Zhu Jia Jiao

Yesterday, we were met by George at the hotel and he took us to the Water Village called Zhu Jia Jiao. Before getting there, though, he wanted to stop at the local market to show us what a real Chinese market was all about. There was a lot of raw meat hanging about in the open, and when asked about this, George told us that all of the meat would be sold that day. Having raw meat out with no refrigeration is common in China, and George assures us that it is all O.K. So far we haven't been sick, so I suppose he's right, but it nevertheless gives one pause.....

The water village was terrific. Quiet, and quite unpopulated by Westerners. Most of the people visiting were from Shanghai relaxing after a hard week of labor. There are families who live and work in this village, and George took us into one of their houses. These houses are more than 200 years old, and many still use charcoal to cook their food. George took us to one of his favorite restaurants in this village, and we sat about 4 feet away from where the food was being cooked. Two feet away, a young woman was hovering over a sink slaughtering and gutting a large fish. We had bamboo wrapped pork, fried pork, stir fried greens and fried rice. It was a great meal.

Photos and video on links below:


Movies on YouTube click here

Photos on Flicr, click here:

Cruise along the Huangpu River

Our main objective yesterday was to do a cruise along the Huangpu River (which is the river running through Shanghai) to see the mouth of the Yangtze River. However, along the way we made a couple of great discoveries. First, for only 2 Yuan, you can hop on the ferry shuttle to cross the river to get to Pudong. I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier. Anyway, we did it and began wandering around Pudong, with the intention of eventually getting up to see the television tower. On our way to the television tower, we happened upon this big mall. I think it's called Brand Mall? Anyway, it's really huge and very much on par with something like Valley Fair....all very high-end shops. Anyway, I'm not a big mall person, but I'm noting it as an example of the tremendous prosperity to be found on this side of the Huangpu River. Everything is modern and new in Pudong, and it seems that there are quite a few people living over on this side of Shanghai. Anyway, we were quite impressed. So we get to the television tower, to go up to the top to get the view there. Very nice. Again, what I really come away thinking about that trip to the top of the tower is how prosperous the city is, and how much money is being made, how many jobs are being created, and what a future this area of China has. Incredible really. So, having seen the tower, we head back over the river to catch our cruise along the Huangpu. The cruise is 3 hours long and takes us to the mouth of the Yangtze. I never thought of it, but Gaffer calls the Huangpu to Yangtze passage the "largest shipping port in the world" and I believe he's right. It's as if this whole part of the river is really a port, with barges and container ships, etc. Again, another powerful example of Shanghai industry. I got some photos which I am quite pleased with on this cruise, a few of which I'll put up on Flickr. On the boat, there was a deaf young man who was making stamps. He had a real talent, and I got some video of him carving my name on the bottom of a stamp. He seemed like a very nice guy, and looked like he could have been the brother of the boat driver. All in all, it was a very nice day.

Suzhou

About a half an hour's train ride from Shanghai is the town of Suzhou. So we decided to get a train and check it out. The process of acquiring a train ticket in the airport is a story unto itself. Arriving at the station by taxi, we are immediately met by a young man who seems to know instantly where we want to go. "Suzhou?" he asks, and rushes us over to another guy, who says he can buy out train tickets for us for 120 Yuan. So we hand over the money, and then some other guy takes us to a booth and talks to the lady in the booth and then turns to us and says he needs another 60 Yuan. At this point, we feel we are being ripped off, but he already has the 120 Yuan, so what can we do? Anyway, we got the tickets, finally, but could only book a trip which would give us a couple of hours in Suzhou. The train station waiting rooms are packed with humanity, but the process of boarding the train and the train itself is quite nice. The train is modern and very quite. Just as we were about to get off the train, a young man sitting in front of us handed us a note written in English which apparently he had been writing on our whole trip over to Suzhou. He wanted to convey to us his displeasure at the way CNN has been treating the whole Tibet story, and wanted to tell us how in 1958, Chairman Mao liberated the Tibet people from a life of slavery, and that CNN is trying to ruin the Olympic games for China. He seemed to have the idea that the entire population of the U.S. was protesting in the streets, so we did our best to tell him that it is not that way, and that we have nothing against China or the Olympic games. Anyway, we had to go and he was staying on the train which was heading to Nanjing.

At Suzhou, we headed toward a taxi line of people who wanted to get to the town of Suzhou. Our impression of Suzhou from the train station was a lot of dust. There didn't seem to be any town, as the town was some distance from the station. Anyway, we decided that being we don't have a lot of time before having to catch the train back in a couple of hours, we should pick one place and just walk around and check it out. So we told to driver to take us to the Sheratin Hotel which was by the Panmen Gate and Ruigang Pagoda. Photos are on Flickr. The place is nice, and Suzhou is more urban and larger than we had expected. The gardens and pagodas are nice, and I'm kind of glad we didn't spend more time there, because I got the feeling that all these gardens in Suzhou are kind of alike, and when you've seen one...(you know the rest).

