We left Xi’an on a Monday after school, accompanied by my host sister, Mrs. Dong, and her 8 year old ball of energy whose English name is Linda. Just getting to the Xi’an train station is a challenge. Passengers need to be dropped off about 1 kilometer away. Then the crowd surges to the station. There are bicycle drawn carts available to haul luggage at least as far as the screening line. Then the masses pour into the station. People carry big boxes, suitcases, food or anything else they wish to transport as trains are the main way to get around the country. (By the way Xi’an will have a new station open soon so this may be my last experience at the old station.)
We had “hard sleepers” meaning that we each had a narrow bed in a cubicle (open to the hallway) stacked 3 high. The lower level is for easy sitting, but the upper bunks are not tall enough to sit up. There must have been at least 10 cubicles per car so there were at least 60 people in the car. We had all taken food for dinner – primarily instant noodles and fruit as there is lots of boiling water available. Everyone had lots of fun that evening. Katie and Aida studied for their final exam with some help from Linda and Mrs. Dong. Our train took more than 20 hours as we were on side tracks when the faster trains went past and was only 2 hours late.
The Shanghai station was more modern and less crowded. We took two taxis to our hotel seeing the Shanghai skyline on the way. Being located along the ocean the air in Shanghai was clearer and it wasn’t too hot that first day. Our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived, so we ate something while waiting. Then we took taxis to the nearest subway station, and from there to central Shanghai. The subway system was clean, inexpensive and easy to navigate. We wandered along the busy shopping streets and a park on our way to dinner in a “famous” restaurant that has been open for 135 years. It was my least favorite meal since I arrived. The food was expensive and there wasn’t much of it, but it was dinner.
Next we headed to the “Bund” – the old colonial part of the city. The sun was just setting as we arrived there. The skyline by night was gorgeous. We walked a bit and eventually took a one-hour cruise to see the skyline from the water. By the time we were done we were all very ready for bed!
The next morning we set out for Expo. The hotel had explained the bus line to Mrs. Dong so we walked to the nearest stop and then had a trip of more than an hour. However we also got to see quite a bit of the city. Unfortunately the bus driver had let us off near a gate that didn’t sell children’s tickets so we had a bit more walking before finally getting in. Eventually we entered a gate. We had been told that it would be so crowded that we would probably only get to see one or two pavilions per day – with some having waits of up to 6 hours. Luckily for us that wasn’t our experience!
Our first pavilion was the China Provincial Pavilion. It is a building of unique design which is the symbol of Expo. We only waited about 20 minutes (walking as the line snaked along). It was a huge exhibit space. We saw all kinds of displays, including a dance program from western China. (We didn’t get into the main Chinese exhibit since reservations were needed.) After a couple of hours there the kids were hungry and tired so we ate lunch. For the rest of the afternoon and evening we visited at least 10 pavilions including countries from South America and Africa. We also “went to” Lithuania and Slovenia.
After hours of walking everyone was again hungry. Linda wanted KFC – so we went. It was…not good and very expensive. We ate what we could,. Then we walked a short distance to see the evening parade (think Main Street Dinseyland with less enthusiasm). As we left the park Mrs. Dong asked about where to find the bus from one of the volunteers. (There are a lot of them!) A second volunteer gave advice as well and we started walking. Unfortunately the directions were wrong so we had to walk out of our way before finally finding the bus a short distance from the gate we had left. No one had any trouble falling asleep that night!
The next day it was easier to get to the park since we had done it. We also knew that we should take some food with us. That day we visited the Europe area. It was much more crowded than the previous day but we still saw several pavilions including France, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Finland and more. Our longest wait was less than one hour, but we simply avoided the pavilions with extremely long waits. As we headed out we found a lovely Chinese food court with foods from all parts of the country. Each of us was able to choose what we wanted. Our last stop was the expo store to pick up Haibao (the mascot) gifts.
We slept in on Thursday – especially as we still didn’t have the tickets for the return train. We took taxis to the business part of the city, saw the Pearl Tower and visited a very up-scale shopping mall. We returned to the hotel area and ate lunch. Mrs. Dong got a call from the person with the tickets and we headed back to the station. Both Katie and Marc – the professional worriers of the group – were most concerned with how we would find the person with the tickets, but it was not hard. We settled into our compartment for the trip back to Xi’an. Both girls studied until lights went out. (In the hard sleepers the lights click off at 10 p.m. with only small lights in the hallway.)
Once again our train was late, bringing us back to Xi’an 3 hours late. The school van drove each of us to our host families. It was a wonderful trip. I think most of us would like to go back to Shanghai someday. It was certainly unforgettable!
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