Floating on air

Is 431km/h the fastest we have ever travelled on land? I'm not certain it counts as we were actually floating above the ground. Today we caught the Maglev, the magnetic levitation train, between Shanghai and Pudong Airport.

I think we finally worked out Shanghai metro's ticketing system. You can't reuse your ticket when interchanging between Line 3 and Line 1 at Shanghai station. But you can when interchanging between Lines 3, 4 and 2! It was a roundabout way to get to the airport and, at RMB50 per person for the Maglev ride, perhaps not the cheapest. But it was a fun, if shortlived, pleasure.

The amazing thing about the Maglev is how smooth and unnoticable the acceleration is. I've caught both the Shinkansen and TGV and neither were as smooth as the Maglev. Wish we could travel to work on one!

The flight between Shanghai and Guilin was the best yet of this trip. Shanghai Airlines seemed okay, though sometimes their English announcements were garbled and the coconut cream roll as a bit stale. The KitKat was good, though. I had forgotten how good chocolate tastes.

I thoroughly recommend a daytime flight to Guilin. The approach over the limestone karsts and the shimmering mosaics of the rice paddy fields was spectacular. It was the sunniest weather all trip, though the smog layer was always visible.

Our room at the Guishan Hotel has wonderful views of limestone karsts. The grounds also seem quite pleasant. We walked down to the local shops, purchasing tiny sweet mangos and bananas from the market vendors, ordered meat and tofu skewers with the help of some giggling schoolgirls.

Dinner was delicious guilin rice noodles and fried fish in a sweet and sour style sauce. Guilin seems to be a relaxed (except for the traffic) small city and a pleasant place for an evening walk.

Off on a Li River cruise to Yanghshuo tomorrow.

Route Canal

Canals evoke the image of romantic travel in me. We passed through part of China's extensive canal network during our approach to Shanghai. It looked very much alive, with barges and low boats carrying raw materials and finished products. Old wooden sampans moored beside decaying buildings or under low bridges illustrated the long history of China's canals, dating back a thousand years or more. So I was looking forward to visiting Zhouzhang, one of the area's famous Water Towns and threaded by canals.

The town itself is quite attractive, with narrow pedestrian (and bicycle) only streets of local brick, but the effect was ruined by the aggressive shopkeepers occupying almost every building. They all sold the same thing, silk crafts, wood carvings, paintings, pig trotters. Worse were the restaurant touts, each advertising the same meal, each trying to get you inside.

There were some pleasant spots, the Quanfu temple with its outlook on to the lake, the lute playing at the Ancient Opera Stage (before a performance of Chinese opera drove us off) and, best of al, Zhang's House, a maze of rooms and small garden scenes.

We took a gondola ride through the canals, which was very pleasant, until the driver started singing badly and demanding money for it.

Our pogo-stick bus ride back to Shanghai was interrupted by a detour to a silk shop where we were treated to a fashion show complete with catwalk an coloured spot lights. Hilarious really. None of the foreign tourists bought anything, but I think the Chinese enjoyed it.

Maybe the smallpox button in the hotel room didn't give me that virtually extinct disease, but I have had a very sore throat all day. Not surprising with all the pollution and Chinese habit of sharing phlegm. So I wasn't in the happiest of moods today and the touts didn't help.

I found the canals we passed during the bus ride back to Shanghai far more evocative. I think that Suzhou may have been a better choice to see these, along with the gardens. Next time maybe...

The Bizarre and the Bazaar

It's much less effort to walk ten kilometres of the Great Wall than to spend an hour standing around clothes shopping. Oh my sore feet! At least the pain in the hip [pocket] was only mild, this being China.

We were both feeling much better about China after a good rest and late morning! The hotel is very clean and the rooms appear fresh, but I do have my concerns. There is a switch on the light control board labelled Smallpox. It turns on the downlights, but what else might it do?

Even if the hotel could be a site for biological terrorism, it is convenient. We booked our flight on the 27th to Guilin in the Shanghai Airlines office in the lobby. The flight was picked to depart from Pudong Airport, giving us an excuse to catch the Maglev.

A branch of the Shanghai Sightseeing Bus group is also just over the road from us, so we booked a day trip to Zhouzhang tomorrow. I also wanted to see the gardens of Suzhou, but combining this (an easy train ride) with a trip to a canal town looks troublesome, so it's on the list for a future visit.

After the booking we engaged in that most exciting of activities, crossing a Shanghai street. Still alive, we bought tickets on the light rail back to People's Square. We just don't get how the single trip tickets work. We ask to go to People's Square, but have to exits to change to the subway at Shanghai Station. At that point the tickets are eaten by the gate. We then need to queue and buy more tickets for the subway. I'm certain that we are doing something wrong, but what?

Watching the locals board the empty subway carriages at Shanghai Station's subway is hilarious. They prime themselves when the train pulls up, then sprint (well, they would sprint if they had room to do so) and push inside as soon as the doors open, in order to grab the precious plastic seats. Anything to "win" against other people I suspect.

From People's Square we walked south, then east, our objective being the Shanghai Old Street and Yuyuan Gardens. We turned off into one narrow, busy street with a number of "Islamic restaurants". A beggar dragging a monkey tied by the wrist asked for money. The poor monkey looked unhealthy with raw red patches. It was an awful sight.

