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Published: October 3rd 2010
Shimmering Shanghai Shanghai was incredible! Home to the Expo 2010, it seemed like a different world from the rest of China - tall, unique skyscrapers, beautiful buildings, shopping galore. It was the great Chinese cities we had expected to see upon arriving to this country. Beijing was not a city that we admired for its looks or incredible economy (though the tourist sights were unmatchable), Xi’an was nothing special aside from a quaint smaller city that didn’t have the same rush of Beijing, but Shanghai was a bustling city that was much more cultured than the rest of our travels. Perhaps due to the Expo, but people were much more respectful and accepting of foreign travelers. The skyline was constantly filled with skyscrapers with some of the most amazing shapes and designs, easily comparable to the great skyline of Tokyo. We only had time for 1 night in Shanghai, and our first mission was to (may I say luckily successfully) secure tickets on the next train to Hong Kong. As there is only one train every other day, we were a bit nervous that we would get stuck in Shanghai and be unable to make our flight out of China
through Hong Kong. Each Chinese person we told that we had secured tickets on the Hong Kong train that day were baffled and could not stop telling us of our luck!
After settling into our hostel, we headed out for a walk on “The Bund”. The Bund is the area that runs along the river side. It used to be a dirty, muddy river bank, but some years ago they decided to spice it up and great a gorgeous promenade along the flowing river. The bund is filled with gorgeous architecture. Along one side of the river were sprawling towers and skyscrapers and on the other side, enormous buildings with French and Victorian style facades. We managed to spend a few hours walking around The Bund.
Taking a side detour at the end of the Bund, we ended up in the Yu Yuan area which is a wonderful historic area with traditional buildings, temples, gardens, and of course, shopping. This was a gorgeous area to wander around and the Yu Yuan garden was stunning! Occupying only a small area in the city, the garden’s paths somehow wound around and around taking over an hour to see all the different trees,
flowers, ponds, falls and pagodas. There was a dragon wall, where the top of the wall at one end was a dragon’s head and continued along the entire length of the wall til the other end was the tail with the middle part the scales on the dragon’s back.
Back at the Bund, amazed still by the skyscrapers across the river, we decided to cross over. There are no pedestrian crossings, and while you can take the subway, who would want to do that when you could go on the psychedelic underground Tourist passageway?!?! Really just a way to grab your money, this cool 4 minute trip in a capsule tram was filled with a light and sound show that was as mesmerizing as it was lame.
If the skyscrapers in Shanghai were impressive from the other side of the Bund, they were indescribable giants when standing near them! After walking around for a while our necks were cramped from constantly peering skyward to take in these enormous buildings. The architects of these buildings deserve a huge pat on the back for their innovation and creativity when designing these colourful and towering buildings!
Back on the right side of
the river, we made a quick stop in the French Concession to see some great styles and buildings but what we were faced with was a teaser of great French architecture behind fences and guards that would not let us onto the private properties.
After dinner we went back to the Bund, along with I think every other person in Shanghai to catch the stunning night views of the buildings across the river. We weren’t sure it was possible, but the view was even more spectacular in the night with the colours and shapes lighting up the dark night sky.
Day 2 in Shanghai (our last day) takes us to the Shanghai Museum, a 4-storey history museum that was both free (!) and quite interesting! I don’t know if we’ve mentioned this yet, but security is tight in China and entering into most tourist sights and subway stations involves a security screening, similar to that at an airport. We had a water bottle with us this day and when we went through the screening, the guard asked me to take a drink of the water to prove that it was indeed ok drinking water and not some harmful chemical
or poison! Another person was asked to use their lipgloss to prove it was real too!
For lunch we had a Shanghai specialty, pork dumplings, which were very delicious but a bit of a disaster to eat! Filled with pork juices, we both got a scorching splattering of said juices on our faces and clothes when we took that first bite into the freshly cooked dumplings. Stupid move really, given that our tour book warned us of this, but they just smelled so good, we couldn’t wait to get a taste!
We next walked to an antique market, arriving just as the rain did too, and toured shops selling “antiques”, some of which were a great collection of old knickknacks while others were really just a storage room for old junk. We had fun walking through each store with the proprietor’s eager to sell us their stuff speaking very little English. They knew “Hello” and that was about it. We would walk around a store, the owner picking up a statue and shoving it in our faces saying “Hello”, us saying, “Oh no thank you”, her picking up another item, repeating “Hello” “No not today” “Hello, hello”…well, you get the
picture! You gotta give them props for trying!
Nearing late afternoon, we walk back to the hostel, grab our bags and our new friends that we shared the dorm with and are taking the same train to Hong Kong with, and together, the 4 of us brave the subway cars during rush hour! Getting on the trains was hard enough since they were so packed, but with big backpacks on, we were lucky to have been able to push our way out when our stop came, I’m sure shoving a few people in the process.
