My Shanghai trip - part 3 Hangzhou and Huangshan

After the water village of Xitang that I described last time, our next stop was to Hangzhou, an hour's drive away. The city was founded 2,200 years ago, is called "Heaven on Earth", and was also praised by Marco Polo. Hangzhou has the famous West Lake and Dragon Well ('long jing') green tea, and was the Imperial Capital for the southern Song dynasty (1123-1276).

It was a cultural centre and very prosperous, even today it has one of the highest per capita GDPs in China (USD 11,000). We could see all the famous top brand cars had showrooms in the city.

The airport had the usual shops, with famous and some not so famous brands - not quite sure now to pronounce some of them, hope they're easier in Chinese.

And how do you like the latest in bedroom furniture for the nouveau riche?

There is still some work to be done on improving English. I couldn't understand this sign in a bookstore, can you.....?

you have to look on the other side of the sign! (i.e. first sign should have read "Our Choice"!)

After Hangzhou, we went to Huangshan, a 3-hr coach ride away. It's a double World heritage site (cultural and natural).

It is said that after visiting this area with 72 peaks, you won't want to visit any other mountain, since they can't compare. "Peak, rock, pine, everything here is marvelous; cloud, water, mountain all seem to be living." The scenery changes with the weather, and we were lucky to have a good mix of sun and cloud. We had talked about getting up at 4 in the morning to see the sunrise, but it was only empty talk in the end. Even with cable cars up and down, we were ready for a long night's sleep.

Nearby villages of Hongcun and Xidi are worth seeing. They are like Chinese paintings, and one famous Chinese film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" directed by Ang Lee was partly filmed here. For fengshui reasons, Hongcun was designed in the shape of a cow, so it's fun to try to identify in the village different parts such as the horns, stomach, legs etc.

I also took my clients to Datong to see the Yungang Grottoes and Hanging Monastery, before finally returning to Beijing.








I was so glad to get home, I think the T-shirt says it all, I just love BJ. Don't you?

Well that's all for this trip, perhaps we can get back to the Ancient Silk Road next time!

My Trip to Shanghai - part 2 Xitang

Around Shanghai, there are now many old 'water villages' developed for tourism (e.g. Zhouzhuang, Zhujiajiao, Tongli, Wuzhen), and they are particularly busy these days due to Expo visitors. I think they are very similar and all rather commercialised. We chose Xitang, location for some scenes in Mission Impossible 3.

It is very pretty, but the narrow streets along the river were not designed for so many people! And there's plenty of water falling from the sky as well, so we were more than happy to have a tricycle as our baggage cart to help us to our rooms in a traditional old riverside inn.

Xitang has a romantic atmosphere, and at night, couples could be seen floating off their 'love candles' as a sign of true love. I hope they didn't see the bargeman clearing up the candles out of the water a hundred yards downstream.

It was a pity that disco music could be heard coming out of a riverside bar, but that's modernisation for you! Some traditional arts continue, such as playing the 'erhu' (2-stringed instrument) by the river, woodblock printing handmade by an old master in his fine family courtyard house, as well as frying stinky beancurd and making wonton.

My Trip to Shanghai and Surroundings (part 1)

I'm back, but not on the Ancient Silk Road where I left you all in Xian last month. That trip will have to wait for another time. I want to tell you about my trip to Shanghai with some clients, partly to see this commercial capital of China, and the Expo, but also to explore some of the picturesque towns and cities in the area (Xitang, Hangzhou, Huangshan or Yellow Mountain, and Hongcun), all in 2 weeks. This first part covers Shanghai and Suzhou. Thanks to Bonnie, Sugar and Peter for making all this possible and for contributing some of their photos. 

Upon arrival in Shanghai by plane, we took the maglev train from Pudong airport, and yes got up to 431 km/hr (260 mph) without feeling a thing!

July is probably the worst time to visit Shanghai since it is still in the middle of the "huangmei" season which means wet and sticky weather everyday. This year, it was combined with high temperatures. We were ready for some refreshing watermelon, but wait, these weren't for eating! The delicious 'sanjian' fried dumplings were definitely for eating though! I'm not sure about some other items on this menu, want to try?

It's not surprising many cases of sunstroke were reported at the Expo. Can you imagine lining up for one or even two hours to get in to a pavilion? How about in a rainstorm? Well that's what I and 500,000 other people did that day at the Shanghai Expo, which I first wrote about in May. (By the way, 500,000 is also the number of free condoms that will be placed in Expo-designated hotels).

 I got into a couple of pavilions such as Argentina (live salsa demo) and Africa (smiling faces), but just took pictures after that. 

 And I was told the country pavilions are not the most interesting - one should go to the other side of the river, Puxi, to see the organisations and urban planning pavilions. More than 34 million visitors to the Expo have been recorded, see official website http://en.expo2010.cn/

We went to the Shanghai Museum to escape the weather, but so did many others too! There are beautiful exhibits of all sorts there, well worth a visit. How about a new chair or display cabinet?

Suzhou is a popular place for a day visit to see its Chinese gardens. Just as Shanghai used to be the "Paris of the East", so this city could be the "Venice of the East". As you can see, we were in time to see the lotus flower bloom. See next part for rest of trip.