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Published: October 1st 2012
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In a rather sleep deprived state we landed in Shanghai naively feeling like cultured tourists, after all we had navigated the English speaking, tourist haven of New Zealand without a real hitch. Obviously, we were wrong. Getting off the plane itself had become a gauntlet of bodies as Chinese people seem to have little regard to any safety protocols, or procedures imposed by the airlines...after getting their bags during the actual landing of the aircraft...
We got our bags and joined the rush to get off the plane and out of the airport, and being used to the Spring NZ temperatures we were soon sweating beyond belief at the 25 degree heat in the evening. With directions to the hostel in-hand we decided to brave the local transport and 'do it the cheap way'. After being ushered onto a bus as a result of my pointing to Chinese words on paper-based conversation we were soon on our way in a smoky bus to central Shanghai. As soon as we arrived at People's Square and were left to our own devices, the experience of being in a super-populated Asian metropolis hit home. At first it is terrifying, and utterly
bewildering as to what to do but we soon took a breath (of rotting fish) and made our way through a few back streets to our hostel. We arrived safe and sound and went to sleep immediately, dreaming of our sleepy backwaters of NZ.
We got up nice and early and braved the Shanghai streets to go to 'The Yu Gardens' or 'Garden of Happiness' in the southeastern part of the city centre. This is a privately owned garden in the old city area, which houses the famous Huxinting Tea House (15 pounds for a pot of tea...tourist trap shithouse). The building itself however is beautiful and very traditional looking. After wandering this tranquil and peaceful place we headed to the most popular tourist attraction in Shanghai - The Bund.
The Bund is a riverside walkway which is on the opposite side of the Huangpu river than the famous Shanghai Pudong skyline. As it was about 27 degrees of busy, humid city-heat, the breeze from the riverside was very welcomed and we walked the entire length from bottom to top. It was a very relaxing and entertaining experience, where we had our first paparazzi
harassment. Well, it was the first time someone asked us anyway. A very sweet lady asked if her father could have a photo with us and he sat down after shaking my hand and had a picture. It was from this point I would say I noticed 'the stare'. I suddenly became conscious of just how much attention we got when we went anywhere. People stare at you as if you are, in my case Tom Hardy (we look very similar in the film The Warrior...).
We retired to the hostel for a shower and refresh in the late afternoon so we could go out for dinner and see The Bund in its true glory, at night. We headed out and after a 45 minute stroll trying to find a place we felt comfortable having our first meal in China, we found a curry house (Chinese curry - we are not that uncultured...). I had a fried chicken curry and Kayleigh a Tomato and Asparagus one, which we both found to be delicious. At the cool price of £6 for the both of us, you can now understand the horror of a £15 tea pot...
The Bund at night is absolutely spectacular and teeming with local folk out for an evening stroll. As it is not especially lit on this side of the river, to allow the lights on the Pudong side their glory, we managed to escape 'the stare' for a short while. We decided there and then that we would head over to the Pudong side of the river tomorrow to go up the 468m, very unique and futuristic Oriental Pearl Tower.
After strolling through the hectic Nanjing Road shopping district we went through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, which boasted a '4D experience of Chinese Life' and drops you at the base of the tower on the other side of the river...all for the cool price of £6 return. I can only say that it was very typically Chinese and one of the strangest 'exhibits' I have ever seen. An apt description is it was like someone had gathered every single Christmas light from 1990 and adorned the entire tunnel wall with them, then got a pair of computer speakers and blasted out sound bytes from 90s games over the top. Very odd indeed.
We went
to the Upper Deck of the tower at 263m and it gave a wonderful view of this amazingly diverse city. On one side you can see countless high rise office buildings, whilst immediately next to them there will be a delapidated block of flats. We were due to fly out to the coastal city of Xiamen the next day so we strolled back along The Bund before retiring to the hostel for a lovely dinner of chicken curry for me (I blooming love Chinese chicken curry) and salad for Kayleigh.
First impressions of China are that it is like nothing I have ever come across before. A country with 1 billion people has bread a culture of people that are comfortable being on top of each other, whereas being a British couple, we are not. To enjoy yourself here you have to completely shed any notion of personal space outside of your bedroom. It is tough to get over the staring when it is unrelenting and from every angle. It seems the people in tour groups that are obviously not natives go unnoticed but the solitary couples get more attention. It has to be mentioned it is not hostile, but more curios than anything, but it grows weary after a while. Still, we are slowly getting used to it and so far, we have just got on with being tourists and appreciating the finer points of what we have seen.
Dan
Xx
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Nan
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bundy
Love your description of your days werry good lolxxxxxxx