Shanghai 2010

It's been at least 5 years since I last visited Shanghai, and with my parents, I went there last month as we had some timeshare offer stay for 5 days at this service apartment called La Residence, which was rather cheap (S$100 plus for 5 days) . However, as we decided to go earlier, we put up at another hotel first, Citadines, by Ascott. It also meant that we could go visit the World Expo since it was ending soon.

Impressions
As someone who doesn't like crowds, going to Shanghai during the World Expo was a bad choice. I only went because I haven't travelled with my parents for quite a few years already. I was pretty stressed by the crowds and congested human traffic whether at the Expo or along the streets, especially Nanjing Road. What made it worse were the spits around and hearing people preparing to deposit their saliva on the streets. And they do that anywhere! Even in shopping malls! I must say they have improved a little bit since I last went, but it was still disturbing as I have to constantly watch where I'm walking. The situation wasn't so bad at the more upscale areas though. The traffic was horrendous too as the drivers horn at the slightest, and they will never give pedestrians right of way at turnings, even when it's green man, and they make their turnings at pretty high speeds. The only time they would actually stop was when there's a traffic guard at that corner. Fortunately, I learnt to be immune to their horning and just continued crossing. Again, I must say that it was even worse before. At least they are also less "pushy" in the trains too now. I still recalled in the past when they even pushed a pregnant lady!
Another thing was that it had become even more commercialised since I last went. There used to be some old city flavour previously, but now, it just feels like any city as the place was covered with so many new buildings.
So yah, it was a rather stressful holiday for me while I was there, and it was with much relief when I left for Hong Kong. Haha...it is usually after this kind of trips that I appreciate Singapore more.

Ok, ok, no more grouses, but more about what we saw and ate.

Hotels
The first hotel we stayed at, Citadines was pretty nice. We booked an executive suite to fit all 3 of us, which had a bedroom, living room (which had a sofa bed) and kitchenette. Being a Singapore-run hotel, it was not surprising (but still amusing) to find a Singapore restaurant (but selling Thai shark's fin) just downstairs. It was convenient too, situated just behind 新世界 near Nanjing Road, but away from the crowd.

The 2nd place we stayed, La Residence wasn't as well-maintained though, but it was pretty cheap for such a big space. It was clean nonetheless, but a little rundown. They gave us a room on the top floor, which had not too bad a view. It was double-storey with a spiral staircase. That's not so good for my parents though. They didn't have any other rooms available, so we continued our stay there. There were 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom a living room, plus a kitchenette downstairs. There was one toilet downstairs, but the bathing facilities (1 shower room plus 1 bathroom with toilet and bath) were on the upper floor, so we ended up staying upstairs. I had intended to stay on the lower floor since the bed looked more comfortable, but think the aircon wasn't running too well, and there was a strange smell coming out when that happened (probably the coolant). The drawers and cupboards need to be changed though as the doors weren't fitting properly.

Hmm...my photos made it look better than it actually was though. But since it was at a very good rate, there was no cause for complaint.

World Expo 2010
One of the main highlights of the trip was supposed to be the World Expo 2010, which was hosted at Shanghai this year. We had thought whether to visit it over 2 days, but after experiencing the crowds and queues for 1 day, it was enough. There were so many people and the queues were terrible, some even up to 7 hours or more for the more popular ones! Good thing I didn't go on the day there were over a million people there. And you can't go into the China pavilion without the advance ticket, which we didn't manage to get. We figured it was no point wasting time queuing for long hours and miss out on other pavilions, so we picked those less crowded ones (which still required at least 30 minutes) and of course, as Singaporeans, we should go visit our own pavilion (which was actually our 1st stop).
Well, the easy way in was to flash our Singapore passport at the back door and we were granted immediate admission. Believe it or not, there was a queue at the main entrance (not that long though).

The Singapore pavilion was actually quite interesting on the outside, but we were disappointed with what turned out inside. The concept was good, based on movements in a symphony to bring you through the times of Singapore as you walk up, but the display was too "business-like" and a little boring. The theatre was actually not bad, intending to give an almost life-sized, Omnimax feel, but the music video was just like any music video, and didn't really show much, or bring out Singapore. The rooftop garden was probably the nicest part.
Another pavilion I wanted to visit was Denmark, which had The Little Mermaid statue brought all the way here. Wanted to see it in case I never get to visit Denmark. The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite H. C. Andersen's stories. Some other pavilions we managed to enter were Lithuania, South Africa, and some others.

Personally, I felt that the pavilions were ok in general. Maybe I didn't go to the more popular ones, but I believe it wouldn't be super different for the rest (haha...trying to console myself). Or maybe I see the possibility of myself visiting these places, or have already visited similar places. But it was probably an eye-opener for most of the locals. What was nice were how the pavilions looked on the outside. What with bicycle rides, ski lifts, slides, mirrors, colours, etc. Actually, I kind of liked Netherlands' pavilion, which was like a giant playground with a big "Happy Street" sign.
It was interesting to note that the most popular pavilions were actually not the country pavilions, but were those industrial/business ones, like the Oil Pavilion. Some of these were stopping people from joining the queues at mid-day as they were too long! These were probably more interesting and people can actually learn things from them. Coca Cola's Happiness Factory was also a popular pavilion, but I've been to the actual one in Atlanta, so no point going (anyway, they stopped adding people to queue in the late afternoon). I noticed also that the people of each pavilion (at least for some I've seen, e.g. Israel) who were from the said country were speaking fluent Mandarin! Of course it was probably expected, but it was still "amusing" in a way.
Well, seeing all these in the day wasn't enough, because there were beautiful lights! The Oil Pavilion's lights were amazing. From a simple blue building, it transformed into a dynamic animated screenbox.

 

Food
Another highlight of the trip would of course, be food. Eating well on a trip has always been a highlight. Haha...hopefully I didn't put on too much weight. What more can I say but just show you some highlights.

I will probably talk more about them separately in my food blog foodsie.two, but that will take quite a while.

Misc
Oh, on our last night there, we chanced upon an event at the Lamborghini showroom in Shanghai, unveiling a series of sculptures created by Simon Ma, a collaboration with Lamborghini. It was probably one of the more exciting moments of the trip. They brought out a whole range of Lambos. Cool!