China Trip Pt 6: ERA Shanghai Circus

Remember that we got tickets to watch the ERA Circus's Intersection of Time? We were supposed to reach at 7pm and use our vouchers to exchange for actual tickets. The earlier we reached, the better tickets we would get...

While the circus was really exciting and it made me and Max cry, the journey to watch the circus itself was a little adventure worth blogging about..

To start off, you have to remember that in order to let Ace pose with the coke car, we bought him a bottle of coke and he has been drinking it on off.. mostly by himself. We figured we will need about 45 minutes to get from where we are to the Circus Metro stop and so since we had about 15 minutes left, we decided to get a drink and go toilet first:)

Max got this bubble tea with pudding and we shared it amongst three of us. But as it was sweet and yummy, I think I dun need to tell you who drank most of the tea...

So after drinking tea, Max decided to go toilet. It is important to note at this point that throughout the day, Max has gone to toilet three times already. Each time, he would ask Ace if he wants to go but Ace would shake his head and say no.. at our insistence though, this time, he decided to go...

Our good fren went to toilet, peed and then felt the rumbling of the tummy but found it to be too dirty to do it in the men's loo.. so leh, his dad brought him out and passed him to me to bring him the lady's toilet to BOMB toilet...

And after the poor ah sum had to bear with the stench and clean bum for the little prince, we went down to the MRT station.. But once in the MRT, the little prince who had just peed and bombed told us that he is urgent again!!

We were already very late and the trains were very crowded and there were NO toilets inside the station itself and neither were there any toilets when we changed lines... so we had to encourage Ace to hold it in. And even though he said he can only hold it in for 3 minutes.. he eventually held it all in for a good 30 minute train ride... he was concentrating so hard on holding in his pee that he started to sweat!

And it did not help tat the trains were as crowded as Singaporean MRTs during peak hours. (PS, on a side note: I told Max this is how Singaporean MRT trains are like now most of the time and he finally UNDERSTOOD all my gripes about my system and stopped labeling me as an INGRATE whenever I complained about the train system and what I would like the government of Singapore to do better...)

When we finally reached our station, we rushed out.. only to find tat the toilets are OUTSIDE the station...

(This pic sidetrack little bit.. I just tot the sign is cute and took a pic of it)

Anyway, we ran out of the station after asking for directions but in our haste, we got very kan cheong.. so I saw this sign that said there is a toilet and we ran in the direction the sign pointed. Alas, the toilets were not there.. after running for another 400 meters, we still could not see any toilets.. out of desperation, Max brought Ace to a dark corner in the park to pee at a bush..

I told my friends who were staying in China about this and they said that it is the norm in China to pee everywhere and anywhere.. especially for children.. "Next time, when in China, do as the chinese do.. dun bother looking for a toilet.. hahahahaha.." She said.

Anyway, after Ace's blessed release, it was another mad run towards the circus dome to exchange our tickets.. I hope we get good tickets!

The pic below is Ace being very happy cos he says "We are finally here!!!"

When we got inside the circus, Ace was very upset.. he said we got the worst seats cos we are seated in frong of this round thing that covered the stage and he thinks we cannot see anything! We had to explain that it would be removed later during the show before he was finally able to relax...

We are so glad we made it in time..

The sign says, "Dear Audiences, welcome to the super multimedia play, Intersection of Time.." it also reminded everyone not to take pics or video.. so boh pian.. the following pics I had to google from the internet just so I could remember what we watched....

The first act was a mirror act. I felt it was more or a dance than a circus act as there was lots of dancing involved even though there was like a "flower" by the side where you can see the silhouette of someone who is twisting her body into impossible positions...

After that, there was this boat tat "floated" in.. dunno how they did it but the boat seemed to be moving slowly and accurately... and when it stopped, the "boatman" started juggling bowls on his head...

But tat was just to warm you up.. the next act really made my heart leap. There was this group of teenage boys (their performance livespan peaks at around age 22 and they start training at age 3) started stacking hoops and jumping over them! The hoops were sometimes stacked taller than Max by a few heads and many a times were revolving too! Everytime they leapt through the hoops, my heart leapt together with them!

