China - Mad About Shanghai

Damn!! - We had spent too much time in friggin’ STARBUCKS of all places and suddenly realised we were supposed to be boarding the train from Beijing to Shanghai in two hours. There was a bit of a rush back to the Hutong in the dark and a frantic attempt to get a taxi. Luckily this went without a hitch and we raced into the train station just in time. You need to get to the train station early in China. Everything from x-ray scanning machines, to the enormous amount of people who want to go places, all seem to delay you. Also finding your trains waiting area can be a bit tricky. Interestingly, trains in China seem to go by number, say K696 or T1, T12 etc, as opposed to Ireland where they seem to go by name i.e. the 5:30pm to Cork. Useless trivia I know; but worth remembering if you're ever looking for a train in this part of world.

After boarding the said train; so what was in store for us? I could not believe my eyes - only LUXURY!! - A palace on wheels! The train was spotless, wide corridors, super cabins. Everyone had there OWN LCD TV screen (ahh could it be that I could finally watch my favourite programme on Chinese TV "Hells Kitchen"!), bottled water delivered to your cabin; a fabulous dining and lounge area, double glazed windows (meaning no click-ety click noise from outside) and a power socket under the table, which would later prove handy for charging my iPhone. Trust me, after some of the trains we've been on - this was heaven! Our cabin colleagues couldn't speak a word of English. 'Hi' seems to be a universal word so it’s always polite to say this and then smile, both parties knowing that it’ll be the last thing you'll say until you are getting off the train, before you wave 'bye' to each other!

After a fantastic uninterrupted sleep we woke at 7:15am and promptly arrived in Shanghai at 7:30am. The train had flown down at about 200km/h and hey presto we were here. Not bad for Chinese engineering; so far so good. Once we got out of the train station we seemed to get a bit mixed up. No taxi's wanted to take us, and the address I showed them in Chinese either didn't make sense or they didn't want to bring us. After about 1 hour we joined a long taxi queue and basically waited in line until we got to the front. Now someone had to take us, since no one else would get a taxi until they shifted us. After much discussion with the taxi driver and a few other Chinese heads, who curiously piped up with their two cents, we were on our way. When we finally arrived we were pleasantly surprised that the hostel was quite nice, with all the trimmings of home in the room; fridge, microwave, TV etc. What more could you ask for? We spent 3 days there and then moved to another hostel, as I couldn't get a permit for Tibet sorted at the first place. Although they did send me off to another part of the city to try and get this.... after spending nearly two hours looking for the building, and ending up inside commercial offices in a high rise building with everyone in the office staring at me curiously, I finally gave up. I needed more help with this one. It seems it can only be done via a travel agent, of which the new hostel had some contacts.

Taxi's are pretty cheap here and once you get the confidence to head off yourself, Bob’s your uncle. If you lose your flyer with the hostel address - you’re going to have trouble though; not much English in Chinese taxi-land and anything I tried to pronounce was scoffed at!

I became enamoured with China when I first visited here two years ago for a week, as part of a college exchange programme. Shanghai is a pretty cool place. The New York of Asia and a trophy city for the Chinese people. Rumour has it that there are 20 million people living here; who knows the real number which is hard to pinpoint as it’s growing so rapidly, with the greatest urbanisation the world has ever seen. Millions and millions of people are coming in from the countryside every year to Chinese cities. Shanghai is an amazing spectacle to see, especially as sky scrapper after sky scrapper tries to out-do the next, resulting in the most glamorous light show after dark!

On the first day in Shanghai we took in the Hyatt for lunch, which is way up on the 46th floor in the Jin Mao Tower. The Hyatt restaurant is some spot, or at least that was until the waitress spilled my glass of coffee all over me. I was sensing a free lunch after that happened; and true to their word the Chinese pulled out all the stops and offered to pay for the dry cleaning and then offered 'free drinks'. Hmm, anything free is not to be laughed at, and we took them up on their offer of free drinks and let my clothes dry themselves, while we took in the surrounding views.