A quick trip through customs made it hit home that Hong Kong is technically a different country and we were leaving China (and in all honesty, not terribly saddened by that fact!). On the 20 hour train ride to Hong Kong we had 2 middle bunks in a 6 bunk cabin. The top bunks were empty and the bottom, coveted bunks with extra head room to sit up were occupied by 2 Chinese women. To help you understand this story let me explain that sitting on the middle bunk was impossible, especially for a tall person like Mike. To compensate, he sat with his knees
bent and his feet on my bunk across the aisle. Well, the Chinese ladies were not happy about this! Speaking zero English, they made some motions for Mike to move his feet and suggested that he should lay down on his bed rather than sit up. Let’s put this in perspective: it’s 5:15pm and we are on this cramped train for over TWENTY hours! As if he is going to lay down for the whole ride! Standing his ground, Mike politely tries to explain that laying down is not what he wants and he will move his feet if they need to get out. Still unsatisfied, they complain some more, looking into the hallway as if they are going to tattle on us to the steward…seriously, did their mothers not teach them that no one likes a tattle tail? Finding no help in the hallway, they walk off in a huff, taking all their belongings with them, except small umbrellas to keep their place on their beds. Happy they are gone for now, we can finally relax and get down to business - playing cards! Luck was on our side that night because later the women came back and had
miraculously found new beds to sleep in and told us (via gestures) that we could have the bottom bunks! Score! Not only did we have the entire couchette to ourselves, we got rid of the angry women and had the bottom bunks! This definitely helped make this 20 hour journey MUCH more bearable!
FRESH AIR IN HONG KONG!!!! Stepping off the night train the next morning in Shanghai, it was like we stepped into another world!
We arrived in Hong Kong around 1pm the following day and made our way to our hotel at the ChungKing Mansions. Don’t be fooled by the name, “mansion” simply refers to the size of the building because it was very rundown on the outside and surrounded by people trying to sell you knock-off purses, tailored clothes, hotel rooms and food. True Hong Kong-ians know to stay away from this area but it’s where all the backpackers stay. In this building is hundreds of different, small hostels and ours was no different. The Golden Ocean was a fancy name for a plain, simply and tiny hotel with 6 rooms. Our room had a double bed that spanned the entire wall and
was no long enough for Mike to lay flat in. It was a teeny tiny room! But it was cheap and we didn’t intend to spend much of our 2.5 days in Hong Kong in our hotel anyways!
Feeling slightly ill from 20 hours on a rocky train, we ate some delicious Indian curry at one of the dozens of Indian restaurants in the Mansion district. We weren’t actually on Hong Kong Island so we went to the river-side to walk along the Avenue of Stars, paying homage to Hong Kong film stars. Interesting fact of the day: Did you know that Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li are ALL from Hong Kong?!?!Ya, we didn’t either! Every night the city puts on a light and sound show involving 20 of the buildings from Hong Kong Island and we were in the perfect place to watch the show! It was an interesting way to display the buildings and architecture and was quite good!
After a good night sleep we were ready to take on Hong Kong Island and all the sights there! Our high hopes were quickly dashed when it was pouring rain out, but knowing that much of
this 3 month-long trip would be during “rainy season” we were determined not to let some rain get us down! We rode the Star Ferry, a legend in HK, across to Hong Kong Island. We took the Peak Tram 500m up to the Peak Tower which overlooked the Island and Kowloon (where our hotel was). The view was great, although the thick fog and low clouds covered some parts of the views. However, that made for a cool sight anyways! We took a walking trail 5km around the mountain and halfway through the downpour came on full force! Even with our ponchos were finished the walk completely drenched! But we walked through tropical jungle-like areas and got amazing views over the city, so all in all, definitely worth getting a little wet!
Once back on solid ground we toured around the Island, checking out neat markets and food streets, parks and a few very small temples. While walking back to the ferry terminal later that afternoon, we were amazed by the numbers of Indian families/friends who were picnicking on the sidewalks surrounding Victoria Park! They had the most elaborate picnics right there on the sidewalk, completely oblivious to the rain
and other passersby (who of course had to walk on the road since the sidewalks were blocked!).
Soaked to the core from a day in the rain, we had a quick dinner of noodles, beef and veggies and went back to the hotel to dry off and warm up! Luckily the following day was as beautiful as they come so we took another ferry to Lamma Island, a small outlying island 45 minutes away by ferry. Lamma island is known for having no cars on the entire island and lots of hiking paths. We took one such path and walked from one end of the island to the other end in just over 2 hours. We stopped at a beach for a quick lunch and really enjoyed the fresh air and laid back feeling of the island. Reluctantly we boarded the ferry back to Kowloon and jumped on a bus to the airport wishing that we had spent more time in HK, having underestimated how great of a city/country it is. Next destination: Taipei, Taiwan
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Hal
non-member comment
I can get a real feel for the city with these great pics! I am studying the Philippines and your entries have been very helpful