Then there was this man who carried this huge jug and somehow, his very small jug can actually hide 4 beautiful "snake women"! After he let them out, he started juggling with the heavy porcelain jug...  He even balanced it in the middle of his head! I wonder if he has some line entrenched in his skill already after practicing this skill for so long...

Then it is the snake women's turn to twist and contort their bodies into impossible positions that take your breadth away! Dun try this at home!!!

I must say actually the storyline is quite flimsy because I also dun understand why suddenly there are these people who appeared in space suits and they started jumping and blancing on this wheel that is constantlly turning. So their legs have to keep moving or they might fall. There were so many times I thought they might fall and my heart jumped right out into my mouth!

Throughout it all though, someone was just thinking about eating popcorn..."I want to eat popcorn.. I want to eat popcorn..." He kept on mumbling to himself.. not daring to make it into a demand in case he kenna from his dad... "Do you want me to go and buy for you now and miss the show?" His dad asked him..

That shut him up proper.. BUT he still continued to mumble the word "popcorn.." every now and then.. finally during the intermission.. his dad went to get him some popcorn (cos we also did not have time to eat dinner..)

That is why the dad has the angry face and our little prince has a super happy face:) hahahah

Part two started with three gymnast-like acrobats who had tonnes of control over their muscles.. sure very muscular I think.. and as they moved, there was some sort of machine tat would take their shadow and cast many more shadows on the screen.. too bad I couldnt find a picture of the full effect here...

Then there was the russian swing... This one started out with just people swinging high into the air, somersault and land on the target mattress they prepared. Then slowly, they started to get people to wear stilts and get people to jump on one end of the see saw so tat the man in stilts who was on the other end would fly into the air, somersault and land on the target mattress they prepared! My heart was thumping so hard for them cos the stilts were as tall as a human being!

Eventually, they actually managed to get this girl to jump into the air, somersault and end up seating on a chair that is raised up high..Aiyoh, I was so afraid the girl would fall off!!!

Then came some people jumping on trampolines and bouncing in the air.. at this point hor, i started to tear.. I dunno why.. it was not like the story was nice or what.. just I was so touched because I felt that what they were doing is so beautiful...

This act is called "Forever".. it has two lovebirds entwined on a piece of long cloth and they were twirling around in impossible positions.. they were so lovey dovey and they made this seem so effortless! It is Max's favourite act and so it deserves MORE pictures:) hahahaha.. I felt tat the girl and the man dam handsome and dam chio.. especially when the girl had her sleek, straight, long hair flowing... wah lau.. like 仙女下凡 lor!

And then leh, was the grand finale.. a motorcycle act tat has motorbikes going into a spherical cage and running around at a fast speed... they kept adding more bikes till eventually the little cage fit 8 bikes in it at one go! I was so afraid they might be an accident or that they might injure themselves!

All in all, I think the circus is me and Max's favourite part of the whole trip:)

After the show, we went outside to take some pics of their posters..

And tat is Ace posing in front of his favourite act.. he says it is his favourite because he was worried for them and because this act made his dad and mum's heart pump very hard.. hahahah;)

The way home on the train, Ace was so inspired that he tried to climb up the pole.. and he din do too badly too:)

While walking back to the hotel from the mrt station, we saw this signboard.. Couldnt resist taking this picture cos Kdrama fans will know what "I love OPPA" means:)

You wouldnt believe it but there is a CAPITOL THEATRE in shanghai too!!!!!

Harlow harlow... anybody home?

Yes, yes, I am at home...

Took this pic while Max went to the supermart opposite to buy snacks for the night. For some reason, Ace started street dancing on the streets! wahahaha.. heng it was quite dark already and not many people around.. wahahaha;)

We were famished and finally found a restaurant that was still opened and had vegeterian food:) We ordered mapo doufu and asked if it was spicy. They said it was slightly spicy but it turned out to be very spicy.. our chinese friends say next time they say SLIGHTLY spicy.. always assume it to be very spicy.. cos their tastebuds are different from ours!

Luckily there is still Ace's fav egg with tomato...

And we also tried this local veggie.. it is some sort of veggie cooked with toufu slices in some sort of stock...

After a good meal, we went back, bathed and zzzz all the way.. super tired man! And we had to wake early the next day cos we were travelling on a train to Suzhou and breakfast in our hotel ends early at 10.30am!

More about our trip to Suzhou in the next post...

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