The world seen through my Ize (Part 1)

Asia » China » The Great Wall
December 3rd 2013

Published: December 3rd 2013

I had Finally arrived in Shanghai, China- my first port of call. I was off on an adventure of a life time, which would turn out to only be the start of my travels. It is true, you catch a ‘bug’- the travel bug.

I still remember the extremely unpleasant feeling I felt on the flight from Melbourne, Australia. It was a feeling of nervousness, nausea, anxiety and overall depressed. But why would I feel like this? I was about to meet up with my cousin, my best friend Lou in Shanghai ,China.

I started to cry sitting there in my seat on the plane, refusing the food- I couldn’t eat. I felt like vomiting. What was I doing? I had Just left my family, my job, My new to the world little niece who I adored, and broken up with my Girlfriend of 2 years Tahlia. It was hard waking up at 5am after a shitty restless sleep to say goodbye to her, for the last time as your partner. It was all hitting me at this very moment, like a right hook from Iron Mike Tyson.

My good friend Fabian had to just been on somewhat of a holiday, to Risdon Prison and the last thing he said to me was “At least your going somewhere nice, so enjoy it!”

Of course I was missing everyone already but this feeling would soon subside.

I arrived late, Lou was there to greet me with open arms and a Tuna Subway foot long, as grateful as I was, I was still unable to eat. I soon experienced my first ride on a ‘maglev train’. This is a Magnetic Levitation train, It is actually the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world. It was first ready for use on January 1 2004, the top operational speed is 431km/h (268mph) and cost 1.2billion to build. Lou was currently living out of a little hotel- The Green tree Inn. It was very basic, but homely. 2single beds, tv, fridge, sink and a bathroom. I was finally ready to attempt to eat, we crossed the road to a very local Chinese restaurant. It was nearly midnight and the last thing I expected to see was buckets full of live fish, and frogs- Massive green and brown frogs. I was blown away. My first instinct was “Yuck”. But curiosity got the better of me and I knew soon, whilst here in china I would be eating one. We laid in bed chatting about old times, family, my upcoming adventure and the sights we could visit in china- Which turned out to be more than I had imagined.

I didn’t do much the first few days in china, It was raining and Lou went off to work early in the mornings. I would Sleep in, take in my surroundings and exchange emails with family and Tahlia- whom appeared to be struggling with my recent departure. Of course I still loved the girl, we had been together 2 years and had a great fun time. I felt extremely bad, how I had just packed up and deserted her but this was something I needed to do, by myself for my own well-being and peace of mind. We would remain great friends and later meet up in Europe for a week. To this day we are best of friends and she is happily in love with a great guy who would do anything at the drop of a hat for her- Which she deserves.

I had a home drawn map, which would get me to the right bus station and down towards where Lou worked. This is what I did most days, browsed around. Visiting the Shanghai Museum. This museum was impressive to say the least, it was 29.5 meters high with five floors, covering a total area of 39,200 m². It was in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel called a ‘ding’ . The museum has a round top and a square base, this is the Chinese peoples comprehension of the world as “round sky, square earth.”

With a massive collection of over 120,000 artifacts, including sculptures, art (foreign and local), seals, paintings, ancient coins, jades, furniture, calligraphy, ceramics and bronze.

I was blown away thinking about history in Australia goes back 100’s of years, where as this stuff I was looking at is going back 1000’s of years.

I visited the Shanghai zoo, which has over 6,000 animals, with about 600 of them being native to China. It was my first time (another first time, there would be many more to come) to see Panda Bears. You always see and hear a lot about Pandas on TV, in movies, magazines and books etc. I was now face to face with a bunch of them- behind glass of course. They are a truly amazing animal- with the large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Pandas are meat eaters, but their diet is made up of 99% bamboo. This is all they did whilst I stood in amazement and watched-ate bamboo.

By now I was starting to feel better, I was feeling happier, and most importantly I was eating again. I hadn’t gone out of my way and tried anything to exotic just yet. Sticking to the basics. Though I grew up on ‘Australian’ Chinese food- Beef and Black bean, Sweet and sour pork/chicken, chicken and cashew, I was yet to see any of this on a menu. I would soon learn that none of that was traditional Chinese food. I had been living a lie.

