Shanghai and Hangzhou
The flight to Shanghai was pure torture. While in Kunming I said that I could not stand Kenny G and there was nothing worse, but I was wrong. Two words: Celine Dion. I had noticed the music of Ms. Dion seemed popular in China, but it is normally easy to leave a place that plays it. Unfortunately Shanghai Airlines really likes Celine Dion and plays it through the speakers for everyone to hear, regardless of whether you are wearing headphones or not, during take off and landing. The worst part was every time they turned it off and put it back on, it would start back at the beginning. So I had to hear four of Celine Dion's greatest hits on repeat. I can't remember all of the tracks, but there was definitely the Titanic song and the "I'm your lady and you are my man" song. BLEH! Vomitous. At least with Kenny G there is no screaming voice and you can sort of tune it out.
Anyway, the flight was pretty painful in that respect. We got to Shanghai and the weather continued to be pretty crappy and even rained for a day or so. On our first day we checked into our hotel and then walked to this other hotel to set up a tour for the following day. I wanted to show Kurt a small village since all we were doing was big cities. Alex and I had previously wanted to go to Hangzhou or Suzhou when we visited Shanghai, but did not get a chance. We booked a tour for Hangzhou for the following day. What a disaster.
Our tour group seemed pretty small, around 13 people, so I thought Hangzhou might not be too crowded. We got there and it was horribly packed. For one, I was so wrong about Hangzhou being a small village. I might have noticed something was off when I saw a large dot next to it on the map, indicating that it was a large city. Our first stop was this temple that was very cool and I was excited to see. I am sad that it was so crowded because we literally rushed in, saw the big Buddha and left. There are loads of Buddhas carved into the side of the mountain and we just walked right by it. We did get to see some monks playing music inside the temple and that was really nice and somewhat calming (at least for Kurt, not much worked for me).
After the temple we went to this park where we saw an albino peacock. We pretty much rushed through the park and to a crowded boat that took us out on West Lake for around an hour. It was so disappointing. I remember when Alex and I were looking for places to go we thought that West Lake would be beautiful and serene. Apparently it inspired poets, but it did not inspire me. It was pretty smoggy and crowded when we went. Even if it had not been smoggy, I don't think I would have been impressed. I guess I had much grander expectations.
We went for a Chinese lunch at this hotel. It was alright, but nothing amazing. I am not particularly thrilled with Chinese cuisine. I like a few dishes, but I will admit that I prefer American Chinese. Call me a stupid American, but I just find that at least the Chinese I have had has all been really oily and is not as healthy as I thought it would have been.
Our last stop on the tour was a tea village where they grow green tea. It was really interesting but it was so obvious they were sitting us down to sell tea to us. They took us to a room where they showed us how you drink green tea and told us that it's good for high blood pressure among other things. The woman sounded like a robot, as if she had been programmed and someone just pushed a button that said "English" and she spoke.
This was the first tour I had been on like this and now I know why I have avoided them for so long. During May Break it is especially bad because you have to rush through everything. I did not really get to enjoy anything I saw. We took the bus back to Shanghai and rested that evening.
Our first full day in Shanghai we went to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had heard it was pretty cool, however when we went there were banners all over with the day's date on it. We didn't know what they said, but we figured there was some big event. Sure enough, there was a huge line to see the actual Jade Buddha. We saw everything else at the temple but ended up skipping the Jade Buddha because the line was ridiculous. When we walked outside of the temple there were several severely deformed people begging for money. I remembered seeing a guy with no legs outside of a church in Cairo. He dragged himself around with his arms and I didn't think it got much worse. The people outside the Jade Buddha Temple had all kinds of problems I didn't really know existed. There were people with really skinny legs bent in weird positions that had to push themselves on carts. The worst one for me was one I barely even looked at. This person was being pushed around on a cart by a man because his head was so enormous and his body was too weak to support it. Literally I think his head was at least two or three times bigger than a normal head. It was really disturbing and sad and put a strange cast on the day.
After cheering up a bit, we went to the Urban Planning Museum. We probably would not have gone there had several people not told me how cool it was. They have the largest model of a city in the world. It was pretty cool to see. It is supposed to show what Shanghai will look like in the year 2010 (or was is 2020?). They also had this cool exhibit on Oslo, which I found pretty funny. I am in this fairly polluted city in one of the most polluted countries in the world and then I walk into a room talking about how Norway is so clean and perfect. It was sort of a tease. They had two pretty cool interactive features. One was a photo booth where you stand in front of a snowy background and then say "Ooooooslo" for the camera. They also had a "Water from Oslo" thing where you can drink the water. For all I know it could be fake, but it was a cool idea.
We took the tourist sightseeing tunnel to the other side of the Huangpu River and went up the Oriental Pearl Tower. That was a pretty hellish experience. We had to buy tickets and then got in a long line to get to the elevator. You figure you can see the line and you only have to wait for that. But when you get to the elevator you find out that you take it up to the middle and then have to get into another line to get to the top. Since we paid for the top, we waited again . . . What sucks is that it was a cloudy rainy day, so we paid for a pretty crappy view. We did get to see the Jimao Tower, which is the 4th tallest building in the world and the tallest hotel in the world.
