Full circle

26. April     From Frankfurt Airport we take the regional train to Jeannine's hometown. We've come full polygon.

The 'Shanghai dirndl' fits Catherine perfectly, Jeannine's mum likes her tea (including the carefully selected packaging!) and her dad digs the camel hair socks. The button-eyed animals I bought in Beijing find new homes with my nieces and nephew.

Jeannine is already missing eating with chopsticks and I suffer oolong tea withdrawal. Even though we might not have left our virtue in the HuangShan, we certainly are still inspired by the amazing scenery. Wayne, the soft spot, has given Jeannine a Chinese diary as farewell present  full of photographs of our time together. 

Back in the warm, green German spring it's not easy to conjure up the snow-covered landscape and icy temperatures in Moscow and along the Trans-Siberian route for our rapt travelogue audience. We have so many pictures and stories to show & tell, it's difficult not to get carried away.

she gets carried away...

Looking outside we notice how comparatively boring the locals appear. There are no flamboyant pink velvet catsuits (as spotted in the Forbidden City) and no one wears thick framed specs without any actual glass in them. We do notice, however, that there are more variations of hairstyles around.

Looking inside, my head is spinning. I am not sure if from lack of sleep, jetlag or if my brain is just blocked with all the accumulated travel impressions and suddenly having to deal with a downscaled environment of only 10% of yesterday's size, population density and pace.

Looking back, and taken with a pinch of MSG, it's been surprisingly easy travelling in places where we didn't speak the language. And who knows if on the next trip I won't be with a Mandarin speaker after all – Jeannine is seriously looking into studying in Shanghai for a year. We've had an awesome journey and I'll miss my travelling companion.

Looking ahead, the 5 week mission is almost accomplished. I am in Germany to go where I have been before, spending time with friends and family.

The globetutter mission, though, will continue: to boldly split infinitives that no man has split before.   I look forward to it.

Beijing Button-eyes

430km/h without a helmet!

 25. April


 At our last breakfast on the hostel terrace,
I give in to the temptation to feed the resident vermin hunter and her three cute kittens.
I turn my back to our table for 30 seconds to get something from the buffet – and the cat family helps themselves to Jeannine's bacon, potatoes and hard-boileg egg. She insists they even sipped from her orange juice!

Jing'An ca 1920

Jing'An 2011

We lug our luggage to Jing'An subway to leave it at Kent and Hanrich's place for the day. Wayne takes us just around the corner into old Shanghai to buy some flowers and souvenirs. There is a whole lane with stalls selling fake antiques and Maorabilia and we have the opportunity for some hilarious haggling.
The animal market selling birds, crickets and water creatures, on the other hand, is not exactly my kettle of fish.

fish looking at us

Still, our next stop is the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium on Pudong. The aquarium comes with local mood music and has a lot of animals in comparatively small tanks. To add to my distress, I lose my red dragon hat. We take a quick walk on an elevated bridge to get a better sense of the skyscrapers and then return to Puxi, the West side of the Pu river.

We have just enough time for a tea tasting and buying expedition. The choice is huge and the teas are all so very tasty. Some more bags to squeeze into our suitcases :)

Ganbai!

 

Maglev max speed

A glass of bubbly back at the flat and then we are on our way to Pudong Airport. Instead of going all the way by subway, we change to the 8 minute 'flight' on the 'maglev', the magnetic-levitation train. The German construction accelerates to 430km/h and after a minute already has to put on the brakes in order not to overshoot the longhaul runways... After checking in, we spend our remaining yuan on – dumplings of course.

relaxed flight to the airport

HongKong airport is so busy that our flight cannot be scheduled for landing, so our take-off gets delayed by an hour. Fortunately we have plenty of Chinese newspapers (English editions) to keep us busy on the stationary plane. We wouldn't mind if we knew for certain that we will be missing the connecting flight to Frankfurt because it would give us an opportunity to explore HongKong courtesy of Cathay, but we are not that delayed. Instead we don't even get to see the airport because we have to race to the connecting flight gate.
We catch our flight and sit back to enjoy our last Asian meal and the ridiculously large selection of movies. Although they are not subtitled, I can't resist watching some HK kungfu flicks. The language sounds much harsher than Beijing Mandarin which sometimes has the softness of French or Italian. And then it's 'Zaijian' China.