I was getting very familiar with the subway, and soon had it down pat. I felt a sense of achievement to have mastered the Chinese subway. This place at ‘peak hour’ was crazy, nothing like I had ever witnessed. This country really does have 1.3billion people.

With my head held high and proud I visited the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. It includes a 120-meter tunnel that takes you through a coastal reef, open ocean, a kelp cave, shark cove, and a coral reef, and is one of the longest tunnels of its type in the world. It has over 400 species with a very impressive shark section.

Well it had to be done, I finally ordered bullfrog- It came out in a hot pot , in a chinese sauce and a load of garlic cloves. Though I wouldn’t order it again it was edible. I came to the conclusion it was a cross between chicken and quail. Very boney , and hard to eat. My first experience eating frog. I had come from being blown away at seeing live frogs in a restaurant a week earlier to eating one of the suckers.

I loved exploring around Shanghai,It truly is an amazing city. Very Modern and reasonably clean and organised for a city of over 23 million people. Very different to little ol’, Tasmania with a population of around 500,000.

You will learn that I love to travel, experience and see new cultures but don’t get me wrong, I love my home. I have so many great friends and an amazing family that have always been there for me. Dodges Ferry, Tasmania Australia will always be my home.

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -- Lin Yutang.

I will tell you more about my hometown and family later on.

I found Shanghai to be a very popular tourist destination. Many different foreigners and ethnicities walking around taking in the hustle and bustle lifestyle of the Chinese. Growing up I remember wondering why Chinese people took photos of everything, Clicking away at everything and anything. I now felt like That. Ironic? At this stage I had my Olympus Stylus 850 SW Digital- Shockproof and waterproof camera. Clicking away at Shanghais amazing architecture. It turned out I had made it to the famous ‘Bund’-which runs along the bank of the Huangpu river. It is one of the most visited tourist areas in Shanghai. It has dozens of historical buildings- numerous trading houses and banks from the UK, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, The U.S, Japan and more.

A pedestrian transit tunnel crosses the Huangpu River from the Bund. Passengers board slow-moving powered vehicles which travel along the tunnel, with light effects projected onto the walls of the tunnel. These effects are marketed as a tourist attraction; the charge for the tunnel is ten times the fee for crossing the river on Line 2 and 20 times the 2 RMB fee for crossing by ferry.

On the other side I found myself going crazy with the camera again. I was in ore of the buildings,they were the biggest I had ever seen. The ‘Jin Mao tower’ and the even taller ‘Shanghai World Financial Center’, which sits a a whopping 492 meters tall- The tallest in mainland China and ranks third in the world. The ‘Oriental Pearl tower’, at 468 meters.

I had 100’s of photos and I was only at the beginning of my trip.

Days past, weeks infact and we decided to get a train to the city of Suzhou. The city is located on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part of the Yangtze river delta region. I had no idea what Suzhou had to offer, but I was willing to explore. The only thing I heard was that it was sometimes referred to as “Venice of the East” or “Venice of China”. I soon found out why. Suzhou is famous for its classical Gardens, Canals, and temples. We were only going to be in Suzhou for 2 nights, so we made the most of our time. The little old Olympus stylus was sure copping a flogging. Taking 100’s more photos. We met for dinner with a friend of Lou’s whom lived in Suzhou with his family.It was in the city that I first tasted ‘Baijiu’- A strong Chinese rice wine. It is a distilled liquor and ranges in alcohol volume between 40-60%. Not only did I experience my first taste of the liquor but my first Chinese drinking experience. There would be no sipping on the baijiu casually at your own pace. Everytime someone drank they would cheers with you and down the small glass and vice versa. So it didn’t take long to finish off our first bottle of expensive rice wine. My stomach was burning as was my throat. I cant explain the taste. But it was strong, and we were drunk. Lou and I headed out to check out the local night life after dinner, consumed more beverages and called it a night.

What makes China unique among other heavy drinking countries is that drinking frequency, quantity, and binge drinking increase with age. The heaviest Chinese drinkers are middle-aged or beyond, while drinking levels in other countries tend to peak in people's late teens and early twenties.

