil is even destined to be used in Canada.  Most of this oil is sent south of the border to the United States.  The largest consumer of oil in the world.

You may also hear about the Gulf oil spill:

and the large ecological consequences of the spill that are still being felt by all the coastal communities.  Deep sea drilling, even with the gulf disaster, as large as it was, is less likely to have an environmental impact then the digging and processing or the oil sands in Alberta.  To process the oil in oil sands it creates 3 times as much hydrocarbons then drilling for crude oil.  As well the stripping of the land is a guaranteed environmental impact that will be felt for generations.

You're all probably wondering why I'm even writing about this, but some of you may know that I actually have a B.Sc in Environmental Science. I guess it was the one course that was interesting in first year University and I kept going with it.  I'm by no means a "tree hugger" or an environmentalist, but I think it interests me because it shows how one or two multinational corporations have the financial and political backing of the government to basically strip Canada of it's identity and for most of us in Canada, it seems to be okay.

Don't get me wrong it happens in the USA and countries all over.  Another good documentary that I enjoyed watching was Food Inc.  It's based on the farmers that grow food for America and the influences that the huge corporations have over the government regulations which ultimately effect the small farmers who are struggling just to break even.

I'm not blaming anyone or anybody in particular but sometimes I have to think the reason these companies are so powerful and wealthy is because of us, the end consumer.  Is it because we demand food for a dollar, or want to drive big SUV's that guzzle tonnes of gas, I don't know.  But I also look at all the drugs coming into the USA and even Canada which I believe is the root of a lot crimes being committed today.  If there was no one consuming the drug, would it even be worth importing any more?

2011.. the new year...

Sorry for not posting in such a long time.  The holidays got really busy.  I don't even know where to start.  Hmmm, some friends just found out they're pregnant.  I'm really excited for them.  They'll make amazing parents and have cute kids.  I played with a bunch of kids over the holidays.  They make me laugh, but I have to admit, it's great when they're not your kids.  I can always give them back when start to cry.  Got a new phone (thanks Bro!) that has a better camera so hopefully I can start taking more pictures of the new restaurants I've tried.  Speaking of new places.  When to a Afghani place that sells Kabobs.  I can't remember the name of it, Bamiyan Kabobs maybe? oh yeah it is, here's the link: http://www.bamiyankabob.com/

The food was really good.  The place was packed on a Sat night.  I got the Kofta Kabob which is ground beef I think.  But they have Lamb, chicken, and a few other things.  The prices were relatively cheap as well.  I think we were the only asians in there... and one or two white guys.  Other then that all middle eastern folk.  Oh yeah, this was the one at 14th and Markham road.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more in the next few days... or weeks, we'll see.