China part 2: 'Ello me old China...

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(24/10/09) ‘Ello me old China!!!!…Just arrived in Shanghai (population 16million) after another overnight train. Think I will start with a quote from Lonely Planet’s opening paragraph; “Shanghai: Whore of the Orient”!! What the f…you see what I have to put up with from these lame travel guides, it’s remarkable I have survived this long.. Anyhow, this place is pretty cool. Almost over night in about 1994, ten’s of skyscapers burst the skyline and it’s easily to see that this city is the commercial capital of the fastest growing economy in the world. When looking at the skyline of Pudong (the business district on one side of the river) it almost looks like that space city from the Star Wars films (the name is on the tip of my tongue..). We took a stroll around and saw the new glimmering buildings merged with the former colonel ones. In fact, some of the area looks very English/European. A few of us strolled down the extremely busy Nanjing Road where I got offered to buy everything from watches and bags to hash and marijuana (presumably you’re meant to put the drugs in the fake bags?). At the end of the never-ending road were some funky statues indeed (a few were quite rude!). In the evening we went to see an unbelievable acrobatic show. Not sure I‘ve seen one in person before but these guys we amazing. It had a bit of every thing from hula girls to chaps jumping through hoops and balancing all sorts (I am describing this really poorly). People we jumping, gliding, hanging, swinging, flying. The finale of five people on motorbikes going upside down in the Cage of Death were breathtaking. China really knows how to put on a show. Impressive. Afterward we had the cheapest Italian in the world.. So far Shanghai has impressed me a lot. The sad news is that Alex from our group has been really poorly and hardly participated in most of the events. He started with a bit of food poisoning (probably from home) and had a few days of stomach ache, then a fever, then started losing strength in his legs and would literally collapse randomly. He ended up flying to Shanghai from Xian and has finally got it diagnosed as Guilim-Barre (perhaps wrong spelling) syndrome which is kind of where nerves die out and can actually lead to you whole body being uncontrolled, although the doctors think this is a mild case and should be ok in a month. Massive shame as he and his girlfriend Chiara have been saving all year and looking forward to this trip but have spent most of it in bed or a hospital. Poor lad, but a bloody nice one.

(25/10/09) This morning Richard took us to the old town to have a gander about. Some of us went to the beautiful Yuyuan Gardens which really were nice but riddled with huge tourist groups, all following the flag waving guide. These gardens had lots of rockeries, ponds and similar. Very nice in the sunshine indeed. For lunch I ate three crabs on a stick…battered (said in an Alan Partridge voice)!! Whilst waiting for the group, a friendly, elderly, well travelled Chinaman approached us and started chatting and had been to many of our home lands. Then in a scene almost out of Borat he gets excited and says “I’m a retard! I’m a retard!” He repeated this a few times. We were confused and bemused until we finally realised he meant “retired”. The chap then followed it up by saying he was a “mental doctor”, which we think means psychiatrist (unless the whole retard thing was correct to start with)… After that episode we then strolled some more, taking in back streets and various markets (including an antique market that sold the same tat as all the others, but it was just older). We strolled though a small part of the French Concession and saw the building that housed the first ever Communist Party meeting, back in the 1930’s. In the evening we headed to Pudong which is where all the funky skyscrapers are. Really cool skyline. I enjoyed the night time view. We walked around the river and hoped to find somewhere cheap to eat. After much searching, we found a Hooters…HELL YEAH!!! I remembered the fun I had with Mark and James back in Singapore. We had some decent food served by some lovely ladies. The quiet Ian was dragged on stage to do a little dance and was loving it!!..not bad for someone that has barely spoken in 2 weeks!!! We wanted to meet Alex and Chiara later on as we heard they were in town, so I went outside to call their room, I was looking at the people eating outside..and there was Alex and Chiara!..in all the bars… After Hooters we headed to an pricey Irish bar to watch Manu lose to Liverpool. Despite the result, I enjoyed the atmosphere in the bar which was mixed with expats and locals.

