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Published: November 29th 2007
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Shanghai Skyline
Everything you see in this picture was built in the last seventeen years - before that it was farmland. Written by Andrew
Jen and I were looking forward to our time in China, and not knowing exactly what we would be getting ourselves into. We were on a 14 day group tour with Jen's parents that covered a lot of ground. The tour was a wedding present from Jen's folks and a great excuse for them to see the world with us.
We weren't too sure about how we would like being on a group tour, but it was a welcome relief from organizing...after being on the road for almost eight months, spending a couple of weeks on a guided tour meant a much needed reprieve from the ongoing need to find trains, planes, bed and meals. The hassles of coordinating all of this was starting to take it's toll on our ability to be civil for 24hrs a day.
China...I didn't know what to expect at all. The county was a 'developing nation' that had put a man into space...what the heck is that?
After spending the week in Hong Kong, I had an idea that the China we were about to see had little to do with pointy capped peasants working fields of
Shanghai Traffic Jam
We've never seen so many bicycles - great for the evironment rice...I had no idea. Most of what we saw was as developed as home, if not more. Huge apartment buildings are being constructed everywhere, linked by modern highways and public transport...in Shanghai, they are building what will be the next ´tallest building in the world´....right beside another huge one that was only recently eclipsed....and all of this on a patch of land that was farmland seventeen years ago. We´ve been waiting a decade in Ottawa for a much needed new bridge over the river!
As our tour took us through larger cities for most of the itinerary, we didn´t get to experience village life in China at all....one of the drawbacks of doing a rapid-fire group tour through a huge country. The other drawback was that being on a tour meant that throughout our China experience, we didn't get to know the areas nearly as well as when we've travelled independently. It was still an eye opening trip, and one that made me think about China in a whole new way....and worry about them taking over the world just a little more.
Some highlights from our stops en route:
- Getting to Shanghai...as we had booked our
Bamboo Scaffold
They are building the tallest building in the world just a few blocks away from this spot flights long before the tour was organized, we left Hong Kong for Beijing, then had to make our way to Shanghai to start the tour. After navigating the Beijing metro system (not that hard), working our way from the airport to our (sketchy, smoke infused) hostel, we were stumped when we found out that there were no seats at all on the trains to Shanghai. At least we weren't kicking ourselves for not pre-planning, we couldn't have bought them ahead of time anyway, but that didn't help us much. So it was off to the Beijing airport for our very own 'amazing race' moment as we shopped the airline ticket counters looking for an affordable same day flight. When we landed in Shanghai, we had no information on how to get to the hotel, so we just winged it...juming on an airport shuttle bus that we were pretty sure would get us a step closer. Then we needed help from a few friendly americans (the place is full of them) at the subway, as we had no idea which station we wanted to get to, and the maps were no help. We were very happy to finally check into our
Highest Building
Soon to be the highest building in the world - strangely, they put it right behind one another building that is almost as tall (it used to be the highest), so it doesn't look much taller hotel in Shanghai (the first tour hotel)...it was a big step up from our usual hotel rooms, and was a much needed rest.
- Shopping in Shanghai, particularly teaching Eve (Jen's mother) the ins and outs of haggling in asia....they love to hit the tourists with outrageously high starting prices....you had to get them down to at least a quarter of the initial price, and most times it was less than a tenth!
- Food, food and more food. Being in a small group (eight including our guide), we were able to order lots of dishes and share them all at each lunch and dinner. We enjoyed most of what we were served, and tried many things that we would not have even known existed without our guide. Most favourite was the 'mongolian' hot pot.
- Getting a cheesy hour long lesson in kung fu at the Shaolin temple while my ridiculously limber instructor laughed at our lack of flexibility...
- Seeing the corn harvest in the countryside....corn cobs are spread everywhere (piled on the street, hung from balconies, hung from roofs, etc) to dry. Then the kernels are cut off the cobs, on the driveways,
Maglev
Andrew couldn't miss the Maglev train going to the airport - 431 km/hr....makes everything we have at home look like the stone age and spread out to dry, often taking up one whole side of a rural street.
- Spending a really, really long time on Chinese trains...our first overnight train was only 19 hours long...often sitting on the tracks for long stretches while every other train sped past. It's a good thing I like the in laws!
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