9-5-2010. Email to lucy (sister) “ We went to Suzhou last night, Lous friend, his wife and kid picked us up from the train station. then we went for dinner. Over here, if your a guest at dinner, the host chooses what we're having. which suits me fine- too much to choose from anyway. We had a few dishes. duck, prawns etc. but the standout, which was suprisingly nice was 'bamboo'. it was good,sort of like a pasta.The host also got a bottle of local rice wine which was 53%, and you drink it out of a mini shot glass. He toasts and you finish it, everytime. Thank god we only got one bottle, not because i was getting drunk, but because i thought I’d spew”

Not long after Suzhou, we made the 2 hour and reasonably cheap flight with China Southern to the capital city, Beijing. Beijing like Shanghai has a population of over 20million. The same as my whole country. Australia. Like our last adventure we here for a good time, not a long time. So our days were jam packed with tourist activities followed by nights of large amounts of alcohol consumption and mingling with the local people.

Beijing has been the political center of the country for much of the past seven centuries and is renowned for its palaces, temples, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Beijing is among the most developed cities in China, but I still believe it doesn’t compare to Shanghai.

In Beijing Is where I first met Molly Yang, Who now is an important friend in my life. Lou and Molly met when they were doing their MBA in Beijing and to this day are still great friends and business partners.

Molly and I got along straight away, almost feeing like she was one of my sisters. She had organised a car for us to the Great Wall of China. This would be my first visit to one of the ‘7 wonders of the world’. Then, I had no idea that 3 years later I would have visited 5 of them and striving to do all 7 in my lifetime.

We were up early to get to The Wall and I don’t think I was the only one feeling the aftermath of too many Chinese beers the night before. It was ripper of a day, Sun was shining, blue skies (unusual for Beijing) and not a breath of wind. It may have been too hot, but I will not complain about that as you will later read that I visit the wall again, 3 years later and have the complete opposite weather.

If you have never heard or even seen pictures of The Great Wall, you have obviously been living under a rock. It is no doubt the largest manmade cultural relics in the world- It passes through 156 counties and 10 cities.

It has been said that you can see the wall from space. I’m not entirely sure how true this statement is.

The Wall is approximately 8,851.8 km long- give or take few meters.

17-05-2010 email to Family:

“I was woken at 8am by Lou saying that the taxi was there to get us. Still drunk,no shower, no brushed teeth.Jumped in the taxi and headed for the Great Wall of China. We all slept(lou,Molly and I) the whole way there, was about 2hrs away. We finally arrived, it was a stinking hot day. Lou was in jeans. He tried to buy shorts when we got there, but they only had really dorky ones, i tried to get him to get them but he wouldnt hehe. You can go to different sections of the wall. We went to the' Simatia' part. Which Molly had organised, its further away, but less people get there. It is the most strategic, most magnificent and the highest section of the great wall. They first started building the great wall in 290 B.C. It really was amazing. Probably the coolest thing i think can say i've ever done. I took so many photos. We probably walked about 2-3hrs. All up, until we came to a dead end,cause it got a bit dodgy after that, so werent allowed to go any further. At some stages we would stop and i would just stand there and take it in. Take it in that i was standing over looking the great wall of china, Was very surreal. Lou and Molly gave me a chinese name. Not sure how to spell it, but its "Shao ya"- which means little duck. quite cute i know. its stuck anyway. Even know people laugh at me when i tell them. So great wall of china, been there done that 😊”

The next couple of days following The Wall were spent sightseeing. I visited the ‘Forbidden City’.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the centre of Beijing. The amount of people there was phenomenal. I definitely wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be visiting such a sacred place and to be exploring 980 buildings which covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft). I was tired, hung-over, Sunburnt from the previous day at The Wall and locked shoulder to shoulder with Chinese tourists.

I was relieved to reach the end, walk across the road and into ‘Tiananmen Square’. It is the third largest city square in the world (440,000 m² - 880m by 500m) It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. Outside of China, the square is best for known the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a pro-democracy movement which ended on 4 June 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the death of several hundred or possibly thousands of civilians.

