China 2009

I'm writing this blog post on Word. It's July 7^th, 2009. But this post will probably be posted sometime in August. And that's because in China, Blogger is blocked. So instead of waiting till the end of my vacation to share what happened under serious amounts of jet lag, I write this now. This also means that I haven't been able to catch up on some of your interesting stories on blogger. Though I do get xanga subscription digests by email. And those have been somewhat interesting. You may know who you are. ;)

Overall, my stay in China was far more than what I expected. I'm pretty sure I'll feel great every time I look back at this trip.

Stuff I did:

1. Stayed inside my uncle's house for 7 days: As required by swine flu regulations. I also had to report my body temperature for that time. Kind of excessive actually. It's not like I could have crossed a street with the jet lag I had, a task that's the equivalent of playing Frogger with your life.

2. Civil Engineering Tour: Hells yeah, this was a good 10 day trip.

3. Internship at Beijing Institute of Architecture Design (BIAD): Worked there after the tour.

4. Food!: Had a lot of variety of good eats while I stayed. From KFC and Pizza Hut to Cow stomach and Sheep Head. Tasty q:

Here are the highlights of the tour. I'll go into the food later =D

First stop of the tour, Beijing.

Tian An Men Square. A place of controversy, but one thing's for sure: That's one big ass flag pole.

Forbidden City. It's size makes MTV cribs look like Barbie doll houses.

Commune by the Great Wall. Basically 10 Asian architects were invited to design their own villa. Pretty cool places.

The Great Wall. This section was intentionally left unmaintained. I kinda like the unkempt look of it all.

The Water Cube was surreal almost. The Bird's Nest was pretty big. Ritchie Kwan's reaction: “Of course you guys would visit a hunk of metal”

Next on our tour, we went Xian. On the train ride there...

Think beer pong except with a shoe and a pack of gum. Oh and you still get to drink beer.

Countryside. I actually did not expect that we'd go to a place like this. Pleasant surprise

LOUD NOISES aside, KTV twas fun.

Terra Cotta Warriors. Most of them are actually still covered, as this is the best preservation method. Otherwise they lose their paint and end up like the ones on the top.

As with all visits to foreign countries, a photo displaying perfect English grammar is required. Thanks the cooperation. (Lampoonery aside, most of the travel guides spoke great English)

We then flew to Yi chang. The place is sorta remote. And by sorta, I mean very. Not a lot of people or traffic, and absolutely no karaoke bars in sight.

The spectacular view outside the hotel.

The Three Gorges Dam

Mr. Wang, one of the chief engineers of the project. Pretty cool guy.

“Damn! That's one big dam...ok let's go to Shanghai”

Night skyline. We were here a little early, so some of the buildings didn't light up yet

Visited Tongji University. Had some interesting conversations with the CivE grad students.

TV Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, and Jin Mao Tower.

The glass balcony on the top. A great way to cure height phobia?

Here's the elevator to the top of the SWFC. Portal?

Maglev Train, which transported us to Pudong Airport in exactly 7 minutes and 20 seconds.

Awesome people to go on tour with. Good times.

Though I wish we stayed in Shanghai a lot longer. Lots of interesting architecture. I shall return. With a tripod. And a local friend who would be willing to help me? Cause I can't speak Shanghainese. Let alone enough Mandarin. xD