2010 SHANGHAI EXPO

The first world's fair or exposition (shortened to expo) was London 1851.  Seattle in 1962 was my initial experience, and since then I've been to most of them.  The next one in 2012 will be Yaeso, South Korea, and no decision has been made yet for any events in the longer term future.  Canada is being groomed for the 2017 timeframe, but the big one is in 2020.  San Paulo, Sydney/Brisbane, Copenhagen and and Manila have expressed interest, while San Francisco, Las Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and New York have developed themes.  Is there any hope for Hawaii in the Year 2020?

The Shanghai Expo, to close at the end of this month, is located on both sides of the Huangpo River, and is the largest (2 square miles and 242 organizations), most expensive ($48 billion just to prepare the site) and has already broken all attendance records.  The logo is the Chinese character "shi," representing three people, while the mascot is Haibao (treasure of the sea), the blue gumby, but selection committee never heard of Gumby.

Don't think about visiting the top sites (China, Saudi Arabia, Japan), for you could stand in a slow moving line for nine hours.  You  can get into some country exhibits, but they are so terrible that it will not be worth your while.  

Take China, for example.  People begin queuing outside the gates not long after midnight.  The lucky ones then sprint to the site where a limited number of coupons are given out.  Then, the wait is around 6 hours to get into the pavilion.  Ah, but then, they need to get in line another two hours to take the elevator up to the 12th floor to walk down through the exhibit.

Leighton Chong and I were aided by Helen Zhang (son Steven in middle), like Leighton, an intellectual property lawyer in a firm of 600 attorneys.  She got us VIP passes to China and U.S.  It was so nice to get in the side door and a private elevator to the top for China.  The exhibit itself was barely worth even our time.  But the U.S. pavilion was a total joke.  Again, side entrance, and an elevator takes you up for an American meal.  Alas, we had already had a Russian dinner (but they had run of of caviar).  So we saw three slide shows. The third one was supposed to be in 4-D.  What it was was four screens.  I'm surprised there have been no riots from those who had to wait had to be pissed.

The architecture was great, weather perfect for walking (maybe ten miles?), and whole experience memorable.  The Spanish and Saudia Arabia pavilions stood out.  Japan's was a lavender Shrek.

That's the Chinese pavilion behind me, followed by a sunset:

Then, there was the USA, above.

SHANGHAI'D TO ZURICH

I'm back!  I managed to gain my freedom yesterday and flew from Shanghai to Zurich.  While Shanghai remains in my top ten list, I should mention that the Sun looks like the Moon for the air pollution and you can't bring your cigarette lighter to the Expo (they confiscated mine at the Pudong Airport).  Zurich is wonderful, and I report on this "neat" city tomorrow.  At some point I will also review some Shanghai highlights:  M on the Bund, Jean Georges and the Expo (where Helen Zhang, friend of Leighton Chong--by the way, the Chinese characters are the same for those two names--was able to sneak us in as VIPs, avoiding twelve hours of standing in line!).  As you know, China blocks out most things GOOGLE, and also Facebook, You Tube, Twitter etc.  I found it interesting that during my week of silence, the daily  hits on this blog site remained around 100/day I generally average.  I guess it doesn't matter whether I do this daily or not.  Here are four blogs I would have posted if able.  

FRIDAY, 15OCTOBER2010

1. I'm into my third day in Shanghai, and have just paid for one meal: $9 at Din Tai Fung for exquisite Shanghai Dumplings and a Tsingtao beer. Otherwise, breakfast and dinner are free at the Westin Executive Club, both remarkably sumptious, and dinner with anything you want to drink. A decorative tank of an unusual red fish was eye-catching at DTF, while the Westin EC entrance is graced by a huge aquarium of circulating jellyfish.

2. Leighton Chong, chief counsel for the Blue Revolution, arrived, for we have been invited by Zhejiang Ocean University to work out cooperative marine programs tomorrow. Today, however, we go to the Shanghai Expo.  (Photos will be shown later)

3. I made two purchases yesterday in one of those street markets. I considered a pair of $3 dress shoes, but splurged on $8 safari sneakers. I also spent ten minutes in a 2 Yuan (30 cents) Shop and finally settled on a sewing kit set with 20 needles, an assortment of threads and scissors. Thirty cents!  I should add that on my walk around Nanjing Road I saw the exact same $8 shoe I bought selling for $200.

