Welcome to Seoul

After a bit of a delay at the airport in Shanghai over the viability of J's visa, we were finally able to check-in. Luckily we'd arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we grabbed some lunch and then hopped on flight, arriving in Seoul around 7pm.
J had contacted her friend Peter, a classmate of hers in Chicago, and he met us at the airport. I hadn't seen him since the summer of 2009 myself, so it was great to catch up. Our first impression of Seoul was how clean and modern everything is, complete with Samsung and Hyundai products seen at every turn.
Although it was near 8pm, Peter said he'd be happy to take us to the N Seoul Tower where there is an observatory. We took the A'REX airport train to Seoul Station, then jumped in a (Kia) taxi to the top of Namsan, the southern mountain where the tower is located. The "N" in N Seoul Tower  stands for Namsan, apparently.
Peter told us that usually we would have to show our passports at the gate to the entrance road up to the tower, since only foreign visitors are allowed to take cars and taxis up. Koreans all take the bus or walk. It looked like a pretty steep climb to me, but Peter insisted that it was easy. Indeed, at the top of Namsan, there were gaggles of young people whom mostly looked to be on dates, dressed fashionably and enjoying the excellent evening weather.
Up on the observatory deck it soon became apparent as to why there were so many couples. The entire railing surrounding the deck is covered in pad-locks. Not just a few, but probably thousands. This is due to the tradition of couples putting a lock on the railing to symbolize the strength of their love, and some of the locks were indeed heart-shaped, or even had little love notes written on them. We hadn't come prepared with a lock, but Peter was nice enough to take our picture to commemorate the occasion. Then we went to a cafe inside the tower and all had some hot chocolate!
Around midnight, we hopped on the last cable car heading back down to level land. It put us near the center of town, and from there we grabbed a taxi to our guesthouse.
The guesthouse is a simple affair for budget travelers who still want a bit of comfort. It has clean sheets, fast internet, a massive, flat-screen LG television, and other amenities in the room, with access to a communal kitchen on the first floor where we could get coffee and toast with jam for breakfast the next day.
It all sounded great and the bed looked extremely comfy at that point, so we said goodbye to Peter and drifted into dreams.

Shanghai Expo

We had the morning free in Shanghai before we had to head to the airport, so we took the subway over to the 2010 World Expo site where the Chinese Pavilion is still open to the public. According to Xinhua (the Chinese news agency), there were so many visitors to the Chinese Pavilion during the actual expo (which ended in October last year) that they announced it would be reopened for six months in 2011. This likely gave more foreigners a chance to view the pavilion, whereas locals could wait until later to check it out.

We did our best to arrive early, and made it there about quarter to 9, just before it opened. There were already people heading toward the site in droves, but no massive lines. We did a speed-walk, bought tickets and joined the crowd inside. Although it was crowded, the staff did a great job in directing people where to go. And probably more than anything, the way the pavilion was designed and set up made it bearable for large crowds, and still be able to see everything. In fact, I believe Xinhua had noted the pavilion had a capacity of 4,000 people per hour, which is pretty amazing by any measure, but after going through the pavilion, I believe it.
I wouldn't say the actual exhibition was anything "museum worthy", but it was a show of what China is all about, from architecture, to history (there was a National Treasure on display, although it took 10 minutes of waiting in line and about 4 seconds to shuffle past it in a darkened room), to art, to the environment and the future. The architecture "tour" was done on a mini roller-coaster. People were diverted into multiple lines and the cars left every minute or so, meaning there was hardly a wait at all. The cars rolled past scenes in colored lights, showing ancient and modern bridges, old matrix-based joints for wooden structures such as temples, and newer architecture in the cities.
After about an hour, the pavilion tour was over. The exhibit was impressive in many ways, and it did make me wish I'd seen the pavilions of other nations as well had I visited last year. However, it was a good experience and will prepare me for what is to come should I have a chance to check out the next World Expo in, say, 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea, or in 2015 in Milan, Italy.

Friday in Shanghai

After checking out the alleyways of 'Old West Gate'，we looked around for a good place to grab some breakfast. We finally settled on a place that had rou jia mou, what I would call, basically, a Chinese hamburger. It is braised meat, shredded and put between an English-muffin-esque bun. We ate two each, as well as a rice porridge (xiao mi zhou), a hard-boiled and an over-easy egg, so needless to say, it all tasted great. J chided that the restaurant staff was probably thinking, "dang, these two eat a lot!"
Well, the rest of the day we did enough walking to more than make up for the big breakfast. Our next stop was Xi Tian Di, literally "new sky earth".
Xin Tian Di is a newly developed area of Shanghai which caters to foreign tourists. It's mostly restaurants and souvenir shops, all done in a very fashionable, outdoor-shopping-along-a-promenade type style. We passed up the Starbucks, but couldn't resist the coffee and free wireless internet connection at The Coffee Bean.
It was nearing 1pm, so we headed over to the Shanghai Museum, where we easily spent 3 hours checking out the exhibits on the four floors. The museum was certainly a highlight of the trip, and it was fun to get the audio guides to get some background information on many of the pieces, such as 5,000 year old iron wine vessels, and spectacular Jingdezhen "China porcelain" with under-glaze cobalt blue designs and stunning wucai (five-color) vases and dinner platters. J commented how amazing it was to see pieces that she'd only seen in books up until now, and I to agree that looking at 5,000 years of civilization was nothing less than breathtaking.
Nevertheless, the museum closed at 5pm, so we shuffled out of there, and headed over to Yu Gardens where they have a famous take-out shop for Shanghai xiao rampo dumplings, filled with pork and crab. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to buy 16 small dumplings (for about $3), but each one was a steamed bun of perfection. 
After that, we strolled down to the riverside to take a look at the skyline from the west side of the Huangpu River. As we walked along the pier, we could see the old British and French buildings ahead of us, which have been preserved in all their splendor. As it was nearing 10pm, we searched for a ferry to cross back to the east side of the river, where our hotel was, and were lucky to find the last one leaving at 9:45. We paid about 2 yuan each (about 0.20 cents!) and the ferry delivered us to the other side in just 10 minutes. Later, finally back at the hotel, we collapsed into bed, exhausted and having had a great time.