Exploring Shanghai

It was the last day of my vacation, and after an exhausting day in Shaoxing, I wanted to relax and do as little as possible. I took a taxi down to the northwestern part of the lake, where they have one of the most beautiful parks in China. It really was stunning, and I walked around for a few hours, just admiring the view. It had even stopped raining, so it was a beautiful autumn day in Hangzhou.

One of the things I like about these parks, is how curvy everything is. It looks like all shapes are rounded and dynamic, no straight square patterns like we use back home. It really gives the garden a quiet and relaxing mood.

Another thing is the bridges, I really love that. I always liked water, as in lakes and rivers, and these canals in the park with their beautiful bridges make the journey through the park very interesting. every island had a slightly different mood too, as different trees and plants were used. The variations are staggering, compared to the 3-4 different tree types I usually see 🙂

In the evening I met up with Kelly, and we went to a chinese fast food restaurant. That was weird but actually very good. Think burger king, but with chinese food! After that we went to Jamaica Coffee in the tourist-friendly Xihu Tiandi district, for coffee and a couple of drinks.

Hangzhou was a beautiful city, very tourist-friendly and absolurely lovely to just walk around in. I’d love to come back here in the summer sometime, but still I’m happy that there were few crowds and that I got to experience the tranquility of the lake.The only problem in this city is the taxis, especially at rush hour, and especially since there is basically no other option. Getting stuck waiting for a cab for 30 minutes really sucks.

Getting home from Hangzhou turned out to be a stressfull event. The train I wanted to take to Shanghai was cancelled, and the next one was 30 minutes late. So I came to Shanghai 1 hour late, and suddenly it was rush hour. I had to drop the tube and train combination, and had a taxi take me directly to the airport. The driver drove like a god, using all three lanes and blazing past all other cars, and we made it to the airport 13 minutes before check-in was to close. However,  when I got to the counter, they told me that my flight was cancelled!

There were some strikes in Finair, so I had to get a different flight, and was booked to KLM through Amsterdam. That really sucked, both because KLM is way below Finair in quality (no in-flight entertainment), and because the flight is longer (11 hours compared to 9 hours to Helsinki). And I missed my flight from Oslo to Bodø, and had to get a new ticket from Norwegian. Hope I’ll get that covered by my travel insurance.

But anyway, I’m glad to finally be home, after a long journey. Nice to sleep in my own bed and get to meet my friends again.

Today was my excursion out of Hangzhou, I wanted to see one of the smaller towns in the area. I had some trouble navigating, but in the end I found my way to the east bus station, and jumped on a bus to Shaoxing a smaller riverside town of only 4.3 million people.

Once again I had trouble with the taxis, even if I pointed on the map of where I wanted to go, or the chinese words for the city’s main attractions written in the guide, the 2 first drivers would chase me out of the car. Fortunately, a nice man in the taxi line spoke a bit of english, and asked me to show him where I wanted to go. He then spoke to the next driver, which nodded and brought me to the city center.

I found a beautiful pagoda in the park, and I really liked the contrast between this ancient structure and the modern concert hall right behind it.

Shaoxing was a bit tough to master, as all signs were only in Chinese, and most people did not speak English. I eventually found my way north, and walked through a less developed part of town, with pedestrian streets, lined with small shops.

I found a hairdresser with only one chair, smoking in his doorway, a guy making cooking pots out of sheet metal (with a small hammer) and a few street food vendors, with a open-air kitchen in the street, one table and 4 people sitting around eating soup.

In between the shops, I’d see mysterious open doorways, with larger areas inside, filled with people. I peered into one, it looked like a teahouse of sorts, because there was a teapot on every table. But I did not figure out how it worked, because there were no signs anywhere, and I could not figure out who worked there and who were guests. So I wandered on, toward the leafy hill to the north.

I bought a pair of gloves in one of the shops, and I think I might have frightened the shopkeeper. She came up to me from behind, talking in Chinese. When I turned around, she literally took a step back and did the “no” hand movement. I pointed at the gloves, and did a “money” hand movement, and she responded with the chinese sign for “6”, which is the pinky and thumb fingers extended, other fingers closed. I took out 6 yuen from my pocket and gave her, probably her easiest sale of the day.

On my way up the street, I passed a public bathroom, and entered despite hearing some voices inside. One of the walls were covered in sheet metal, which formed a standard urinal. A man was standing there, and talking over his shoulder to a guy in the stalls behind him. I saw a man’s head peek out of the stall, he was talking to his friend while squatting over the hole in the floor. I just found that situation quite unusual, I don’t think I’d ever take a dump while squatting and leaving the door open.

At the end of the street, I encountered the Jiezhu Temple, and I heard chanting inside.

Cautiously, i walked toward the entrance, and peeked inside. There was a ceremony taking place. I saw 6 monks standing and chanting on either side of the room, they were in red and orange traditional suits. In the middle of the room there were about 15 people in normal clothes, and as I came in the door, they were walking in procession towards an altar. A woman in the rear of the group noticed that i entered, and smiled and nodded in my direction.

The others seemed happy to ignore me. They would kneel on green pillows on the floor, and joined in on the chanting. I sat down by the door and watched, but after a few minutes I started feeling like I was intruding, so I got up and continued toward the park on the hill.

The park was really beautiful, lots of small ponds and bridges, and small paths and stairs were crisscrossing the hillsides between the trees. I clombed the stairs, and went into a building on top, they had displays of posters with chinese letters and some drawings inside. In the middle of the room there was a huge stone with chinese letters engraved. No explanations in english, and I was the only tourist there, so I felt like the 4 yuen I paid were kind of wasted. But the best was still to come, as I continued up the stairs to the top of the hill.

The chinese prefer their bridges to zig-zag, for some weird reason

At the very top, i saw the great pagoda, overlooking the entire city.

I paid an entrance fee here as well, 2 yuen! I can’t believe how cheap everything is in this city! I climbed to the top, and sat down to have lunch on the balcony. I loved the great views of the city, one could see the rivers and canals, and the huge housing projects shooting off into the distance. I’ve never seen housing like these, it gives mass production a whole new definition. I tried estimating the number of households in one cluster of apartments, with all the buildings of the same height, color and design. I figured out it would have like 40 thousand people, in just that city block. Amazing, and so different from the small 100-people housing projects back home!

I was tired, and hunting for a nice place to sit down and read. But I could not find a single teahouse, proper restaurant or anythign like it, just clothing shops and the like. I eventually found a tiny 6-table restaurant in a small shed, and ordered a coke from the all-Chinese menu. It was getting late, and I was exhausted after a long day. I tried to figure out how to get back to the hotel, and the only transportation i found was a bicycle taxi. The poor guys was pedalling me toward the train station for 20 minutes on his non-geared bike. I paid 15 yuen for it, but I’m pretty sure he was scamming me, he looked really weird when it was time to pay.

The whole day I’d not seen a single non-chinese person, and had not heard a single word of English. It was wonderful to get on the bus toward Hangzhou, and back to the convenience of a hotel. This was by far the most exotic day trip I’ve been on so far, exhausting but exciting!

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