Though we were given time this morning to chillax before leaving for Suzhou it turns out we had a massive drama. After getting up we had to pack to leave and Sarah locked her case only to find out she couldn't open it again! After much yanking and trying a number of different codes we went for brekkie to think of Plan A and B. Plan A was to text her dad to google it, my Plan B was to break in! In my ignorance in suitcases it turns out that Samsonite cases can't be broken into, hmmmm. Time came for our cases to be collected so for now it was left, but no worries, the story continues later!
We left for Shanghai train station for our train to Suzhou. The station was huge and randomly you had to go through security in order to get in! Obviously we stood out like a sore thumb in amongst the locals waiting for the train. Kind of cool really seeing and existing in the real China rather than the tourist China. It reached 12.39 and our train sign turned green, which i can only guess means it was ready for boarding. So off we went, pushing and shoving like everyone else to get to the train and take our seat. It turns out they have only been using the high speed train a month and you can tell, clean and well kept. As we left Shanghai we reached a top speed of 325km/hr whizzing past flats, houses and then farms as we left the city. Half an hour later we arrived in Suzhou, or the Earthy Paradise as it means. Here everything is softer, the place - it's a lot slower and less frantic, the language - even arguments don't sound abrasive and the men, according to our guide Wendy. Bunny was handed over to Wendy for safe keeping during our time here.
We firstly visited The Humble Administration Garden, a large space designed as if you were walking around a painting. Lots of small buildings, traditional in style are mixed amongst ponds covered in lotus flowers. It turns out that women were only allowed in this garden during festivals or special occasions, not really fair. However one man built a garden around his house for him and his wife to enjoy. That's nice. The Couples Retreat Garden was a lot smaller but still had small buildings, ponds and lotus flowers. After a long time walking round the gardens (my legs were killing) we made it back to the hotel.
So as promised earlier the drama of the suitcase continues. Plan A wasn't really working as Sarah had no reply from her dad and Plan B was a way off yet, Tracey got the porters to come and help. So as i emerged from the loo to a room of people speaking Chinese Plan C was unfolding. The porters took the case off to their luggage store and lo and behold they got in! No idea how - i was told they were unbreakable! But hey, drama over and everyone happy.
It had been a tiring day which ended with a delicious meal of very baby shrimp soup, whole fish with some kind of ketchup, some kind of rubbery fish and crunchy veg which the waiter didn't know what it was - turns out it was jellyfish! It was OK, looked like onion chutney. So after a wander it was off to bed for an early start of Tai Chi in the park. Cool.
Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts
Monday, 16 August 2010
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Sensational Shanghai
Busy busy day today! 7.15 wake up call, breakfast and off by 8.45 to Shanghai museum. After following bunny into the entrance past security there were three floors of art, sculptures, seals, currency, bronze - it's apparently the best museum and one of the biggest in Shanghai. The art work and sculptures were definitely the best bits, intricate, detailed and very pretty - well in the art case. It was also nice being out of the heat, 38C we were queuing in, i have honestly never been so sweaty, ewww my top was wet.
On the way to Yuyuan Garden our guide was filling us in on some Chinese characters. Shanghai is a city that can be represented by Shun and Po - it is difficult to draw them on here! The character for Shun has a square which means the north to south, east to west ring road while the circle around the square means the outer ring road - kind of like the M25 around the north/south circular. Inside the square is a good location, it is OK to be between the square and circle and outside the circle is considered to be the suburbs. Kind of like the Chinese Burgess Model! They also have ancient and modern characters, though to me the ancient ones make a little more sense. The ancient Shun didn't have the circle, probably because the road didn't exist! The modern symbols aren't as easy to explain due to the 21st Century being more (though not totally) equal, less religious and not as traditional. The ancient character for woman looks like a lady kneeling, this shows their lower status in society and the symbol for man has a circle representing the farmland and a how as the men do the work and farming is the main job. In ancient times the men also needed three things to get a bride, a bicycle, sewing machine and a maid - now in the modern day they need their own flat, car and a big diamond ring - sounds like common sense to me!
After the little lesson in Chinese characters we arrive at Yuyuan Garden where we walked through an extremely busy bazaar for a Sunday with lots of traditional and souvenir shops to the entrance to a peaceful haven in an extremely busy and crowded city. Lots of rock formations, ponds, traditional Chinese buildings eg. the Tea House, wind their way through the space encased by a wall with dragons heads and the tail that trails the wall. We had some time in the bazaar though it was no where near long enough. We decided that it'd be a good idea to get a frappachino for the next leg, much needed!
