So it’s been just over two weeks since I returned home from my trip to China (which explains my particular absence from the blog, not that that would be noticeable given my blogging track record…) and there is so much to share and reflect on. More keenly now, I miss the hustle and bustle of Shanghai that always makes it eventful and dizzyingly exciting, but returning to the relatively sleepy city of Melbourne is a deep comfort too. It’s definitely made me appreciate my current indulgent and lazy lifestyle, and it’s affirmed my belief that I can only enjoy such a fast city in short bursts. Though I now feel a bit more confident that I could live and work in Shanghai—if the chance arose.

I’ll be covering my trip over five posts:

Part 1: A Taste of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing (covered in this post)
Part 2: Breezing Through Suzhou and Wuxi
Part 3: Back in Shanghai
Part 4: Hilarity and High Times in Shanghai
Part 5: When West Marries East (or My Dude Cousin’s Big Fat Chinese -Western Wedding)

(Can you tell that I’m no copy writer?)

When I go to China (this is my fourth time now) I go directly to Shanghai, which is where most of my dad’s family lives. This time round, I’d booked my family on a tour for about a week around Shanghai and its neighbouring cities, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou.

That’s an awfully short time to really soak in so many cities, which was the frustrating part. BUT, as a non-mainland Chinese (hua qiao  华侨) we were able to join the exclusive tour for a greatly reduced cost—it’s all part of the China Central Government’s scheme to lure expats/overseas people back, to win loyalty—so not seeing so much of each city wasn’t so bad when the value is still there. I got to stay in lush, fancy five star hotels (or what were apparently five star) and had every meal in restaurants. Quite the high life!

Shanghai 上海

My first landing was still in Shanghai but we were met by the travel guides at Pudong International Airport and driven in organised groups to our hotel, also in Pudong. We stayed in the Minya Hotel which in retrospect was the most impressive hotel with very good service and conditions (Hangzhou came second, Nanjing was the worst). One thing I noticed is that the hotel’s TV included all the “banned” channels—a curious deception geared towards Western customers. Hrmm, you ain’t fooled me.

The next morning was a revelation—breakfast buffet, and it was seriously a buffet. So many food choices. Whatever you fancied they pretty much had it: Western cereal, eggs, toast, coffee, waffles, croissants, cakes to Chinese rice congee, noodles, buns, wontons, soy milk. It was just so beautiful.

We were barely out and about in Shanghai for half a day—checked out of the hotel by 8am, and headed straight for Cheng Huang Miao (城隍庙, or the City God Temple), which is quite an old temple just within the inner city, but is actually famous for its neighbouring bargain stalls, by the tens and hundreds. Call it the “two dollar shop hub”. Unfortunately given the very early time, most of the shops weren’t even open. We were called back 45 minutes later by our guide—I’ve been to Cheng Huang Miao more times than I can count so I know the score, but for newcomers, this was hardly a visit it was like a brief touchdown. This was my feeling for most of the tour, but it was useless to nurse the sentiment. I just had to make do, and be grateful that I was coming back to Shanghai after the tour ended.

Next up was the Shanghai Museum, which I was keen on seeing as I’d never been. They house a lot of great ancient artefacts and artwork, some of which I barely got a glimpse of—I was so conscious of the limited time allocated to us. I took as many photos of whatever caught my eye as visual reference.

The traditional folk costumes, ceramics and the incredible woodwork and architectural forms were so gorgeous.

More Shanghai pics here. (You’ll also see other stuff I got up to in Shanghai…)

Hangzhou 杭州

After the average lunch (by Shanghai standards!) we immediately trooped onto the bus and headed towards Hangzhou. It was about a four hour drive by my recollection with a couple of rest stops. I feel most of the tour time spent was on the damn bus. I certainly got to know my fellow tourists well.

Now in each city we were delegated a local tour guide on top of our tour co-ordinator, so I guess it was good to get a perspective from someone who actually comes from the city, though most of the time I tuned out because each guide just reeked of insincerity and shifty intentions to me. I’m naturally suspicious…

I’d not been to Hangzhou before so it was great to finally see it. It’s a beautiful city, still considered a city in development so it’s actually relatively slower than its sister cities. It’s known as one of the seven Ancient Capitals of China.