Getting back to the hotel after a harrowing taxi ride (they're all rather white knuckle affairs, really), we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant and relax. I forgot my sunscreen and now the top of my bald head is sunburnt.

The Wholesale Market

Yesterday we took a cab to the area of Yu Garden and got out to look around "Old Town". Now much of "Old Town" is nothing more than row upon row of what I call 'trinket shops', little places selling cheap toys and paper fans, etc. Nothing too interesting. However, as you carry on down the street, you encounter these side streets which show you the down side to all of the prosperity of Shanghai. This is where the very poor live, and it was an eye opener, to say the least. It's called, I believe, the "Wholesale Market" and I'm not quite sure why it's called this as nothing really 'wholesale' is being sold there. It's mostly little street merchants, seemingly selling to the neighborhood population, not to tourists. A woman was selling one or two chickens, another young woman was making onion pancake things and selling them to locals. There were men selling eggs and vegetables and a stand for selling meat. The people on this street had the hard look of a hard life on their faces. This was real poverty, in the shadow of huge high-rise banks and hotels. Eventually, these people will probably be removed and relocated by the government authorities in the name of progress. (I have about 20 seconds of video of this area on YouTube, plus some pictures on Flckr.) From there, we walked back to the Bund for a better look taking advantage of the better weather. Actually, the Bund has been kind of ruined by the constant, and I mean CONSTANT harassment of street vendors selling "Shoes? Bags? Rolex? TShirts? You need? Hello! Hello!" Most of the tourists I've been told are from other parts of China. I have seen very few non-Chinese tourists here so far. And being Western, we are sitting ducks. It really was a bummer. From the Bund, we decided to give Nan Jing Road a try. George the other day told us that this street is very touristy, and that locals wouldn't be caught dead buying anything there. He told us we were much better off on the shopping street near our hotel in the French Concession. But, what the hell, we decided to check it out. Again, more "Hello! Bags? Rolex? TShirts?" Really nothing of interest here. We decided to go back to that great restaurant near People's Park that George took us to on the first day and had a nice late lunch. After lunch, more wandering, ending at an absolutely huge edifice on the periphery of the park called "Total Capital" Inside was a huge mall, about six stories, selling all the shit that malls sell. Nike shoes, big name cosmetics, fast food, etc. The place was crawling with young mall rats, hungry for the latest shit. Ironically, as we were leaving and crossing this huge boulevard, we saw this little old woman pushing a huge flat bed cart, the kind you see at Costco, on which was a young, sick looking man on a dirty mattress who was covered with a dirty blanket. On the handle of the cart was a little plastic bucket with a single coin inside.

Photos and video links below.

Movies on YouTube click here

Photos on Flicr, click here:

Mostly Walking....

We set out after breakfast yesterday to take a leisurely walk around the sites of interest around the neighborhood, and ended up walking right across Shanghai. We started by taking a closer look at the "French Concession" district where our hotel is located, taking in sites of local interest. We came upon a community park, Fuxing Park and going to see it was quite an experience. Many people there singing, dancing, playing badminton, sitting drinking tea, playing cards....

Many people would speak to us, or at least try to speak to us, with us trying to understand. One guy came up to Gaffer and started singing Auld Lang Syne, apparently his favorite song. Going to this park was a great experience. We continued on, in general making our way from this park toward the river and the Bund. It was great because we really didn't have an agenda, just kept walking and walking. We went through several shopping malls, checking out the goods. We went through some very small side streets, where little old women would walk down the street carrying big fish in each hand. Where exotic, middle-eastern type people sold loaves of flat bread in stalls and where very poor old blind men would play violin-like instruments and beg for money. It's funny how you can encounter a very peasant population on one side of the street, and yuppy, middle class latte drinkers on the other side of the street.

We eventually decided to take a taxi under the river tunnel and check out the Hyatt in Pudong. Wow!!! We had lunch on the 56th floor....the lobby of the hotel is on the 56th floor of this place. Pudong is quite a place to see. I'm sure it must be the heart of all of the wealth of China. It is huge, impressive and like nothing else I have ever seen. The amount of money and wealth passing through must be huge. It is almost frightening to think of the potential wealth there is in this country, and a visit to Pudong will convince anyone of this.

