Blogs from Shanghai, China, Asia - page 258

Advertisement

Asia » China » Shanghai June 26th 2006

I have been living in China this time around in a city where East meets West in the best possible way.I will have to leave to go back to the Bible Belt after living in this wonderful city for a year and one half.We have lived in and visited many other countries as a family and I have found another city that I love;Shanghai.Leaving is always the hardest part for us expats. Shanghai has been a pretty easy city to live in except for the cost of almost everything that it takes to live.It did almost kill me,though.I turned 40 years old just before leaving the USA again for yet another adventure as an expat family.I have heard that the health is a slippery slope after 40 but someone has put crisco on my slide.Not only ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 26th 2006

Hello! Shanghai continues until tomorrow when we fly to Guilin in the south. Shanghai is an amazing city and very different from the other side of China we have seen. It's a weird mix of Old China, Old Colonial, New China and Global Super City. Quite confusing actually. Its been great though, this morning we went up the Jin Mao tower to see the whole city from the 88th floor which was superb. Our hotel is smack bang in the middle of town so its been easy to go and eat in the French Concession area, walk around the Bund on the river bank and soak up some serious neon lights on Nanjing Donglu. We've met up with Sha and had amazing food (which included a Chicken's head which gave us all a bit of a ... read more
Night on the Bund
Hywel and Sha in Shanghai

Asia » China » Shanghai June 25th 2006

For your information, the Palace of the King of Hell is not located in Washington D.C.! It's actually in Fengdu, 170 km from Chongqing and our first stop on our three day trip along the Yangzi river. We were travelling on the Snow Mountain cruise liner from Chongqing to Yichang in the Hubei province - the nearest major town to the awesome Three Gorges Dam. The dam is China's biggest engineering project since the construction of the Great Wall. Almost two million people have already been moved from their homes as the level of the Yangzi river is set to reach 175m, flooding an area the size of Singapore by 2009 - the proposed completion date. With the completion date looming, the clock is ticking for those interested in seeing the legendary Three Gorges of the ... read more
Kings of the Underworld
Horror Show
Ghost City Temple

Asia » China » Shanghai June 25th 2006

No matter where I live, it seems someone is trying to scam me. Friday night after class I was sitting by the entrance to the Shanghai metro when at precisely 10pm, twenty people rushed the entrance and set out blankets and boxes of stuff for sale. As I sat marveling at the scene of people trying to make a living, a guy saw me put down my empty water bottle. I saw him coming and gave it to him, asking by the way, how much he gets for each one. He had a huge Santa sack of them on his back. At roughly 2 cents a piece, he probably had $5 worth. Enough to get by on. Not long after, a young Chinese woman came and sat next to me. In English, she asked me ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 22nd 2006

At last, I have finally achieved a honk! This is an exciting turning point in the trip so far, as I feel as though I have gained some measure of acceptance by China. This is because honking is a way of life for those on China's roadways and alleys. Like many other cities and nations in the world, they are constantly using thier horn to express frustration, say hello, alert to their presence, and warn of impending death. Walking down the streets are a feast of honks, some being quick, others long enough to relate a certain amount of agrevation, and others that make you question his driving ability with one hand firmly pressing the horn anytime the vehicle is in motion. I, however, seem to be immune to honk despite the worst breaches of etiqute ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 22nd 2006

Tomorrow! Had a great time since arrived in Shanghai! Raced around (and up) most of the city's sights including the Bund (like Blackpool prom but nicer), Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Pudong (lots of sky scrapers) and the Shanghai museum. Spent today in the French Concession and the Old Town. The Old Town is a really wierd place, as it feels like a China Town in any other western city as Shanghai is really commercial. There is a Starbucks and McDonalds on every street corner! As I sit here it has finally begun to rain (thank God!) trekking around in 35degree heat and almost raining humidity is taking it a bit out of me! Anyways this is v short and boring as I'll soon be jetting back to Bejing and then sunny Manchester (can't wait, honest!) and ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 21st 2006

Hi Friends - It’s been a while. I’ve been flat out at it here in Shanghai, teaching my 12 or 15 classes, applying for further certification and working up a proposal to revamp the teacher training. But last week wrote much of this next story for the Hangzhou entertainment magazine, one of two English-language publications in town. Just to fill you in, I came to Shanghai for a week and except for one day to retrieve my worldly belongings, have been here ever since. The upside is all my classes are in English and I can really tell people stuff. The downside is I don’t use much Chinese anymore and have not taken a single lesson since leaving. Instead I practice on the front desk staff. The other day I asked for a ‘yao shi.” ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 21st 2006

I’m pretty sure that we should abolish the prison system and just make all of our criminals take a 12 hour flight with Air Canada. They would repent instantly. Maybe that was just my own personal purgetory for all the sins I’ve committed. Whichever it is, 12 hours of cramped legs, computer geek conversation, screaming babies, knees in the back, and a full Pepsi flung all over me, I have finally arrived in Shanghai. So far it’s been total culture shock, with lots of claps and whistles at the 6 foot foreign barbarian. Shanghai has also earned it’s nickname the ‘Whore of the Orient’ as there seems to be someone trying to hock some stupid tourist shit, or fake rolex on every corner. This is no different than any other major city I’ve been in, just ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 20th 2006

Hello All! Just arrived in Shanghai today, (via Maglev train from the airport at 430km/hr!) and it's blissfully cooler than Xi'an but a bit more humid (well, you can't have it all!). Seems like a pretty big place, with people everywhere you turn (typical of much of my experiences of China so far). Gonna go out and explore properly tomorrow, and take yet more piccies! Over the past few days I've been to see the terracotta warriors and move from one air-conditioned oasis to another! The warriors were amazing. There's three pits which were excavated and the first contained several thousandlife size warriors. The emperor who ordered his subjects to make them to prepare for the afterlife must have been pretty persuasive (or brutal??!). I think if it were me I'd have thought, what's the point?! ... read more

Asia » China » Shanghai June 20th 2006

Hello everyone! I do apologise for taking so long getting these photos out to you. I actually have to start a week in to my China trip as the first set of photos are on a CD that is refusing to load - fingers crossed we can get some copies. We started out in Macau, Hong Kong and Lantau but the blog has to start in Shanghai. Unfortunatly Catherine and I were both pretty sick by the time we got there. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed to see a few of the sights. Most of our time was spent meeting people at the Captain hostel and just wandering through the streets of Shanghai. The highlight for me was definalely the Yuyuan Gardens. ... read more
Sunset view from the train
Another train view
The padlock




Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.005s; cc: 4; qc: 84; dbt: 0.0616s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb