Shanghai turned out to be a bad choice for eclipse watching. The sky was covered with grey heavy clouds all morning, and just before the totality, rain started to fall! It was a disaster. It got dark like at night for six minutes and that was it. I knew weather was going to be bad, already a few days back, and I knew I should have gone to Chrngdu, which apparently had only patchy clouds. Many long haul travellers, like me, were utterly gutted. Such a shame!
I am now sitting at the Pudong Imternational Airport waiting for my flight to Xi'an, which is late late late! At least they have free wifi Internet access throughout. The airport is very large, modern, lovely, clean and well organised. It has loos and drinking water dispensers every two gates! It felt empty, as I was the only passenger for about 20 gates as I walked down the terminal. Surely it was built with a view that passenger air traffic was going to increase franTically in China. This perhaps is a correct view. And yet, there is only one eatery serving noodles and ice-cream
Jul 22, 2009 12:00 AMXi'an (CN) - China's ancient capital
Much of Xi'an did not survive the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and other aspects of China's and Shaanxi history. Yet, what remains, including the massive old city walls, is a clear evidence of the incredible grandeur of the city and importance it had enjoyed.
I went to Xi'an with one purpose only. I wanted to see the Terracotta Army ordered by the First Emperor of China, who united the country and initiated the construction of the Great Wall of China, and gave the start to the Quin Dynasty. So, I did not expect much from Xi'an as a city, despite its status of a former ancient capital. In fact, little if anything remain from the times of China unification, and the city offers few impressive sights. And yet what remains is very impressive indeed.
The sheer size of the wall surrounding the core of the city was overwhelming. It took me 45 minutes to briskly walk the length of one of its four sides. It would probably take about 3.5 hours to circumnavigate the Xi'an's core, without stopping for visits at the massive gates.
Weather was not great when I arrived. In the evening, it actually started to rain, making the sightseeing a bit less pleasant. Xi'an was really busy. It did not have flamboyant skyscrapers like Shanghai or even Hangzhou, but its shopping malls rivalled many I had seen before, and not only in China. It seriously looked like the citizens of Xi'an could afford a lot. But only on the surface. Some of the side streets, some of which ran close to the northern part of the wall, were lined by extremely poor households with people reliefing themselves on the pavement, and living in, what looked like, garages without windows.
Anyway, I spent some time around the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower, and the Great Mosque. I wandered about until it got completely dark and the prominent buildings and shopping malls were illuminated by night lighting, creating a new atmosphere.
Jul 21, 2009 12:00 AMHangzhou (CN) - exploring the famous lake
A large, one million inhabitants city that grew around the shores of the West Lake, had much more appeal than the impersonal and hyper-commercialised Shanghai. It was cleaner, quieter, better organised and even the ladies appeared prettier.
The lake receives a reputation of a perfect one, but this is so exaggerated! There is not much to see around the lake and the islands on it, apart from a few moderately attractive temples and residences of former dignitaries. The boatsmen hunting for tourists asked standard prices ranging from ¥80 to ¥120 for one hour ride on the lake. So if you were a group of four, then it might made sense. Otherwise, the larger state-owned vessels charged ¥45 for the transfer to one of the islands and back. The price also included the alleged fee to the sights of the Idland, but I have not seen anyone checking any tickets.
However overadvertised Hangzhou was with regard to its sights, etc, the lake definitely had a cooling effect and light breeze was a bliss. So much better than the sticky hot Shanghai.
Jul 20, 2009 12:00 AMShanghai (CN) - the second day
The entire morning I spent on conversing with rather incompetent staff in various locations trying to secure a trip to Lhasa. I had a terrible feeling that people deliberately did not want to help me, and tried a number of tricks to prevent me from going. I gave up at some point and declared that the Chinese regime had won the battle with me.
The rest of the day I spent mainly on walking with short breaks on tea and beer. I visited Shanghai's most famous tea house, had lunch in a local eatery (fried rice with shrimp for ¥11), and visited the saucer-shaped Sky Bar (beers ¥50) at the Radisson Hotel on the People's Park, where views over Shsnghai were nothing short of breathtaking, though through dirty window pane. And when the night fell, the panorama became very animated with lights and illuminations.
Uh, I also visited a Buddhist temple, which was still being restored, which was probably related to a high entry price at ¥20.
Jul 19, 2009 12:00 AMShanghai (CN) - in preparation for Expo 2010...
Shanghai is huge! Frighteningly vast! And excruciatingly hot and humid. Had it not been dug out and covered in scaffolding, construction material and machinery, and ugly fences, including the one at The Bund, which completely blocked the view of the Pudong from one side and The Bund from the other, it might have been an enjoyable city to visit with impressive sights. Utterly disappointing! The only way of admiring the view of Pudong was from a tourist boat, touts of which cruised the riverside streets inviting tourists for the ¥100 ride. As I had that in my itinerary, I decided to go on one but only in the afternoon.
The Yuyuan Garden and the area nearby made the best impression on me. My guess was that the traditional Chinese architecture was a reconstruction but I did not care. It was cute. I did not care for the über commercialism materialised with shops selling souvenirs and a range of useless things. It was great to see so many locals there frequenting the teahouses and foodcourts offering dim sum and deep fried insects, among animal intestins and things I could not recognise. In fact, I saw few individual, and in couples, tourists in this attractive part of the city. Reconstructed or not, I liked the brown wooden buildings and the narrow alleys between them and the central pond full of colourful carp and turtles. It all looked in its right place and the Pudong skyline with the World Financial Centre Observatory (bottle openner)and the Jingmao towers looming ever so slightly in the distance.