Onwards to the Radissons Revolving Restaurant (on the 45th floor) the following day, which was recommended by a mate of mine Eoghan Stuart who is as well travelled as anyone I have ever met, and whose blog is a super read of the very adventurous traveller! We got to the door there and I was told that I was under dressed (although they would make an exception!) but they would have to, and I quote, "hide the gentleman in the corner"!! - They must have noticed my new €2.50 t-shirt that I had purchased the previous day. Not to be embarrassed by this event we took them up on their gracious offer and stuffed our heads in the aforementioned corner. This place is class in fairness and you get to see the 'whole city', as you’re revolving and eating at the same time. A real time-saver for those with a tight schedule!

We took in lots of other sights in Shanghai including the Shanghai Aquarium (expensive but worth seeing), an excellent Chinese acrobatics show, Cloud 9 (87th floor of Jin Mao Tower), Nanjing Road (a longer and wider version of Grafton Street), The Bund and the Fabric Market (where you can buy all sorts of stuff including clothes made to order). Nicola (the cheeky, hardened, no-nonsense, and by now heavy-hitting negotiator) got two new dresses tailor made for bargain basement prices!! Be warned though, these guys are professional and every line you can think of for why NOT to buy something, they will have a reasonable answer/solution for. As I found out, if you go into a place like this by yourself and unprepared for battle - it's at your pearl. We were amused to discover an "O'Briens" sandwich place slap bang in the middle of the chaos. The girls on the stall right next to it were using this to their advantage, firing out the obligatory "Conas a ta tú?" for a laugh. We didn't succumb to their sales tactics though! The ‘Super-A’ stuff (i.e. the good stuff) is what you want here and be prepared to go behind the scenes to see some of the "REAL" stuff. Fake walls, sliding wardrobes and secret chambers… just to get to these sacred items are all part of the tourist appeal, and overall add to the excitement of the final purchase, OR if nothing more, it makes a good bar story.

Outside the Fabric market we managed to eat dinner for €1 between us, and get coffee and water for another €0.68 cents… and no we didn't get sick! Cheap food doesn't necessarily have to be bad food. We also managed to pick up a heap of cheap DVD films but didn't watch any, as we only found out on the last night that we could rent a DVD player in the hostel for €0.50 cents a night. Doah!! Allowing yourself to be led down a back street in Ireland to buy stuff mightn't be the cleverest thing, but here it’s the done thing. You can find all the latest goodies down the back street. Standing suspiciously alongside the main street, it wasn't long before the touts found us (OR secretly we found them!) and led us to the merchandise. Everything from IPods, DVDs, t-shirts, watches; anything you want these guys can seemingly get for you within a few minutes and always have another shop to bring you to!

Overall we both loved Shanghai and would have liked to have spent more time here. However after 7 days it was time to move on. Other cool things I did the first time I was here, and which are worth giving Shanghai a plug for included; going on The Maglev train (a train which floats on a magnetic field and can go up to 450km/h), as well as taking a scenic night cruise on the river; both of which are well worth doing.

I finally managed get our permit sorted for Tibet here (a government stamp saying we're good to go!) and we're now booked onto a 7 day tour. Travelling without a tour group is illegal in Tibet, so you'll either need to make up the numbers yourself or get an agency to make you up as a 'group'. Myself and Nicola as two people can actually make an official tour group, so that’s sorted now as far as we can tell. All sounds a bit suss though, as all we have is a phone number to ring if things go wrong and no other real details. We think we are going to Everest Base Camp and a few other places and are hoping to get dropped off at the Nepal border afterwards, so we can make our way down to Kathmandu, Nepal (more on that later; though I am really looking forward to this).

For now we are on route to Xi'an to see the TerraCotta Warriors and after queuing for 30 minutes at the ticket agency and handing in my little Chinese note (that I got a girl in the hostel to write) asking for two tickets to Xi'an, we managed to get tickets for the worst train possible, which takes 24 hours to get there! Anyway we've done this type of journey before so hopefully we won’t be phased by this.

Onwards to Xi'an!!

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