Carbon Copy!!

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The Night Train

If you have never done an over night train in China before then i defo recImmend it, they can be old an dated trains but they are cheap, Mostly clean (always clean bed linen) and by all accounts comfy and safe!! i have used them 4 times now and the journey from Guangzhou to Shanghai was my first, the only down side is most the stations in China are horrid, large, dirty, stupidly busy and nothings in English. I took the easy option and used a Chinese travel agents to get my tickets for me, tickets only go on sale 18 days before your journey and you cant book online so you have to go into a station and buy the tickets in person with your passport, if you don't speak Chinese then just forget it! For the small price of 15 euros they bought all my tickets and delivered them via courier to my hostel in time for my journeys. But even with their help getting your train can still be a nightmare!! The trains are all named with a letter followed my a number which is individual to that journey, i didn't know at the time but the first letter denotes the quality of the carriage and accommodation, it seems the higher up the alphabet the better the conditions, for example train numbers starting with "Z" seem to be the best.

Carbon Copy!

So, Shanghai what can i say... but its a carbon copy of HK although slightly newer!! Both cities are very modern, big and bright with with lots of neon and LEDs decorating the skyline. Plenty of shops, restaurants and tourist attractions. English is everywhere although here its Chinese first and English second, in HK its the other way round. I arrived late at night and thanks to my 2 years of planning i found my hostel without any problems, got a good night sleep as the bunk beds are the size of doubles. I'm staying at the "Shanghai City Central Youth Hostel" which is very clean and has great facilities, it feels a lot like college dorms as there seems to be a lot of western students using this place as their uni/collage accommodation, and who could blame them when its only 6 euros a night and includes breakfast!

I got up early and had breakfast in the hostels restaurant, its basic with a choice of cereals, toast, steamed buns and fruit juice and with the price i paid for the night how can i complain?? Using the subway in Shanghai is great, its cheap and fast and for the whole week I spent less then 10 euros. I headed first to Nanjing road the main shopping street with wall to wall shopping malls and department stores, I had been warned about con artists working in the area and it didn't take long for them to find me! I had been in Asia for 2 weeks now and was used to people asking for my photo thanks to my "Punk" hair style, but this was the first time I had a young couple asking for a photo of just them but in front of some random building! The con is to engage you in talk, they say they are students studying English and ask if you can help them practice, next they take you to some tea rooms or attraction where you end up paying the rather large bill!! But thanks to previous warnings i knew what this couple wanted, getting away from them was not easy but i managed to break away in the end.

At the end of Nanjing road you come face to face with the Pu-dong, the futuristic half of the city built on reclaimed land and separated by a big river, the skyline is amazing and is almost as good as HK skyline and maybe one day will beat it. I walked along the promenade and after about half hour i was getting close to "Yu Yuan Bizarre" a large collection of shops aimed at tourists, selling mostly tacky souvenirs but still makes a great day out. The buildings are of traditional Chinese design and at this time of year had decorations unlike i had ever seen before specially for the Chinese New Year, the sales people can be rather pushy but if your OK with bartering then you can pick up some great bargains to take home. I opted for a hand crafted "Mini Me" made out of clay and only took half hour to produce and the final result was amazing. The whole area was very large with loads options for food and drink, most are cheap but some of the touristy ones can be pricey, Yu Yuan Gardens are just beautiful but the buildings look more Japanese then Chinese among the numerous carp filled ponds and manicured shrubs.

Birds Eye View!

The next day i visited the Shanghai World Financial Center advertised as the highest observation deck in the world, couldn't of picked a better day nice and clear with visibility for miles. its based in the Pudong side of Shanghai built on reclaimed land the whole area is amazing, very clean and modern looks like something out of a sci-fi film. The views up there were jaw dropping, the glass walk way was kinda disappointing as you cant see anything but the idea of walking on glass over 100 floors up is great. I had a drink in their sky bar and sat down watching the world below me while they went about their daily business, but after any drink follows the obvious... "the bathroom" which was just great as the urinals were fixed against glass walls over looking the city, probably the most memorable piss i have ever had! Close to the Financial Center is Shanghais Aquarium, 3 floors of tanks holding thousands of different fish, sharks, turtles, seahorses, crabs, seals, penguins and soo much more. They have several glass tunnels that pass through the tanks enabling you to get up and personal to the fish, the diver in the main tank hoovering the pool bed was funny.

On the night I went to see the Chinese acrobats at "ERA shanghai world circus", absolutely amazing displays of agility. I was hoping for something a bit more traditional as this show involved a multimillion dollar production with lasers and lights but still very good, unfortunately you cant take pictures they say its for copyright reasons then they try selling you the DVD!

