William Chow's Personal Web Page

The year is 2006.

China Round 2

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Today is the day we will go to the 2006 Horticulture Expo in Shenyang. Just as the name implies it is a huge garden show. It isn't so much like our kind of idea of a "Do It Yourself" home and garden type so. There are no vendors for grass seed or soil or funky garden tools or machines and tools for your garden. It is a display by many Chinese cities and International countries to make a representive garden display for the exposition.

Now, if you ask me, this expo thing is nothing more than a big advertisting pull for Shenyang to get the city name into the International scene. Hopefully, they might be able to lure some big foreign investments to their city.

But in addition to that, it is a big government money grab. Ok, sure it is a big government make work, make jobs, do advertisting, and do the enviromental green thing; all in one project. Of course, lots of money is coming in from entrance fees. It was in a taxi, that we learned from the driver how mean the government is. Well, the expo is in the middle of no where land in the countryside. Good place for it, since it was a wasteland before, now it is covered with beautiful grass, trees, and flowers. It normally would take about 40 minutes by taxi out there at a cost of about 30 yuan. Well, during the holidays, NO cars, NO taxis on the highway leading to the expo site. Instead, they will have a park and ride set up where you will PAY them 40 yuan for a bus ticket for them to shuttle you up (and back) off the site. Ok, if that wasn't a big enough grab, they also paid off all the taxi drivers NOT to take passengers up that highway. So each and every cabbie got paid like 380 yuan a day, not to take passengers up that highway. The drivers are getting ripped off, and there is really nothing they can do. Sure at 7 yuan for a local ride, that is easily a day's pay, but for those who think it is wrong, they can't argue over it because the deal requires all drivers compliance to get their pay off. So this is one of those things they just sit down and shut up and do as they are told. I also noted in the back window of each and every cab is a window sticker advertising the Expo. I bet that was part of the deal too.

So, the expo is broken up into a local part where various Chinese cities are given a chunk of land and they do up their garden. Many of them use things like flowers, plants, and trees. However some can get fancy with rocks, waterfalls, rivers, bridges, fountains, and throw in a few temples and pagodas too. It is a great place to spend a day outdoors and take some good photos with great looking natural backgrounds.

Part 1 of Pictures

The Experimental Chinese Food Of The Day is:
Deshi - Topsmen Beibei Su

This stuff is basically an ice cream sandwich. Unfortunately, the packaging lookings like there is chocolate coating on the waffer like ice cream. It also looks like there is egg in there somewhere.

Well, it is just regular plain vanilla ice cream put into a sandwich made using that two slices of that waffle cone stuff. So no egg, and no chocolate. The waffle stuff is too chewy and after eating it for a bit, it becomes a bit soggy. The other problem is that as you bite down on the hard waffle sandwich, the ice cream squirts out the sides. You would be better off buying the Nestle's Drumstick. Only real difference is that the Drumstick waffle is rolled into a cone, which will make the ice cream easier to eat because the cream won't squirt out the bottom.

Otherwise, being only vanilla with no chocolate, this gets my thumbs down.