Goodbye China

Hostels in China are terrific. The number and quality of them surprised us, lots of YHA options these days too, so get your membership before you arrive. Generally, they are cheap and most are either new or only 4 or 5 years old, so everything is shiny and new. Transportation in China also really surprised and impressed us. We were blown away by how modern the road network was and the buses were very comfortable. Now, bear in mind were were coming from India where the transportation system leaves something to be desired, so in comparison China ruled.

In terms of sights and things to do, the culture and natural beauty of the Southwest trumped the monuments and architecture of the North and East. Go to Tiger Leaping Gorge before the Dam is completed, see the South-West if at all possible, you will be greatly rewarded. Make time for it, shaving a few days off your time in Beijing or Shanghai will pay off.

China is the place I most wanted to visit before this trip an so far it’s the place I most want to come back to. Thanks China, have a great time ruling the World, I’m sure you’ll do a great job.

Be Like Water

A second trip to Hong Kong is required for us on this trip, and very welcome, we loved it first time around. Hong Kong is also the only city we can fly from to get to Africa on our OneWorld Explorer ticket, so here we are.

The timing couldn’t be better. Hong Kong is hosting the Barclays Asia Cup this year, and Liverpool FC (my favorite English team) is playing. Tickets weren’t availible online, so there was some chewing of fingernails when we go in. The first games were the same day we arrived. So we sprinted from the airport to our room to the stadium without tickets, but still got in to see Portsmouth v. Fulham and Liverpool v. South China FC.

Other activites involved visiting the Avenue of the Stars. It’s kind of like the Hollywood walk of fame – hand prints in concrete – but it’s for Hong Kong Kung Fu stars, and theres a statue of Bruce Lee.

We also took the Cable Car up to Victoria Peak while we weren’t waiting on the elevator at Miradoor Mansion (where we were staying in a cubby hole) for about a quarter of the time we were there (or so it seemed).

We love Hong Kong and hope to visit again real soon – you should too!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

• mountains – The mountains of the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces provided some of the most beautiful and dramatic scenery of our trip. Hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge was a definite highlight for us.
• point and fry – Finding veg food in China has been a source of endless frustration. It certainly exists and when we do find it, it’s been pretty tasty. By far some of the best and cheapest food has been at bus stops on our long distance journeys. There are usually a number of stalls with numerous bowls of fresh ingredients. You just walk up and point to the ingredients you like and they fry it up for you. Fast, fresh and cheap!
• air conditioning – Sitting there in your overly cooled office, you are probably taking for granted that you are chilled to the bone right now. Well, after two months of very little AC in India, we were most pleased to find out the AC is the norm on most buses, trains and in hostel rooms. Ah…refreshing.
• Sun Jie Hai commercial – Sun Jie Hai is Chinese and plays professional soccer in England. With great regularity, CCTV 9 (the English language propaganda channel) plays a commercial for London based Jade Travel featuring Sun Jie Jai and another guy we suspect if just a regular old footy fan. It’s not entirely clear to me why we laugh every single time the commercial is on and continue to quote it randomly throughout the day, but I think it may have to do with the way the footy fan asks Jie Hai, “Oh, why” as if he were Garth from Wayne’s World. He even kind of distorts his mouth like him and looks uncomfortable. Sadly there’s no Jie Hai commercial on YouTube and we didn’t manage to video it ourselves. I haven’t done it justice, but I tell you it’s hilarious.
• peoples’ parks – A highlight of China’s cities is it’s parks. They are pleasant places to stroll around and observe an older generation of Chinese men and women performing impromptu concerts, playing traditional musical instruments, practicing tai chi or flying elaborate kites. This is the China you probably won’t see in 20 years.
• Chinese kids – We’re not sure what it is, but they are incredibly cute – especially the boys. Maybe it’s the buzz cut or maybe it’s all the doting they get as the only child in the family. Who knows, but they sure made more than one bus ride entertaining.
• bicycles – This is THE bike nation. There are special lanes for cyclists, monitored bike parking lots and portable bike repair shops all around town. Though it seems the personal auto is one the rise, hopefully the tradition of pedaling to and fro won’t go away.

Take Us With You!

We turned up at the airport for our 10:35pm flight on Monday, but when it wasn’t listed on the monitor, we began to worry.  Crap.  It turns out that flight was changed to 12:35pm some time ago.  How were we to know?  We thought the flight had been confirmed just the week before.   Thankfully the Cathay Pacific staff person booked us on the flight for the following day.  And we made sure to reconfirm (again) our flight to Johannesburg on Thursday.

I guess you just can’t leave Shanghai without some surprise!

Shanghai Nights

Architecturally this is the most interesting city in China, because of it’s mixture of Ultramodern and Deco styles. There’s also a huge influence on the city from Europe. It’s narrow winding roads are one of the many signs of European influence on the City. Nicknamed “Paris of the East” and “Whore of the Orient”. It gives you an idea of what Westerners and Asians thought of the place.

It would have been much more pleasant to visit Shanghai during the Spring or Fall – Summers here are too hot.

Shanghai is home to China’s “Golden Mile” and some of the alleged best shopping in China. In reality, there isn’t a whole lot else to do here and it’s so steamy hot that you’re actually thankful to find an air conditioned mall on every corner.

So in addition to strolling along the Bund, people watching down Nanjing Lu, and absorbing a little of the French Concession, we did manage to take in one historic site – the site of the 1st National Congress of the CCP. This was the site, 86 years ago today, of the secret meeting of 13 delegates who founded a formal and unified Communist Party of China. The museum was pretty interesting and a reminder that the CCP today is not the party of yesterday. Seriously. After an hour’s worth of reading exhibits about defeating the “bourgeois” you can step outside directly into one of Shanghai’s premiere shopping districts, something akin to the new outdoor urban malls of the US. If China is nothing else, it is ironic.

Party history aside, we could live without Shanghai. If you love cities and shopping, then perhaps it should make your China itinerary. But it if you’re more interested in really getting to know China and seeing it’s magnificent scenery, give it a pass.