Shanghai Suprise
As you know I started in Beijing 3 weeks ago and stayed there for almost 2
weeks. This long stay was forced upon me because Matt and I flew in before
the tour we booked onto started. This was to our advantage though as the
tour proper only stayed in Beijing for about 3 days. So by the time we left
we had got the feel of the place and were handling the Metro, busses and
local area with the skill of locals. Almost.
Beijing is the most sprawling city that I have ever visited. The main thing
that gives it the huge scale over all the western cities that I have visited
is the roads; they are at most 6 lanes wide and can only be crossed at
junctions using subways. One guide who we spoke to about it said that Mao
said that the central roads through the city centre should double up as
military runways in the event of a war with the Soviets! You could
certainly still land a large jet on one of these things even now.
Everything in Beijing is very spaced out. For example I could look on a
street map and think that I only had to go to the end of one road to reach
somewhere, but that one road would be a straight 3 km walk next to the
roadway. As a result walking through the city can be a bit dehumanising.
The air quality is terrible as well. London summers have nothing on this.
They burn fossil fuels in the homes and the public transit is especially
de-tuned to make as much smoke as possible, so it seems. There was a mist
that never cleared while we were there hanging over the city, making
everything seem grimy.
But the place has a good atmosphere, beyond the air, and the hostel we
stayed in was down one of the old Hutongs (avenues) to the southeast of
Tiananmen Sq. Walking down here you could be in the China of 50 years ago
if it was not for the cars and adverts. Small buildings either side of you
are a mixture of latrines (which are terrifying) and abodes. Interspersed
with them are small restaurants and fortunately some of them had "English"
menus which was very helpful. Even with a phrase book my Mandarin is pretty
rough. But carry on out of all of this and you get to just south of
Tiananmen and a market place selling hats (the Chinese dig their headgear)
and knocked-off North Face gear of surprisingly good quality. Then across
one of those runways to the Square itself and you're in the largest square
in the world.
Tiananmen is simply massive. I forget the dimensions but it must be like 4
football pitches laid side by side. Either side of it are the People's
Congress building and the Chinese national museum with the Forbidden City at
the North End compete with the big portrait of Chairman Mao. The square has
very little in it: one monument to the people, the national flag, and Mao's
mausoleum. Mao wanted to be cremated on his death but for political reasons
they had him preserved, like Lenin and Stalin were, and put in a glass case.
It sounds morbid but it's just like a wax-work of him. Many thousands of
Chinese come to the mausoleum every day to pay their respects although the
official line now is that the thing should never have been built in the
first place but they cannot realistically remove it. It's an ugly building
anyway.
Carry on through the Forbidden City and you can see how the other half lived
in Imperial China. This was the Imperial Palace up until 1911 when the
Emperor was finally ousted and it has been the present museum since the
1960s, I think. This is a very impressive walled complex that you can walk
around and see the was the Imperial Court was organised. Another
interesting thing about this is that originally this was the Centre of
Imperial China as well as Beijing - all the complex is symmetrical along the
North South axis, symmetry that is mirrored in the rest of the City. For
example trace a straight line south from Tiananmen and you reach the Temple
of Heavenly Peace, a park and temple that the Emperor used. This is all
down to Feng Shui. I always thought that was a modern fad :)
While in Beijing I also visited the Great Wall, which was an experience. I
booked myself onto a minibus that took us about 3 hours away to a place
called Jin Shang Ling. From here you get up onot the Wall asnd walk for
about 3-4 hours along it to a place called Simatai. This was the best way
to do it in myopinion was this part of the wall is unrestored, inlike some
of the places nearer to Beijing. It's scale has to be seen to be believed
and I'm still waiting to develop the photos that I took of it. From this
bit of the wall you are quite high up in the mountains (there was still snow
on the ground in places) and being able to see for miles in each direction
and seeing the wall snake up and down into the horizon makes you understand
how it is really one of the wonders of the world. It never kept the Mongols
out though, but it looks cool!
Matt and I were in a small group of 5 people on the same trip. The hawkers
who ply this strip of the wall outnumbered us and I managed to pick up a
nice Tee shirt in XXXL size that should double up as a boat sail if I need
one. My hawker/"guide" was okay though and I managed to outrun her in
several places. It was good humoured though a little tiring, some people
just gave them money to bugger-off. It certainly didn't spoil anyone's day
though and having walked a decent chunk of the wall was priceless.