Easter is People's Day

Wayne meets us for breakfast in our hood. Food at the courtyard of the Urbn Hotel in Jiaozhou is nice but little, and on the way to the subway we detour via the Croissants de France.
My favourite fusion food is a strawberry in a sticky rice bun!

We discover the underground fashion mall at People's Square and Wayne & Jeannine go into a Karl Lagerfeld & Claudia Schiffer routine. But the catwalking wears out the sales lady and she refuses to take the bait from our haggling hooks. So we go nibble our food goodies at the People's Park instead. 

grand theater, municipal administration & urban planning museum- People's Square

Here, in supermodern, hyperurban downtown Shanghai, the marriage market is booming. Parents of children who haven't found a love partner hang up notes with their offsprings' particulars: Height, weight, age, education, 'sad & lonely'. The mix boggles Jeannine's mind.
 

Shanghai Museum- People's Square

The Shanghai Museum turns out to be very soothing. Beautifully selected and simply presented, we take in our fill of traditional clothes, furniture, pottery, seals, calligraphy and painting. We even spot the Yellow Mountains on some scrolls!

 My favourite piece is a clay figurine which predates art deco by centuries.


Before Wayne has to leave, we visit the museum teashop. Our bowls are so stuffed with tea leaves, we have to do some weeding before we get to the liquid.

 Jeannine and I take a turn by the urban planning museum which exhibits 3D models of Shanghai to figure out some method to the madness. To call it a sprawl would be the understatement of the last 5000 years.

Pudong model with Shanghai Tower (right)

Because souvenirs want to be purchased we return to the underground mall and do some satisfying bargaining. Jeannine is particularly pleased that she scores a 'Shanghai dirndl' for her sister Catherine.

It's dark when we emerge and we stroll down neon-lit NanjingLu to see the Bund at night. It's awesome but also quite chilly and we head back for our last night at the hostel and pack before we go listen at the mattress.

the old...

opposite the new.

A good, good day

We set off for NanjingLu, Shanghai's famous shopping street. Surfacing from the subway we have lost our East-West bearings. NanjingLu is all neon adverts and masses of noisily milling people. We get accosted by one of the fake brand hustlers offering sunglasses? bags? shoes? When we just stare back blankly, he encourages us with a 'What are you looking for?' 'The Bund' is our sheepish reply and he rolls his eyes and, against his better judgment, points us in the right direction. Looking for the river promenade we have just outed ourselves as a lost consumer cause.

The Bund isn't necessarily less busy. It's a sunny day and everyone struts their stuff. The walking fashion statements compete with the sights of the early 20^th century architecture. But Pudong, 'East of the Pu' river, with its futuristic skyline, takes the cake. We have to queue for a place at the railing to have our photo taken against the popular backdrop. None of the iconic skyscrapers here is less than 420m in height, currently the tallest is just under 500m and the Shanghai Tower under construction will be 630m. Otherwise nothing much has changed in the 100 years since the two riverfronts have been constructed: The buildings on both sides house banks and hotels, and, architecturally, that they could be anywhere in the world.

say 'tofu'

Although the HuangPu is a river with plenty of freight ships, we are not surprised when we see the Shanghai Yacht Club. Spotting a golden motor yacht being polished by a lone worker under the bored eyes of a guy in a tailor-cut black suit, Jeannine goes into secret agent mode. I, on the other hand, am not so sure that we should be photographing the triads at work... 

We turn back inland to visit YuYuan, the traditional Chinese Yu Garden. Stepping from sci-fi financial center architecture into Ming landscaping is a mind-bender. Although there are plenty of people here as well, the maze-like arrangement makes it feel very tranquil and we take most of the afternoon to enjoy the views.

yin....