I couldn’t go to Beijing and not try the national dish of China- Beijing Peking Duck

The duck is well known for the thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the you by the cook/chef. Ducks bred specially for the dish are killed after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with pancakes, scallion, and hoi sin sauce or sweet bean sauce.

I highly recommend trying it. Beautiful, tender meat. Delicious.

19-05-2010 Email to Family:

“We didn't stick around long as we were meeting Lou's chinese friend Vincent for dinner at 6.30-We didnt get there till nearly 8o'clock (poor guy). So it was just us 3 for dinner. He had bought a bottle of 'Baijiu'. So we drank that. Had Peking duck, which they come and slice in front of you. It was delicious. They had that same sauce and the wrap things as home. Lou doesn’t eat meat, so there was plenty of duck to go around.”

Back in Shanghai I only had a few days left before flying to Changsha, china for a few days then onto Rome, Italy.

I visited the ‘Shanghai World Expo 2010’. The Expo was held on both banks of the Huangpu River from May 1 to October 31. It was a major expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions. It had the largest number of countries involved and was the most expensive expo in the history of the Worlds fairs. It covered over 5 square km. Over 73million people had visited by the expo’s end and 250 countries and international organizations had participated. On one particular day, 1.03 million people entered the exhibition.

It was in these last few days that I stepped out of my comfit zone and tried some different types of food. I tried Camel- which I thought tasted like corned beef/silverside and believe it or not Silk worms. Silk worms are a Korean Cuisine. Before I came to China I was unaware that silk worms were edible. Silkworms are not actually worms but the pupae of moths. If somebody wanted to make a shirt out of the things they would boil the pupae in water for five minutes and wind out the strands of fibre. For some reason somebody thought it would be better to deep fry them instead and serve them up as food.

22-05-10 Email to family:

“We went to get a bite to eat. we had korean again. one of the dishes was silk worms. YES I ATE SILK WORMS. I’ve taken a photo of the dish, will send at some stage. they

were....ok!!?? umm cant really explain them,a little crunchy? Definitely not in my top tasting things.”

We partied pretty hard the last few nights. Drinking excessive amounts, enjoying all you can eat and drink Japanese Buffets until all hours of the morning. I went to my first KTV (karaoke television) which is very popular among the Chinese. It was a fun few nights, it had been a fun overall few weeks.

“went to the karaoke thing last night. called KTV. They’re everywhere here. You hire a little room, have drinks and food, sing songs. BUT at the start like 12 girls come in and you pick one each, i picked the hottest one i could see. and she just waits on you. Gives you drinks, food. was pretty cool. different anyways” Email to Jacko (friend) 24-05-10

My last full day in shanghai was one to remember. I got off the subway on my way to a museum when I was approached by 4 friendly young female Chinese girls. I found this strange. They were asking lots of questions- where I was from, age etc. All the usual questions you would ask someone you’ve just met.

They informed me that the museum would shut in 1 hour, so there was no point going, and the line would be huge anyway. They then asked if I would like to go to a traditional Chinese tea house. I was a bit hesitant at first but then thought “Fuck it”, not only 1, but 4 young girls are showing interest in me, the first time a female had since I left home 3 weeks ago. Plus I would get to see some of the ‘traditional’ side of China instead of the inside of a bar. On the way there I was texting Lou, telling him all about it. I couldn’t believe my luck.

I was treated very well upon arrival, like royalty. Cut a long story short- I ended up trying 6 different types of tea and made to pay 500Yuan ($80). When I let I had a message from Lou saying-

“Just make sure they don’t take you to some dodgy tea house- at the end you will pay for it and it will cost 600Yuan”.

I replied

“To late, I’ve been done. Fell for it. 500 for Fucken Tea. I don’t even like tea!”

The reason for travelling to Changsha, in the Hunan province of China was for business purposes for Lou and Molly. You will hear all about this later on as it ended up becoming part of my life and my home 3 years later. In my short visit I happened to try some different foods, these including- snails, pigs foot, chicken feet, pigs ear, sparrow, snake and pigs intestines. I had the option of trying chicken neck and raw fish skin, but passed on that opportunity..

We stayed There until the 30-05-10, I then few back to Shanghai, then onto my next destination Rome, Italy.

The world seen through my Ize (Part 1)

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