Shanghai smog...

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This was a week of big cities.... well, in a country that has a total population of over 1.3billion ... is 5 million a city or a town? One Chinese girl I met in Suzhou couldn't believe that New Zealand has 4 million people... Suzhou itself is around the 6 mill mark, give or take a few 100,000 or so.

After leaving Yangshou I travelled onto Shanghai (population @13mil) - unfortunately my flight from Guilin was delayed so I arrived just in time to miss the last Maglev - the super fast train (...30km in @ 8 mins) into town and had to make do with the slower, traditional 'bus' mode of transport :0(

I had a whirlwind 2 days in Shanghai, which seemed v much like Hong Kong - young, lots of people out shopping late at night, modern architecture and a definate buzz. I walked along the Bund along with 6 zillion other people - the Bund is the waterfront area along the Huangpu River, with Pudong and its tall new skyscrapers on one side and on the other a long road of historical buildings (well, from the 1920's) including the original Customs House, former HSBC building and the Peace Hotel, the latter apparently used by the Gang of Four during the Cultural Revolution. I took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel under the river out of sheer laziness... I couldn't be bothered walking the 5-10 mins back the other way to get the tube. The tunnel is 'interesting'.... a few mins of psychedelic lighting and not really worth the money it cost. Once on the other side I went up the rather oddly shaped Oriental Tower to the viewing platform 253m up. The views were OK but the most striking feature was the smoggy haze smothering the city. At the base of the tower I went to the Shanghai Municipal History museum with its life size models of life, streets, work etc in Shanghai over the years. It had some rather interesting interpretations of the opium wars... and huge numbers of Chinese tourists taking photo's of the exhibits.... click click click..... the three catholic nuns causing a particular stir!! The Shanghai Museum is well worth a visit, if only to gawp at the fine and intricate bronze work that the Chinese were making lots and lots and lots of years BC (what were we doing back then??)! I concede that I got my camera out here and joined in with the Chinese. The exhibits here really were amazing... from ancient ceramics to ancient bronze to examples of dress worn by the minority cultures. Whilst in Shanghai I also squeezed in Starbucks and the cinema... and no it wasn't a cultural Chinese film....ahh the shame of it all ;0) I didn't join the queue outside Pizza Hut tho!! OK so I might have queued for a few places in Soho before on a Friday night but I never expected to see a queue some 20+ people long outside Pizza hut!

I caught the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. I was all ready with my Chinese phrase for 'I'd like a ticket....', but wimped out when I saw one of the ticket counters had an 'English speaking' sign above it ;0) Of course that was after I'd found the ticket office! Buying bus and train tickets here is a bit of an endurance challenge. The first hurdle is finding the ticket office... my current tactic is to find the departures area, walk to the furthest and least likely part of the station and that's usually where you find the ticket hall hidden away. I travelled 'soft-seater' on this trip, which is just like the trains at home... my train was even running 30 mins late so it was exactly like home! Alas this meant I had to rely on an announcement (only in Chinese of course) to know when the train had arrived...hmmm. Fortunately I got chatting to a Swiss guy who was living in Hangzhou learning Chinese... between him and various Chinese people who kept grabbing my ticket and then either gesturing to sit down or move each time an announcement was made I made it onto the right train!

Hangzhou is a city of some 6mil odd people. My hostel was by the huge lake at the cities western edge and I spent a chilled afternoon just walking round part of it. Landscaped park areas surround the eastern side of the lake - the ring road around the lake is never far away but it's quite easy to forget it's there if you avoid the crowds and stick to the waters edge. On my first night in Hangzhou I went for dinner with some American girls in my dorm. They'd met a guy the previous night who'd recommended a local restaurant and food to try. One of them was a veggie dish, fermented tofu, which he described as smelling foul but tasting great. I'm not quite sure what he was on when he tried it but my god it tasted soooo much worse than it smelt. It was a good week before I was even able to think about eating regular tofu again... which wiped out a good 50% of my dinner options! Even now when I catch a wiff of it it turns my stomach. In Yangshou I shared a dorm with an English guy who was on a mission to try everything... one night at dinner he tried dog and the next night it was snake. I think I'd rather dine on dog or snake with him than eat fermented tofu again!

One of the American girls had recommended a trip to a tea village outside of Hangzhou and I had visions of sipping Chinese tea and spending a relaxed afternoon getting lost in a tea plantations. A torrential downpour all day meant I opted for the mildly drier temple alternative. First up was the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei, a 12th century general who commanded armies that successfully repelled invaders then was later betrayed, executed and finally exonerated, after which his remains were dug up and reburied here. From the mausoleum I went to the Lingyin Temple, originally built in 326AD but which has been destroyed and rebuilt many times since. It was here that I had my first real encounter with Chinese tour groups. I should have turned back when I arrived so see several car parks worth of coaches but the incessant rain had addled my brain cell. Imagine being surrounded by coach loads of tourists, each with its own guide armed with a loud speaker into which they shout at the top of their rather soul piercing voice (a condition of the job is obviously to have a high voice). All guides come equipped with a flag they hold up for the group to follow, and the followers wear matching hats... so you have the blue flagged red cap group, which is quite different from the blue flagged white hat group which is quite different from.... and they're all chatting away to each other whilst the guide squarks on....arggghhhh! The temple itself was interesting and a lot bigger than I originally thought - many different halls, one with monks chanting inside. Being on the edge of the city it also had good views over some green forests - a nice change from the smog of Shanghai. In the evening I treated myself to an Indian mean and beer to recover from the trauma of Chinese tour groups.... mutter panner and pashwari nan has never tasted so good!!!

