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Asia can be a pretty bewildering place for us lao wai (outsiders). If you're one of those people that loves being out on a limb then China might just be the place for you. It's those moments when you're not really sure what's going on but you've had to throw your hat into the ring - you don't quite know where you're going to end up or what's going to turn up on your plate - they tend to be the experiences that you will ultimately remember most fondly. Learning to just go with it and enjoy the unknown is one of travelling's great lessons.
There's no doubt about it, travelling through China is not for the faint-hearted. The cities are swarming with people dashing around, most of them talking at the tops of their voices (you wouldn't call the Chinese a reserved race in the decibel stakes). Crossing the road requires nerves of steel. The Chinese view red lights as strictly optional suggestions and most of them totally ignore them. Cars, buses and lorries come flying at you and will expect you to get out of their way, little green man or not. Any attempt at ignoring them will
initiate a volley of horn honking like you've never heard. Indeed, the people here are of the belief that most things can be remedied by a good blast of their horn. It's standard practice to beep any vehicle that you over/under take, even if they haven't shown the slightest signs of inexplicably veering into your lane. It's also very useful when you're riding your scooter at high speed along the pavement of a busy shopping area...
Now throw into the mix the problems with language. There are some 56,000 characters in written Mandarin (lets not even consider Cantonese or the other minority languages here!). You just don't stand a chance of recognising more than a handful. Luckily, many of the street signs are written in Pinyin, which is Mandarin written using the Roman alphabet. Almost every other sign is therefore off limits. This leaves you needing to learn as much spoken Mandarin as possible and it's here that we really run into problems. Firstly, the words are all formed from sounds that are exceedingly similar (e.g. Tse, Che, She, Ze) making them pretty hard to remember. In the event that you do manage to remember something, you're almost certain
Shanghai skyline by night
The skyscraper on the right is one huge TV. You can watch documentaries from miles away across the river!to get the pronounciation wrong - it's normally quite different from how you would pronounce words in English. On top of this, Mandarin is a tonal language - the same word can have five different meanings depending on which of the five tones in which it is said. While this lends a wonderful melodic quality to the language it doesn't make it exactly easy for crash course travellers!
Now, we're not the kind of people that expect English to be spoken wherever we go but the odd English speaker here has been a godsend. Meals have proved to be particularly troublesome. It goes something like this:
First you sit down and get presented with a menu of undecipherable symbols. All you can do is look pleadingly at the waitress and desperately state that you don't understand (wor boo ming bai). The waitress will do her best and carry on suggesting things on the off chance that you spontaneously develop the capacity to understand Mandarin. If you're exceptionally lucky you may be shown a display of plates with all their meals arranged on them and you'll be deliriously happy that there may be a way out. This sensation rapidly
Shanghai Neon
My god they love Neon here! fades as you realise that you have absolutely no idea what any of the meals actually consist of - remember these guys eat pretty much anything - crawling, slithering, barking or meiowing.... By this point half the restaurant staff will be sweetly trying to assist and nervously giggling in sympathy for your pathetic efforts. Nearby tables may come to your aid. We could call this the "ask the restaurant" phase.
If none of this has worked - the waitress just isn't happy at your protestations that just rice and vegetables will be fine - they may (as happened to us) phone an English speaker to translate for you. This "phone a friend" phase hones down the shortlist, you then go 50:50 and you've just won who wants to have some dinner!
These experiences highlight something very evident about the people of China. They are wonderfully friendly and helpful. Almost all of them want to assist you, have their photo taken with you or just say hello and welcome to China when you pass them on the street. You just don't get anywhere near the same level of harassment that you can get on the street in the rest
of South East Asia. If you say no, then by and large they just leave you alone.
Our first destination was Shanghai - China's home grown rival to Hong Kong as the country's economic powerhouse. It's an impressive vibrant city. Although centred on the ex-colonial waterfront (the Bund), the new Shanghai skyline across the Huangpu river in Pudong is starting to dominate. The huge new skyscrapers, including the bizarre Oriental Pearl Tower and the enourmous Jinmao Tower, symbolise Chinese commercial intent. The new skyline comes to life at night when neon dominates in all its many colours. You won't find any more neon than on Nanjing Donglu, Shanghai's shopping mecca. The billboards are plastered with western celebs who smile down on the frenzied consumerismin on the streets below. The same hawker will offer you DVDs, watches, shoes - anything you want all in one long retail breath.
In amidst the consumers live the lost. The arrival of capitalism in China brought with it a wide wage gap. Those that could not swim are visibly drowning on the streets.