4. Mision cumplida in Chile, unlike President Bush’s 2003 landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln. What a heartwarming miracle in the Chilean desert.  There has been a tendency to downplay the role of America in this rescue, and that's good, no problem with me on that score. However, for the record, we should appreciate that Schramm, a drilling company from Pennsylvania, beat two other countries to get to the miners. NASA was very helpful, including NASA's Clinton Cragg, who whose design was used by the Chilean Navy to build the rescue capsule, and Aramark was able to get vacuum-packed hot food to the miners. The rescue cable came from Germany, Japan provided the video know-how and China the crane. Thus, this was a wonderful international partnership which came together for the most watched event of the year. NOW IF ONLY WE CAN GET SIMILAR COOPERATION FOR WORLD PEACE IN OUR TIME.

16 October 2010

Professor Jinbao Wang of Zhejiang Ocean University (ZOU, located in Zhoushan) and his driver picked us up at the Westin on the Bund and broke a world's record to their campus. What should have been a four hour trip was accomplished in three, as the car weaved in and out of traffic, at times exceeding 100 MPH, in a ride that reminded me of a death-defying auto racing video game. I think I acquired a permanent nervous twitch to my right eyelid.  One American tourist dies every 36 hours, and mostly from traffic accidents.  China has more road deaths than any country, with India #2.  If you didn't read about my Taj Majal experience, click on it.

We of course went through the usual protocol by visiting their laboratory (which includes a massive 130 meter wave tank) and Leighton Chong provided a presentation on the Blue Revolution to Vice President Changwen Wu and the faculty. ZOU was founded about a half a century ago, but will now zoom into prominence, for the $9 billion Zhoushan Bridge (photo above) for the first time connecting this "city" of more than a thousand islands to the Chinese mainland, was just made operational less than a year ago. Already, there are construction cranes everywhere you look. I would not be surprised if their 10,000 student population becomes a multi-campus of 35,000 in a decade or two, in the process becoming the premier ocean institution for the country.

Zhoushan is a perfect sister-city for Hawaii, as we both have populations of 1 million, depend on tourism and seek prominence in ocean systems. Mayor Zhou and Councilman Nestor Garcia are proceeding with gaining official sanctions.

The highlights of the day were our two sponsored meals. Lunch at the Sheraton where we are staying, the best hotel on these islands, featured a twelve course extravagance with white and red wines. We were hosted by ZOU and the Mayor's Office and given an assortment of gifts. What to do with them will be a problem because I still have 17 planes to catch. Professor Zhibo Tang, who organized our trip, called from New York to acknowledge our presence.

Dinner was even more experienceful with a 15 course seafood feast involving a local beer, 38% sweetish wine from Jinbao's home region and a 10% yellow wheat wine. There are around 70 of these restaurants around their port where our fast ferry tomorrow leaves to take us back to Shanghai.

The evening ended at a glitzy karoake establishment, greeted by 20 hostesses where there are various private rooms with impressive acoustics. Nothing like this in Hawaii, although Hong Kong has similar entertainment centers. Mike Sun of ZOU was the superstar of the night.

What an incredible day and night to remember.


18 October 2010

1. While Chile saved all 33 miners, it is now appearing that the Henan (China) coal mine disaster deaths will reach 37. China has about as many coal mining casualties per day as the U.S. has in a year. It is generally not reported, but China, it is speculated, suffers something in the range of 10,000 mining deaths/year.

2. While coal is the energy source which remains #1 globally in growth/year, China has doubled wind energy production each year for the past five years, while the U.S. in 2010 will experience an installation rate DROP. Wind power and geothermal energy are the only renewable electricity options competitive with coal and nuclear. A controlled government is more efficient in affecting change as necessary. The American government is broken (the military industrial complex, fossil industry and farm lobby dictate policy to our Congress and the White House). Europe, however, is worse, and Russia...

3. Mega Typhoon Megi, now down to 110 MPH, rolled over the Philippines, but is predicted to re-strengthen into a Category 4 storm and slam into China (probably Hainan, which already experienced 4 feet of rain earlier this month) and Vietnam.  (Luckily, the storm went north of Hong Kong.)

4. The Shanghai Expo saw crowds approaching the population of Hawaii each day this weekend, and has now hosted more than 65 million. Thirteen days remain, where the admission during the final days will be halved to half a million each day. Tomorrow, I'll be back for a night viewing, then on to Zurich, where I will be able to resume my daily blog.

5. If you like car horns, you'll love China, for many vehicles have four of them: the standard puny one you have, a higher frequency attention catcher, an intimidator to scare other cars and a truly frightening one to to anyone ahead of you to get out of your way, now.

