--- Impressions of the Trip ---

 

1.  Day 1 ---

  1. Feeling about this trip ---

(1)  It took not very long (1 hour and 55 minutes) to fly from Taoyuan, Taiwan to Putong, Shanghai. The first impression of the airport was just large!

(2)  I felt interested in the mini-size of our group, just 5! In the past, this is impossible for be a group accepted by a travel agency. Chih-Hua told everybody the second day that it was now allowed to organize a group of two to visit Shanghai, as announced on the Internet by Lion Travel. This is indeed a great jump in travel agency’s policy!

(3)  Whatever it is, we are happy to be here with our oldest travel mates, Professors Mao-Chieh Chen and Tai-Sheng Chang. My family members in the group included me, Chih-Hua (may wife), and Wan-Jung (my daughter).

  1. Impressions about Taiwan Pavilion ---

(1)  We visited the Taiwan Pavilion without waiting in line. Instead, we were received as guests by the director of the pavilion (Director Chiu) formally. At the moment he seated me as the first guest, I realized that the Lion Travel arranged me to be accepted as a president of a university (though not any more then).

(2)  Taiwan Pavilion was rated as No. 1 by a Japanese press. It is a proud of Taiwanese. We were so eager to see what it looks like.

(3)  We saw or participated in four major activities in the course of our visit:

(a)  watching a 360 spherical movie about nature and traditions in Taiwan;

(b)  participating in letting go an electronictien deng” (sky lantern flying high into the space) with a self-chosen slogan;

(c)  watching a dance performed by two “electronic princes” (two of the three little gods of princes with traditional costumes in a large scale); and

(d) watching a tea master showing a graceful way of preparing and taste tea.

(4)  The interactions of all the activities were good. And so the pavilion gave visitors a kind of interesting and friendly.

  1. Impressions about France Pavilion ---

(1)  We had dinner in the France Pavilion and this allowed us to enter the pavilion directly. That was the most French-flavored dinner I and my family have ever had so far.

(2)  We encountered raining in before entering the France Pavilion. Though we have brought umbrellas and raincoats, but we still got very wet, especially in the shoes, everybody.

(3)  The displays included only the following three major items:

(a)  many movies shown on the walls along the way;

(b)  an area with eight hanging-down half-open cylindrical columns within which smells of various flavor could be felt as depicted by the drawings in the column; and

(c)  six masterpieces of paintings by famous artists exhibited;

(d)  and a piece of LED show.

(4)  We were disappointed with the exhibition content of the France Pavilion because all the shown content was static.

 

2.  Day 2 ---

  1. First impressions about Shanghai ---

(1)  Lots of the buildings in the downtown area were all high-rising. I wonder if their did not have the enforced regulation of requiring allowing sufficient open space in a building structure.

(2)  The downtown area is more or less like that in Taipei.

(3)  The salary level for young people here is about 3000 RMB (» 15000 NT dollars), as Chih-Feng (temporary guide from Taiwan accompanying us) told me.

(4)  The weather was so wet that the body skin feeling of being like in a bath, which I had when I returned to Taiwan from the USA in 1979, appeared again.

  1. Impressions about the visited pavilions ---

(1)  The Chinese Private Enterprise Pavilion had good shows, especially the last one which was said to be directed by three famous directors in China, including Yi-Mou Chang. The show included waves of real balls hung from the ceiling controlled by a computer program, followed by a Tachi-like show performed by a handsome young guy.

(2)  The SAIG-GM Pavilion had a movie about the future of Shanghai in 2030. At that time, the transportation is going to change a lot. Personal transportation vehicles become cute, each for carrying one person only. We sat on rocking chairs, simulating riding the vehicle in the movie. After the movie, a dance show performed by dancers and real cute vehicles appearing in the movie followed. Bothe the movie and the dance performance were impressive and touching. Before exiting, people could touch the real vehicles seen in the movie and the dance show.

(3)  The Pavilions of Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland which we visited sequentially were all not so interesting. Though they all exhibited articles and objects related to the theme of the exposition of this year --- environment protection, the contents were mostly too normal to attract longer watching.

 

3.  Day 3 ---

  1. Impressions about Taipei Case Pavilion –

(1)  There were four programs in the visit --- welcome by the city major, Lung-bin Hau; a 3D panoramic movie show of Taipei life (watched by wearing 3D glasses) ; a four-face LED movie show of Taipei’s achievements of wireless networking and environmental protection, and an interactive exhibition.

(2)  The movie shows were somehow too short to show real facts more completely.

  1. Impressions about China Pavilion –

(1)  The China Pavilion is huge, but some of the shows were not so meaningful.

(2)  The best is the cartoon show of the “Over the river in Chingming Festival” (清明上河圖) which obviously used a lot of man years to complete using the computer graphics technique.

  1. Impressions about other visited pavilions ---

(1)  Italy Pavilion --- the most artistic exhibition in the ones we have seen.

(2)  German Pavilion --- the most technological exhibition in the ones we have seen.

