Over two days I traveled through three Chinese airports. Here is some of the more interesting stuff that caught my eye.
Shanghai Pudong Aiport Terminal 2 primarily handles domestic flights and is architecturally quite stunning. Quite expansive and with a wavy wood-planked roof gracefully supported by steel columns.
At an otherwise typical airport convenience store was this cooler...
...open it up if you'd like a chilled crab snack.
Another shop had tasty bagged duck parts...
...as well as something that wholly unpronounceable. By me at least:
Sure is tempting. As are the rubbery chicken feet.
Linyi has a very modern and seemingly oversize airport.
I was told that it has only been open for a week. And found, fresh on the shelves were items such as Bag o' duck:
Chinese PBR:
A gift box of bottled frog eggs:
Bottled scorpions:
yep, scorpions:
A ¥9800 (US $1471) ginseng root...
...but at least it has a certificate of authenticity. The shopkeeper told the guy that I was traveling with that it takes over 20 years for a specimen such as this to grow and that the serial number and certificate made this a highly sought-after root. Oh, and that it cures all too. But that was nothing compared to the deer parts he was also selling. Like a ¥2320 (US $348) antler:
...and an ¥1896 (US $284) deer penis:
Is that a good price for deer penis? I'm sure I could have talked him down to ¥1500 if pressed.
Finally, I was able to experience the joys of pull-tab beer cans in Linyi.
Mmm... lukewarm Chinese beer. This style of can had long been banished from the States before I was old enough to even think about drinking beer.
Shanhai Pudong Terminal 1 was also massive with soaring architecture.
Geared more towards the international traveler, I found these wares on the shelves. Such as Pocky and Pretz in popular flavors such as duck, panda, crab, green tea, unidentifiable brown stuff and mystery fruit:
A ¥780,000 (US $117,090!!) carving:
And a toy urinating dog:
Fill it up with real pee and laugh at your friends.
At a Taipei high speed rail station 7-11, one can buy disposable nuthuggers:
And finally, a couple of random signs:
结束
Longyang Road Station
we saw it hit 431 km/h (267 MPH), but the picture was even worse than this
Shanghai's iconic Oriental Pearl Tower (2004) on the left:
the much smaller Gutzlaff Signal Tower (1907):
and via the cliché Hipstamatic:
the Bund:
being there feels as if you're in an older European city...
...'cept for the various Chinese signs:
red flags fly over most buildings:
tourist-trap flea market:
trinkets:
boobies, Jesus, Mao and Big Ben lenticulars:
piles and piles of watches, I was offered plenty of "Rolex", "Bell & Ross" and other models - most hidden behind false walls:
also available: iPhone 4s (even the elusive white versions) and knockoff handbags from just about every luxury brand.
trade show Engrish:
hotel lobby chandelier:
cabbing it back to the Bund, in traffic:
skyline looks better at night, even if the phone's camera took noisy pix:
Hipstamatic hides such sins:
from a bar:
結束
