Our travelling companions having left for home, yesterday we left Shanghai for a 5 hour bus journey inland to Tungxi so we can make our way up China's most beautiful mountain tomorrow. No worries Rory, this is nowhere near 5895m, but it is supposed to have some cracking scenery. This was a slight change of plan as we were hoping to make out to Putuoshan island, but a typhoon warning saw to
that trip. We were looking forward to having empty beaches - I'm told that the Chinese (similar to what I have seen in India) do not go in for tans. In fact, quite the opposite, a lot of the facial creams have some form of bleach in them I hear. The grass is always greener - on the plus side, it must make me some
form of supermodel.
My only other reflection for you for now is that most Chinese toilet rolls I have seen do not have a hole in the middle of it. Make of that what you will.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Expo
While we were in Shanghai we went to the Expo. I assumed that it was about showcasing new inventions and the like. Turns out that - under the title of "Better cities, better life" it is a bizarre mix of tourism fair, self-promotion and abstract thought. There are broadly three types of country pavilion: please come and spend/invest money; aren't we great and those self-confident enough to be more abstract or philosophical. The first group tended to be third world nations. The second group included the likes of Venezuela (they make the place sound like utopia - come the revolution and all that). The Australian Pavilion was in this category too - slightly odd. One of the great successes which they celebrated was the Sydney Opera House which they acknowledges was designed by a Dane and the engineers were British. I also seem to remember reading that it was extensively panned in Oz when it was first built. The UK Pavilion is really cool by the way.
Shanghai
From Xi'an it was off to Shanghai on a 20+ hour overnight train - a huge step up from our previous overnighter to Xi'an. This one had air con and I had a bottom bunk which was built in such a way that my toes could dangle into the gangway - so none of the hot and cramped up conditions of the previous trip. Our little group was quite the novelty - we got a little crowd gathered for our card game.
I can't remember if I put this in a previous post, but the train journeys and our trip to the Xia tombs gave us our first insight into the "developing country" side of China. In Ningxia, we went through a coal mining town where some local residents make their living from picking up the coal which falls off
the big trucks and selling it back to the mines. The other striking feature (which is similar to other developing countries I have been to) is the half built buildings which you see. The cities are full of pristine new skyscrapers, but the smaller towns are littered with buildings which were started but never
completed. I am not sure why there is this common theme. Lack of access to
capital? Speculative building projects? Poor business plans? Aspirational buildings? International development graduates and others add your thoughts!
The other thing we noticed was the large number of huge cities which we had never heard of before. Cities of 6 million+ are all over the place and they appear to be growing fast. High rises are going up everywhere and we saw massive infrastructure being built too. The country is really going places.
Shanghai suffers from no such half built projects. Apparently, 10,000 high rises have gone up in the last decade or so and you can believe it. John and I saw a scale model of the whole city in a museum and every square inch looks like it has a high rise on it. They've also taken to lighting them in the craziest ways. Not content with a simple flashing light to ward off the odd plane, they have all kinds of colours and shapes flying around. One or two look like they've got full on TV screens which are about 40 stories high. Similar to Singapore, the older bits have been renovated in such a way that they feel a bit like Disney Land - just a bit too well renovated that they look new and shiny.
Other sights include the site of the first convention of the Chinese Communist Party - all 13 of them. Mao was there (along with a slightly random Dutch chap), but it is striking that not many of them lasted the distance - having emigrated or been labelled as traitors. It's also interesting that Shanghai was the birthplace - it may have something to do with being the place where the Brits, Yanks and French turned up and carved out bits of the city for themselves where Chinese law and customs did not apply. Apparently, one park had the sign "No dogs and Chinese".
I can't remember if I put this in a previous post, but the train journeys and our trip to the Xia tombs gave us our first insight into the "developing country" side of China. In Ningxia, we went through a coal mining town where some local residents make their living from picking up the coal which falls off
the big trucks and selling it back to the mines. The other striking feature (which is similar to other developing countries I have been to) is the half built buildings which you see. The cities are full of pristine new skyscrapers, but the smaller towns are littered with buildings which were started but never
completed. I am not sure why there is this common theme. Lack of access to
capital? Speculative building projects? Poor business plans? Aspirational buildings? International development graduates and others add your thoughts!
The other thing we noticed was the large number of huge cities which we had never heard of before. Cities of 6 million+ are all over the place and they appear to be growing fast. High rises are going up everywhere and we saw massive infrastructure being built too. The country is really going places.