From Beijing we went to Xi'an, the old-old capital of China and a City with
a large Muslim population. As a result the food available come the evening
time in the Muslim quarter was very good. We dines outside one of these
joints and partook in a hot-pot-come-barbecue where the host places a large
bowl of something like vegetable stock on a flame in front of you, you get
up and take some skewers of vegetables and Soya and dunk them onto the now
simmering soup while the host brings over skewers of cooked meat, some
unleavened breads and you tuck in with your hands and chopsticks. This was
some extreme eating and I think I consumed ell near half my bodyweight of
chilli soup and beef. I managed to get it all over myself as I ate as well
which made me look even less civillised.
We only spent 2 days in Xi'an but anything more than that might have been
too long, as once you've seen the terracotta army there is not much more
the City than a nice provincial capital anyway. The terracotta army was
impressive though they reckon they have only excavated about half of it.
Each statue was hand made and each looks different. They were orginally all
painted in the correct colours too, though this has since faded
unfortunately. It is still impressive though.
Then we canme to Shanghai which is where I am now. This is definitely the
most pleasant city so far but there are many things about it that remind me
of the west, so that is probably why. The river-front on the East side
looks like Liverpool. It is a collea\ction of British buildings from the
19th Century when Britain still ruled the waves and the Port of Shanghai.
Elsewhere in the City is a French concession that you can tell wasbuilt by
Europeans and it still retains some of the old atmosphere even though there
was a concerted effort on the 1960s to erase this Imperialist history. They
now mark these old buildings as preserved.
The West bank of the Huang Po river is like some sort of future city. The
vista is dimonated by gleaming skyscrapers built over the last 10 years and
especially the Oriental Pearl TV Tower that looks like a Dan
Dare/Thunderbird rocket. It's pretty neat and you get a great view of the
whole City if you can be bothered to queue to get the lifts to the top.
I also discovered some nice bars in the City. They are pretty expensive by
Chinese standards but still good value and provider great places to, er,
unwind. I didn't unwind too much though.
On Tuesday I get onto a train out of Shanghai to a plave to Hefie, which has
little going for it according to a Chinese man who I'm sharing a Dorm
with, but they areclose to what is described as the most beautiful mountain
range in China (the other one being the Himalayas). Matt actually bothered
to read the Rough Guide and made the choice but I think some time in the
wilderness to sober up might be a good idea.
I'll tell you about it later on. Until then, bye for now.
weeks. This long stay was forced upon me because Matt and I flew in before
the tour we booked onto started. This was to our advantage though as the
tour proper only stayed in Beijing for about 3 days. So by the time we left
we had got the feel of the place and were handling the Metro, busses and
local area with the skill of locals. Almost.
Beijing is the most sprawling city that I have ever visited. The main thing
that gives it the huge scale over all the western cities that I have visited
is the roads; they are at most 6 lanes wide and can only be crossed at
junctions using subways. One guide who we spoke to about it said that Mao
said that the central roads through the city centre should double up as
military runways in the event of a war with the Soviets! You could
certainly still land a large jet on one of these things even now.
Everything in Beijing is very spaced out. For example I could look on a
street map and think that I only had to go to the end of one road to reach
somewhere, but that one road would be a straight 3 km walk next to the
roadway. As a result walking through the city can be a bit dehumanising.
The air quality is terrible as well. London summers have nothing on this.
They burn fossil fuels in the homes and the public transit is especially
de-tuned to make as much smoke as possible, so it seems. There was a mist
that never cleared while we were there hanging over the city, making
everything seem grimy.
But the place has a good atmosphere, beyond the air, and the hostel we
stayed in was down one of the old Hutongs (avenues) to the southeast of
Tiananmen Sq. Walking down here you could be in the China of 50 years ago
if it was not for the cars and adverts. Small buildings either side of you
are a mixture of latrines (which are terrifying) and abodes. Interspersed
with them are small restaurants and fortunately some of them had "English"
menus which was very helpful. Even with a phrase book my Mandarin is pretty
rough. But carry on out of all of this and you get to just south of
Tiananmen and a market place selling hats (the Chinese dig their headgear)
and knocked-off North Face gear of surprisingly good quality. Then across
one of those runways to the Square itself and you're in the largest square
in the world.
Tiananmen is simply massive. I forget the dimensions but it must be like 4
football pitches laid side by side. Either side of it are the People's
Congress building and the Chinese national museum with the Forbidden City at
the North End compete with the big portrait of Chairman Mao. The square has
very little in it: one monument to the people, the national flag, and Mao's
mausoleum. Mao wanted to be cremated on his death but for political reasons
they had him preserved, like Lenin and Stalin were, and put in a glass case.
