Hi everyone,
We arrived early this morning in Beijing after catching the night train from Shanghai. The train was very comfy indeed - with cosy sleeper beds and lots of nice extra touches including a flask of hot water, slippers and little toothbrush and washing kits with magic expandable facecloths (which Sarah has pocketed several of for use on future occasions when we meet with fewer mod cons!)
On board the Shanghai - Beijing sleeper train and boarding the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation in case you're wondering - it "floats" milimetres above the track)
We had a great five days on the flashy East coast, going faster than we've been before on a train (at 430km per hour the 'Maglev' train from the aiport into the city takes 8 mins rather than the 1hr it would take in a taxi - whoooosh!), stretching our necks at the highest skyscraper in the world - the nearly complete Shanghai World Financial Centre (which will briefly be the tallest at 492m before the Burj Dubai is completed later this year...), having the most expensive cocktails we've had yet at the highest bar we've been to (Cloud 9 at the Jinmao tower - which is the 5th highest skyscraper in the world...)...
Oh and buying the silliest souvenir we've bought yet - a pair of flashing neon strap-on roller skates, purchased (for a bargain price!) during a weak moment at the Bund. If we can't get the hang of skating on them they might just come in handy as make-shift rucksack wheels...!
Sarah in front of Jinmao Tower (left) and Shangahi World Financial Center (the one that looks like a giant bottle opener)
Shanghai is definitely the kind of city that likes to set a few records, and the rate of development since the opening up of the economy in the 1980s is pretty astonishing. For example apparently in 2003 alone there were over 15,000 new buildings over 15-storeys high built - that's more than 50 per day! And starts to make sense of another slightly scary statsitic we heard - that China is sucking up over half of the world's concrete production...
Phil on East Nanjing road
One of the museums we visited during the week was the Urban Planning Exhibition - which was more interesting than it sounds and shows the plans for the future as well as some incredible scale models of the current skyline. It was interesting to see how they are now having to think about (re-)creating 'ecological zones' to try to act as a better pair of lungs for the choked up city. We can only hope it is not too late!
Plan of Shanghai in ten years time
The current skyline
The city feels much more Westernised than any of the other Chinese cities we've visited so far (including Beijing, judging by our first glimpses) - and is full of Western fashion brands, fast food concessions etc. We too have come to appreciate a wee fast food indulgence every so often (especially to try to get away from all of the MSG that is sprinkled on everything aruond here), and on our first night we happened to stumble into Pizza Hut...
Now although it looks the same as Pizza Hut anywhere in the world, this does not mean that the local customs are the same... On visiting the one-stop salad bar, Sarah had to hide her giggles as she spotted a lady piling up her salad about 6 inches above the level of the bowl by using a gravity defying pineapple - cucumber - pineapple layering technique to build what must have been worthy of an entry on the world's biggest salad list.. maybe she is a budding skyscraper architect trying to get some practice in!
So apart from catching up on a bit of well-overdue pizza and retail therapy (spot the new clothes in the pics - hoorah!), we've also managed to get a bit of culture down us.
We saw an acrobatics show on Wednesday night - with eye-boggling feats of juggling, hoop-jumping, trapezing (?) and diablo dancing (remember 'wow balls' anyone?! these were in a very different league to our school-yard efforts!). Do not fear parents, we will not be running off to join the circus anytime soon!
We also visited the Shanghai Museum (which has an amazing collection of ancient Chinese ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy), and spent an afternoon soaking up a bit of cafe culture in a gorgeous old area of alleyways around Takang Road that has been turned into a funky Spitalfields-esque gallery/boutique area.
Coffee time in Takang Road
There are some really well-preserved old areas in Shanghai, with some great examples of colonial-era architecture at the famous Bund (on the riverbank of the Huangpu river) in particular.
Walking along the riverfront you can really imagine the city in it's 1930s trading heyday, and though the old trams and rickshaws have been replaced with executive saloons and motorbike taxis, the river is still busy with cargo, street hawkers and general bustle, and perhaps in some ways is not so dissimilar to how it was back then, with making (and spending) money the main agenda.
The Bund
Old and new Shanghai
It was also interesting strolling round the old French concession seeing the site of the first ever Chinese Communist Party meetings and some of the houses where the senior officers lived during the very, erm, different times of the Cultural Revolution. It's amazing to think how some of the old folk we've seen (again, we hung out with them in the park for a while yesterday!) will have seen so many changes over the course of just the last few decades.
Dancers in the park
Anyhow, more changes for us too and here we are in Beijing - all of a sudden in our last week in Asia! We've been slightly worried about the weather here because we read (after booking our train tickets...) in the papers about dust storms arriving here this week.
Apparently they come from the Mongolian desert and are a regular Spring event. Those more in the know than us are moving swiftly southward to the more moderate climes of Shanghai! So far however it has only been rain hitting our umbrellas (we're not sure whether this is real rain or the 'fake rain' seeded by the Government to try to help clear the storms...) - fingers crossed we'll not end the week looking like sandpaper!
On Wednesday then we're off to Sydney, to meet up with Sarah's Mum and Dad (who are currently just beginning their own mini round-the-world tour in Singapore) - we'll send another update before then. All for now then, lots of love to you all, and Happy Easter holidays!
Sarah and Phil x x
