Catching up: Tim's mini-Shanghai Trip

Here's the last post from my month in China this year. I happened to be in China during two significant events in Shanghai: The World Expo and my MBA Reunion!!

As you may remember, my MBA's annual alumni reunion is on Duanwu Jie with the Dragon Boat races. Last year the entire family came to cheer my team on that can be seen here.

The timing of this China trip was perfect for me to get down for the weekend and participate in the reunion. It was so fun to see my classmates and friends after seeing them in November for our graduation.

It couldn't have been better weather this weekend. After a day of competition, we took second place. Here are a couple of pics from the day:

Mmm... dinner for four bucks. Love Japanese food at Chinese prices!

After spending most of the day walking the Expo (pics below), I met up with a friend for an early dinner on the beautiful, renovated Bund. Here was our view as we ate outside on the balcony, with a gorgeous view of the skyscrapers on the Pudong side...

...and looking the other way to see the historic Bund. Is there a more beautiful city center to view while eating dinner?? I don't think so.

After dinner I went across the river to the Pudong side to walk around where we lived. Here's a shot across the river looking at the Bund:

The area between the Super Brand Mall and the Pearl Tower was improved with a pedestrian bridge / observation deck that travels the entire roundabout.

All of the trees along the streets were decked out in lights and flower pots lined the center of the streets. Just beautiful!

A view from our apartment complex facing north to view the world's second tallest building. I just don't get tired of taking it all in...

And finally, here's a picture of our old apartment building with Jin Mao and the World Finance Center in the background.

As I walked through the old neighborhood, the Madonna song, "This Used To Be My Playground" kept on going through my head. I not only could see, but I could hear the girls running down the sidewalk or playing in the park. The feelings were indescribable. We had such an incredible two years here... and I'm grateful that I had the chance to see Shanghai in all of its beauty as it showcases itself to the world as host of the World Expo.

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The other day I had in Shanghai I spent checking out the World Expo site. The World Expo in Shanghai is like Epcot Center on crack with large pavilions from every country in the world. The site is dominated by the landmark China Pavilion:

Some of my fellow 400,000 visitors that day.

Amazing building after amazing building...

Not sure how some countries were put together. Most were geographically located, but matching North Korea, Iran and Lebanon together? There goes the neighborhood...

The US Pavilion, sponsored by Disney's huge TV screen...

One of the fun things about Expo is getting to eat food from each country. But when the US offers hamburgers, pizza, BBQ sandwiches and hot dogs, visitors immediately know why Americans are carrying a couple of extra pounds on them.

Next to the China Pavilion, the US Pavilion is the second most popular of all the pavilions. But with a sign like this one below (the wait is over three hours), I didn't bother to wait to see what was inside.

Ok, one last picture... who doesn't love a seeing an overloaded cart in traffic? It's so China!

Adayla's first homework

This was part of Adayla's first homework assignment: for social studies she needed to show how she's growing up by either drawing or providing a picture of her as a baby, as a kindergartner, and as a grown up.

Adayla told me, "Mom, I'm going to look like Aunt Josie when I grow up." So we got a picture of Aunt Josie, and she became part of Adayla's homework! Hopefully Adayla gets an A+ :-)

Catching up: Tim's cooking in Beijing

See this amazing dish of Kung Pao Chicken (Gongbao Jiding)...

Do you know who cooked it?? Me!!The three of us for our weekly "cultural immersion" experience went to a restaurant and learned how to cook for of our favorite dishes: Kung Pao chicken, braised eggplant in garlic sauce, stir-fried green beans, and "squirrel fish."

First our chef gave us an expert demonstration of how to prepare each dish -- here the eggplant is frying...

Then it was our turn to do it. While not as pretty as the chef's dishes......it was still just as tasty!

Then on to the fish...

Look at this beautiful thing...

Fry it up...

Sauce it up... so good.

The secret to making Chinese food? Having this spice rack. Everything we made was a a couple pinches this and a pinch of that, or a pinch of this and a couple pinches of that. So easy if you have the right stuff...

After our four dishes, we were certified chefs. If you get me a spice rack like the one above, I'll cook some for you, too!

Catching up: The Great Wall

I've been to the Great Wall a couple of times, but this was unique and special. This day the Wall became "mine." Barry, Lea and I took got a taxi driver to take us to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall, then he departed to pick us up at the Simatai section of the Wall three hours later to take us back. This walk/hike took us through some restored sections and lots of untouched/crumbling sections. It was truly beautiful... loved seeing both the original and the refinished.

So here are some of the hundreds of pictures we took. Highly recommended to take this route rather than just "visiting" the Wall.

We didn't see any other tourists on the day we went. Very peaceful. But do you see the person in black behind me?

There are some locals who come on the wall to sell drinks/snacks. We were prepared and didn't need any of the offerings, but I had to buy something from this vendor. His half-frozen water (very nice) was $1.50/bottle. My instinct is to barter lower, but how could I with this person?

So instead, I offered him $3.00 for the water and some pictures with him!

Almost there... just down this hill, cross the bridge, and up some more steps to the Simatai base station...

Pretty cool to see the wall coming to an "end" for the river:

After three hours of stairs at a fairly-moderate pace, there's nothing like an ice-cold Coca-Cola... perfect!

Departing view from the Simatai section of the Great Wall.

LOVED IT!