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Published: July 14th 2009
Blog #8: July 7th - 14th: Shanghai, Qingdao and on being a victim of crime.
Well dear readers...where have we got to? I left you in an internet cafe in Shanghai...so from there I will pick up my story. Tuesday 7th I cooked a meal for the 4 of us to say thanks for letting me stay at your flat. As I only had a 2 burner gas stove, the inside of a rice cooker and the smallest frying and saucepan in the world, I did quite well to muster up lime and garlic prawns with a kiwi fruit and lettuce salad followed by sweet and sour pork noodles. We all dived in, it all got eaten, thats the end of that story.
Wednesday 8th, I got up early and went into Shanghai...its so ridiculously hot, you only have to sit and do nothing and you shed your entire body weight in fluid. Today it is 35 degrees but the news says that with the added humidity, its up to 45. A great day for traipsing around a city Im sure you will agree. Anyway, traipse I did. I caught the tube to the Pudong area which is where a lot of the business towers are but its right by the river with good views across to the Bund, so that was where I started and the sweating in earnest began. I then caught the under the river tunnel to the Bund. The tunnel or rather, the "sightseeing tunnel" is promised to be a fabulous way of crossing the river in French made automatic cable car type things, that you get in and its basically a dark tunnel filled with swirling lights that make you feel a bit dizzy while futuristic music plays and a voice comes over the speaker saying things like "automate..automate..automate..automate" (fading), "prognosis....prognosis....prognosis...prognosis..." "technodimension.....technodimension....technodimension..." I can only come up with one word to sum up my feelings on exit of the sightseeing tunnel;
Pertubed.
Anyway, out I trotted to find that the Bund, (Shanghai's famous strip of posh hotels, shops etc) was apparently on the other side of the board that had been put up because of all the building work that is apparently taking place, and as such, it is imposible to cross the road, so one has no choice but to keep walking until one finds a gap. Well, I dont know how far I walked until I found my gap, but I did nearly get killed on a number of occassions due to the lack of pavement and narrowness of the road. I must confess, that while my road crossing skills have vastly improved since arriving in China (one cannot dilly dally) I am always comforted if I have a human buffer between me and incoming traffic. Call me selfish, I dont care. Well, there was a merry troupe of Chinese in front of me, and while 30,000 road traffic accidents involve deaths each year here, I feel safety in numbers always bucks up my own chances of survival, but while the Chinese have always steadfastly looked traffic in the eye as in silent challenge, these Chinese were actually frightened as well. Thats how bad it was. We all ran the last bit. (Dont tell my mother...). So, I finally got to the other side of the road, and the Bund was busy, and big and full of large grand looking buildings, but to be honest, when I find myself in Chinese cities, I find myself thinking they are all fairly similar (give or take the main attractions) and they are hot, concrete places where you get shoved around a lot, there is a phenomenal amount of mincing of the "Imjustgoingtowalk2pacesinfrontofyoureallyslowlyandthensuddenlystopwithnowarningandanswermyphone-variety". I did get stopped by some Chinese to have my photo taken (thats not happened in a while) and was asked if I played basketball because I was so tall?
Tall people have minds as well you know.
Anyway, after escaping the bund, I walked all the way back to Peoples Square after a million people tried to sell me a Rolex, and dipped myself into the museum to feed off their aircon. I am aware that I am officially THE sweatiest person in Shanghai. Im not really sure what Im doing wrong. People waft by, not a drop on them, clothes fresh and billowing in the breeze, while my clothes stuck to me the second I left the apartment and my hair is plastered to my scalp in a very unattractive fashion. It simply isnt fair. I finally made it back to Marions hot and exhausted and we went to have our sweaty hair cut.
The barber has a shop at the bottom of one of the apartment blocks. Its only big enough for 2 chairs...last time Marian went, she had to have hers done outside cos so many people came to watch and the barber had never seen blonde hair before, yet alone touch it. (It should be pointed out here that Marian is also blonde and about as tall as I am). So we turned up with Julie, one of the Chinese teachers from Marians school, to do the talking. Well, the barber wasnt in but his wife was, who promptly picked up the phone, made a call and 10 minutes later he appeared on his bike. The wife who was in charge of me wanted to know why my hair was 2 different colours, i.e., light, sun bleached and frazzled at the ends, dull brownish colour at the top. I thought I had to stop answering to hairdressers about my hair when I left England, ("Have you been cutting your hair" - "er..no?" "Yes you have, I can tell. Who cut your hair last?" - "er, you did?" "Right, well, have you been using sun in again? you DO know what that does to your hair?" "please dont tell me off..." ladies, you know the drill). Anyway, she did a fine job and Im all trim and super smart again, plus it only cost me £1.
