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Published: December 2nd 2007
We were up not so bright and early for our train to Shanghai. Boarding the train we experienced our first real push and shove from the other Chinese passenger trying to get past us, despite us carrying 30 kilos each and almost falling over. We don't know why they were rushing as everyone had seats/sleepers pre-booked but as anyone who has visited China will tell you, the Chinese will queue for nothing! A few elbows in people heads later and we found our sleepers. If you can't beat em then join em!
The sleeper sections are divided into compartments of 6 and are 'open plan' into the corridor. The bottom bunks are the best with the most head space etc, whilst the top bunks have very little room for a Chinese person never mind a giant foreigner. Nevertheless we settled in quite well to our top bunks and the 25 hour journey passed relatively quickly. Neil even had time to purchase a gadget from one of the many vendors that occasionally walked past the bunks selling everything from fresh knickers to dvd players. The gadget being a self wind up torch no larger than 15cm which he was extremely pleased
New buildings in old town made to look old
Groomed touristy area in Shanghai..not what we wanted so we took some pics and headed for what was left of the real old town.with. No idea why we would need a torch when we already have 2 but at 70p it seemed a bargain (well to him anyway!). We also got talking to two girls on the train, one owned an English teaching school and the other had just started working after graduating University. They both spoke excellent English and we were grilled for 2 hours about life in the UK, we returned the grilling about China and even learnt a little Mandarin.
We first noticed just how much colder Shanghai was than Guilin in the South. The temperature drop must have been about a 10 degree difference and so sweaters, hooded tops and scarves were needed. We smoothly negotiated the metro system which took us to near our hostel located 5 mins walk from the Bund and East Nanjing road (the main shopping/tourist tout strip). Yet again, the hostel room was exceptional but a little pricey at £13 but these rooms are so luxurious we think they are worth it. We were in Shanghai as well so we expected to pay a bit more. The first thing we did was to investigate how to get out of there. Not because Shanghai
is a bad place but like anywhere in China you have to book transportation tickets a couple of days in advance to avoid the Chinese tourists booking before you. We booked our tickets at a train station office to Beijing for a very overpriced cost of 478 Yuan (£35 each). On the positive side we had booked a posh soft sleeper in a modern carriage which had a door and adjustable lights, heating, big fluffy duvets and everything!
Our first impressions of Shanghai is that again its a very modern city and a lot more developed than our naïve preconceptions had been. Lots of skyscrapers, flashing neon (seemingly the trademark of a city's development in China) and lots of the normal tourist tat (Chopstick gift-sets, premium tea, t-shirts with pictures of Mao and Che Guevara on them and fake watches, bags etc). Everywhere we go in Asia we see t-shirts with Che on them for sale...what is it with tourists buying this crap and what has Che got to do with Asia?
The Chinese want Shanghai to become 'THE' financial centre for Asia and are seeking to make it better than Hong Kong and from the display of
construction that we witnessed on our visit we think they will do this in the next 10 years. On our list of 'must do's' included a tour of the French Concession, a visit to the old town, a walk along the Bund and finding a good restaurant. We started with the last must do and spent 2 hours trying to look for a restaurant which was not glammed up for tourists but which had an understandable menu and was reasonably priced (under 40 Yuan for the both of us). Unable to find a restaurant which was open at 8am we resorted to a McDonalds breakfast which actually was just what the doctor ordered to perk up our sleepy, train-lagged heads. It seems like it hadn't done the trick with the Chinese customers though as we counted 7 out of 10 fast asleep at their tables. For lunch however we did find a restaurant which was serving Chinese locals and were willing to help out the stupid foreigners who cold not speak or read mandarin. It was under 40 Yuan for the 2 of us as well and quite nice food (although rabbit head and turtle penis ...yuk! was on the
Donna on our hard sleeper carriage to Shanghai
..only 21 more hours to go. The guy in the unifrom didnt look impressed either but it wasn't actually too bad. menu), located on a side street off the main East Nanjing shopping strip.
A walk along the Bund was quite nice. The Bund is a pedestrian area which snakes alongside the Huangpu river and allows good views of the skyscrapers in Pudong and has buildings which are colonial in style dating back to when the British ruled Shanghai. It reminded us a little of Liverpool with the style of the buildings. Of course we (being foreign and in the minority) were the target of every seller, photographer and tout on the Bund and even had some Chinese tourists taking photos of us (we generously decided to waive our nominal fee of 10 Yuan for each photo). We also learnt very quickly how to say 'I don't want, Thank you' in Mandarin to the sellers. This translates as something like 'Boo, Ya, Shey-Shey' (best when said in a broad scouse accent), it worked for us anyway. People steered away from us when we said it although it could have been Donna's evil glaring and pushing them away behind Neil's back that did it!
