36. When Jessica came to stay..

I’ve been quite bad recently with writing posts about my time here in Shanghai. I put it down to a busy schedule, my new TV addiction: The Wire and generally feeling more settled in this crazy city. 

One person who went some way to making me feel more settled was my sister, Jessica!

Yes, the big sister (Chinese: jiejie) came over for the Chinese New Year bonanza and her enthusiasm in her week’s stay with me rubbed off somewhat.

She wouldn’t leave a corner of this city untouched in what was from her arrival on 8^th February to her far too swift departure on the 16th a hugely productive holiday.

I've compiled a list of the places gone which for me made the trip most memorable.

There are a few notable absentees like the Bund, Yu Yuan Gardens, the Maglev, Grandma’s restaurant kitchen, Qibao ancient town, the hotel we stayed at in Suzhou, Tiger Hill, the giant PADOGA, Bonsei tree formations, the Shanghai Museum, Bar Rouge NYE party, trying Stinky Tofu, Purple Mountain and even drinking cocktails on the 88^th floor of Jin Mao tower at sunset on NYE!

Here are the 5 top things were discovered in Jessica's time here.

5. TIANZIFANG

 

Marked by just a door symbol on the map. It is actually a really small district territory near Dapuqiao on Line 9 woven with intimate streets that have appealing shops waiting to be perused.

The district fits into like a New York style block and there are entrances in and out. You can get lost in there, and you would not mind it.

It is a great place for a lazy afternoon. We visited it on New Years day having visited the Ancient towns of Sijing and Qibao in the morning.

I bought some great postcards and a leather bound book.

4. WEST NANJING FAKE MARKET

Admittedly I’d been to a fake market before in Pudong, but the quality products in this particular one would take some beating from any fake market in the world.

I don’t think I should say what Jessica bought as no doubt they were given as presents upon her arrival back in the UK however what I can say is that the recipients would not have been able to tell the difference such was the quality.

A bit of haggling is also a lot of fun, especially now I know a few words.

 

3. NANJING MASSACRE MUSEUM

I remember the Natural History Museum as a child in London. The dinosaurs displayed outside would rev you up for what you were about to see.

This museum likewise had statues, the most emotionally provocative statues I have ever experienced. It set the tone for the museum that was expertly done. Simply shocking and insightful in equal measure, but you left with a feeling of hope in peace for the future. It was really good and free also.

2. AJISEN RAMEN

Yes. Food was one of the main focus points of the trips. This restaurant for me took the bacon by a mile. Hungry, we’d been searching for one for a while in Nanjing when I noticed the trademark girl. We went inside and I was blown away. Japanese food rocks!

It was essentially bowls of beautiful soup with meat, eggs in. You had a big wooden spoon to eat from and cheap Japanese beer to wash it down. Thankfully it’s a chain and there are 132 restaurants of the same kind in Shanghai.

1. SHANGHAI CIRCUS WORLD (ERA)

Wow. I’ll ever think of the circus in the same light again. Managed to get two tickets to this daily show and it was incredible. Acrobatics of the highest order. The performance was clean, hugely impressive but also quite beautiful. The colours, music and the routine all worked amazingly together to elevate it even further above any circus production. Truly extraordinary and by far the best thing I’ve seen in China.

35. Top 10 Worst Things about the Shanghai Subway

Shanghai’s subway consists of 14(correct of writing) different lines operating approximately between 6 in the morning to 11 at night.

The Subway is the most common method of travel, as it is in most major cities. The price of the ticket is 3RMB –7RMB depending on how far you travel which is incredibly cheap.

The subway is the heartbeat of the city. The planners have obviously seen this and since my arrival 4 months ago, we’ve seen the introduction of lines 12, 13 and 16. These additions make me feel weathered and old in the city.

Trains may arrive when they say they will, conditions may be clean, their convenience may be unparalleled yet this is a list about things that can tick you off on Shanghai’s subway.

10. The Subway map mentality

As mentioned the Subway is a cheap and convenient way to travel which correspondingly leads you to use it on countless occasions. In turn you develop the subway map of Shanghai in your mind. Evaluating how far something is by the number of stops which pretty much always makes you think that walking a whole stop is far too far when in reality it is 10 minutes tops.