On impulse we had lunch at the Xin Jiang Yi Li Can Ting Islamic restaurant and asked the waitress to recommend some dishes. We thought we had ordered too much, but ended up just eating too much. Delicious roast mutton melting off the bone, served with red onion and carrot. Chicken in a red stew, like a curry, strongly flavoured. A rice pilaf with carrots and stewed in mutton broth, so full of flavour. The second best meal in China after the Leshan river fish.

Shanghai Old Street is a tourist trap lined with souvenier stalls, but we couldn't resist purchasing some momentoes, prices haggled far down. Noisy, busy, but still quite fun.

Depsite the many tour groups the Yuyuan Gardens provided a respite from the noise outside. I love the way there are so many hidden paths to follow in a Chinese garden, the framed views, the water, stone and bamboo. It was wonderful to sit down and relax.

Outside the Yuyuan Gardens we braved the crowds once more, but there was no way we would fit on the famous zigzag bridge to the teahouse - it was packed. Instead we walked onwards to the Bund and then down into the sightseeing tunnel.

The tunnel underneath the Huangpu River is super tacky, but fun. A cable car on rails takes you through a light show complete with lasers and those inflatable figures that flap around outside of car yards.

We emerged near the Oriental Pearl Tower, the symbol of modern Shanghai. B was wondering when she would get a chance to go shopping. I told her that we would catch a subway under the river to Huaihai Lu, so we walked in the direction of the station. Then, opposite the Pearl Tower entrance she saw a magical sign: Sephora. Then Zara. Her two most favouritest shops in all of Europe.

My feet were ready to collapse by the time we had dinner. I didn't really enjoy the food at the Yunnan restaurant, but the lime juice and B's apple pearl drink were delicious. The shops were shutting by the time we finished, so it was back to the hotel, past the amazingly tall architecture of Pudong.

Canals await tomorrow!

Shanghaied!

Something just snapped in me yesterday as we travelled through the yellow rapeseed fields from Yichang to Nanjing. Maybe it was the smoking, spitting, shouting, shoving migrant workers at Yichang railway stations. Or the polluted air, the disturbing sameness to the cities and the farms. Or frustration at my inability to speak the language or to freely travel around without relying on others. Even the food. Or all of the above. Suddenly my tolerance of China disappeared. I found myself wishing I were somewhere else.

I certainly did not want to be on that train. As we walked up the steep steps to Yichang railway station we were surrounded by peasant workers, belongings wrapped in makeshift bags of sheets. The Chinese push in whenever possible, don't give way. I've learned just to barge in and not care if my backpack takes bystanders out.

Not knowing where to go we passed our bags through the x-ray machine and entered the general waiting room. It was a scary experience, surrounded by crowds of people whose appearance was that of those shouting, shrieking drug addicts you sometimes see on the streets of Sydney. But I guess that this is often a new experience for them too and most are probably very nice people.

Backing out, the security guard pointed us in the direction of the "soft class" waiting room. A helpful local had to point out ts entrance behind locked doors. The soft class attendants ushered us straight to the train, not even bothering to check our luggage.

The soft sleeper cabin was a lot less comfortable than the cabin we travelled in from Hong Kong to Bejing. Four narrow, hard beds arranged in two bunks. Dodgy looking linen. The carriage toilet a dirty squat.

The old couple we shared the compartment we very nice and kept offering pomelos, apples and sunflower seeds. Thankfully they didn't like smoking either, for the overcrowded train contained plenty of smokers in the corridor in defiance of the no smoking sign. However the lady insisted of leaving the door open most of the time. This may have been a good thing as she kept coughing through the night (and no hand to cover the mouth, of course). Probably going to get tuberculosis, SARS or fish flu from her now.

The train stunk of urine and cigarette smoke. It was NOT comfortable whatever the Lonely Planet might say. We couldn't face another night of this, were already worn out from many late nights and early mornings, feeling a bit unwell.

We decided that we were willing to sacrifice some sights for more "stop" time to rest and recuperate. So I rang the wonderful Zhou Yan at CITS on the mobile and cancelled our itinerary post Nanjing, moving forward some nights in Shanghai.Thanks to the wonders of modern mobile technology (2.5G here) I was even able to email the instructions and receive a reply to my mobile phone.

Arriving in Nanjing at about 9:30am we quickly booked an onwards midday ticket to Shanghai (easy!), then spent the next hour in McDonalds near the huge train station. We did try a dumpling place first but it was full and we couldn't order.

The young lady who served us might have spoken English, but their toilet belied the McDonald's legend. It was a squat and it was dirty, with an overflowing rubbish bin of shit covered toilet paper. From the tray cover I'm also concerned about the source of their beef. The cow looks mad and on hormones.

The extensive canal system was visible after Nanjing, which barges chugging up the waters or decrepit boats just sitting there doing nothing. I would love to take a cruise up the Great Canal, just to observe life on either side.

---

It is good to be in Shanghai. This three star hotel might be a bit far away from the centre of town, but it's got a light rail stop, plenty of shops and a park nearby. Catching a proper modern metro again was also a good feeling, despite the number of interchanges.

We stopped at Renmin Square and walked along Nanjing Road East until we hit the Bund. From the riverside you can see ultramodern Pudong with its famout Pearl Tower and another, much lower, skyscraper showing video on the side of its walls.

I don't want to give the impression that the Chinese are an awful people or that China is a boring place. It's not and we have met many wonderful Chinese who have brought a smile to our faces with their friendliness and helpfulness.

I think we just need some time to rest and get used to the cultural differences again. I'm certainly exhausted after that train ride and I'm certain tomorrow will find us enjoying China once more.