June 23, 2006
Shenyang's botanical gardens have been temporarily consumed by the 2006 International Horticultural Expo, or so we discovered when the bus dropped us at a stop we had hoped would be the gardens. Since we can't really communicate, we just smiled and tried to pronounce the Chinese name for the botanical garden and then hoped for the best. Well placed on a massive area of land, the Expo had a grand entrance, loads of services and an impressive spire named the Lily Tower, which yes, looks a bit like a lily. Sadly, most of the exhibits didn't live up to the venue, though.
There just weren't enough plants and flowers. For example, in the internationally-themed section, most countries had large shop-like areas with prominently placed vendors selling bobbles, and seemed to just stuff a few flowers off to the side. On the up side, the Turkish exhibit offered several Turkish dishes. Leah made a bee-line towards this "exhibit" and snapped up a pide, a sort of oblong pizza. I veered to the Turkish ice cream window, watched the show where the Turkish vendors were playing with their patrons by throwing the very sticky ice cream around, pretending to drop it and yelling while clanging a bell. After getting tapped on the bill of my hat with the bottom of the cone and having it pulled from my hand, I finally got to eat it. Yum.
-David
