Bacteria are my friends,
the reason I wash my hands,
but there's so much to learn,
and the midnight oil to burn,
what happened to my holiday plans?

杭州上海一游 A Holiday to Hangzhou and Shanghai

Hangzhou红烧狮子头, a Shanghainese delicacy.
(The most delicious meatballs you can ever taste!)

An exhibit at a TCM museum in Hangzhou.
猴枣is derived from monkeys like the one shown above.

Hand drawn noodles with 虾仁(shrimps)and鳝鱼(eel)

西湖(West Lake) in the morning

Shanghai

We watched the 越剧 《梅龙镇》。The performers were all female, even the male characters!

Chairman Mao's favorite 红烧肉。(braised pork)

田子坊aka泰康路where old houses were converted into shops,
art galleries, restaurants, cafes and pubs.

A multi-axis trainer at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
It was used to train astronauts in the past, but has been retired.
I tried it!

The past week overseas may not have been the most time efficient way of spending my holidays, but given a choice, I would not have spent my time anywhere else.
Why not time efficient? Coz my parents and I went there with barely a skeleton of a plan, and there were difficulties deciding what to do with our time. But a certain segment of the trip etched a deep impression on me, and this is significant.
There isn't much to see in Shanghai and Hangzhou if you aren't a fan of old temples, ex-residences and beautiful scenery. Or street vendors on bustling streets selling their wares at impossibly cheap prices (which is possible because its impossible to tell their wares from the real thing) There probably are some good buys though, if you have a discerning eye and time to spare ploughing through the goods for the real deal. I certainly found it a chore visiting these markets, because of unpleasant touts who followed you wherever you went and others who grabbed you and refused to let you go unless you spoke to them nicely. But then again it depends greatly on where exactly you go - an upmarket place like Raffles City won't tolerate such misdoings - the shopkeepers will market their wares enthusiastically instead of aggressively. (but an overly enthusiastic shopkeeper may be labelled as aggressive - you get the point)
And the food won't tempt you if you dislike stuff like steamed pork dumplings and hand made noodles just like those in Crystal Jade or DingTaiFung except the fact that they are sold at a fraction of the price here. You'll probably find your time in China miserable if you hate exotic food like tiny saltwater crabs with delicate, mouthwatering yellow paste. But for those that are really keen, traditional Shanghainese dishes like preserved fish (xun1 yu2) or salted pork soup with bamboo (yan1 du4 xian1) might be worth trying. I love Shanghainese cuisine, though I try not to think about all the salt and fat. For the health conscious, you can survive on Subway's Veggie Delight - they have a stall on Shanghai's Nanjing Road West.
For the cost-conscious, the cheapest food I've found so far is da1niang1shui3jiao3's pork dumplings that go for 5 yuan = ~S$1.1 for 6 pieces. Assuming you have a decent appetite for 12 dumplings a meal would cost you 2*1.1 = S$2.20. There is no upper limit for food prices.
I've also seen scarves going at 10yuan (S$2.20) a piece on makeshift roadside stalls that open and close sporadically depending on the frequency of police patrols.

Places
I visited Hangzhou for 3 days followed by 5 days of Shanghai. The transportation was interesting - getting to Hangzhou involved a 5 hour plane journey to Pudong Airport, then a bumpy 3 hour bus ride to a sports stadium in Hangzhou. (A direct flight to Hangzhou is also available, I think by Silkair, but we didn't take that route) I stayed in a hotel aptly named "hotel overlooking the lake" (wang4hu2jiu3dian4) because it was located just beside xi1hu2 (a very large and beautiful lake surrounded by rolling hills and cultural artefacts). Strolling along the lakeside, the morning breeze was chilly, but the lake more than made up for the cold. Words alone are insufficient to describe the lake, you have to see it to believe it!

Life seems to have gotten a lot better after the CAs... People are more relaxed (relatively) and you can almost feel the christmas cheer. The microbiology dept (surprise surprise!) has played a major role in this, with Prof Taylor and his staff donning red reindeer horns and festive hats in class. This is proof that "Contrary to common opinion, being a prof in a university does not mean that you become old and boring real quickly. Sometimes you just get wackier."

Prof Taylor makes school fun. The absence of exams makes it even more so. And the prospect of holidaying (escape!) makes life really enjoyable...

I'll be away from 6-14 Dec, on holiday to Shanghai and Hangzhou. For me the highlight would be the food (xiaolongbao, hongshaorou, shizitou, shengjianbao) and meeting my cousin whom I havent seen for 2 years. Shanghai is supposed to be my zuji (where my ancestors came from) so it'll be quite exciting.

I'm trying not to worry (but slowly working through) the pile of backlog I have right now. Some loose ends need to be settled before I leave.. but basically I want to enjoy the last week of school. (: