Back to the land of the World Horticulture Expo. This is Day 2 spent here, the area is so big that by the end of the day we still have not covered a good spread of the place. There were still so many tiny little corners to walk to. Just from one side of the place to the other takes about 30 mins nonstop without stopping to seeing anything. Plus the entrance/exit is so far from the everywhere else.


We had to pass the chang an flower valley plots again. And once again, we stopped to take photos of the flowers beds on the other side. The weather was very very nice, a good 15 degC and we barely saw the sunshine the whole day. Dint even bother to bring my sweater coz the weather was simply so good that morning.


We went through the rest of the international plots and ended up at a cluster of shops selling fancy little souvenirs. Its amazing how this whole place barely sold any plant related items like live plants and products, the closest we've seen to plants was a store selling floral seeds.


Dint want to put up plot photos, but there was this very interesting 'journey to the west' topiary in the middle of no where. I love their topiary, they always have some cute or retarded looking mass of plants at every corner.


Oh well. One of the nice thing about the design of the expo was that the little (or rather huge lake) centers the entire place, and the main attraction here, the chang an pagoda, could be seen from almost every view point on the map. It sticks out out the landscaping and actually looks pretty good.

There is this section where there were a series of stone bridges all over the place. I love Chinese stone bridges, they always look very nice with the water all in reflecto mood.



Lunch time was at the Southeast Asian Street of the expo. It was one of their service zones, and we had a spread of set lunch with consist of soggy vegetables and overcooked meat. But funny how many people still eat it, i guess all these crappy fast food are like the only crap things available for eating.


One of the things that me and Doris found utterly amusing was the signboards. In fact all over the damn China, no one can get the translations right. They can get the main board of rules and regulations all right, but they cant get simple advisory messages right.

check these out:

爱护脚下草，莫折头花 - take care of the grass under your ,foot dont pick the head flowers
我也是生命，请脚下留情 - I'm also the life,please show mercy to your underfooting please

for a start they cant get their punctuation right, and then they have sentence problems. We were wondering who exactly is the one who did this translation.


Finally managed to get into the Changan pagoda after sticking out a 1 hours queue line. Cant believe there are so many people that we have to queue 1 hour, but apparently this is not the worst. Considering that there really isnt that many people there today.

The amazing thing about this tower, is that there is no life going up, only down. They had directed traffic in such a way that you had to walk all the way up 11 floors. And there was no aircon in the damn place, and no open windows. The whole place was like a freaking glasshouse trapping heat, in fact, irony was that the dark and steep stairway shaft was the coolest point in the whole damn tower.

Only elderly were to take the lift up, they even stopped pregnant women from taking the lift up.


This is the bane of the whole expo, the wait into the glasshouse. The Greenhouse is one of their main features of the expo and located at the Splendid Lake is the botanic greenhouse of the International Horticultural Exposition 2011 Xi’an.

The whole thing took us more than 2 hours to queue. It was so damn slowwwww. It was already towards the end of the day and we were hungry and our feet were so tired already. Poor Doris kept squatting on the floor to release some tension in the legs. And I was practically doing some leg stretches.  We even had time to talk to the local Chinese lady standing behind us.


Getting into the greenhouse was like finally after 2 hours. At least it was pretty inside. There was a rain forest section where it looked just like Singapore, with tropical flowering plants and orchids plus a waterfall to humidify the air.


And then the arid regions displays of cactus and live display of many large lizards. dint take a good photo of them coz it was through a horribly unclear glass. They even had maggots thrice the fatness of your thumb. They also had dried insect specimens pinned on the wall in a dark tunnel which i dint get good photos of.


It was almost 7 by the time we left the greenhouse. The sun was setting and the light displays where coming out to play. We decided to come back one more day to cover the rest of the displays. There where still so many things we havnt seen. Only a good 75% was covered over two days.


We had western back at the hotel. And back to reading mails. Another day which ended so tired that we went to bed at about 9.


I've only sorted out my photos till day 3 of the whole trip, havent had the time (due to PS3) to sort the rest out.