On our last day in Shanghai we went to the Yuyuan Gardens. We went through a part I had not seen with Alex, so it was kind of cool to get a different view off it. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and trying to shop. We had walked down this pretty cool street the first day we got there and decided to go back to look for clothes. I did not realize how expensive the stuff was until we walked into these stores. There was a shirt that cost $1,000!!! I can see how a boutique in New York can charge something ridiculous like that for a wild shirt, but this looked like a regular shirt. It was just ridiculous.
That night we took the overnight train back to Beijing.
Anyway, the flight was pretty painful in that respect. We got to Shanghai and the weather continued to be pretty crappy and even rained for a day or so. On our first day we checked into our hotel and then walked to this other hotel to set up a tour for the following day. I wanted to show Kurt a small village since all we were doing was big cities. Alex and I had previously wanted to go to Hangzhou or Suzhou when we visited Shanghai, but did not get a chance. We booked a tour for Hangzhou for the following day. What a disaster.
Our tour group seemed pretty small, around 13 people, so I thought Hangzhou might not be too crowded. We got there and it was horribly packed. For one, I was so wrong about Hangzhou being a small village. I might have noticed something was off when I saw a large dot next to it on the map, indicating that it was a large city. Our first stop was this temple that was very cool and I was excited to see. I am sad that it was so crowded because we literally rushed in, saw the big Buddha and left. There are loads of Buddhas carved into the side of the mountain and we just walked right by it. We did get to see some monks playing music inside the temple and that was really nice and somewhat calming (at least for Kurt, not much worked for me).
After the temple we went to this park where we saw an albino peacock. We pretty much rushed through the park and to a crowded boat that took us out on West Lake for around an hour. It was so disappointing. I remember when Alex and I were looking for places to go we thought that West Lake would be beautiful and serene. Apparently it inspired poets, but it did not inspire me. It was pretty smoggy and crowded when we went. Even if it had not been smoggy, I don't think I would have been impressed. I guess I had much grander expectations.We went for a Chinese lunch at this hotel. It was alright, but nothing amazing. I am not particularly thrilled with Chinese cuisine. I like a few dishes, but I will admit that I prefer American Chinese. Call me a stupid American, but I just find that at least the Chinese I have had has all been really oily and is not as healthy as I thought it would have been.
Our last stop on the tour was a tea village where they grow green tea. It was really interesting but it was so obvious they were sitting us down to sell tea to us. They took us to a room where they showed us how you drink green tea and told us that it's good for high blood pressure among other things. The woman sounded like a robot, as if she had been programmed and someone just pushed a button that said "English" and she spoke.This was the first tour I had been on like this and now I know why I have avoided them for so long. During May Break it is especially bad because you have to rush through everything. I did not really get to enjoy anything I saw. We took the bus back to Shanghai and rested that evening.
Our first full day in Shanghai we went to the Jade Buddha Temple. I had heard it was pretty cool, however when we went there were banners all over with the day's date on it. We didn't know what they said, but we figured there was some big event. Sure enough, there was a huge line to see the actual Jade Buddha. We saw everything else at the temple but ended up skipping the Jade Buddha because the line was ridiculous. When we walked outside of the temple there were several severely deformed people begging for money. I remembered seeing a guy with no legs outside of a church in Cairo. He dragged himself around with his arms and I didn't think it got much worse. The people outside the Jade Buddha Temple had all kinds of problems I didn't really know existed. There were people with really skinny legs bent in weird positions that had to push themselves on carts. The worst one for me was one I barely even looked at. This person was being pushed around on a cart by a man because his head was so enormous and his body was too weak to support it. Literally I think his head was at least two or three times bigger than a normal head. It was really disturbing and sad and put a strange cast on the day.
After cheering up a bit, we went to the Urban Planning Museum. We probably would not have gone there had several people not told me how cool it was. They have the largest model of a city in the world. It was pretty cool to see. It is supposed to show what Shanghai will look like in the year 2010 (or was is 2020?). They also had this cool exhibit on Oslo, which I found pretty funny. I am in this fairly polluted city in one of the most polluted countries in the world and then I walk into a room talking about how Norway is so clean and perfect. It was sort of a tease. They had two pretty cool interactive features. One was a photo booth where you stand in front of a snowy background and then say "Ooooooslo" for the camera. They also had a "Water from Oslo" thing where you can drink the water. For all I know it could be fake, but it was a cool idea.
We took the tourist sightseeing tunnel to the other side of the Huangpu River and went up the Oriental Pearl Tower. That was a pretty hellish experience. We had to buy tickets and then got in a long line to get to the elevator. You figure you can see the line and you only have to wait for that. But when you get to the elevator you find out that you take it up to the middle and then have to get into another line to get to the top. Since we paid for the top, we waited again . . . What sucks is that it was a cloudy rainy day, so we paid for a pretty crappy view. We did get to see the Jimao Tower, which is the 4th tallest building in the world and the tallest hotel in the world.
On our last day in Shanghai we went to the Yuyuan Gardens. We went through a part I had not seen with Alex, so it was kind of cool to get a different view off it. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and trying to shop. We had walked down this pretty cool street the first day we got there and decided to go back to look for clothes. I did not realize how expensive the stuff was until we walked into these stores. There was a shirt that cost $1,000!!! I can see how a boutique in New York can charge something ridiculous like that for a wild shirt, but this looked like a regular shirt. It was just ridiculous.That night we took the overnight train back to Beijing.
posted by Ramune at
5/14/2006 08:14:00 PM
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