July 9th. Marian had the day off and we were going to go to a water village. Well, we got to where Lonely Planet says the buses leave from...struggled to find the stop, then when we found it, it was too late, so we went home and drank beer. That night, we went to Julies house for dinner. I met her grandfather, who was a sweet old man and has enthralled Marian with stories about how it was living in the age of Mao and the cultural revolution. He showed me 2 paintings of his that he saved, they are amazing...I should have taken a photo but didnt. Then we went through his photo albums..all old Chinese pictures of his family, and his children when they were little. The archtypal Chinese black and white pictures, the clothes, the hair, it was amazing to see. He also showed me the pictures of Julies mum at her funeral (she was quite young, had cancer) and she is there, laid out with everyone crying around her. It was strange looking a photographs of the dead and seeing the pain in the faces of the people around her while one of those people was sat right next to me. Very sombering stuff.
Dinner was lovely though, and it was nice to have a nosey around a Chinese apartment.
July 10th - I got up at 6am determined to make it to a water village today. I made it - got to the stadium, got my ticket to a village called Zhujiajiao and off we set. The bus was pretty empty, about 8 westerners and the rest Chinese. After an hour, the coach pulled into a car park and we were told to get off. Turns out the chinese all stayed on the bus, dont know where they were going, and all the westerners were left in the car park looking puzzled while the bus driver pointed down the road and then drove away. Its quite funny really. Somewhere like here, you really are left at the mercy of the rest of the world. Like a wind up toy, you just go in the direction you have been pointed in and off you go, no idea where you are going to or if its where you want to be...but what can you do? So we all started off down the road, a little line of us. A girl who had been on the bus caught me up, she was from Zurich and called Claudia. She seemed very nice so we chatted as we went and got to the village entrance and ended up just walking around together. The village was very beautiful. There are a few canal villages around Shanghai and now they are like heritage places but people still live there, although its mainly geared up for tourists. We went on one of the boats together and walked down the lanes and over the bridges, and stopped at about 12pm for something to eat. Claudia had a booklet thing of Shanghai and all the good places to go and it recommended a restaurant in this village. We eventually found it and went in. I ordered noodles, she said she'd try the curry chicken as this was supposed to be the cleanest restaurant. I should have realised then really. Claudia had only been in China a few days, was only here for 10 and was staying with a friend who lived in Shanghai so probably had only really experienced Western paradise Shanghai, all fine dining and Long Island Iced Teas. Well, she went to the toilet and came back looking a little feint. (1st Chinese toilet possibly?). Then her chicken arrived, as Chinese chicken does, literally, half a bird lopped into pieces with the feet proudly on top. "But I cant eat zis" she said, looking very dismayed. "Its all bones!". I explained this is how it was in China. "I thought I vud get a fillet with ze curry sauce?". er....noooooo.... bless her. I let her share my noodles. Well, it has to be said, she was rather fed up, especially as it was still early and the bus didnt come till 3.45pm.
I made her come round one of the gardens and I took silly photos of her, (I found one of those circles in the walls, and you KNOW how much fun they are for photos dear reader) so she cheered up a bit and said I was good for morale.
Well, we minced as much as we could, and then finally sitting on a bench, and old lady came and sat with us and so with the aid of my Mandarin phrasebook we had a right old hoot. She was very impressed that Claudia was from Switzerland and kept pointing at her watch saying "huan hao". Claudia looked a bit scared as if she may try and whip it off her arm, but I told her shes just saying Swiss watches are very good. Then she started measuring me as if sizing me up for some kind big cooking pot, putting her fingers round my arms and comparing them to hers and pointing at all of my moles and making old person exclamation kind of noises. And then, she took my flip flop off, marvelled at the size of it and laughed like a drain when she put her foot against mine. Bah. Anyway, we sat here going through the phrasebook, her reading out words and me copying until she got bored. We said our goodbyes. It was very funny. Claudia said I was very calm and patient. Nearly everyone I have met in the past 6 months at some point mentions I am calm. Im not sure why. Its not like Im an oddity and the rest of the people in China are all hysterical. Im not sure how I feel about this. I think I would prefer other adjectives, like "charismatic", "charming", "odd" even...but "calm"? Its a little disappointing.