Horrible time spend playing on my new PS3 aside, its amazing i found the will to blog (actually its just because my mom chased me out of the living room and i cant hog the TV).

It's Monday, and its also a work day for me down at Xi'an. No more playing at ancient city walls, and better get down to sorting out our horticulturally self proclaimed itinerary. For the highlight of the trip - World Horticulture Expo @ Xi'an. Its supposed to be a major expo, and it lasts almost 6 months of the year.

We took a cab straight from the hotel, and right through the entry gates with all the security checks, our dear Doris got stopped for carrying a set of steal utensil set in her bag. I was like 'who the hell brings spare utensil when going to an expo'? In the end we had to make a detour to the bag holding station to drop it off for collection later, and then re-enter the damn entrances.


Right from the entrances was a whole flower bed of pretty little hyacinth looking flowers, but they are not. They were blooming all over the place and we decided that they were probably bulbs that have reached the flowering season in summer.


This is the Guanyun entrance, located at the north-east part of the exposition site, is the main entrance of the International Horticultural Exposition 2011 Xi’an. It is one of the architectural highlights of the expo.

The ramp is made up of water features and square flowers gardens, with horticulture features paving the way from the highest end to the lowest end, well-integrating with the Chang’an Flower Valley. The Flower valley showcased plots and plots of in season blooms. Each plot had a full color theme and held a whole field of flowers from a range of rainbow colors


Straight out at the entrance before the bridge, there was this flower wall of a mascot. Until now I'm not 100% sure of the name of the damn weird looking mascot, but i think its called the chang hua. It is supposed to be stark red, but i think the blooms have not fully opened so its still a deep red mass.


The horticultural expo is filled with varying plots of landscape design, integrating water, plants, themes, hard structures. Some of the plots have really pretty Chinese themed landscaping design and i thought being in China, these little flavor of Chinese architecture is really appropriate and gives me a pretty soothing feeling.


One of the fun things about the expo is collecting passport stamps. Between me and Doris, we bought one of those little passport books that they sell for 20 yuan at the entrances. Each location had their own stamps and you have over 100 stamps to collect all over the 400 plus hectares of land.


Each station had a little table with an attached steal box where you get your passport stamped. Other places you have search high and low for those people who were distributing stamps. It was like a hide and seek all over the park.


There wernt many lookout points in the place. But the weather was nice for a stroll around. Temperature was something like 15deg with the dry drizzle, and the sun was no where to be seen. But shrouded in the misty foggy smog thing of a jig, you cant really see far from the look out points anyway.


Flowers were everywhere. That is one of the nice things about living in the temperate region, you can always count on the climate to give you nice annuals with solid luminating colors at any season. Remember in the UK, when i spend too much time trying to grow hyacinths in my room.


They had little chang hua mascots at the European Avenue Service Zone. The business area where you get your souvenir shops and your food places and toilets were designed to look just as if you were in Europe. Well, minus all those very cheena piang signboards that were hanging all over the place.

They even had a train to shutter people around the very huge 400+ hectares of land. The only down point was the queue to get onto the train, you are better off walking if the weather is good.


I love food, but honestly the range of food they have in this place is utter crap. They are all fast food Chinese style. And everything seems to be hong sao beef or chicken or with mala of something like that. And since i dont really eat chili, my options for food is minimized by a many folds.


One is the most interesting plots displays where the international gardens. Where they featured plants and architectural from each country. Decided not to put them all here coz they will just probably look all the same to you guys anyway.



Being Doris's first trip out of Singapore, Aussie and NZ (she hasnt even been to rest of SEA), she was happily taking photos and even paid 10yuan to have those minority people pose with her in their very colorful costume. I hate spending small money like these. So i really dint even bother.


But the time we were half way through the afternoon towards the end of the evening, it started to rain slightly heavy. We even had to whip our our umbrellas and even take shelter in one of the themed garden.

I love old Chinese building architecture. They look so beautiful and all donned out in red pain and curved rooftops. Honestly if i had to say, so far out of all the cultural architecture, I love the Chinese ones the best. They are so distinctively Chinese and really so beautiful. Another one that is gorgeous is the Roman. But between the two, I think i prefer the Chinese based on just shape and color, but in terms of story and symbolism ill go Roman.


