First Day around Shanghai(Shanghai Museum)

Highlights from the first meal in Shanghai

Famous Pan Fried Mantou, Sheng Jian Bao

Fish

Awesome Prawns! Qing Chao Xia Ren

My first day in Shanghai, we visited the Shanghai Museum on the way to my Grand Mother's house.

Shanghai Museum

Some Highlights from the Museum

Why is the little man getting stomped on?

Old school flask. People back in the day knew how to have a good time!

Skyline around People's Park

Interesting Architecture, on the left is The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition

On the way to the subway we saw this exhibit showcasing Shanghai in the 1930s. Back then we were the jewel of the orient.

Hopefully Shanghai continues to restore these Shikumen houses

Humongous Iphone? Found this by the elevator at my grams place.

Lunch prepared by my grams. She is an amazing cook!

Flight to Shanghai

The trip almost didn't get off the ground. Thanks to the wonderful new Flyaway service between Irvine Metrolink Station and LAX.

Here goes my first rant of this trip report...(don't worry, there will be a couple more)

My Air Canada flight between LAX and Vancouver was scheduled for 7:00am on 8/14/10. Since I had to be up by 4:00am, I decided not to goto sleep the night before(Highly recommended, slept like a log on the plane and landed in China feeling great with no sign of jetlag) The first Flyaway bus of the day was scheduled for 4:45am. If everything went according to plan, I would be in Terminal 2 at LAX ready to check in at 5:45am. 1hr15 min before an international departure, cutting it a little close but what the hey, I had already checked in and only had to drop off my bag. Well, 4:45 rolls around...no sign of the bus. I told myself and the other passengers waiting(they had a 7am flight to New York), I would wait until 4:55 before getting in my car and driving like a mad man to LAX. Well, 4:55 rolls around, still no sign, I start making my way to my car and low and behold, the sky blue FlyAway bus makes an appearance. Well, I get on the bus and the driver tells me that we can't leave until all the payments are processed. Finally, after swiping all our credit cards, we make our way to LAX at 5:05am. I arrived at Terminal 2 at 6:00am, got yelled at by the Air Canada Customer service rep because the cut off time for baggage was 1 hr before the flight. Thank god I had Star Gold status or this would not have ended well. Security took a while and I finally made it to the gate just as they were starting the boarding process. I do not remember much from the next 2 hrs because I was passed out but the flight was pretty smooth on one of Air Canada new Embraer 190s.

My Ride to YVR

IMO, YVR(Vancouver International Airport) is the best airport in North America, modern yet homey, plenty of shopping, nice employees. Although the Maple Leaf Lounges were pretty crappy. No food or booze until after 12pm!

Sights around YVR

My Ride to Shanghai a 767-300ER. Didn't know 767s had the range to make it that far.

Thanks to project XM, Air Canada now sports awesome IFE Systems. Ended up watching Kick-Ass, it was definitely Kick Ass!

Umm, havn't had one of these since college. Now I get to enjoy it again, Thank you crappy economy class food.

After an uneventful ride, we made it to Shanghai earlier than scheduled. The airport was empty and I was past both customs and immigration 10min later. We got lucky in a sense because all the big birds from the US landed about 15min behind us.

Better City, Better Life?

After winning the bid to host the 132nd World Expo back in 2002, Shanghai invested billions of dollar in preparation for the World's biggest carnival. Now it is the year 2010, all eyes are finally on Shanghai, will it live up to the expo slogan "Better City, Better Life"? Can China be taken seriously as a world power?

Last week, I went back to my mother land to see and experience it for myself. The following is my trip report, a CBAs(Chinese Born American) perspective on China.

The Flight to Shanghai

First Day around Shanghai(Shanghai Museum)

Day Trip to Suzhou

Visiting the Expo

Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao

Shopping and Family Gathering

Grand Mother's Burial

Final Thoughts

Shanghai Shanghai!

Off to Shanghai in a few days. This time around, I am going to check out the much hyped Shanghai Expo! Recommendations on which halls to visit?

BTW...I am already salivating about these bad boys.

and of course these...

Trip report to follow...

Found in Translation

A whirlwind Business Trip to Japan has come to an end. I again find myself madly in love with the people and the culture I left 15 years ago. Although I remember very little from my childhood in Japan, this visit has helped me "translate" a bit of my childhood.

I would like to share some pictures taken during the trip. All shots were taken with my Iphone and Canon 550D camera with EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens. If you can tell which is which, you get a gold star;)

7/31/10

SFO-KIX

Interesting cloud layer at SFO Airport

Breakfast of champions at the Singapore Airlines Lounge at SFO.

Your favorite restaurant may be 30,000 feet in the air my ass...

Still can't tell whether that was pork or chicken. Had the texture of marshmallow.