Movies and Photos at the links below:

Movies on YouTube click here

Photos on Flicr, click here:

Touring with George

We had a great day yesterday. Very busy, touring with George our tour guide. It was fantastic to have our own personal tour guide who seemed to know everything about Shanghai. As I said before, George is a guy who speaks almost perfect english, but who has only visited the U.S. once. When asked about how he learned to speak so well, he told us that he has been doing tours for over 10 years and spends a good deal of time with Americans. Anyway, the day started with a tour of this fantastic temple. Overwhelming is the only world for it! The detail in the Buddhist statues, all made of carved wood and gold! Gaffer was surprised at how religious the people were, prostrating and waving their incense around. It was a great atmosphere. After the temple, we hit the Bund. Unfortunately, it was raining a bit, and the visibility wasn't very good, so we walked up and down the river side. (Both the temple and the Bund are places we will be coming back to again) After the Bund, George took us to one of his favorite restaurants and that was a real experience! One of the things we had was this incredible beef which had a taste like I've never had before. George told us more about what it's like to actually live in this city. Apparently there is quite a large number of foreigners living here. The pulse of progress and activity in this city is palpable. There are a lot of quaint, old housing areas which are in the process of being ripped down all over the city. At first, it seems sad that this old world stuff is coming down. However, George explains that the reality behind these "quaint, old houses" is the cold fact that the people living there are families who share one central bucket for a toilet. I can't imagine what is must be like living in a hovel, sharing my shit bucket with my next-door neighbor, and when I walk out my door, my neighbors across the road are a bunch of yuppies in business suits on their way to their high paying jobs in the multi-national bank. The lesson for us here is that it's all well and good for us to regret the destruction of the old and the quaint, but who of us is willing to volunteer to live in filth where there is no running water? Who are we to tell people that they can't progress and come into the 21st century?

After lunch, we went to Yu Garden. Yu Garden is a beautiful garden formerly owned by a very rich owner. I found the garden a bit more geared for tourists than the temple. It was very nice, but the gift shops were a bit overwhelming. I'm not very interested in gift shops, myself. It is a place where there is a great deal of pressure to buy gifts. Every step is accompanied by the calls of the hawkers trying to sell you something.

There is an irony in this place, as well. It seems everywhere you go, there is inevitably people who will come up to you and say, "Rolex, Rolex you want Rolex?" while shoving some cheap piece of crap watch in your face. The irony here is that I can't imagine anyone stopping to buy this crap. Do these people imagine that we are going to stop and say, "Yes, my good man, take as long as you like to show me your crappy knock-off Rolex watches. By the way, your sales pitch is very convincing.....I especially like being pulled by the shirt and have your wares stuck in front of my nose. Let's talk." I have yet to see anyone buying from these guys, and you would think they would change their marketing strategy at some point. Oh well....

Photos and video up at the links below:

We're here.....

We arrived in Shanghai at around 5PM Shanghai time last night. The flight was very long, but tolerable considering the length (about 13hrs). A few bumps in the air, but nothing too bad. At least it's over. We were met at the airport by our guide, George, who was holding a sign with our names on it. (We felt like VIPs....nobody has ever held a sign up for me at the airport before). George is terrific. He speaks english like someone who has been living in the States for years, but has only visited the U.S. once in his life. He is a young man, as seems most of the population of Shanghai...so many young people on the streets! He drove us to our hotel from the airport in a small van, giving us all kinds of information about Shangai and China in general all the time. Surprisingly, Gaffer and I are the only ones in our "tour group" and George told us that he would be taking us around the next day! Gaffer was very keen to catch the Newcastle United v. Sunderland game which started at 8PM, Shanghai time, but I convinced him of the craziness of this idea. We had only arrived at our hotel at 6PM, and to be running around trying to find a sports bar which happens to be showing EPL games sounded ludicrous to me, not to mention the blank eyed stares of the hotel staff when asking about any "Irish Pubs in Shanghai?...." I was exhausted, had not slept and was hungry. I certainly wasn't in the mood to run around trying to find a Sunderland match! I mean, I'm a fan, but I'm not that crazy, and this sounded truly crazy, so I had to put my foot down. No matter, because we found out this morning that Sunderland lost 0 - 2 last night, so I feel I saved the Gaffer a lot of pain.

We had a meal around the corner from the hotel at one of the small "casual dining" restaurants, and had fried rice, steamed vegetables and noodles which was simple and nice. Gaffer needed a fork, and we had a bit of a time trying to tell the young man serving us this fact, using hand gestures to not very much effect. Finally, someone came around with a full set of cutlery and Gaffer was able to scoop up his fried rice without problem. (note to self: to ask for a fork, you say: "yiba chazi")

While strolling around the street after dinner last night, we were a bit surprised at the number of prostitutes and poor beggar woman, many with very small children, around. Our hotel, called Jin Jiang, on Mao Ming Road, would definitely be considered luxury by most standards, and we were being solicited every 20 yards or so with, "You wan' girls?" by rough looking women, or cries of "Money, money!" by a 4 year old with his mother near by holding an empty plastic cup. Life is rough and tough, and I suppose everyone has to do what the have to to make a living.

Today we will be meeting George at 10AM for a tour of Shanghai. I've managed to get a few hours of sleep last night and feel much better. I'll be posting some video and photos in the near future.