This Doris tempted me to do henna at one of the shops. 20yuan to get your hands decked out in dye. Plus it was raining outside and it was one tough job trying to keep out hands dry and maneuver our umbrella. Doris did both hands so I really had no idea how she even managed to get her umbrella open without getting the henna all over the place.

Just a side note, henna is supposed to last up to two weeks on skin right? I think mine only lasted 3 days before completely disappearing.


We spent the rest of the evening walking with umbrellas in the very heavy rain. We strived to cover at least 25% of the damn place. And the international gardens really took us the whole day just to cover it. Plus towards the evening as the rain grew heavier, there were really less and less people, but my poor nike sneakers were soaked to the socks (this shoe took 2 whole days to dry in the aircon hotel room).


They had very colorful shops all over the place. Doris was so happily buying accessories. Within a couple of shops she managed to get two pairs of ear rings, three sets of bangles and i dont know what funny thing.


It was a mad rush for taxis when i got back out to the exit. The stupid taxi stand had no queue and we literally have to fight and run for taxis. Like typical Chinese women who shove and scream at the top of their voices at. When you are in Chinese, behave like the Chinese.

Even though it is just very hard to make yourself spit on the floor like the Chinese. They still do that all over China man. even in the most public of places like the expo and shopping roads, they spit like no body business.

Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel our feet were tired and our shoes where wet and soaking like crazy. And i chipped my nail trying to undo the double knot i did to my laces in order to get them out and open to dry. Chipped my damn beautiful nail!!!!


Too tried to get out to the streets for food, we decided to just eat at the restaurant downstairs. They served decent food, pretty expensive but who really cares if the portions look right. Plus we got to check out mails while having food.

Was to tired by the end of the day i literally knocked out into deep slumber once my head hit the pillow. It really took me less than 2 minutes.

Kimchi stew tastes better than kimchi.

My first and very last minute trip to Xi'an, China. Doris and I were only informed less than 6 days in advance and we had to rush submission of paper, book our air tickets, our hotels and get our insurances right. And the had to get all our outstanding work done and pack our bags for the airport. All in less than 5 days.

Reaching Xi'an, we were greeted by a whole smog of a country. Xi'an's air feels just like Beijing's, all smogged up with pollution and air so thick you feel like you are breathing dust. At first I thought it was foggy, but the taxi driver said that the air is blurry coz of pollution.

Arrival at Hyatt where we checked into out room on the 5th floor facing the main road, good view. The concierge guy even helped out with our work itinerary, answered some retarded questions asked in half past six mandarin and got our tickets for the next day sorted out and delivered.

We were so hungry by the time we got refreshed with a wash of face and a layer of make up. We had lunch at the hotel Chinese restaurant before heading east to the nearest city wall gate.

The city of Xi'an is divided clearly into two distinct parts - the heart of the city functions from within a 14km ancient city wall and the outer city which lies outside. Xi'an, like many cities in the world, functions in a perfectly almost grid like city layout.

The old walls were already structurally there in the Tang Dynasty, but were extended and enlarged in the Ming dynasty some 600+ years ago by their first emperor. Now it stands a good 14km in length and 12 meters high in the center of a rapidly growing ancient capital.



Crossing the road would be a unique experience for someone who has never done china before. For me, last trip in Guilin has taught me to walk with confidence across a street with raving cars traveling at break neck speed. Since Chinese roads practically have no rules, you can cross without restrictions too.

The gate was right at the center of a massive roundabout. Only way to get to the front doors is to (a) get a bus or taxi in by the back carpark or (b) dare to cross the 4 lane speeding traffic. No zebra crossing or traffic lights.

This was Doris's first trip to China and practically out of the Australia / New Zealand comfort zone, so she had no idea how Asia, much less how China was like, much less how to cross their roads without blinking an eyelid. She knew nothing about the food and the toilets and like me, barely knew anything about the language either. She was practically squeezing my arm and screaming in fear when crossing the roads.

