Tai Kang Lu
Tai Kang Lu is a "quiet corner in the French concession", with "cottage boutiques and a distinctly bohemian feel." Replace "quiet corner" with "indecipherable maze of tiny alleyways" and "bohemian" with "packed with tourists", and you'll start to get an idea of the place. See map below. It did not help.
Filled with juggling, balancing, leaping and spinning acrobats, the Shanghai Circus was so much fun. The performers were mostly young, with a boy that couldn't have been more than 11 doing the 6-story chair balancing act. Most of the act was flawless, with only one of the girls dropping her eight spinning plates, but since she was attempting at the same time to do a one-hand handstand on top of someone else's head, I forgave her. The grand finale was the motorcycles-in-a-cage act, which I've heard of but never seen live.
The World Expo
Since we were in Shanghai, and the World Expo was in Shanghai, we decided we'd better go. Unfortunately we picked a horrible day for it. Windy, rainy, and with only one small umbrella to share between us, we were irritated and soaked before we even found the gates.
The welcome sign was the best part. It appeared that someone used a computer program to do a direct translation of the chinese characters, and then didn't bother to check to see if it made sense. If you can't read the fine print, the English translation reads as follows:
1.) Tickets for the Expo with the date of receipt, one one, not overpaid, on behalf of the collar.
2.) The park opened a day after the issuance, on a first collar, hair end up.
3.) Booking tickets distinguish time, take it carefully to confirm admission time, upon receipt, refuse to replace.
4.) In order to maintain the access legislation quickly after you open to receive.
We found the food building immediately, and nourished ourselves with fries, sausage, pho, dumplings, beer and ice cream. All the important food groups.
We only visited the smaller side of the World Expo (it was on both sides of the river), hoping for shorter lines. We only had to wait 15 minutes or so for the "Pavilion of Future" building, much shorter than the rumored 3-5 hours for the more popular exhibits. Still a lot of people, though.
The exhibits were pretty cool to look at...
But not a lot of substance. You wander though the huge exhibits, saying "Impressive... but what's it for?"
Only having about an hour left, we visited Prague for a cup of coffee...
And Beijing to see the drums they used during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics...
Before packing it in and heading back to the hotel.
Next time - Goodbye Shanghai, Hello Suzhou!
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