Hangzhou

My hostel offered 2 different day trips to Hangzhou, Chinese only tour for 200 yuan or the English only for 800 yuan. I asked what the difference was and they said the higher price was due to the cost of the English tour guide, so naturally with me not knowing any Chinese i paid for the Chinese only tour! My theory is that Hangzhou was a "area of natural beauty" and all i wanted was to take some pictures so it didn't matter what language the guide was speaking, however when i got on the coach I was not too sure i had made the right decision as everybody on there looked at me like I had 3 heads! Anyways West-lake in Hangzhou was beautiful even with the cold weather making it hard for me to hold my camera, so far i had not said a single word to anyone or understood a single thing that was going on. We had a half hour boat ride around the lake before we got back on the coach to go for lunch when a boy of about 17 sat next to me and explained that he was attending Shanghai University next year and his told told him to talk to me and practice his English, I explained to him why i was in China and why i had opted for the Chinese only tour and he explained this to the others, and suddenly the whole mood on-board changed and they started using this boy to talk to me! what started off as a bad decision turned out to be one of my best, lunch was in a traditional restaurant where all the food is placed in the middle of the table on a "Lazy Susanne" and everybody helps themselves. The food was great and better then any Chinese I had at home, if i had gone on the English tour we would have received western style food and not this amazing banquet that was laid out before us.

After dinner we got back on the coach and were taken to a silk factory and a tea plantation, I would not of minded going to these places except that they didn't really show you anything about how they make their products they just want you to buy them. The final place on our day trip was "Lingyi Temple" this place was amazing and one of the biggest Buddhist temples i have seen. As you walk from the car park down some pedestrianized path the mountain side is decorated with Buddha statues carved directly into the rock face, the main courtyard is surrounded by 4 buildings each housing various statues and shrines to Buddha. Red lanterns were hanging all around the court yard, incense burning your eyes, people every where praying. They had one of the biggest solid stone Buddha statues i have ever seen, not sure whether it they built the buildings around the statues or built the statues inside the buildings but they were very impressive.

Temple Hoping

Today i went to 2 different temples, i walked to both as my hostel was less than an hour away. First was the "Jade Buddha Temple" which only cost 20 yuan to get in (another 10 if you want to see the Jade Buddha himself) beautiful buildings although very small compared to last nights Lingyi Temple. When you enter the courtyard they have what i can only describe as Nightclub Bouncers on the gates checking tickets and walking around for security, obviously this building contains something of great value. The Jade Buddha was very nice and almost life size, I can only imagine how much this solid statue weighs, how anyone would be able to steal it is beyond me! From here i walked to "Jing'an Temple" this place has the highest door price of all the temples/monasteries i visited on my trip through Asia and it shows in the condition of the buildings inside the high walls. All are made from beautiful solid oak wood and white marble, when you stand in the center its quit breathtaking with the sky scrappers perched around the edges peering over the high walls into the courtyard. Most Chinese people are Buddhists and need to go to temples/monasteries to pay their respects, but with such a high entrance fee the only people in here are tourists so it doesn't feel like its a real working temple!

Dinner was great i decided to visit one of the many food courts down Nanjing road, found a Thai place but the que was over an hour long but decided to bite the bullet and wait. After about 5 minutes i noticed how the waiters and the chefs kept coming out to stare at my hair, after about 10 minutes of this they decided to find me a table and let me jump the que, so maybe my Punk hair is good for somethings!

Shanghai National Museum

Most cities seem to have their own "National Museum" promoting their countries heritage and Shanghai is no different, but amazingly the whole thing is FREE to Tourists!! The displays inside were simply great, the whole building is very modern and clean, all the articles were beautifully presented in protective cases, movement censors turned lights on as you got close to them. Everything from jewellery, Bronze, Pottery, Clothing, jade, coins, furniture and more were all here, how this is achieved and costs nothing is beyond me, I can only guess its due to China being a Communist country and they want to showcase themselves to the rest of the world!!

Final Day!

Heading over to the Pudong i decided to use the slightly none conventional means of transport in the form of the "Bund Sightseeing Tunnel" this can only be described as a underground monorail with the tunnels filled with lights, lasers and LEDs all dancing to some music. It kinda looks like it was built in the 70s and I'm sure that it would be best experienced while tripping on acid, but still it was good fun and killed half an hour of my time, more entertaining then the normal Subway!! After this i went to the "Shanghai Science Museum" easy to get to by tube but i decided to walk which took a good hour and half killed me, the place is great with some amazing exhibits but with most of them not having English signs or instructions i was disappointed, especially when the National Museum yesterday was ALL in English and was FREE where as here i had to pay and i struggled to understand everything. But still it was a very enjoyable day!

Shanghai is a great city and expanding fast, I'm sure in 10 years it will have grown and changed tremendously. After a week in Shanghai its now time to move on again, this time to Xian for the Terracotta Warriors! Another over night train of 12 ish hours is needed, so cheap at around 20 euros for hard sleeper, my hostel in Xian has promised to meet me so fingers crossed!!

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Photos

City Central youth Hostel
Reception area at my hostel

My Mini Me
hand crafted out of clay, this guy made a miniature me in just half hour!

Yu Yuan Gardens
Huxington tea house with New Year decorations

View from Sky Bar
Size is important!

Ling yi Temple
Stone carvings of Buddha in the rock face

Jing'an Temple
Empty court yard thanks to the high door price

Bund Sightseeing Tunnel
like being on acid in the 70s

Chinese Dragons
Decorations for the Chines New Year

Shanghai city Model
small model of shanghai city inside the Financial Center