8/1/10

Osaka, Japan

Welcome to Kansai International Airport

After carrying my suitcase down to the Nankai Train Station in 35 degree heat, I couldnt resist the light.

My First Taste of Japan

Nankai Train bound for Namba Station

Typical Osaka Street

Shinsaibashi

Famous Glico sign in Shinsaibashi

My apologies for the over exposure, still working on my night photography skills

Shinsaibashi Suji

Bright Lights

mhhhhh, i love me some crab

I ate takoyaki everyday for lunch growing up in Japan. I would throw the obento my mom packed me down the balcony and using the money in my piggy bank, go downstairs to buy 6 takoyaki for 100 yen. I got in trouble for this because someone who lived across from me saw me dumping my obento and reported to my mom...

Does eating glico help you excel at running marathons? I thought eating too much Pocky would make you fat and slow you down?

8/2/10-8/4/10

Osaka

Please forgive me for the lack of pictures, I was actually in Japan for work : )

Best Chuka Ever! @Osho!

8/5/10

Taking the Shinkansen to Tokyo!

Kyoto. Next time I will definitely visit!

Beautiful Japanese country side. So much prettier than the rows upon rows of corn fields here in the US

Ekiben bought on the Shinkansen

Beats sandwiches anyday

8/5/10

Tokyo University

Famous landmark at Tokyo University. According to my colleagues, someone famous did Harakiri in front of this building. I love the architecture of this university. The buildings are full of character and historical significance.

8/6/10

Yokohama and Kamakura

Since we had some time on the last day of the trip, my wonderful colleagues Mr. Masuda and Mr. Kasuga took me to see the old Japan at Kamakura. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and I really appreciate the cultural experience.

The giant Daibutsu at Kotoku-in

The steps leading up Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. Supposedly it is bad luck to bring your significant other because the goddess at this shrine gets jealous and tries to separate the couple.

I also got my omikuji(Fortune). It says I only have slight good luck ahead :( But it told me to study my second language more. Yayyyy got my motivation to study more Japanese.

8/7/10

Tokyo

Saturday was my only day for sightseeing before I had to make the trek to Narita to catch my 5pm flight

I woke up extra early. 4:30am to be exact, even though I went to sleep at 1am. Why woud I subject myself to such torture? None only to visit Tsukiji, Tokyo's famous fish market! It was an amazing experience, even though fighting off the sleepiness was tough, I reached the market at 6am. I am very proud of myself because without internet access on my iphone nor a map of Tokyo I was able to find the market using only the map at the Shimbashi station.

I also used my handy compus on my iphone. Pointing myself in a south easterly directions. Amazing really, how primitive I am when I am traveling.

I made it in time to catch the end of the bidding process for maguro. It was really an amazing sight to see so many giant pieces of tuna being carried all over the place. Why is it frozen tho?

So many stands selling the day's catch.

Amazing the selection of fish...

Chopping up fish they just got from the bidding stands.

Amazing

This guy almost ran me over...

Biggest Ice Machine I have ever seen

Can't imagine running my hand through that ice fall...

Mhhhhhh...sea urchins

Biggest shrimp I've ever seen

What you looking at?

I had read online that the must try here at the Tsukiji Market is the Sushi Breakfast at Daiwa Sushi. The concept is that the freshly caught fish from the Tsukiji market is carted over to the restaurant 1st thing in the morning and the restaurant opens at 5:30am. Which means this place must serve the freshest sushi in the world. The place was definitely popular and I got in line at 7:30am and waited almost 1hr to get a seat at the sushi bar.

I went with the 3500 yen Omakase meal. The fish was definitely fresh and well worth the money and wait.

Best piece of Uni I have ever had. Soooo fresh, I could still taste it in my mouth. Yum Yum.

My sushi chef for the day.

Very cute post box

Ginza

Very efficient construction worker

Japanese animation is sooo cute.

After 'breakfast', I made my way to Hinode Pier to take the Tokyo River taxi to Asakusa. I had read that you get some nice views of Tokyo from the boat.

Interesting canal...

Hinode Pier

Our ride for the day...

Odaiba

Bridge to Odaiba

One of the many bridges we saw.

More bridges...

New Tokyo Tower?

Is this suppose to look like poop?

Asakusa

I spent my last hour in Tokyo at Harajuku. I only had the time to walk to the main thoroughfare in Harajuku. Saw some interesting fashion sense but nothing extreme.


Harajuku




Tokyo Branch of my company...

Am I in Tokyo or San Francisco. Awful lot of United Tails today at Terminal 2 at Narita.



I love the Beer machine at the ANA Lounge. They even top it off with foam.



My lunch at the ANA Lounge

You can see the ANA Logo imprinted

My filet mignon on the flight... Definately doesn't look like filet mignon. Now I am home sweet home, I have a bit more time to reflect back on the wonderful time spent in Japan before I have to take off to Shanghai next week.