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Published: October 22nd 2010
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Last shot of Xi'an
The wall in Xi'an could be walked, it is 14 kms around, I only did half. It was quite peaceful. Hi all. A quick update with pics. I spent six days in Shanghai (difficulty with forward travel tickets). Nice city, lots of culture, I even spent one day at Expo. I forgot what it was like in Beijing with crowds of people but Expo certainly brought that memory back! Very interesting place, each country puts up a pavillion about their country, likely to entice tourism. Some were incredibly elaborate and those had the longest lines. I did go inside the Canada pavillion and I'm proud to say it was one of the longer lines, yeah us! Also went inside the US pavillion and got a little misty when they showed a brief video of President Obama and his speech about Expo, China and the planet, that man just moves me! One thing about the whole Expo thing I thought was incredibly funny is you can buy these passports from one of the hundred kiosks selling stuff and inside each pavillion, you can get a stamp for your passport. All I can say is if you were anywhere near the place where you get that thing stamped, you'd surely get trampled. People would literally run from one side of the pavillion to
The Maglev from Shanghai airport
This bullet train is exactly that, a bullet. Top speed of 451 kms/hr, when we decelerated to 200 kms, I felt like we were crawling along. where the stamps were. I don't think they even saw what was inside the pavillions. I had to laugh when I was outside the stampeding hoard. I got the Canada stamp inside my passport, by the way...
Also while in Shanghai, I went to some museums and generally just wandered about. Their skyline and financial buildings are astoundingly huge! I've never been to New York but I would have to imagine that's what it would have looked like with the twin towers. The Shanghai World Financial Centre opened late August 2008, is 492 metres tall and is the third tallest building (in China or the world, not sure). But they're building yet another tower, the Shanghai Tower, which will be 128 stories and the tallest in the Shanghai skyline -- sounds like someone's compensating for something if you ask me 😊
After Shanghai, I went to Gui'lin. This involved a 24 hour train ride but thankfully I got a sleeper berth, that was worth waiting a couple extra days in Shanghai. Gui'lin is this pretty little city built amongst these tall mountains. I only spent couple of days there but did manage to soak up the amazing scenery
Expo1
The China pavillion and a couple of sights. One in particular was the Reed Flute Cave, this cave was full of stalactites and stalagmites (I can never remember which is from the ceiling and which is from the ground, one of the geo guys on my blog might be able to enlighten me). They have them lit in multicolored lights and if you let your imagination go, you can see birds, flowers, lots of different things. There was this one cool spot where there was a small pool and the water was so clear and still that the reflection of what was above showed so clear in the water, you'd swear the rocks were under the water. That was until a tourist tried to get so close that he fell in and sent ripples everywhere. Poor guy, but I did have to laugh.
After Gui'lin, now I'm in Kunming, after another 18 hour train ride. From here, I'm planning on heading into Laos. I was planning on Myanmar after China but Myanmar is having their first democratic election in two decades on November 7th and the recommendations is to limit any foreign travel until after the elections in case there are riots.
Expo2
The translated message at this Coca-cola pavillion was cute. I would think riots might happen after but that's what the Canadian consulate webiste is recommending so I think I'll go with that. I'm here in Kunming for another day and a half then board a bus for 24 hours to Luang Prabang in Laos and hoping what I've read about getting an on-the-spot visa at the border still holds true. I asked again at the Laos flight office and they seemed certain that's fine for someone with a Canadian passport. Okay, that's it for now... later....
Sorry, one other thing. A few of you have asked if you can send my blog to others, I'm fine with that. If you want, send me their emails as a comment and I can add them directly to my update list and they'll get the same emails you do. I won't publish the comments with email addresses.
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cindy
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love, love, love
You are my hero Ms Cheryl!