Shanghai, goodbye...
We complete out travels in China in the eastern seaboard city of Shanghai. To get there from Chongqing, we take the train - a mode of transport we'd so far only sampled briefly to get us into Chengdhu from the airport. After the perils of the Song Pan bus and the frustrations of domestic air delays, this was one journey I'd really been looking forward to, and maybe because of that I'd slightly over-sold it to myself, painting a picture in my mind of trans-continental romance, watching the miles roll past from the window of awood-panelled art-deco dining car...well, no, not really. As would be bleeding obvious had I only stopped to think about it, this was in the main an exercise in function over form - a fairly packed long-distance service ferrying a full load of passengers from one far-flung corner of the country to another - quickly, efficiently and in an adequate but fairly basic level of comfort. Not that different to a domestic flight, in other words - but without the delays. Setting off from Chongqing North passenger terminal at 1023 in the morning we arrive in Shanghai, exactly on time, nearly 12 hours and several instalments of Game of Thrones later. If that sounds a long stretch, consider that the journey spans nearly 1700km and that our decade-old Lonely Planet Guide says that to do the journey by rail takes over 24 hours. In other words, in 10 years ithe journey time has been cut by 50%. Our driver from the station to our hotel tells us that work is now underway to build a new line that will make the same improvement again - making that 1700km rail journey possible in a very impressive 6 hours - 360 minutes.
Shanghai, then. It may lie to China's east, but in tone and feel we found it to be by far the most west-facing of all the cities we visited. This is down in part to the relative high number of westerners you see out and about (30,000 Germans - who base a number of their China businesses in Shanghai - live there for a start) but also the european influence evident in many of the buildings, particularly in the old financial district lining one side of the waterfront Bund (named, confusingly, not after anything German but apparently by Indian workers shipped over to Shanghai by the British in the colonnial era). As such its a good place to end our trip - a handy "decompression chamber" to let us acclimatise gently to the idea of going home. After Chongqing, the city is a relative tiddler at "only" 25 million inhabitants, but to put that in perspective, that's still an urban area with a larger footprint than the whole of Austria (not to mention three times the population). It - or the part of the city we're in at least - is a pleasant, easy place to walk around after the sweaty hustle and rush of Chongqing, helped no end by the sight of blue skies over our heads - pollution here much less evident than in other cities. Its also the only place - bar Bejiing - where we've had real problems getting ourselves connected to the internet (hence this section of the blog needing to be posted post-return, so to speak.) On the face of it, this is odd. Shanghai, Bejiing - of all the the cities in China, the two where you'd expect most foreigners wanting to get access to the internet. The fact that its also where that is most problematic we will not speculate upon, but leave readers to posit their own theories...
Only one day here - and a good part of that struggling with our internet connection in order to check in for our flight next day - so our opportunites to explore were fairly limited. Mostly, we just wandered, along the Bund, into the tangles of old colonnial-era streets formerly known as the French Concession, where local menus tempt you to such delicacies as Glutinous Bullfrog, Sour Soup Fat Cow, and Duck Blood in Chilli Sauce...Moving swiftly on, we take an elevator ride up the Jingmao Tower - one of Shanghai's tallest buildings, 88 floors and 340 metres climbed in just 50 seconds. An exhilarating and / or stomach-dropping experience, or so you'd imagine. But you can't see out the lift as you go up, and the engineering is so good there is practically no sense of movement once you are inside, so the point is largely lost. Once at the top, some decent views out over the city, but no better (and probably actually not as good) as the Shard in London, compromised as they were by the pollution haze (we said it was better in Shanghai, not that there wasn't any pollution at all).
Hard to sum up our three weeks in China. Different places, different impressions, but what's common is how so much has changed, so quickly - and if anything the rate of development is still ramping up, scary when you try and imagine where it might be in another 10, 20 years time. Its a shame that the cost and complexity of getting to China - mainly involved in obtaining a visa - means that for the moment it remains somewhere that few will visit, but maybe over time that will change too. Clearly not all that we saw was positive - its hard to condone or excuse the censorship, the heavy-handed suppression of dissent, or the fact that people like our tour guide Lily are denied a passport to travel. Equally though, what can't be disputed is that China has come a long way in a very short time, or that it seems to deliver most of what its people want, most of the time.
Tuesday morning early we chomp down our last disappointing chinese breakfast (another story for another time), take the shuttle minibus to the airport, and get on the flight that, 11 or so hours later, will land us back at Heathrow.
Shanghai, then. It may lie to China's east, but in tone and feel we found it to be by far the most west-facing of all the cities we visited. This is down in part to the relative high number of westerners you see out and about (30,000 Germans - who base a number of their China businesses in Shanghai - live there for a start) but also the european influence evident in many of the buildings, particularly in the old financial district lining one side of the waterfront Bund (named, confusingly, not after anything German but apparently by Indian workers shipped over to Shanghai by the British in the colonnial era). As such its a good place to end our trip - a handy "decompression chamber" to let us acclimatise gently to the idea of going home. After Chongqing, the city is a relative tiddler at "only" 25 million inhabitants, but to put that in perspective, that's still an urban area with a larger footprint than the whole of Austria (not to mention three times the population). It - or the part of the city we're in at least - is a pleasant, easy place to walk around after the sweaty hustle and rush of Chongqing, helped no end by the sight of blue skies over our heads - pollution here much less evident than in other cities. Its also the only place - bar Bejiing - where we've had real problems getting ourselves connected to the internet (hence this section of the blog needing to be posted post-return, so to speak.) On the face of it, this is odd. Shanghai, Bejiing - of all the the cities in China, the two where you'd expect most foreigners wanting to get access to the internet. The fact that its also where that is most problematic we will not speculate upon, but leave readers to posit their own theories...
Only one day here - and a good part of that struggling with our internet connection in order to check in for our flight next day - so our opportunites to explore were fairly limited. Mostly, we just wandered, along the Bund, into the tangles of old colonnial-era streets formerly known as the French Concession, where local menus tempt you to such delicacies as Glutinous Bullfrog, Sour Soup Fat Cow, and Duck Blood in Chilli Sauce...Moving swiftly on, we take an elevator ride up the Jingmao Tower - one of Shanghai's tallest buildings, 88 floors and 340 metres climbed in just 50 seconds. An exhilarating and / or stomach-dropping experience, or so you'd imagine. But you can't see out the lift as you go up, and the engineering is so good there is practically no sense of movement once you are inside, so the point is largely lost. Once at the top, some decent views out over the city, but no better (and probably actually not as good) as the Shard in London, compromised as they were by the pollution haze (we said it was better in Shanghai, not that there wasn't any pollution at all).
Hard to sum up our three weeks in China. Different places, different impressions, but what's common is how so much has changed, so quickly - and if anything the rate of development is still ramping up, scary when you try and imagine where it might be in another 10, 20 years time. Its a shame that the cost and complexity of getting to China - mainly involved in obtaining a visa - means that for the moment it remains somewhere that few will visit, but maybe over time that will change too. Clearly not all that we saw was positive - its hard to condone or excuse the censorship, the heavy-handed suppression of dissent, or the fact that people like our tour guide Lily are denied a passport to travel. Equally though, what can't be disputed is that China has come a long way in a very short time, or that it seems to deliver most of what its people want, most of the time.
Tuesday morning early we chomp down our last disappointing chinese breakfast (another story for another time), take the shuttle minibus to the airport, and get on the flight that, 11 or so hours later, will land us back at Heathrow.
Comments
Post a Comment