Surprising Shanghai Pt 1

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Well here we are at last, mainland China. Wow. I guess this shows just how much the world has changed in the last few years.

As we mentioned, getting out of Hong Kong to anywhere is expensive, almost the same to fly the few hundred miles to the mainland as our return ticket to the other side of the world cost. Being intrepid (and often deluded) travelling types we decided that a train a few hours north to Guangzhou (used to be Canton) and then flying from there wouldn’t be that difficult - doh. First, there was fighting with the various Chinese Airlines’ websites (5 frustrating hours to get the right ticket) and then there is the language. This is a country remember where the people eat with sticks, and write in pictures. The train journey was fairly uneventful, we seemed to be passing through a huge building site or housing estate the whole way but it wasn’t until we alighted at Guangzhou East Station and followed the guidebook instructions to go to the China Southern offices and get a bus to the airport did we get a first taste of things to come. After some aimless wandering gazing at a number of signs which we’d never be able to decipher we decided ask a policeman, nope. I’m sure he was trying to be helpful but, as in England when we can’t understand what someone is saying, he said it again, slower and LOUDER - still nope. After about an hour we managed to find an airport shuttle by going into a branch of HSBC, holding our arms out and making a noise that was supposed to sound like an aeroplane. Cursing the Rough Guide to China we eventually made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, only when there did we actually read it carefully and found out the instructions were for Guangzhou Main station not East - doh again.

The flight was good and quick and soon enough we landed in Shanghai. Rather than try to decipher the metro at 10:30 at night we decided a taxi was a better option and, armed with the address of the hotel written in Chinese (very important), we were at our next base in no time. Travel is really cheap in China, the 20km taxi was about £8, the standard fare on the metro is 30p (are you reading this Boris), trains are a few pounds and it’s only really the flights that compare with the West but maybe that’s because the state sets the fares and there is no competition. I am writing this on a 10hr train journey, the equivalent of Plymouth to Inverness, in 1st class and the ticket costs about £35. What is not cheap is tourism, hotels are expensive so we are back into hostels but we know the sites to trust for advice now and hostels are good places to meet fellow adventurers. The Mingtown Hikers Hostel in Shanghai was indeed a good base. We settled in, decided to try the bar and when the barman said the large beers were 3 for 2 and they only cost 80p anyway it would have been rude to say no, happy days.

Our first full day in the city was a planning day, booking train tickets, accommodation etc and a first venture into the city. Despite Shanghai hosting Expo 2010, a world’s fair, it’s not really set up for non Chinese tourists. OK the metro and all the new bits have English signs as well but very few people speak English (and why should they when they have a billion internal tourists to cater to). Our first attempt at booking train tickets involved getting the hostel to write down what we needed then visiting the booking office a few doors down. We queued, waiting while all the locals simply walked to the front and shouted at the clerk. Finally we handed over our bits of paper and some money and got 3 sets of tickets in return, easy. Or so we thought. Only when we walked back outside did the tickets to Beijing seem a bit cheap. Normally this would be a good thing but in China the price is the price. We walked back to the hostel and found we had been issued with 3rd class hard seat tickets, not good for an 11 hr train journey. Simple, just get the hostel to ask the ticket office (nearly next door) to change them. No chance, we then had to traipse over to the main train station, get lost 3 times trying to find the ticket office, then queue for an hour at the ‘English Speaking’ ticket window while yet more locals ignored the fact we had been here since China was one country and just pushed to the front. Finally we managed to get the correct tickets, we hope the seats are comfortable after all this.
We decided to have a quick wander and Renmin Square seemed a good starting point, now renamed Peoples Square, it’s the heart of the city with a lovely open park surrounded by some amazing modern buildings. We then headed back to the hostel via the famous Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s version of 5th avenue, or Oxford Street and it was packed. No recession here then.