(26/11/09) So today a few of us went back to Pudong to go up the top of the Shanghai World Finance Centre which at 492metres and 101 floors is the worlds second tallest building by total height, but has the highest observation deck and occupied floors, which is the most important thing, as who gives a monkeys if a building has a massive tower and aerial on the top if you can’t get to that height, so I was the highest you can be (unless you want to climb an aerial?). It’s a cool looking building, a bit like a massive bottle opener. We zoomed up in the lift in seconds and were mesmerised by the psychedelic spinning visuals in the lift. I actually got quite light headed when the doors finally opened. Before I even got my camera out I had a guy wanting a photo with me, which I’ve had a few times, but it started to get silly with at least twelve people in the photo and then about thirty actually taking photos and then them swapping around. I can only liken it to Beatlemania. I was told that the glass floor beneath us could withstand three people per square metre jumping up and down but I was worried by the 8 or so on the one I was on. They were all very nice, and I was happy to pose for pictures with them, and I even took a few of them…After we escaped being mobbed again, Ian, Anna and I headed on the train to the airport and back…Why?…Well…Shanghai has the Maglev which is the fastest train in the world. It tops at 431km/h and you can actually feel the acceleration as the train tilts round. Its all done by magnets on the track (reduces friction you see?) and gets to the airport 30km away in seven minutes. It was relatively cheap and was fun to do. We then strolled round the tree lined French Concession, which is a posh Kensington type area left over from the colonial days a hundred years ago. Very nice indeed. Some of the places look very British from our time here. In the evening we got our last (of the tour) overnight train to Beijing which wasn’t too eventful, except the group of Chinese in next cabin were playing games and as a forfeit a guy had to sing happy birthday to me. It was not my birthday. Shanghai is a really nice city. A place that mixes the super new space age city with its old colonial past. There is a lot of construction work going on in preparation for the 2010 World Expo so the place is a bit dusty, but its going to look really cool in a year. I might even prefer this city to Hong Kong. On the train I was talking to Richard about the language and I’d like to share the English translations of some of the Chinese sayings. “Like climbing a tree to catch a fish” (waste of time), “When the tide goes out, the rocks are revealed” (the truth will out) and my favourite “A monkey in a tall hat” (petty official, like a traffic warden I suppose)..Just thought I’d put that in.

(27/10/09) So, here we are in Beijing, the capital, population 18million. That is a lot. After checking in to our pretty decent hotel, we grabbed some lunch and strolled down a wide boulevard that was really modern with massive TV screens outside. We got to Tiananmen Square which is the worlds largest public square (lots of largest or fastest things of late) and I think Richard our guide said it was the size of 44 football pitches, which I can believe. It wasn’t quite what I expected but I liked it..after posing for some pictures, we strolled around (posing for photos with the odd random Tibetan) and saw a War Memorial and just took in the atmosphere and millions of Chinese tourists, that have probable made there once in a lifetime trip to the capital. We then entered the nearby gates to the Forbidden City. This place was big. It is the former residence of past emperors. It kind of went on a bit and felt a bit same same. In the evening we went for a hotpot, which seem popular in China. The tables had a stove in the middle where you have a bowl of boiling water, then you dip in wafer thin pieces of lamb with chopsticks for just 30 seconds, then dip it in your self created satay sauce and eat. I loved it. Great meal for a group. A lot of fun as we would lose our meat in the boiling water. We then chucked in vegetables at the end also. We had an early start so I just took a stroll in the evening and saw some locals sing opera outside a church and some guys do some calligraphy on the church steps. Was very nice.

