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Published: October 1st 2009
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The old & the new
9 zig-zag bridge at Yuyuan gardens; the Jin Mao & Shanghai World Finance Centre towers in the background. On Wednesday 2nd September at around midday, the train arrived into Shanghai station. It was just over one-month since I had set-out from Devon, and this brought to conclusion my most epic train-voyage to date. The journey could have been much shorter, if we hadn't stopped off along the way. We could have taken the direct 6-day train from Moscow to Beijing; reducing the journey-time to just over a week. Travelling to the other side of the world by train is not all that common, as transportation habits go, so I spent a few moments reflecting that this is what I'd done.
I'm glad that I was able to reach my destination using trains and buses, rather than flying. It was an adventure and an experience to remember. I've seen a lot of interesting places and met a lot of new people along the way; and have come closer to appreciating the scale and significance of the distance that I elected to cover. These aspects of a journey are quite absent from modern areo-teleportation (replaced by airline food and trashy blockbusters). These days, we know about climate change, and that it's bad news. We also know that flying is a
very inefficient way to burn-up the planets' finite fossil fuel reserves, and makes a proportionally-larger contribution to climate change. So, if we will insist on gallivanting around the world, then perhaps it would be sensible to abandon the beloved aeroplane and start getting serious about the less-damaging alternatives...
Flights are cheap and fast (due to the lack of taxation on kerosene), trains, boats and buses are expensive and/or slow. But 'cheap flights cost the earth'. A flight now is rarely a necessity, whereas a stable and habitable biosphere, from the perspective of future generations, certainly is. My real gripe is short-haul flights (worse per mile, than long-haul because of the disproportionate amount of fuel burnt during take-off), which have become incredibly fashionable of late. But the alternatives are still very viable. Perhaps my over-land journey can be seen as a demonstration of this. But seriously, people can (and in my view should try, where possible) take the boat to Spain, the train to Germany or the bus to France etc.
So anyway, Shanghai...
Shanghai is a busy metropolis. At a glance more modern, westernised and expensive than Beijing. The population seems very young; as a city of
work, many young Chinese (particularly graduates) come here to find jobs. There is also a large expat population, from Europe/US and also surrounding Asian countries such as Singapore and Korea. The downtown and central areas exhibit consumerism at it's most overt and excessive. Gucci, McDonalds and Starbucks have thoroughly conquered this city and there's a KFC every twenty paces, literally. The central areas of Shanghai make London look like a quaint socialist retreat! There are however some less commercial parts, and some decent sights to see. The Gardens at Yuyuan are very pleasant and have some stunning traditional Chinese buildings and landscaping. There are also some nice parks and interesting buildings.
During my stay in Shanghai, I've sampled aspects of contemporary city-living in China, including smoggy traffic jams, visits to the tea house and a karaoke session (which was surprisingly fun). I've been staying with Jessie, my Chinese companion, who I met while travelling. Jessie knows her way around a Chinese menu and we've sampled lots of interesting and tasty oriental cuisine. Highlights have included,various rice-noodle dishes, egg plant, 'bousa' (a kind of stuffed bread), assorted tofu things and sweet rice-dumpling soup. Having a native-speaker to help on the
food-front has made it pretty easy to be veggie here- even though none of the locals are.
Once Tom caught-up and arrived in Shanghai, we made a bee-line for nearby Hanzhou. This city is famous for it's 'West Lake', one of the most well-known tourist destinations in the land. It's not difficult to see why, the place is quite stunning; all lit-up at night, or as it is by day. We hired some bikes at the cost of around 50 pence, and cycled around the lake, stopping now and then for a temple here and a pagoda there. The westlake retains its natural charm and beauty even at the height of the tourist season.
The weekend after myself and Jessie headed to Suzhou, known as 'Oriental Venice'. Some parts were nicer than others. We took a boat trip around the old part of the city, which was very picturesque and definately worth a visit. In Suzhou we tried 'smelly bean-curd', which I can only describe as the Chinese answer to blue-cheese (they don't do cheese in China)!
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Uncle Chris
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Shanghai surprise
Can you stand a bit closer when you are taking pictures, they are all a bit distant. You are obviously looking at the good bits of China. Let's see some grit. I was thinking of China the other day as someone has invited me to Hong Kong. Not sure I can justify the carbon. I take it you didn't put the google ads for chinese girls that appeared at the bottom of this post. Perhaps a way of paying off your student loan? If you borrowed one of your dad's Fedoras you would make quite a passable pimp. That's enough insults, Chris