It sounds morbid but it's just like a wax-work of him. Many thousands of
Chinese come to the mausoleum every day to pay their respects although the
official line now is that the thing should never have been built in the
first place but they cannot realistically remove it. It's an ugly building
anyway.
Carry on through the Forbidden City and you can see how the other half lived
in Imperial China. This was the Imperial Palace up until 1911 when the
Emperor was finally ousted and it has been the present museum since the
1960s, I think. This is a very impressive walled complex that you can walk
around and see the was the Imperial Court was organised. Another
interesting thing about this is that originally this was the Centre of
Imperial China as well as Beijing - all the complex is symmetrical along the
North South axis, symmetry that is mirrored in the rest of the City. For
example trace a straight line south from Tiananmen and you reach the Temple
of Heavenly Peace, a park and temple that the Emperor used. This is all
down to Feng Shui. I always thought that was a modern fad :)
While in Beijing I also visited the Great Wall, which was an experience. I
booked myself onto a minibus that took us about 3 hours away to a place
called Jin Shang Ling. From here you get up onot the Wall asnd walk for
about 3-4 hours along it to a place called Simatai. This was the best way
to do it in myopinion was this part of the wall is unrestored, inlike some
of the places nearer to Beijing. It's scale has to be seen to be believed
and I'm still waiting to develop the photos that I took of it. From this
bit of the wall you are quite high up in the mountains (there was still snow
on the ground in places) and being able to see for miles in each direction
and seeing the wall snake up and down into the horizon makes you understand
how it is really one of the wonders of the world. It never kept the Mongols
out though, but it looks cool!
Matt and I were in a small group of 5 people on the same trip. The hawkers
who ply this strip of the wall outnumbered us and I managed to pick up a
nice Tee shirt in XXXL size that should double up as a boat sail if I need
one. My hawker/"guide" was okay though and I managed to outrun her in
several places. It was good humoured though a little tiring, some people
just gave them money to bugger-off. It certainly didn't spoil anyone's day
though and having walked a decent chunk of the wall was priceless.
From Beijing we went to Xi'an, the old-old capital of China and a City with
a large Muslim population. As a result the food available come the evening
time in the Muslim quarter was very good. We dines outside one of these
joints and partook in a hot-pot-come-barbecue where the host places a large
bowl of something like vegetable stock on a flame in front of you, you get
up and take some skewers of vegetables and Soya and dunk them onto the now
simmering soup while the host brings over skewers of cooked meat, some
unleavened breads and you tuck in with your hands and chopsticks. This was
some extreme eating and I think I consumed ell near half my bodyweight of
chilli soup and beef. I managed to get it all over myself as I ate as well
which made me look even less civillised.
We only spent 2 days in Xi'an but anything more than that might have been
too long, as once you've seen the terracotta army there is not much more
the City than a nice provincial capital anyway. The terracotta army was
impressive though they reckon they have only excavated about half of it.
Each statue was hand made and each looks different. They were orginally all
painted in the correct colours too, though this has since faded
unfortunately. It is still impressive though.
Then we canme to Shanghai which is where I am now. This is definitely the
most pleasant city so far but there are many things about it that remind me
of the west, so that is probably why. The river-front on the East side
looks like Liverpool. It is a collea\ction of British buildings from the
19th Century when Britain still ruled the waves and the Port of Shanghai.
Elsewhere in the City is a French concession that you can tell wasbuilt by
Europeans and it still retains some of the old atmosphere even though there
was a concerted effort on the 1960s to erase this Imperialist history. They
now mark these old buildings as preserved.
The West bank of the Huang Po river is like some sort of future city. The
vista is dimonated by gleaming skyscrapers built over the last 10 years and
especially the Oriental Pearl TV Tower that looks like a Dan
Dare/Thunderbird rocket. It's pretty neat and you get a great view of the
whole City if you can be bothered to queue to get the lifts to the top.
I also discovered some nice bars in the City. They are pretty expensive by
Chinese standards but still good value and provider great places to, er,
unwind. I didn't unwind too much though.
On Tuesday I get onto a train out of Shanghai to a plave to Hefie, which has
little going for it according to a Chinese man who I'm sharing a Dorm
with, but they areclose to what is described as the most beautiful mountain
range in China (the other one being the Himalayas). Matt actually bothered
to read the Rough Guide and made the choice but I think some time in the
wilderness to sober up might be a good idea.
I'll tell you about it later on. Until then, bye for now.