Shanghai suffers from no such half built projects. Apparently, 10,000 high rises have gone up in the last decade or so and you can believe it. John and I saw a scale model of the whole city in a museum and every square inch looks like it has a high rise on it. They've also taken to lighting them in the craziest ways. Not content with a simple flashing light to ward off the odd plane, they have all kinds of colours and shapes flying around. One or two look like they've got full on TV screens which are about 40 stories high. Similar to Singapore, the older bits have been renovated in such a way that they feel a bit like Disney Land - just a bit too well renovated that they look new and shiny.
Other sights include the site of the first convention of the Chinese Communist Party - all 13 of them. Mao was there (along with a slightly random Dutch chap), but it is striking that not many of them lasted the distance - having emigrated or been labelled as traitors. It's also interesting that Shanghai was the birthplace - it may have something to do with being the place where the Brits, Yanks and French turned up and carved out bits of the city for themselves where Chinese law and customs did not apply. Apparently, one park had the sign "No dogs and Chinese".
Tombs and warriors
I think the last blog covered the evening of the wedding. The day after that our local hosts took us on a fine outing to some of the sights of their lesser known province. First it was off to the tombs of the Xia emperors - a people group obliterated by the Mongols, so the tombs are all that is left to tell us what their civilisation was like. There appears to be a preoccupation with death and the after life generally amongst the various dynasties. The mausolia we have seen were all massive (we saw Mao's in Beijing too - apparently he's lowered into the freezer every night). Apparently, building his mausoleum was the first thing any emperor did. The scale was extraordinary - none bigger than the famous ones found at Xi'an (our next stop after Ningxia). I hadn't appreciated that the Terracotta Warriors were the thousands of life size soldiers made to accompany the emperor into the afterlife (the logic being that he needed them in life, so he'd no doubt need them in death too). The scale is phenomenal - they estimate up to about 6,000 soldiers, plus horses and chariots. We were wondering whether the guys who had to make them all were as taken with the project as the emperor himself.
After the tombs, we stopped in on what we were told was the Chinese Hollywood - the set of 100+ films. None of which I'd seen.
After the tombs, we stopped in on what we were told was the Chinese Hollywood - the set of 100+ films. None of which I'd seen.
Note
So, I've finally got some time to put something more substantial together again. Thanks to Matt by the way for putting these posts up so far (and to Jonny for doing this one) - a google blog was perhaps not the best move for a trip to China.
Friday, 3 September 2010
Wedding Part Deux
So, the evening session of the wedding was suitably eventful. t's not uncommon for one or two people to over-indulge at a wedding, but to have both the bride and the groom carried out is quite an achievement. It turns out that this result is almost inevitable when they are basically required to go round the whole room toasting each guest with the rice wine spirit I mentioned in a previous post. The toasting thing was quite fun for the rest of us though. John and I had a wonderful time toasting the parents of our translators and telling them they should be very proud - seemed to push the right cultural buttons and make us very popular. In case you find yourself at a Chinese wedding, the cry of "Gambei!" is what follows the toast text and precipates the downing of the shot.
With the bride and groom departed, it was time for the guests that remained to go next door for a stint of karaoke, which was curtailed shortly before midnight when the bride's father appeared and told us that the gates to our government-run hotel were going to be shut shortly and we should get moving if we wanted to get back in.
I'm very behind on these blogs as I'm writing this shortly before midnight on Friday and the wedding was last Saturday. There are other fun and games to fill you in on and I'm hoping to do that in the next day or so, but in short we saw some more of the sights of Ningxia province and then shofted on down to Xi'an via a very hot overnight train. The carriage we were in resembled a youth hostel dorm - 10 triple decker bunks side by side down the carriage. Usually they're air conditioned I'm told, but not this one. The beds also don't seem to be designed for anyone over about 5' 10" (turns out I'm just over that mark) and the top bunk left me a little cramped as a result. Plus, for reasons unknown, the fans go off and windows are shut just as everyone is trying to sleep. The mind boggles.
The Train
It's just after 1am in Shanghai where we arrived this morning after a 20 hour train journey from Xi'an. I'll fill you in on the goings on of the last few days in the next day or so, but suffice it to say that Round 2 of the wedding was somewhat more eventful than than Round 1. Marc and Yan also made the front page of the local paper as anticipated.
I also need to update you on our trip through rural China (where the rules of the road appear to be optional and we saw our first real insight into the poorer side of China). The smog also appears to be ever present. Be in touch.
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