(3)  Pavilion of Urban Planet --- an exhibition arousing our attention to human beings’ destruction of the existing resources on the earth.

 

4.  Day 4 ---

  1. Impressions about Shanghai’s culture and art ---

(1)  In the four days of our stay in Shanghai, we have visited several museums and galleries, including Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Sculpture Space, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai Art Gallery. The overall impression is that there is no much difference from those we see in Taipei.

(2)  Tuianzifang is a good place to visit again. I like the old atmosphere in the lanes and lungs in there.

(3)  1933 Shanghai is a building built by the English people for killing cows when they occupied part of the city at the ending period of the Ching Dynasty. It is now used by artists as a platform for art exhibitions and music festivals. A revival of old things! Good idea!

  1. More about Expo 2010 ---

(1)  We were lucky to get tickets to see a special opera “Carmen” in Expo 2010, which was performed vividly by a group of Spanish dances. I like it! Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to see the show to the end.

(2)  After seeing the opera of “Carmen,” we took pictures of all the pavilions one after another. The Expo may also be said to be an architecture exhibition! I also bought many postcards illustrating the pavilions, intended to be used by Meimei.

 

5.  Day 5 ---

  1. More impressions about Shanghai ---

(1)  High buildings are numerous and harmonic in order, as seen from the People’s Square and the SWFC (Shanghai World Finance Center).

(2)  The SWFC we visited has three records: highest observation deck (awarded by Ginness World Records); highest building in the two categories of highest occupied floor and height to top of roof (awarded by CYBUH, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). As a comparison, Taipei 101, though once highest in the world, its observation deck is on the 85th floor only.

(3)  The Yu Garden’s scenes and building architectures are finer than I could imagine. Nan Yuan in Hsinchu is inferior.

(4)  We had lunch in Nan-Shiang Steam Buns Restaurant, but the food was inferior to that of Tin Tai Feng, though similar.

  1. Overall impression about Shanghai ---

(1)  a city of Internationalization;

(2)  a city of reach people;

(3)  a city of prosperity;

(4)  a city of crowdedness;

(5)  a city of fast development;

(6)   a city competing with Beijing.

 

6.  Day 6 ---

  1. Descriptions and thoughts of major visited spots ---

(1)  Today we visited Hanshan Temple, Zhouzhengyuan, Jinji Lake, and Guan Qian Street.

(2)  It is kind of joy to visit an old temple “Hanshan Temple” which we learned from reading a poem appearing in our high-school textbook for Chinese:

(3)  I was very happy today because visit to Zhouzhengyuan has been one of my travelling targets so many years. I like old-style gardens! Zhouzhengyuan is regarded as a model of Chinese garden. Every kind of typical architecture element in traditional Chinese gardens can be found here. Almost every view from any direction is like a scenic picture.

(4)  Guan Qian Street which we strolled after dinner was not as expected; it was remodeled though with a little Chinese architecture flavor was kept on the roofs of the new buildings. Cars were not permitted on the street. It was named so because it was right before a Tao temple.

  1. Other observations and thoughts ---

(1)  Today two new tour guides came to accompany us, in addition to the original one, Miss Hsieh Wang. The first, Mr. Chun Ho, was fluent in telling facts about new China. The second, Miss Lee, was good in telling facts about local relics.

(2)  The hotel we lived today was sort of modern style. Even the reception hall is lightened in red light. The interior is new.

(3)  Ms. Lee, the local guide, told us that the population of Suzhou is 600 million which astonished me. Another guide, Mr. Ho, told me that Suzhou is larger than Shanghai in the aspect of land size, which 8000 km2 while Shanghai only has 6000 km2.

 

7.  Day 7 ---

  1. Feelings about visited sites ---

(1)  Suzhou Museum was designed by Ieoh Ming Pei who was born locally. The architecture is more attractive to the visitors than the exhibited articles.

(2)  Wuzhen is really a town fixed in time! Even the restaurant where we had lunch, Jioujianglou, is a historical building made of wood.

(3)  Sightseeing in Wuzhen includes Maotung’s old house, a money museum, a bed museum, and an old yarn die shop, etc. The cultural relics are abundant.

(4)  The Xixi Wetland is a new park. The resources as seen superficially seem not much.

(5)  The on-water opera “Impression West Lake” was really astonishing! That is why the director Yi-mou Chang becomes famous.

 

8.  Day 8 ---

  1. Feelings about visited sites ---

(1)  After so many years, finally we came to visit the historically famous West Lake! It is so graceful, so delicate, so nice, and so scenic! Two poems below by famous ancient poets can describe the feeling:

 

【宋】白居易 --- 憶江南

江南好,風景舊曾諳。

日出江花紅勝火,春來江水綠如藍,能不憶江南。

 

【宋】蘇軾 --- “飲湖上,初晴後雨

水光瀲灩晴方好,山色空蒙雨亦奇。

欲把西湖比西子,淡妝濃抹總相宜。

 

(2)  Eight days seems too short and I felt like staying longer, though the hot weather told me not to do so.