Walking back to the bus was passed some traditional poor quality housing - though when i tried to take a picture someone got in my way, so here is that lady!
All throughout Shanghai there are poor slum like housing next to massive sky scrapers. An interesting thing to explore further. We went for lunch at a Chinese buffet before boarding our vessel for a boat trip along the river. At night the boats are a glow with an array of lights. We travelled up and down the river to see the skyline from there. The river divides the city in half, the east Pudung is the modern area with very young buildings that are high, glassy or shiny skyscrapers and the convention centre that has a globe at each end. To the west is HuangPu, the older part with more European influenced architecture. We were then taken to a pearl factory - hmmm i think a little for their gain as this wasn't originally on the itinerary and had a talk about those before being guided into the shop and lastly we visited Xin Tian Di, a modern bars and restaurant place where apparently the younger Chinese people hang out. It was nice, cool, breezy, a mix of traditional and modern chique.
After a very full and busy day following bunny we ended our day at another Chinese buffet. The aubergine dish was really nice, though the people from our tour at our table for dinner were an interesting bunch - but we won't go there!
Time to move on tomorrow, i have enjoyed Shanghai, it is an amazing place, very busy, very big, very hot and very high! You feel tiny as only one in a sea of millions of people. It is so weird to be somewhere and have totally no idea of what everything says around you, normally in other countries you can kind of work out some words.
So now I'm packed ready to leave for another Chinese experience, i better get some sleeps, though if Sarah keeps making me kill with laughter with her recollection of the events of today i don't think I'll be getting much shut eye!
On the way to Yuyuan Garden our guide was filling us in on some Chinese characters. Shanghai is a city that can be represented by Shun and Po - it is difficult to draw them on here! The character for Shun has a square which means the north to south, east to west ring road while the circle around the square means the outer ring road - kind of like the M25 around the north/south circular. Inside the square is a good location, it is OK to be between the square and circle and outside the circle is considered to be the suburbs. Kind of like the Chinese Burgess Model! They also have ancient and modern characters, though to me the ancient ones make a little more sense. The ancient Shun didn't have the circle, probably because the road didn't exist! The modern symbols aren't as easy to explain due to the 21st Century being more (though not totally) equal, less religious and not as traditional. The ancient character for woman looks like a lady kneeling, this shows their lower status in society and the symbol for man has a circle representing the farmland and a how as the men do the work and farming is the main job. In ancient times the men also needed three things to get a bride, a bicycle, sewing machine and a maid - now in the modern day they need their own flat, car and a big diamond ring - sounds like common sense to me!
After the little lesson in Chinese characters we arrive at Yuyuan Garden where we walked through an extremely busy bazaar for a Sunday with lots of traditional and souvenir shops to the entrance to a peaceful haven in an extremely busy and crowded city. Lots of rock formations, ponds, traditional Chinese buildings eg. the Tea House, wind their way through the space encased by a wall with dragons heads and the tail that trails the wall. We had some time in the bazaar though it was no where near long enough. We decided that it'd be a good idea to get a frappachino for the next leg, much needed!
Walking back to the bus was passed some traditional poor quality housing - though when i tried to take a picture someone got in my way, so here is that lady!
All throughout Shanghai there are poor slum like housing next to massive sky scrapers. An interesting thing to explore further. We went for lunch at a Chinese buffet before boarding our vessel for a boat trip along the river. At night the boats are a glow with an array of lights. We travelled up and down the river to see the skyline from there. The river divides the city in half, the east Pudung is the modern area with very young buildings that are high, glassy or shiny skyscrapers and the convention centre that has a globe at each end. To the west is HuangPu, the older part with more European influenced architecture. We were then taken to a pearl factory - hmmm i think a little for their gain as this wasn't originally on the itinerary and had a talk about those before being guided into the shop and lastly we visited Xin Tian Di, a modern bars and restaurant place where apparently the younger Chinese people hang out. It was nice, cool, breezy, a mix of traditional and modern chique.
After a very full and busy day following bunny we ended our day at another Chinese buffet. The aubergine dish was really nice, though the people from our tour at our table for dinner were an interesting bunch - but we won't go there!
Time to move on tomorrow, i have enjoyed Shanghai, it is an amazing place, very busy, very big, very hot and very high! You feel tiny as only one in a sea of millions of people. It is so weird to be somewhere and have totally no idea of what everything says around you, normally in other countries you can kind of work out some words.