Hangzhou is most famous for its West Lake (xi hu 西湖), which we also got to see and took a half hour cruise around. The weather was warm and simply perfect. Our guide claims that it’s considered the romance capital of the East. Maybe. I just lament that I hardly got to get a good look at the place—we arrived too late (like 4pm, just nearing dusk).

Following West Lake was a truly fabulous dinner with Hangzhou (or its parent Zhejiang) specialty dishes (probably the best I had in the whole tour). Delicious sour fish soup and dongpo pork to name a few. Afterwards we went to see “A Night in Hangzhou” performance in a local arts centre. Basically it presented a brief collage of Hangzhou’s history, legends and icons.

I was deeply touched by the Butterfly Lovers segment—I just love history’s great tragic romances. Actually most of my favourite romances usually have some kind of tragedy intertwined or end in tragedy. And you can’t top the original Romeo and Juliet story (this was centuries before Shakespeare’s creation). The gorgeous Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto composed by He and Chen, of course, made its aural presence. Beautiful lighting effects, moving images, and as always stunning acrobatics and dancing made it a dreamy spectacle.

The next morning while still in Hangzhou we went to a longjing 龙井 (dragon well) tea plantation to see how the famous leaves are harvested and roasted. Longjing is considered a green tea delicacy, and is mostly produced in Hangzhou—it’s the cream of the crop, or the greenest of the crop, rather.

We got to taste the local longjing, and it was very qing 青 (gentle) and subtle but still with a fulsome sweetness. Beautiful flavour. I think myself as a tea enthusiast (not really a connoisseur though) but even I wouldn’t be cheated into buying a lot of packs—not the ones the sellers were giving out anyway. It’s something I was very aware of—avoiding getting conned at all costs. They’re just so damn ruthless about it that unsuspecting foreigners have no idea when they’re being duped till it’s too late.

(Needless to say my uncle in Shanghai gave us quite a few boxes of longjing)

More Hangzhou pics here.

Nanjing 南京

That same day, we headed towards Nanjing. This was not my first time in the old capital—my second aunt lives in the city centre so whenever I am in China I visit her too, though this time I obviously couldn’t.

We first visited Zhong Shan Ling (中山陵) which is known as Sun Yat-sen’s (pioneer of the Kuomingtang/leader of Republic of China after overthrowing the imperial system) mausoleum. This wasn’t anything new as I’d been there 13 years ago—and it looks exactly the same. Well, that’s not strictly true; I think it’s much cleaner than before?

Also had time to check out the night lights afterwards. It was extremely busy when we went (I think it was Sunday) so I was terrified of getting something stolen off my person. Pickpockets take advantage of the crowds and make nimble and swift work of thieving.

Also notable was the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (Nanjing Changjiang Daqiao 南京长江大桥)—an engineering feat in the early days of the Cultural Revolution, when the outside world considered China incapable of building such a monumental structure without foreign help (the Soviets pulled out). The tour guide (apparently a history teacher) expressed so enthusiastically the pride of the Chinese back then, and how kids today don’t appreciate the honest labour and humility that was cultivated so much in those times. Personally I thought he was full of BS, but he does have a point.

I just love propaganda!

 

I felt awkward posing in front of Chairman Mao though—funny how I didn’t feel that weird when I was in Tiananmen Square…

We also visited a shopping precinct devoted to jade and precious stones, specially designed for tourists. You can imagine how wary I was of these places. I was mainly waiting impatiently to move to the next destination.

Nanjing’s food and general service quality (like the 5 star hotel with its massive dubious carpet stain—shudder) was decidedly less impressive but that didn’t bother me. I was also quite keen on visiting the Nanjing Massacre Memorial (I’m very interested in this often forgotten and deeply dark and disturbing part of history, and I am currently reading The Rape of Nanking), but there  just wasn’t enough time on this trip!

Speaking of the Massacre, the tour guide quipped or perhaps quite dead seriously stated that you shouldn’t mention the Japanese when talking to local Nanjingese. Obviously it’s still a deep and sore wound decades on. Do they still hate the Japanese? Probably—that’s generations of deep-seated hate, as with Japan’s generations of ignorance, excepting a few people. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to return to live in a home completely sacked and violated by a foreign invader. There are some things you just can’t get over.

More photos from Nanjing here.

Of what I saw thus far, Hangzhou was a main highlight, but honestly, by this time I was just looking forward to getting back to Shanghai …

COMING UP—Breezing Through Suzhou and Wuxi!