After three days in Beijing it was time to leave our trans-siberian friends goodbye to jump on yet another train. We took an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai and were completely blown away by the standards. I was so blown away I couldn't sleep at all, despite the soft white duvet and fluffy pillow (perhaps I am now better accustomed to Russian prison camp bedding). The only flaw in the otherwise perfect train was that like everywhere else in China, the toilets are squat toilets. These are basically a hole in the floor with grips on each side for your feet. This is standard in China and the friends we met up with told us that in places designed to cater for westerners (and our funny little toilet habits), it is not unusual to see footprints on the toilet seat, where the Chinese have tried to work out how to use it, and failed.
In the cab on the way to our hostel we passed skyscraper after skyscraper, and could only see skyscrapers in the distance. We had entered a jungle of cement and neon signs. Reassuringly, more of the signs in Shanghai are in English so we could at least recognise some letters (unfortunately no words!).
Our guide book and a couple of people had recommended we visit the French Concession and so we did. This is an area conceded to the French in 1849 by the Governor of Shanghai for French settlement. It was given up by the French during WWII. To be honest the feeling of the place now was a little contrived to us, and the little boutique shops and Western-style shopping plazas with outside dining held little appeal. Fine if we were strolling along the Seine or through Covent Garden – but we were in China! We did visit an interesting museum in this area, it was the museum of the First Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress Memorial Site housed in the building where the first ever meeting of the CPC happened.
That evening we met up with a local for dinner and some nightlife. We had been put in contact with Kevin through a mutual friend, and Kevin told us to meet at a certain address. We were expecting a restaurant but when we knocked on the door of the address we had been given, it was opened and promptly shut in Christian's face. We didn't realise but Kevin was taking us to a friends house for dinner (and they obviously didn't like the look of Christian). When we made it through the door we were introduced to about ten Taiwanese people who were meeting up for a dinner party. We ate Taiwanese specialties in the form of Hot Pot, Sesame Chicken, Chinese sausage, and radish cake. It was delicious and everyone was very friendly. We then went out to sample some of the local bars and of course we ended up … at karaoke!
The Karaoke place we went to was like nothing we had ever seen to before (and as you may know Christian and I have substantial experience in this area). The whole place was more like a five star hotel than a karaoke joint, and the staff there were dressed accordingly. We were shown to a palacial room (for four of us), where we spent a good few hours howling. We left at 3am and luckily Christian and I (unlike the others who had work in the morning) slept off our excesses.
The next day we took a wander around the riverside and headed to a market where we got hounded and pushed from stall holder to stall holder. At one point when Christian showed some interest in buying a watch, the stall holder beckoned us inwards, pushed on the back wall, and as if in a Bond movie we emerged on the other side, in what felt like a chemist. We were then locked inside the chemist room and I wondered whether we would ever leave. The stall holder then proceeded to pull out briefcase after briefcase of fake watches. Christian put in an offer, it was refused, and we left. This was a similar situation in many of the places we visited, the Chinese may barter with you to a certain level, but they won't entertain the situation for too long (not like the Souks of Morocco where you will have tea and tabnabs whilst the bartering continues).
That evening, we left Shanghai to fly to Guangzhou. We were not too upset to be leaving Shanghai, it is a thriving metropolis with an amazing economy (it provides 43% of China's private sector GDP, has the world's largest port and the fastest growing stock exchange) but it does seem to have lost it's Chineseness in preference for Western and more European tastes.
Guangzhou
After a pleasant flight and metro journey (transport in China is far superior to the UK system and also far cheaper) we met our friends Paul and Victoria at Yongtai metro station in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the province once called Canton and it is the southern-most province before reaching Hong Kong.
The first thing we noticed about Victoria was how she had really let herself go during the 18 months she has lived in China – she is fat! Only kidding, she is eight and a half months pregnant and looks gorgeous:) We spent the next three nights with Victoria and Paul, and also their no-tailed cat Walter, and the neighbours cat Ming. It was so nice to have some home comforts. We ate good bread with nutella, we had a toilet we could sit on, we could access facebook and our blog site, and we caught up on the third series of The Inbetweeners.... luxury.
During our stay in Guangzhou, they were hosting the Asia Games. This mostly worked to our advantage, it meant there were people at road crossings with big orange hands to guide you across, the city had been given a makeover with lots of flowers everywhere, and supposedly (we wouldn't have noticed the difference) taxi drivers and people of authority had been trained in English and told to be on their best behaviour.
In Guangzhou, we took it easy, bought some souvenirs, ate well, took the cable car up for a view of the city, and had the “China Post” experience.
China Post Experience
We thought we would nip to the Post Office early on our last day in China, to get some Christmas presents sent home. At the post office we patiently watched the one worker unpack everyone's packages, check their contents (mostly clothes and handbags), repack them, weigh them, and go through some paperwork before moving onto the next. We politely waited some time before our chance in front of the girl. She then indicated we had to fill out a form. We filled out the form and joined the queue again, where we watched more pieces of clothing being unpacked and packed. Eventually it was our turn in front of the girl. I had meticulously wrapped all of my presents in Christmas wrapping and to my relief she didn't unwrap them (although she probably would have done a nicer job with the wrapping paper than me), she then crammed all of our stuff into a box got out her calculator (this is how we communicate in numbers) to let us know the cost. 96 Pounds! To have our stuff flown back to England in three weeks time. 96 pounds!
You are probably thinking that we had a palette full of expensive gifts, but, sorry to disappoint (family – it's the thought that counts remember) we didn't have much and it certainly wasn't worth 96 pounds. So we then took ourselves out of the queue to think through our options. By this point, we had somewhat lost our minds. Watching packages being unpacked and packed again is a bit like watching cricket. And so it took us a while to decide we would send the stuff by ship, and we would need to get some money out. With true leadership skills we decided that I would rejoin the queue and Christian would go get money. As I was filling out the new paperwork, Christian returned to reveal that no banks would take his card. We swapped positions only for me to find the same thing with my card. After more dazed confusion, we remembered that I was carrying Christian's US dollars in my money belt. We got out the dollars only to find they would not accept dollars, only Chinese Yuan. And so off went Christian to get the money exchanged.
I am actually getting bored just writing this story... and can feel myself slipping into the “China experience comatose condition” again. So apologies if you have fallen into a similar daze...
Whilst Christian was filling in a form to get his dollars exchanged, I found out that we had enough money in Yuan after all! Woken from my stupor I called to Christian and we amazingly managed to complete our transaction, before getting on the wrong bus back to Victoria and Pauls.
And so the outcome of this story is that our families should be receiving their Christmas presents by Easter, but when they do receive them I hope they truly appreciate the hardships we endured, and money we almost spent on them!
Christian and Fiona
Location:Shanghai, China
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