I'd decided the weather would determine my third day in Hangzhou - if it was sunny I'd go out to the tea village, if it was raining I'd get on a bus to Suzhou. It was raining. Lots and lots. The girl working at the hostel told me that the #7 bus went from just round the corner to the East Bus Station, from where I could get a bus to Suzhou. So I decided to make good use of my waterproofs, do the backpacker thing and follow her directions. By the time I swam into the bus station I'd decided the backpacker thing was only good for fine weather... next time I'd take a taxi!! I got off the #7 at what looked like the bus station, but was infact another bus station outside the East Train Station. Neither were on my LP map but fortunately I'd got the girl at the hostel to write the name of the East Bus Station in Chinese for me. I got from one to the other by stopping every third person (did i mention the rain already?... sure I was very popular!) and waving my increasingly soggy piece of paper at them!! Some 20 wet mins later I arrived at the correct bus station! Part of the 'fun' of bus journeys in China is guessing which bus station you'll be dropped at - my Chinese isn't up to asking yet... Still wet through when I arrived, I opted to jump in a taxi rather than try and work out if I was at the north bus station and therefore needed the 202 bus, or the south bus station and therefore needed the 60 bus, or the... etc etc. The taxi dropped me off at the right street but unfortunately HI hostels invariably seem to be hidden down some back alley and out of view from the main road. Still raining, my wet clothes were soaked again, I was starting to have a minor sense of humour failure and was that close to getting a taxi to the nearest Sheraton when I spied the hostel down one of those side alleys. Didn't do much else for the rest of that day!!!

I went on a day trip to Tongli, a 'water' town outside of Suzhou that has a pretty old quarter bisected with canals and cute bridges. I'd chosen Tongli over the water town recommended in the LP after a Swiss lady in my dorm found it heaving with Chinese tour groups. There were a few tour groups but I found the one redeeming feature of their loud speakers is that you can hear them coming... and choose to either run in the opposite direction or dive into the nearest tea shop! It also made me take to some of the back streets a bit more which was a real discovery. Here away from the tourist shops and guys wanting to cycle you around for a few yuan it was much quieter, relaxing and you got to see people just getting on with their everyday lives - washing clothes, selling local food to other locals, making all sorts of things. I did visit a few of the sights though - traditional Chinese buildings with pretty courtyard areas.

In my bid to avoid the Chinese tour groups I was up early on my second day in Suzhou and at the Master of Nets Garden at 8am. The good news... no Chinese tour groups, the bad news one English and two french tour groups - at least I could understand some of what they were on about tho! This garden receives rave reviews in the LP, with its pretty courtyards, pond and surrounding rooms, and it was nice but I think I'd seem numerous similar ones in Tongli the day before and perhaps didn't appreciate it so much. Of the two gardens I visited in Suzhou I much preferred the second - the Blue Wave Pavilion, which was much quieter and just had a few old chinese people sitting there eating their lunch and wondering what on earth this strange foreign person was up to. I also went to the Coiled Gate - Suzhou was once a walled city, most of which has now disappeared. The gate and the small section of wall next to it is pretty much at that remains. The area around the gate has been developed into a pretty park and it was interesting to see the contrasting views from the wall - across to the green garden and canal with little tourist boats and cute bridges on one side and out to the river with its industrial boats, bridges and area underdevelopment on the other. The garden also contained the Raiguang Pagoda which originally dates from the 3rd Century... and has some very steep stairs to climb. Hangzhou and Suzhou are favoured destinations of the holidaying Chinese seeking pituresque cities... of the two I preferred Suzhou. Hangzhou was nice with its lakes but I managed to do much more exploring in Suzhou, wondering off across random bridges and seeing some of the life away from the hussle of the main streets and shopping areas. This is where a front room is seemingly turned into a shop and everyone has food to sell, or mends shoes or.... and where the bike is supreme over the car. It was in Suzhou that I learnt how to get off a bus Chinese style... just cause there is a minute gap between the bus and curb don't assume a bike can't get through!! I was almost completely floored by a guy on his bike jabbering away on his moby phone.

I'd booked myself on the night sleeper train to Bejing to meet Ann (did it all in Chinese this time ;0)) I arrived at the station and thanks to a Chinese guy who spoke no English I got pushed in the right direction for my train. I then managed to create a small international incident as I tried to find my bed. I was in the hard sleeper carriage which is divided into compartments of 6. I was struggling to read my ticket when a compartment of old chinese guys indicated that I was in the carriage next to them pointed out which bed was mine, a short Chinese woman in a tangerine dress disagreed and started shouting at me to move... I imagine cause of course it was all in chinese... the guys shouted back at her... she shouted back at them... I sat quietly on my bed trying to stay out of the crossfire and they all went off to find a guard to resolve the 'problem' of little ole me. In the meantime an old guy in the compartment obviously decided he didn't want to be stuck with this strange foreign woman and did a swap with a woman from next door. Unlike the tangerine banshee she was lovely - she also spoke no english but fussed around finding a place for my bag, made sure I worked out how to use the reading light, went off to find me a pillow when she realised I didn't have one and then got me off the train when I arrived in Beijing... where I found Ann and I had been upgraded from a hostel room to a hotel room, complete with ensuite, hot water and clean towels! Oh I could get used to this ;0)

Next up... Beijing and everything auspicious like...

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