July 11th - preparing for my big bus journey. Tomorrow I am going to Qingdao oop north for a little while. There are beaches there and its where they make TsingTao beer. I am catching an overnight sleeper bus which is exciting..leaves at 8pm and lands at 7am...
July 12th - the day of the bus. Well, I got to the bus station ok, and went to get on my bus. Got my massive suitcase on and I KNEW the woman hadnt really looked at my ticket, so I showed it to the driver who looked confused. Then a man in a red Tshirt came from nowhere and got me and my bag off the bus. You know sometimes, you meet people and you just have a really nice feeling about them? He was one of these people. He spoke no English but seemed quite amused by me and got me onto another bus (one he was helping drive). Once up the steps youre faced with rows of "beds" or rather cots, not unlike little coffins. Very narrow and looking rather short in the leg for the likes of me. Anyway, he pointed at the first one which was empty (everyone else seemed to be already on) and up I clambered. You have a little well at the bottom of the bed for your bag and your feet and the rest is flat with a raised bit for your head, so you have to lie down. You get a little duvet and a pillow and youre set. Red Tshirt guy came round with presumably a check list, chuckled at me and off we went. Im not sure if I slept or not, but all of a sudden it was 5am, the lights came on and I was motioned to get off as we were here. Like at all bus terminals, there are taxis wanting to take you places. I said yes to one and showed him the address of my hostel in the Lonely Planet, but he didnt know where it was. Red T shirt man was suddenly there, with his mate all looking at the map. I rang the hostel and someone answered and spoke to the driver. Red Tshirt man did not leave until my suitcase was in the cab and the driver knew where he was going. Bless him.
So I arrived at the hostel at about 5.10am and rang the bell. Woke up an old man who let me in to use the loo and took my suitcase off me but basically told me to come back at 12. Lucky for me, it was light and China is awake at that time, so I walked down till I got to the sea and the whole world was there, walking, swinging arms, doing Tai Chi, you name it. I went to the end of the pier that was already full of tour groups, people fishing and a crowd of grown ups in speedos and the odd wetsuit all jumping into the water and generally larking about. The sea is filthy (this is the Yellow one) but noone seems to mind the rubbish, and of course theres all the spitting...
So I sat there reading and watching for a couple of hours. A few people came to talk to me and stare and take pictures, including a lady with a massive zoom lens who made no secret of spending about 20 minutes floating around taking pictures of me, but at 6 or something in the morning after 9 hours on a bus and feeling rather grubby, I could have done without it. Then the man who sat next to me decided to follow me when I got up to go and followed me down the pier and down the road, so I told him, "look, I dont speak Chinese, you dont speak English, what are you doing??" and still he trotted along behind me...this went on for a while until I rather lost it and snapped a little, "stop following me Leave me alone! Goodbye! Zai Jian!" and then he got the message and said, "bye bye" and went the other way. I know they say that sometimes a friendly smile is taken the wrong way here, but really, what was he supposing was going to happen? Silly man. Anyway, I went and sat in a park and a dear old man came over to talk to me. We chatted for a while and then Richard, who was 9 and playing badminton with his mum came over to practise HIS English, and then the nice old man came back and chatted again, and then at about 10am I had had enough of being homeless and used for photo and English speaking opportunities and went to the hostel where I sat in the very nice lounge area and then went to my room. After a shower I felt a lot better and then decided to embark on a new adventure...the weather was a bit chilly and rainy, so thought I'd go find the bus station and get my return ticket to Shangahi.
I have to say, this was a triumph for me. I found the bus stop, got on the bus, got off at the right stop, asked a few people for directions and got shown where the ticket office was, got my ticket, found the bus stop home, asked which side of the street I needed to be, got told the other side, caught the bus home, got off at the right stop and got back to my hostel. I was VERY proud of myself.
Tuesday 14th July. Then today happened.