(28/09/10) An early start today. We were heading to the Great Wall. Have you heard of it? There are many sections to the wall, and we visited the Mutianyu section which is not the most touristy part. It was fairly misty when we arrived. We had to hike for about half an hour to get on to the wall, tiring but my…it was so worth it. I loved the view, despite the eerie mist. First impressions was, it was big. Went on as far as the eye could see, and in fact to the Gobi desert. Different sections date back from different times (original over 2000 years) and it stretched around 6,000 kilometres, but much of this is just rubble. We took plenty of photos and it got sunnier. There’s lots of towers that we walked pass. Some of it gets real steep and we had to use our hands, and the steps were like 12inches high. It was so awesome. We had such a great day. Alex and Chiara flew to Beijing and Alex got the cable car (that is not part of the original wall) so he could at least see it, if not hike the wall with us. He still had to walk up quite a few steps, which looked pretty uncomfortable with his new walking stick, but fair play for doing it. We walked back past where we started and was very pleased we got up early as the crowds were now picking up...We didn’t fancy walking down…so we got a toboggan of all things. A bit random, but fun. The wall is great for sure… It’s another one of those things that you see on TV so much and you wonder if it is over hyped when you see it in the flesh, but I loved it. The view of the wall went on for miles, and its just amazing to think what a mega project this must have been to build. By the way you can’t see it from space, that’s just lies….After the 2 hour bus back we were dropped off at the Olympic Park where I did a Usian Bolt pose in front of the Birdsnest Stadium. I have little interest in the Olympics (in fact if I am in London in 2012 then I will rent my room out during the event for lots of money if interested?), but the architecture was impressive, as was the Cube (Swimming centre) which was of great interest to German Ian as his girlfriend represented Germany here in synchronised swimming at the Olympics last year…In the evening we went out for the final super, as our organised tour had finished. We went for well suited Peking Duck, which at home is one of my favourite dishes and it did not disappoint. We then started drinking games and ended up back at Richards room, all jumping on the bed!! Great fun. I really enjoyed the tour. Our guide was informative, helpful and friendly, and I liked the people a lot too. Some real goodens there.

(29/10/09) Blimey. That’s a hangover! I moved into Ian’s room to save some dosh and we headed for the Silk Market, which infact sold everything. I haggled well (I am actually world class at this sport) but still spent a lot of cash and bought some new clothes. I really enjoyed the haggling, and even did so on behalf of Ian. In the evening we met up with the remaining people from our group and had some food…a few of us headed back to the Olympic Park to get some night shots. We were walking along the approach and could see the Cube all lit up, but wanted a better angle. A group of Chinese stopped us for pictures (again) and we continued until the best photo spot..then they turned off the lights!! Cheeky gits. On the way back to the station some more Chinese ran up to Ian shouting “photo photo” so he happily got in the middle of them and posed…except it turns out they just wanted Ian to take a picture of all of them…d’oh!

(30/10/09) I checked out of my cool hotel where I stayed with German Ian and had fun trying to articulate wanting to post something (can you imagine, being in a post office and wanting to post something? Silly me). I then checked into the same hotel Hayley and Anna moved too which was pretty decent, with helpful staff. I had a bit of a nothing day, until I trekked on the subway and met up with American Emily (who I met in Laos and travelled to Bangkok and the islands with?) She was teaching English and living in Beijing and took me to a Korean restaurant where the waitress barbeque red meat in front of us and then we would put it in a big lettuce leaf with some other vegetables. Bit weird but tasty stuff. This was washed down with a beer and Korean version of sake called soju. We then met up with Simon, Carolina (their last night in China), Hayley & Anna and went to an area called Nanlugouxiang (no idea how to pronounce that!) which is a really cool area, not mentioned in the Lonely Planet crappy guidebook. It had lots of small chic bars which were really cool. We then jumped in a taxi to a more lively area. It really does pay to know a local. We had a really fun night.

(31/10/09) Oh my. This is a hangover. I didn’t want that wasting my day so I headed on the long long subway journey to the Summer Palace with Anna. Although it was a bit nippy at first the sun came out and I was strolling in my t-shirt for most of the day. The palace is where the emperors used to hang out when the Forbidden City got too hot. It certainly was a reasonable second home. THIS PLACE IS MASSIVE!! I didn’t really go inside any of the buildings but it’s another impressive place. The palace is on a mound surrounded by beautiful gardens which is on Kunming Lake. We negotiated our way through the millions of tourists (all with matching hats) and strolled round the lake. It was stunning. In the lake were a few bridge led islands which we also explored. I definitely preferred this place to the Forbidden City - if I was being offered one to have? Hayley joined us for din dins, and we returned to the same hotpot restaurant and had a pleasant evening although none of us were on top form as last night really knackered us out. We did stroll round the night market that sells scorpions and other bugs, and whilst I am normally first in line for such random eats, I was told that they are only really sold to tourists rather than locals and I don’t want to make a mockery of myself.