9. The river

I’ve experienced this a few times. If you are standing by the doors of a busy exiting stop, you get hit by an river of people leaving the train. Naturally you are taken with them and dumped down stream outside the train. Its quite extroadinary.

Quite the scrum sometimes.

8. The sing-song

It’s the sound that a beggar/mother and child asking for money is/are approaching. When you hear this noise the whole vibe of the train changes. The music isn’t joyous and with little else to look at or anywhere to go, you are left feeling rather glum if your pockets aren’t deep enough that day.

7. The change

A change of line at a station often involves a small trek as the lines are built so far apart. That’s all.

6. Train termination

This is annoying because most of the time it is unexplainable. It happens sometimes when you are travelling out in the outskirts and then quite suddenly the intercom will go and everyone empties the train. A guard comes on and checks up and down the train. The train has no doors between each carriage so two glances and he can check any length of train. The seemingly fine train moves out from the platform leaving its previous passengers standing out in the cold at this unbeknown station waiting for the next train to come.

*Shanghai Railway station is a bad one for this. Post Rush hour, sometimes up to 2 out of 3 trains will terminate at the station negating the 10 other stops north of it on line 1. The most crammed I’ve ever been on a train has come from these 3 sets of passengers all getting into one train. Thankfully I only had to go one stop further!

5. Bag checkers

At every station before you go through the gates, there are a couple of Station staff employed to check your bag. One urges you to put your bag, which is usually filled with work material, onto a conveyor to have an x-ray. The other employer is there to look at the x-ray screen. To this day I’ve seen no one held up.

I can use the subway up to 5-6 times a day so having to do this for every trip is hugely monotonous. At least half of locals completely ignore the first steward.

I go through stages, the poor lad has an near impossible task of getting the stream of commuters in a rush to get their briefcases checked so I put my bag in out of pity and to obey the rules, but other times, I walk straight on through.

4. Rush hour

The things that above all else make travelling so strenuous on the mind are the people. Between 7:45-9 and 4:30-6:30, the Subway is crammed as a great mass contest their own path through the cities Rush Hour. It is in these moments where you truly feel very small.

3. The plant

I’m a different animal underground. I walk a lot quicker almost like I have a propeller behind me. So it is to my utmost annoyance when I get faced with a plant.

You are chasing a train having power walked the change from Line 1 and half way up or down the elevator when a inconsiderate couple or misplaced body is planted in the walking zone of the elevator. Momentum stops and the propeller comes off me as I’m stuck behind the plant until I reach the bottom/top.

2. The confrontation

The one I’d been warned about and the one where measures have been taken at each station to prevent it but to no avail.

As you pull into your final destination and the doors are about to open to let you off, the confrontation occurs. There opposite you outside the train door window is not a clear pathway to the exit but a group of anxious looking commuters waiting to get on. As the door hutch opens, defying logic both streams will hit each other. Common sense says the outside should stand and wait to free up more room in the carriage as well as showing just a tad bit of courtesy. Alas the benefit of grabbing a train seat often outweighs simple manners thus causing the confrontation. It’s a brutal world sometimes.

Tactical approach. Often ignored!

and finally 1. The push

There are crunch moments in travel, which in an ideal world you will always make. The sliding doors moment. If a train traveller in a queue for a train deems that their journey might be momentarily delayed by the sliding doors they will in survival mode push their fellow traveller in front. A natural response perhaps. But the reality is that the person in front can not go any faster unless he wants to cause some kind of pandemonium so the push that they receive comes as quite an unwelcome surprise.

What makes matters worse is that upon entering the crammed train you then have to get up close and personal with this pusher as they position the back of their head an inch from your face.

It’s this moment where with my superior height I look at myself in the train window, crammed in, 8am in the morning and repeatedly tell yourself that you are lucky to be out here working in China!

34. Small Towns and Cloudy Mountains

This is a post on my travels to Huangshan.

Wednesday 30th January

I'd been talking about visiting the Yellow Mountain for a while now. So last week being one of the few members of staff to get three days of work I made a solo trip to Huangshan.