The construction of new Shanghai continues at pace. Building sites are in operation well into the night. Workers left
Caligraphy
in Shanghai Museum the site opposite our hotel at about 10 pm. You can marvel at the fruits of old China in Shanghai Museum, which has thousands of astonishing exhibits. Beautiful porcelain, carved jade, calligraphy, painting etc. , much of which was created while Europe was in its dark ages, or even well into the BC years. The quality of the workmanship is a stark reminder that Chinese culture is an ancient one.
There are some terrific temples (e.g. the Jade Buddha Temple) and gardens (e.g. Yuyuan) to visit across the city. We decided to catch a cab home one time and were a little stunned that our cabbie was dressed up like a rear admiral! We were entertained on the journey by reading the taxi company's rules, in which there were some classic translations. Our favourite was:
Psychos and drunkards without guardians are prohibited from taking taxis
We just loved the mental image of a pyschopath merrily getting into a taxi with his Auntie while his equally pyschotic friend (with no legal guardian) trudged off to the bus stop.
One thing that is a must in modern day Shanghai is the hilarious Bund Sightseeing Tunnel - an underground train ride under the Huangpu river. In typical Chinese
style its been neon-ed up to the eyeballs. London Underground could take some pointers...
After a few days we took the plunge and headed west. This required a visit to the train station, and that won't be forgotten in a hurry. The enormous ticket hall was crammed with people. The Chinese don't like to queue and think nothing of barging in front of one another (and you!) or knocking you out of the way. Our ordeal over, we boarded our train to Nanchang and settled down for the night. The "soft sleeper" (not that soft - they mean that its not just a plank of wood) carriages are fantastic and the trains actually run on time (London Underground and Network Rail could take some pointers...).
We took a bus straight to Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi province. This area is renowned as being the cradle of the revolution. It was in the surrounding hills that Mao Ze Dong mustered his forces. He later used Lushan as a retreat, including using the holiday home of his predecessor, Chaing Kiashek (Meilu Villa). It's a strange place - a fairly sizeable town perched on top of a sheer mountain. Lushan was full
Massive ship on the Huangpu River
Huge vessels sail straight through the centre of Shanghai past the enormous Jinmao Tower (back left) of Chinese tour groups wearing various colour baseball caps according to their affiliation. We were the only westerners in town and the object of both fascination and much mirth. We had unwittingly chosen an area that few foreigners ever visited as our first destination on the road. While that was fine it did mean that absolutely no English was spoken by anyone. Not too wise when your number of words in Mandarin can be counted on one hand...
Our poor linguistic skills caused a scene at our first venture into a Lushan restaurant. A sweet Mongolian tour guide came to our aid and managed to put in an order for us. However, when the chicken dish arrived it was accompanied by decapitated head and amputated claw - this didn't go down too well with the Snooze!
We took a walk from Immortal's Cave to Dragon Head Cliff through some stunning vertical scenery, but the serenity of the mountain was a little undermined by the tour groups marching past being marshalled by their megaphone-weilding guides!
We stayed in Nanchang for a night and then took our second overnighter, to Guilin. This time we had company in our cabin.
Pychedelic Underground
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, Shanghai First we chatted to a cop from Fuzhou for a few hours - as well as we could anyway - he spoke no English, but tried manfully to try to get some Mandarin into our heads! Our other companion was Chris (that's his English name anyway!) from Guangzhou, who spoke perfect English and we spent hours chatting to him about new China.
Apparently, most Chinese love Guilin and are immensely proud of the place - and rightly so. It's a likeable, relaxed city with picturesque waterways and bridges. It's set amongst some dramatic Karst scenery - huge upthrusts of rock dot the landscape around and within the city. These pinnacles offer some great views of the city's surroundings. A lot of the travel brochure photos of China come from this area. It's just a beautiful landscape.
We spent a few days trekking around the temples and parks in the city before heading to Yangshou, where we are now staying. Yangshou has long been a backpacker hangout due to its relaxed vibe and situation deep in the Karst countryside. We'll give you the lowdown next time.
Zai jyen
T&S
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Annie
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Wow!! You went to Guilin!!! I've only ever seen it in pictures and have never met anyone who actually went there, you lucky people. It's almost unreal the way those mountains shoot up out of the ground, almost like something out of Lord of the Rings. Re: the chicken-head and claw supper, I think that the image of some of the food is one thing that's put me off ever going to mainland China, however, the rest of your blog makes me want to get on the first plane there. Great pictures, guys!xoxoxox