19 October 2010

The next president of China will be Xi Jinping (he and his wife to the left), who served as the leader of Shanghai until promoted in 2007 to the Beijing ruling group. Appropriately enough, he is a chemical engineer. During the period when he was 16 to 22, he lived in a remote mountain village reaping wheat and shepherding. His immediate next stop was at Tsinghua University, where he graduated as an engineer. As President Hu never did respond to my message, my next effort will be directed at Xi.

TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

• At the Incheon Airport Asiana Lounge, I just had a real Oriental meal with a sparkling Zinfandel and glass of beer, listening to a concert pianist at the other end of the room.  This is all free.  There are several sleep rooms with massage chairs, a dozen computers for you to connect to the internet, and when I turned mine on, I immediately got to my home page through a wireless system that is faster than anything I have ever experience.  There was no fumbling to connect with a password.  There are some nice touches in South Korea:  some public restrooms have a dispenser for foam soap to wipe the seat, at fast food establishments I noticed a dispenser of large treated napkins to clean your hands before touching the hamburger or pizza, the bus to the airport shows a gigantic high definition TV with a pretty spectacular surround sound system, I never saw a homeless person and there are no beggars.  In 1962, the per capita annual income was $82.  Today, GDP/capita is only #36 at more than $17,000, but that of China is #99 at $3735.  Next Shanghai, where I read that China topped the list of women billionaires, more than half of the 20 richest.
• I am impressed with the Incheon Airport security system.  As I was about to start a meal, a young lady came up to me, asked my name and inquired if I had a lighter in my checked baggage.  First, how did they find me, and second, great x-ray system.  I thought, oh no, Delhi again, where I thought I would be executed.  But she said they would keep me apprised of developments and I did not have to go down to the bowels of the airport.  Half an hour later another nice lady found me and said they had trashed the lighter.  Great, at least at Delhi they just evacuated it and left it in the suitcase.  And here I thought lighters were again allowed.  I guess mine was that torch type which is still verboten.  Hope my bags make it to Shanghai.
• My 155th country just visited:

SENEGAL POPULATION: 13,711,597

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Background

The French colonies of Senegal and the French Sudan were merged in 1959 and granted their independence as the Mali Federation in 1960. The union broke up after only a few months. Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982, but the envisaged integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. The Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) has led a low-level separatist insurgency in southern Senegal since the 1980s, and several peace deals have failed to resolve the conflict. Nevertheless, Senegal remains one of the most stable democracies in Africa. Senegal was ruled by a Socialist Party for 40 years until current President Abdoulaye WADE was elected in 2000. He was reelected in February 2007, but has amended Senegal's constitution over a dozen times to increase executive power and weaken the opposition, part of the President's increasingly autocratic governing style. Senegal has a long history of participating in international peacekeeping and regional mediation.

Geography People Government Economy Communications Transportation Military

Map data ©2010 AND, Geocentre Consulting, MapLink, Tele Atlas - Terms of Use

By the way, as of this writing, not one person has comment on my latest strategic for world peace, forever.  Click on "A Message for President Hu."

From my room, I noticed there was a ceremony next to the hotel (above).  This is the Wongudan altar, the Temple of Heaven.

I had dinner at Ninth Gate, a French steakhouse.  Another fusion restaurant.  With a gin martini, came a salmon pate.

Wongudan is behind me.  At the Temple Altar I  had grilled foie gras with truffles.  Soon FG will be banned, for it is considered to be cruel to ducks/geese.  Anyway, this is a terrible dish if you have any cholesterol problem.  A truffle is a fungus which has a swampy taste, but, over time, can grow on on you (the taste, that is)  The wine was an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon in a Spiegelau bordeaux glass.  For 3-4 ounces, this was way overpriced for $20.  Foie gras costs in the range of $300/pound, truffles, about double that.

My entre was a specially aged T-bone steak with creamed spinach and tempura onion rings.  The spinach was over creamed, but these were the best onion rings, ever, with the outside crisp and inside al dente.

The background music was what you might expect in heaven...if there is one.  My hostess was Ms. Woo.

Terrific service and a great meal.

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The Dow Jones Industrials fell 91 on Monday to 10,919, with world markets also mostly down and oil slipping to $82/barrel.  No, gold did not break another record, now down to $1346/toz. 

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Hurricane Paula at 75 MPH suddenly appeared east of the Yucatan, and is expect to gravitate towards Florida.