(01/11/09) November already? ..Blimey?.. So yesterday I strolled around the beautiful palace in a t-shirt and today I woke up to six inches of snow?…What the hell happened there??! One of the reasons I really like this random country. Kiwi Anna had left to go back to New Zealand this morning so only Hayley and I remained from the original tour. We were both pretty surprised and excited by the weather and thought we would stretch our legs and take in the snow topped sights. It was bitterly cold. Perhaps the coldest ever. Luckily I still had my woolly hat from New Zealand and I put almost every item of clothing I had on. There was certainly that snowy feeling you get back home with people out and about making snowballs. We headed back to Tiananmen Square to see it in quite a different way to just a few days previous. I felt like I was in a snowstorm paper weight thingy. Everyone else was wrapped up, including two guys with wicked panda woolly hats. We strolled to the UFO like National Theatre and then I went to the Natural History Museum. A bit of info was in English but most in Chinese and its really hard to understand how some insect evolved in Mandarin you know? It was here I started to feel a bit unwell and flu-like. Not surprising with all this cold and pollution (they say being in the Beijing smog is like smoking 70 cigarettes a day). I headed back to the hostel and although I headed out with Hayley to meet Emily for dinner, I had little energy or conversation so headed back pretty early. Not good. Nice to see Emily though - she speaks pretty good Chinese I tell thee.

(02/11/09) I had a crap night sleep being too hot and too cold and had so many bizarre dreams. I was feeling better than the night before so I thought I would make the most of it so me and Hayley strolled back to Tiananmen Sq and walked through some backstreets until we got to Jingshan Park which is the hill north of the Forbidden City which houses beautiful gardens and a great view over the snow topped palace. We strolled some more, past a lake and through some hutongs, which are low storied traditional neighbourhoods. We then managed to go up a Drum Tower and heard some people beat out a tune. I then said goodbye to Hayley and was on my own for first time in a few weeks. I was heading to the seaside town of Qingdao (pronounced “Ching-dao”) east of Beijing. I needed an overnight train to do this, and somehow articulated my way to my seat in economy class (the beds were fully booked)….So that’s Beijing. I had a great time here. More modern than I thought but the pollution is a killer. So many sights to see….

(03/11/09) JESUS H.CHRIST!!…Perhaps the worse 10hours of the year…I wasn’t feeling very good to start with, but this train was horrid. I had to sit on a really uncomfortable hard chair all night. The lights stayed on, as did the music. It was hot and people were smoking in there. I tried to sleep but it was just so hard. I hated it…I did arrive in sunny Qingdao, which seemed a far cry from smoggy Beijing….This place is a former German colony and they say it looks like Bavaria in parts, which I can believe. I tried to make the most of the day and strolled along the beach and rock pools, that reminded me of holidays to Devon. Plenty of people on the beach. My hostel was really cool - a converted star observatory that was now all arty (not bad for 89 pence a night!). Qingdao is the town where the Tsingtao beer comes from and I heard beer in a bag is sold here, but I was feeling crap so had quite an early night. Shame.

(04/11/09) I took a big walk along the promenade. This is the place where all of the sailing in the Olympics were held by the way. What I have noticed is that there are 10’s (perhaps 60) sets of bride and grooms posing for pictures on the beach and in front of the unused church. Strange that. I like Qingdao. I bet it would be awesome here for a week in the summer. In the afternoon I headed for the ferry terminal as I was heading to South Korea overnight.

So that is China. Done. I am disappointed in myself that this is such a short blog as I did a lot here and was perhaps my most active this year…. Well. What to say? Thought China was excellent. One of my favourite countries to date. The history dates back so far. Some of the scenery is spectacular and I really like the modern architecture of the cities. The food was better than expected, and I ate like a king. More than anything, I really liked the people. Sometimes I had no idea what they were on about but that was part of the charm. Other than the odd toilet trough in a few service stations, China is surprisingly clean with lots of bins and public toilets everywhere. I disliked the way (old men to young girls) gargle and spit in public. Disgusting. It is still a developing country, and that is obvious in some parts but their economy is getting pretty big so I think we will be hearing a lot from China over the years. I had a bloody good few weeks here and really recommend it for so many reasons. Would also just like to say that I was considering missing out on China but my mate Potter really did convince me to go…thanks Potts.

See ya!

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Comments

[chris potter]

comment
good blogging young sir! Yet another mention, which i greatly appreciate. Glad you ahd a good time. China being the size it is, I think to really appreicate it you need to spend a couple of years there travelling around. Saying that, you probably went to some of the best places. I would've liked to pop over to Tibet, but not too safe at the time. ps, love the picture of the muslim wearing green. haha