I think Italy has trained me well in crossing busy roads like this. I have been pretty well traveled for my age to know how to cross roads like these.

• Walk in a slow steady speed
• Walk with your eyes close in the general direction of destination

One of the things i love about China is how they value the color red. It is almost one of my well loved colors and everything at corners and rooftops are all donned in a wholesome shade of blood red. Not to mention the gold trimmings or yellow add-ons. All distinctively and beautifully Chinese.

For a start, those massive red gates were gorgeous.

The gates all had two entrances. The main on for lowering the suspension bridges, and the inner one for the main entrances, the middle lies a huge courtyard for soldiers to station themselves.


They even had props like a sedan, drums and swords for us to pose and play with. The weather was slightly humid and a tiny bit hot. I was kinda semi sweating in my tank top.


One of the things that was highly recommended that you do when you are at Xi'an, is to take a ride over the city walls by bicycle. Initally we wanted to just take the electric buggy all round the city wall just coz the weather is just so humid and we both barely had enough sleep. but after looking at the cost, we decided to take the bicycle instead. It cost only 20y to rent the bike for two hours. And seriously, what is 11 km of city wall to ride across when we do it as part of our jobs?


Our little bike excursion started with a whole bunch of photo whoring. Lucky Doris is pretty much a photo whorer to so I dint have to worry for having a lack of photos.


I could say we spent a good 30 mins taking photos instead of riding. Within that 30 mins I dont even think we got 2 km worth of ride. Kept stopping at every other point on the 12m wide city wall to take photos and more photos. You cant imagine the number of photos i had to sort out.


Each section of the wall looked the same from the top, but at the bottom, there are so many different activities going on. Each gate had a small little something to offer.


The north gate was where the Xi'an train station was, plus there was a city square there swarming with hordes of people and buses. Then slightly forward was a brilliantly roofed temple, then there was the corner watch tower, then a whole garden, modern buildings



There was no one on the wall, at least not that many people zooming past us in their bicycles, so we had all the time and the space to do a jump shot. After doing so many over the years, I think I have pretty good jumps caught on camera.




I think by the time we almost reached the end, I could tell that I was already physically tired from the lack of sleep from a horrible plane ride, and from the cycling. But we still had one more side of the wall to go.


We finished the wall in approximately 2 hours. 11km of potholed stone bricked flooring and bumpy unconcealed cabling. We still made it in one piece to the south gate.


As usual, the gate was in the middle of a busy peak hour roundabout. Our next destination was off in the distance, marked by the bell tower at the end of the street.


We headed out to Muslim Street for dinner. According to everyone (man and internet), this is the place where you will find Xian's local tastes. It was a night market and the whole street was slowly getting lit by lights as the night came rolling in.

All shops and restaurants in the street are operated by Muslims. And it was like their local bugis street, with loads of local restaurants and small stores. Muslim Street is the epicenter of the city's Muslim community, dating back to the days of the Silk Road.


Dinner for the day？ Yang Rou Pao Mo (Shredded Bread Soaked in Mutton Stew) is a local dish that is enjoyed throughout Shaanxi Province but is particularly popular in Xi'an City. It tastes exactly like our Singapore indian mutton soup with fully soaked pieces of bread. Even ordered BBQ chicken wings, done china style like how chengxin use to do when we were in UK.

They give you a bowl with a piece of nann, and you were supposed to tear it up into the size you want before handling it back to be filled with soup. How the hell did we know right?

I was the only person out of us two who were willing to eat out of our comfort zone. Our dear Doris happily ordered yangzhou fried rice just because she doesn't eat anything she doesn't know. And none of us could actually comprehend the menu which was printed in Chinese. Neither does she eat mutton or beef or anything that looks vaguely foreign.


Took a 25 minute walk back to the hotel. We dint even know that the bell tower was a whole 20 minutes by foot. All we were told were that there were only two streets. Well... two very long streets. By the time I got back to the hotel, I think I was half zoned out from exhaustion and knocked out to deep slumber once i hit those very comfy covers.