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CHINA'S GOT TALENT

I'll be off to Shanghai tomorrow.  Remember 10 year old Jackie from America's Got Talent?  The hottest news from the Orient is that two contestants from Shanghai, Liu Wei (22) and Zhang Fengxi (7), rose to the top of China's Got Talent.  Wei lost his arms while playing at the age of 10.  If you are not in some way inspired with his finalist performance, there is no hope for you.

He started to learn the piano just three years ago.  His motto is:

   I have two options--I can die as fast as possible, or I can live a brilliant life.  I chose the latter.

Fengxi is a 7 year old stand-up comedian.  Terrific #2.  She is a treat!

Oh, really prosaic, but while I'm on the subject of China, please click on my latest article in the Huffington Post:

A Message to President Hu Jintao

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ANOTHER BEST LUNCH EVER

Today was supposed to be a day at Daegu, Solar City.  However, the interface for this journey got delayed, so I'll go there next Spring.  Thus, I had a whole day to do nothing.  I decided to walk as far as I could, for I'm sure I've already gained five pounds.

I asked the Concierge what was the absolutely best place to have lunch in Seoul.  She suggested Sanchon because I was sort of planning to walk through Insadong, a street of antiques and Korean art, as I've never been there.  Well, this was a place for Monk food, a vegetarian restaurant, not my kind of thing.

Option two was lunch at COEX (formerly Korea Exhibition, now Convention Exhibition, really their World Trade Center) because that is where the G20 will be meeting next month, and security has been high on a list of things to do, for good reason, for this is also a sprawling mall.  The matter of international currency is a real concern and the Korean government has already banned any rallies close to the venue.  The attraction for me was that this hotel I'm in, interestingly enough, has two high profile restaurants there.  Unusual, because COEX is on the exact other side of town [An underground arcade walk of 20 minutes plus one hour on their mass transit system to get to the Samseong Station.  The cost was about a buck.  In Tokyo, the shortest (two minutes) subway ride is about $2.]

The train I used in Seoul had comfortable metal seats, so vandalism is impossible and there is no need for maintenance.  Honolulu, please use this material.  I noticed that talking on the phone is allowed here (in Japan, this is a big no-no), but the noise from the tracks masks the talking.  In fact, 75% had some sort of electronic device to watch, talk, listen, whatever.  Amazing!!!  Americans can easily survive, for at all stations, the announcements and video guides are in Korean and English.  Buy a T-Money card, similar to the Japan Suica.

bizbaz was, in a word, incredible.

It is a buffet, but a high premium one such as I've never experienced before.  It is also a very spacious setting, larger in footprint than the entire Westin Chosun.  I looked around and it was about a quarter filled, 90% female and mostly local people.

I had red and white wines, both Chilean (chardonnay and cabernet), each $10/glass.  I'm sure both bottles cost the same, but the white wine was poured into a tiny glass (maybe an ounce or two), while the red wine must have been at least 5 oz, if not 6.  If you go there, avoid white wines.

I started with an enhanced Caesar Salad, adding various nuts, onions, sardines, capers and olives.  Good start.

The next course consisted of Oriental appetizers and soba:  Peking Duck in the traditional pancake roll, assorted asian pickles, maguro (yellow fin tuna) and hirame (flounder ) sashimi and sushi, three kinds of shellfish sushi, two different types of wasabi...and this was 10% of the selection available.

Course two was a plate of kalbi (barbecued ribs), Korean chicken, mussel, escargot, salmon piccata (the best of show), scallop tempura and assorted kim chi.  Note how much more red wine there is.

I placed a dozen desserts on to my plate and had them with an expresso augmented cappuccino.  I must have missed 80% of what was available.  The best was a frozen persimmon.

Mind you, I could not touch the crustacean section (at least a dozen different preparations) and never got to the meat carving, Italian and noodle/soup stations.

The wines cost about half the price of the buffet, so the value was extraordinary.  All in all, this is the best value lunch I've ever had.

I ate enough for the remainder of my Korean stay, so for dinner later that day I walked around the basement of the Lotte Department store, hoping to find that perfect take out combination.  I gave up because nothing particularly appealed and stopped by the 7/11 for a Jinro (Korean sochu), Hite (beer) and two chip bags for all of $5.

In the early days of Itaewon, I bought t-shirts for $1.  Today, I must have spent several hundred dollars on two t-shirts and a simple vest.  However, the material was perfectly comfortable and, well, why not.  By the way, I did find a pair of cufflinks at a 100 yen shop in Tokyo.  If I laid my $1.22 cufflinks next to my $150 version, you wouldn't be able to tell which was cheaper.

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The Dow Jones Industrials and price of oil are on the right.

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