I chose to go there by train, and 90 Rmb paid for a seat on the 21:24 from the Shanghai Railway Station.
This was the cheapest band but in the spirit of adventure I went for it.
I arrived at my 'seat' it was kind of a PE-mat bench, I sandwiched myself in between two Chinese mid twenties girls and started to offer out some Oreos to them and the family of three sitting opposite.

It soon became obvious that I couldn't play the 'We're all in this together' for the whole night if I was to get any sleep. The bench was kind of part of a compartment of PE-mat benches, two of which were put away to not be used but two lay above us. It was a sleeping compartment without any mattresses or sheets basically.

After initial pleasantries I made a bolt for the top bunk and held it for the whole night. I'm a bad man but hey I did have to stare into the light on the ceiling for the whole night so it wasn't the most pleasant of night sleeps.

'And like a cobra he strikes' Johnny English

Thursday 31st January (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!)

Got into Huangshan. The last hour on the train when the sun rose and shone over the Chinese countryside was quite special, especially when I'd been living in Shanghai.

View from the train

Huangshan City. Immediately hit with hawkers selling me maps, bus tickets, etc. To be fair it was more useful stuff than the plastic goods I see some street sellers trying to get rid off.

Hostel was 30 RMB(£3), right by the station, and later i would find out totally empty. The hostels here remind of Nandos in that the main bit (accomodation/chicken) is fairly cheap, but then its the extras which is where they make the money (breakfast, trips, rental bikes....)

Too late to climb the mountain today I went to a nearby ancient town, called Hongcun. 

The town was lovely. It was a UNESCO Heritage town. It was 104 Rmb to enter the town, but they gave me half price. Extra lovely.

Photo's of the city are below:

Things got interesting when leaving to go back to the hostel. The thing is Huangshan the city is 60 km from the Mt Huangshan. Then I in the fracas of buses outside the towns gate went for a ricksaw back to Huangshan with a guy who I think wanted to share the cost of the ride with me.

The ricksaw was seriously uncomfortable and the guy who'd come along was carrying some weight so the motor powered vehicle was struggling to say the least. We'd agreed a price and all. But the big guy thought I'd wanted to go back to Mt Huangshan base city. So halfway in the journey when we all realized the error, we had to get out of the ricksaw to access the situation. 

I was pretty tired at this point. I really had not slept last night and was considering hitching a ride on this mountain pass road. But the big guy had brains with his brawn as well as quite a kind heart. We carried on to Mt Huangshan he paid for the whole journey then got me on a bus back to the city. Wishing me good luck (nice guy) as I got on the bus and back to the hostel for an evening of snooker and noodles. 

Back of the ricksaw.

Friday 1st February

Today I would climb the mountain and I was mega excited for it. I was picked up by the driver of a small bus at 6:30 am. But it was strange he didn't set off for about 40 minutes and what made it worse was that we had to listen and watch the worst music ever.

Bloody hell it was a weird scenario. 6:30 am. Sitting at the back of the bus watching this small screen at the front of Western going mad for it at outdoor music festivals, but then over the top was like the Basshunter of China, absolutely dreadful. It was strange because the people in the video most of which who looked high were clearly not listening to this Chinese drivel. There I was sitting at the back of the bus with families making the trip as map and mackintosh hawkers knocked on the window to get my attention. Mt Huangshan, Mt Huangshan, Mt Huangshan, I kept thinking.

It was about 10:30 when I was finally at the base of the mountain and of a cable car. The weather was not great but as I got into the cable car to go up the mountain I realized how bad the weather was.

You couldn't see a thing contrary to the intercom. It was ridiculously cloudy.

This unfortunately was going to be the theme of the day, not being able to see more than 20 metres in any direction.

Pictures below...

Cable Car ride

Bridge

Picturesque point

There were many stairs, and the clouds did make these much more awe-like.

I was treated as a celebrity though.

So, yes, arrived back in Huangshan around 5pm. The mountains I will definitely visit again soon. Maybe next week when my sister Jessica comes for a visit! 

There is a Chinese saying that 'Once you have seen Mt Huangshan, it has all the attributes of a mountain should possess, that you do not need to see any other mountains'. I experienced it but didn't really see it so will need a second visit.

Took a proper sleeper compartment back to Shanghai in the evening. After the days trekking I slept like a baby.