So now I'm packed ready to leave for another Chinese experience, i better get some sleeps, though if Sarah keeps making me kill with laughter with her recollection of the events of today i don't think I'll be getting much shut eye!
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Slumming it in first class...
Talk about starting the holiday in style, we have finally arrived in Shanghai after a very long flight where we were upgraded to first class, yes first class! Turns out they had too many economy passengers and had to bump some of them up to premium, good for us, we were very excited and rang everyone to let them know! Since i only got one reply i can only imagine they were very jealous! It was awesome, a pod each which can turn into a bed, free champagne...if only i liked champagne! 3 course meal, a duvet, pillow, pj's...the list is endless. There was also little aeroplane salt and pepper pots which obviously got pinched! We also got a delightful 3 course meal, salmon and feta salad with avocado and pea shoots for starter, ham hock on a vegetable consomme for main and strawberry cheesecake for pudding. We also had a massive choice for breakfast, i plumped for the blueberry pancakes with berry compote - very delicious.
Upon arrival past customs we were greeted by a very excitable Chinese lady called 'Tracey' - this is her English name. After roll call she pulled a bunny on a stick out of her bag and said this is what we are to follow during the tour?! So...very busy streets...with a bunny floating overhead to try and follow! Hmmmm...we'll see how that goes!
We made it to the hotel fine via the Shanghai freeways - you could see the skyscraper skyline in the distance with the ball building! All this to come! We checked in and got to our room on the 16th floor - and it was massive - with a view of big buildings.
After dinner of pig neck, boiled shrimps and seaweed to name a few dishes, we went on a night tour of Shanghai - OMG they must have the biggest electricity bill! Everything is lit up, it looks amazing, but it is still red hot, 34C at 9pm! We drove down to the bund which is a 1000m long road along the river. Here we saw the big ball building all lit up - it is actually a TV broadcast place and called the Pearl Tower. There is also a massive bottle opener type building which is one of the newest skyscrapers and is all glittery at the top, very trendy. I'm sure it has been on Megastructures. We also stopped at Nanjing Road, their busiest shopping street, kind of like Oxford Street, at 9pm it was still crazily busy.
Although struggling to keep my eyes open we came back past the 2010 Shanghai Expo - a collection of buildings and spaces showing the rest of the world to China. Apparently the Olympics is inviting the rest of the world into China and the Expo is showing China what the rest of the world is like. The architecture is amazing and very bright at night. Oh before i forget all over the city, in buildings, on pavements, on the walls there is a blue character called Haibao which means 'Treasure of the Sea' - he is the Expo mascot and is very cute.
Definitely ready for bed by the time we got back...get some sleeps ready for tomorrow.
Oh we saw Chris de Burgh at the airport...Lay in Red, dadadadada...and i got searched again! In every country it seems i look dodgy!
Upon arrival past customs we were greeted by a very excitable Chinese lady called 'Tracey' - this is her English name. After roll call she pulled a bunny on a stick out of her bag and said this is what we are to follow during the tour?! So...very busy streets...with a bunny floating overhead to try and follow! Hmmmm...we'll see how that goes!
We made it to the hotel fine via the Shanghai freeways - you could see the skyscraper skyline in the distance with the ball building! All this to come! We checked in and got to our room on the 16th floor - and it was massive - with a view of big buildings.
After dinner of pig neck, boiled shrimps and seaweed to name a few dishes, we went on a night tour of Shanghai - OMG they must have the biggest electricity bill! Everything is lit up, it looks amazing, but it is still red hot, 34C at 9pm! We drove down to the bund which is a 1000m long road along the river. Here we saw the big ball building all lit up - it is actually a TV broadcast place and called the Pearl Tower. There is also a massive bottle opener type building which is one of the newest skyscrapers and is all glittery at the top, very trendy. I'm sure it has been on Megastructures. We also stopped at Nanjing Road, their busiest shopping street, kind of like Oxford Street, at 9pm it was still crazily busy.
Although struggling to keep my eyes open we came back past the 2010 Shanghai Expo - a collection of buildings and spaces showing the rest of the world to China. Apparently the Olympics is inviting the rest of the world into China and the Expo is showing China what the rest of the world is like. The architecture is amazing and very bright at night. Oh before i forget all over the city, in buildings, on pavements, on the walls there is a blue character called Haibao which means 'Treasure of the Sea' - he is the Expo mascot and is very cute.
Definitely ready for bed by the time we got back...get some sleeps ready for tomorrow.
Oh we saw Chris de Burgh at the airport...Lay in Red, dadadadada...and i got searched again! In every country it seems i look dodgy!
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