We somehow arrived at the 'old quarter' part of the city. Neil called it good map
Not even enough room to swing a cat
..our top bunk hard sleeper from Guilin to Shanghai. We had to sleep with our bag on beds but it was okay as they were just like big teddy bears! reading but Donna was inclined to think that good Chinese fortune was responsible. This area was actually very interesting and nice. There were in fact 2 parts of the old quarter. One part had original buildings and still had local colour and life in it where Chinese still lived, traded and ate in etc. The other area was where they had knocked down the interesting old buildings and replaced them with less interesting, glossy versions of what the Chinese think tourists want from an old quarter (i.e Starbucks in a fake Chinese building on a shiny paved street). This section we didn't like at all and got out of there as soon as possible.
On our second day we toured or rather got lost in an area of the city called the French concession which Neil annoyingly kept on calling the French Connection or French Confession. We walked past Sun Yat Sen's house. She was apparently the founder of modern China and lived in a very grey and pink house but Donna insisted she was a man (Neil is not convinced!). Of other notable interest (to Donna anyway) is the historical building which houses H&M clothes store. Not so
much history there then but rather Neil being dragged around 4 floors of clothing wonderland whilst Donna fished for a scarf which matched her sweater.
We found a marvellous food court in the Raffles city shopping centre on our roundabout way back to the hostel called 'Megabite' and it was extremely good value with very large portion sizes, menus in semi-English (Chinglish) and dishes you could point at and see what you were getting. We would recommend this place to all travellers on a budget (only costing 30 Yuan or £2 for two very big dishes). You could spend hours in here trying all the delicious different foods on offer.
So we spent a couple of days wandering the streets of Shanghai, mostly noting observations about the Chinese some of which are listed here:
1.Cities in China have traffic attendants which stand on busy pedestrian/traffic crossings and are supposed to be there to help (by use of a whistle, flag(?) and uniform) people cross the road. In actual fact the red and green man is adequate but they insist still on blowing their whistle and waving people across with their flag when the green man appears. Heaven
Yet another swish Hostel bedroom
not bad but it was a bit pricey at £13. Yes that is expensive for China but it was Shanghi after all. help the person who takes a step out into the road when the red man is still on as we sometimes saw happen. A public loud whistle at the pedestrian and sometimes a rap around the legs with the flag for naughtiness would be the punishment. Yet, sometimes the attendants were not on the ball and would wave everyone across the road despite there being an approaching bus coming at 70kph.
2.Most Chinese spit or loudly hock up in public...... get used to it as we don't think they will change soon no matter what the government wants. We have read and heard from so many tourists here that they are appalled and shocked at this behaviour. We say that when a country has to have an education programme to teach them how not to spit in public......it must be a very big problem.
3.Pedestrians seemingly have no right of way anywhere, even on the pavement. We have observed this in many parts of Asia but as a pedestrian you are usually given some consideration. Here in China the drivers are out to get ya!
4.As mentioned before there is no such thing a queuing in China.
a bakery in the Old Town
checking the cakes by touch, none of this high tech timer stuff! Everyone for him/herself and bugger the rest of em....but elbows and being tall can help.
5.The Shanghainese don't seem to be morning people, unlike the people of Laos, Vietnam etc. which seem to be up at the crack of dawn. Even when going to work they fall asleep on the metro or buses or after having brekkie at McDonalds. Donna likes this trait as she is NOT a morning person either.
Okay. Our entry into Shanghai went smoothly but our exit was less so. We had to make it across to the train terminal (via the metro) at rush hour. This was not a nice experience, left us traumatised and Donna was left with one flip flop short of a pair. Literally she had lost a flip flop at some point during the ruckas of getting on and off the trains it was that much of a push and shove! Our train departed for Beijing (12 hours north) where we would arrive the next morning. The weather was no doubt going to be colder and we were a little worried about if we could cope.
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rath
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hey another great entry! all the "liverpool-esque" bund needs is the super lamb banana! :-) the two signs in chinese says. 1) chinese people gets to eat shanghai style dim sums, 2) foreigners gets to eat chinese style dim sums. it doesn't make much sense in chinese neither i guess...