I had the best sleep in ages. Ive not slept in a bed for 10 days and was so tired, went to bed about 8 and got up at 9, 13 hours later. The weather was a lot nicer, so decided to walk round to the next beach and take my book. By the time I got there (quite a trek) the weather had picked up and it was really quite hot. I sat for 4 hours reading my book. A crowd of women came up at one point, all wanted photos. No exaggeration, there were 10 of them so we had individual shots, me standing up shots and then the group shots. What a polava. I decided I was burnt enough at about 3.30 and got a bottle of water from a kiosk and left the beach. I got jostled up the steps and got to the top, saw the men selling bbq squid on a stick and when I went to get my wallet out, discovered I had been robbed. My wallet had gone. From just walking up a few steps, my wallet, which was in the inside most hard to get to pocket of my bag with the stiff zip, had been opened and I hadnt felt a thing. My heart stopped. I checked and checked again. Definately gone. I had no idea what to do. Should I go to the police? What would they do? What would I say? My cash, cash card and credit card, youth hostel membership card and cant remember what else, probably my driving license but not sure where that is, all gone. I decided to go back to the kiosk JUST IN CASE I had left it there, but I knew I hadnt. By the time I got there, I had texted the boy to tell him and was trying very hard to keep a straight face. Bottom lip quivering, I showed the lady at the kiosk my phrasebook word for purse and she shook her head and I pointed at my bag and put a sneaky hand in and said "its been stolen!!", and then I turned away, went and sat on a nearby wall and did what any grown up and sensible lady at my distinguished age would do.
I cried.
I didnt care. There I was, on my own, surrounded by strangers, none of whom could understand me and someone had stolen my wallet. I wasnt there for long before a small crowd gathered and the lady from the kiosk came over and wrote something on a piece of cardboard. I looked at it - it was in Chinese. I shook my head and undeterred, carried on crying. Then she got a man who gestured for me to go with him, so I trailed along behind him, still gibbing a little bit. We ended up in a police station where I was put on a chair and handed over to a young and very lovely policeman. He apologised for not speaking English but his was really very good. He told me not to worry, that they would do everything they could to help me and we pieced the story together. When we got to the part about what had gone, I was still a bit gibbery and the explanation of the lucky shark tooth and selection of foreign coins and a button took a small diagram to explain but it all got dutifully noted in the "report". Then after a while the interpreter came so we went through it all again. The nice policeman asked if I had any money (no). He offered to lend me some, I said it was ok, I had some back at my hostel. He said again not to worry, they would do whatever they could...anyway, then the report got printed off and I had to sign the pages and then put my finger into this red waxy stuff and fingerprint over where I had written my name, it was all very Chinese. After the interpreter left, the nice policeman said he would give me a lift back to my hostel. (I was very grateful, it was at least an hours walk), and so there I was, cruising through Qingdao in the front of a police van. I was going to ask him if he could put the lights on and maybe the siren but decided against it. So we got to the hostel and he came in with me and spoke to the staff, (not sure why or what he said) and then he left. Apparently the police will work hard to find my wallet and if they do, they will give me a call. So a bad event, followed again by the extreme kindness of strangers. Its really swings and roundabouts here.
The thing is, the other things in my extra secure pocket were my camera - now I WOULD have died if that had gone, but also the tea tin I have over 3,000Y of my bonus inside which I have carried with me as I didnt want to leave it in the hostel in case my locker got broken into and it was stolen. Of the 3 items in my bag, the least damaging one was taken...and only a tenner (which is a LOT for me here) but it could have been a whole lot worse. The boy-superhero has cancelled my cards and apparently new ones can be couriered to an HSBC here so I will hopefully pick them up in Shanghai. Lucky I have my bonus money...else all I had was 2y, and while I'm sure the nice policeman would have got me some dinner, I would have been right royally screwed.
Its been a strange day.
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NateK
Nathan Koffel
I'm Sorry
I'm so sorry...Shanghai sounds like it was going great untill you had your wallet stolen. (loved hearing about claudia and the old lady ^_^ ) Id like to help but I don't know if there is anything I can do.. but if you think of something, just let me know. I can't imagine having my wallet stolen, I would be completely screwed. At least not everything was taken but I know thats not much consolation. I hope things are turning around quickly for you. Take care and good luck - Nathan Koffel