The next day we set of to explore the city properly. Shanghai is being promoted as China’s ‘World City’, they are trying to be thought of in the same breath as London, Paris and New York. The city is huge, but then again everywhere in China is, and for the first time we appreciated that we were in a country of over a billion people. It’s booming, over 1/3 of China’s exports come from here and it attracts more than ¼ of China’s foreign investment. There are now over 3000 skyscrapers, that’s already more than NY and 2000 more are on their way. We wandered down to the riverside called The Bund, it’s where the history of Shanghai has been preserved, the buildings anyway. On one side of the Huangpu river are the grand old edifices that hark back to the city’s days as the centre for European domination of the area and it’s rather ironic that these symbols of the hated foreign imperialism are now protected monuments, it’s also the most expensive real estate in China. The heart of the Old Shanghai stands gracefully watching the other side of the river where the new Shanghai is exploding. A futuristic skyline, with amazing buildings towering over everything in a show of force to the world, the contrast couldn’t be starker. We took a ferry across the river; it was like travelling from 1920 to 2020 in 15 minutes. Standing proud on the edge of the river is the Oriental Pearl Tower, a 457m telecom tower to rival any that we have seen and explored. The view gives you a great idea of the layout of the City and also affords an amazing view of the Jinmao tower nearby, rising like a gigantic Cyberman (Lisa’s favourite Dr Who baddie) from the earth. This side of the city is definitely the future and had a really vibrant feel to it, the obligatory shopping malls were all heaving and we even had time to stop by the underground Apple Store, absolutely rammed with thousands of iSheep lusting over the iPhones and iPads, listening to iPods, eating iSnacks and wearing iShirts and all with the same glazed look in their iEyes. We nearly caused a riot when we slipped the PC out of the bag!!!! We ended the day with a ride on the excellent metro, a good day exploring an exciting city.

Time for the 1st of our away days (and to see if the ticket hassles worked) we arrived at the main station and very easily found our very comfortable train to Suzhou. On arrival we exited the station and wondered why the heck everyone was queuing at the taxi ranks, according to our Rough Guide the town was only about 2km long and it was only a couple of hundred meters from the station, so we set off on foot. After about 20 minutes walking and seeing none of the other tourists that had been on the train Chris remembered he had a compass attached to his pack, ok so we were going in completely the wrong direction, no wonder the pictures on the signposts made even less sense than usual. Back at the station we decided to give in and took a taxi to town. Suzhou is world famous for its ancient gardens and silk. Suzhou is on the Grand Canal, the canal itself is an engineering masterpiece to rival the Great Wall and provided the source of the regions wealth, even to this day. This wealth led to the City’s other claim to fame, its’ beautiful gardens, and for the Chinese it’s one of the top tourist spots. They have been here since the Song Dynasty and although there used to be a few thousand of them only a half a dozen, or so, now survive.

We headed past a few lovely 7 or 8 story pagodas en route to our first one, the quaintly named ‘Humble Administrators Garden”. Originally built during the Ming dynasty in 1509 it covers about 5 ha and has at its heart a broad lake. As you walk around it, the rock features, the beautiful pavilions and the picturesque landscapes give you an impression of a long forgotten time when this would have been a wealthy merchant’s retreat. Unfortunately the myriad of tourists mean you have to imagine very hard the peace and tranquillity the garden was designed for. We moved on to the next garden that the guidebook suggest was a short stroll down the road, very quickly we were coming to realise that the scale on the map was about 5km rather than 500m, a bit of re-planning of our stroll was required. We eventually came upon the “Lion Forest Garden”, the only garden left from the Yuan Dynasty. It’s loosely based on a Buddhist painting and is a collection of limestone rocks formed into ‘mountains’ and caverns. Its clever use of space and winding hidden pathways makes the garden seem much bigger than it actually is. Then we wandered, trying to find another recommended feature but only finding dirty back alleys and the zoo. Eventually we then came upon one of Suzhou’s tree lined cobblestone streets, a hidden gem. 2 minutes away we were into a throbbing, bustling commercial district. At this point we decided that a taxi to visit our last few destinations made sense, the Master of Nets Garden and Canglang Pavillion.

Both lovely but it was nearly time to head back to the station, just time for a quick stop off at the Silk Museum, fascinating to finally understand about making silk and why not only the raw material but the finished product was held in such high esteem. There was even a large tray of silkworms, doing their stuff. Just in time to take the 2 minute walk back to the station. Doh, wrong again - 10 minute walk followed by a 10 minute panicked taxi journey to get us to the correct part of the station and a swift jog to the platform. A nice day in a nice town/city finished by an excellent train journey on one of China’s 290Km/h bullet trains, neither of us remember having travelled faster on land.

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Photos

Bonsai Bear
our travelling companion grabs some rest

Chinas Blooming
and booming too

The Little Apple
trying hard to knock Manhattan off it's perch

Round the Bund
the heart of Old Shanghai now some of the most expensive real estate in China

Imagination
so what do you think this looks like?

Dont look down
can you tell how scared Lisa was?

Worms working hard
to produce that next pair of Silk pants

And through the round window
is a cute little garden

The cyberman
and the bottle opener

Another Telecom Tower
The pearl tower in all her glory

View from
the top of the tower

Comments

[Richard Quick]

That actually made me laugh out loud.
This has to be one of the best quotes - "This is a country remember where the people eat with sticks, and write in pictures." Glad your both having fun :)