Interestingly, many Chinese girls approached me just wanting to chat (I think). One of them really suprised me by saying "you would have really been very handsome if you had smaller belly". I was not quite sure how to react to this sweet form of an usult, so I just laughed it off. All of them asked many direct questions and I felt like being interrogated, having to explain why I'd come to China and why I was travelling alone. I guess they did not realise that working in an office of 11,000 people actually means that on holiday one really, really wants some time for oneself. Full stop (am. period).
Jul 18, 2009 12:00 AMShanghai (CN) - no first impression yet
I arrived safely in Shanghai. On time! It was a bumpy ride of over 10 hours from Munich, and I did not catch much sleep. I watched three films, 'Pink Panther 2', 'Duplicity', 'I Love You, Man' but the seat did not recline well enough for a sleeping position...
Shanghai... Well, the Pudong International Airport seemed well organised and from the time of landing, it took me about 20 minutes to reach arrival hall, pass through the immigration and customs and get to the Maglev train station. It took further 30 minutes to get to the Blue Mountain Hostel in town. I used metro, which was mega clean and easy to navigate with announcements in both Mandarin and English. The magnetic levitation (maglev) train travelled at 431 km/h and made the 30km distance in 8 minutes. It cost ¥50 for a single ride or ¥80 for a 7 day return. Metro was ¥4 for a single ticket.
So, for now, I have been positively impressed by Shanghai. I have not seen much of it yet, as the hazy weather and smog prevented any landscape admiration from Maglev, and after arrival at the hostel, I dropped in bed for five hours! I was speculating of going to Pudong by night. Eventually, I dropped the idea. For I was staying three more nights, so there were going to be more opportunities to see the city's signature night skyline...
Jul 17, 2009 12:00 AMDeparting to China
Now, wouldn't it be great if all airports were as efficient as the London City?! I'm sitting in the lounge still debating whether I should be going at all. I have no permit to enter Tibet as the travel agent stuffed me! I have been so unhappy because of this that I really considered to give it a miss altogether.
But I have not been on proper holiday for a year, so cancelling this China trip was not particularly thrilling. And so very disappointed and breathing heavily I disembark the Great Britain. I don't think I have ever been so unexcited about leaving on holiday! Oh well, hopefully there might be a way to get a permit whilst already in China. I am somewhat counting on Shanghai, as I don't expect I will have enough time in Chengdu, although two of the four days I will be in Shanghai fall on weekend.
The trip to China is getting ever closer. Today, I managed to secure bookings in hostels and a hotel in all destinations but Lhasa, as I still have no permit to enter Tibet. I was a bit nervous that it might be hard to find affordable rooms in Shanghai around the total eclipse, but it was not. Actually, I managed to navigate to the webpages, find hotels/hostels and book them within a space of just 15 minutes. Such a different experience to that one about Montenegro...
In the first ten minutes I booked hostels in Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu and Beijing. The remaining five minutes took me to find a room in Datong, which proved harder than anywhere else in my itinerary.
In Datong, I could not find a hostel, so I would have to stay at a 4* hotel. Something tells me that I will not find many travellers there, unless they all had the same issue with securing a backpacker spot.
Jul 05, 2009 12:00 AMLondon - the O2 Arena; Madonna's tribute to Michael Jackson
I was lucky enough to get a concert ticket for Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour, whose first installment I saw last year, at the O2 Arena in London. Public trasport was terrible, as the Jubilee Line was closed for mysterious engineering work (the line extension from Westminster to Stratford, incl. North Greenwich for the O2, is only 10 years old). However, Thames Clippers and the O2 worked out river transport enhancement to move the thousands of concertgoers. There were express boats running between the O2 and Waterloo, and free shuttle between the O2 and East India Dock, connecting with the Docklands Light Railway.
It was my first time at the arena, world's most popular entertainment venue, and I loved it. One does not have to queue anywhere, but can comfortably sit in one of the many pubs, cafes and restaurants until the very last minute...
Madonna was only a few minutes late and delivered ravishing show. In the middle of it, she played a tribute to Michael Jackson by playing snipets from his most recognisable songs, having a dancer dressed in Michael Jackson's famous attire and performing his signature moves, including moonwalk, and calling him "the greatest performer the world has ever seen". It was a very nice touch indeed. At the end of the concert, Michael Jackson's songs were played as the crowds were leaving the arena.
Jun 30, 2009 12:00 AMChina - the trip is getting closer. Visa obtained.
Today, I got my Chinese visa. Since the introduction of the Visa Application Centre, the cost of the visa more than doubled. Although the visa itself is £30, the processing costs of the centre are £35, which means that the total cost makes the Chinese visa one of the most expensive visas in the world. The single entry visa is valid for 30 days of holiday, and the visa expires three months after the date of issue. The application process, however, was fairly simple, without questions asked, and the payment was taken on the day of passport collection. The centre accepted debit cards, which was good for me, as I did not expect the centre's fees to be so high. The visa was ready in four working days.