...and yang?

garden doorways...

 

We walk across old Shanghai and have cocktails in XinTiandi, an trendy area of redeveloped stone tenements. It's next to a small park with lake where we meet some cats. Unlike the many petted pet dogs we have come across, cats are tolerated vermin hunters around here, so I admire them from the distance. The water has a yellow line around it saying 'Danger – Donot [sic] cross the line' and there is a whole gaggle of security officers to back up the painted 'yellow tape'. We watch them taking their job very seriously while Jeannine tries her first ever Margarita.

 

Wayne's friends take us to another trendy place for supper- the Boxing Cat Brewery. We have European style beers and food but the outstanding thing is the company we're in. 

After sustenance, Kent and Hanrich takes us to the Shanghai Studio, a gay club in a former underground bunker. Apart from the stylish non-smoking room, the club is a series of hazy, comfortably small and dark interleading rooms and Wayne and Jeannine follow the lure of the beat to the dancefloor. We are not sure if it is because it is Easter Saturday or because it is the year of the rabbit, but the DJ is in bunny costume. The Black Eyed Peas I gotta feeling is a hit in Shanghai, too. And we agree that tonight's gonna be a good night.

doesn't look straight? That's because it's at the gay club!

It's gonna be a wayny day

Wayne gets his wish for atmospheric weather. The fog outside is so thick that it drips. Time to go native and invest in a yellow plastic raincoat. We are expected back in Shanghai today and have to get off this sacred mountain.

double portrait

dorm chic

When we leave Wayne and Jeannine are on a sugar high from mixing cloyingly sweet vanilla hot beverage – I can't bring myself to call it 'tea' – in their breakfast rice gruel.

 Everything is shrouded in mist and raindrops on the way to the Eastern Steps Cable Car, and the cabin gets quickly steamed up on our way down.

'It's gonna be a wayny day' is Jeannine's composition inspired by our days on the mountain. Makes for the perfect music to go with the pics, ne?

We reverse all our bus travels and pay the Koala hostel another visit to enjoy their good food and a bus booking. Somehow we have a thing for cutting it fine for the overland bus: This time we get sidetracked with a non-English-speaking tea-exporting couple driving us to two banks, a declined ATM transaction and phrasebook directions back to the bus stop...

pronunciation in brackets!

We arrive in Shanghai in the dark and get a (metered!) taxi to Kent and Hanrich's place. Directions here are easy because Kent gave us little laminated address cards for exactly that purpose! We meet Hanrich, have a quick tea and then Jeannine and I return to the hostel to be reunited with the rest of our luggage.

Back in non-sweaty clothes and with our own shower we feel like queen bees, ready to snuggle in our twin beds.

back in Shanghai

Spot the Flying Rock

21. April

Like everyone else at White Cloud Hostel we get up at 4.50am to watch the sunrise. In the dark we totter up to 'Bright Summit Peak'. It's gusty and freezing and too cloudy to see the actual sun but some magical light appears over the mountains. On the way back, we spot the sign which says you are not allowed to go there when it's windy...

 

 

We are not as sensibly dressed as most others, but then we also don't race down the mountain straight away. We have booked for another night and Jeannine & I opt for a snooze in the still warm beds in a now empty dorm while Wayne enjoys the Chinese version of a hot chocolate.

 

Our day trip takes us to West Sea Canyon via a most scenic ridge walk. The mountains are more jagged on this side, matching the rougher weather.

Most of the way we can see 'Flying Rock', a 12m tall solitary boulder. We enjoy the fact that we are not carrying backpacks, amble along and take loads of photographs. 

 

windy day

The leisurely walk, however, means that we never get properly warm and only reach the entrance to the canyon after a cold and windy picnic lunch. The narrow steps down into the canyon are built hanging on the side of the rock. It would be extremely vertigo-inducing even without the strong gusts of wind. Jeannine, cold & a bit knee-sore, decides to slowly make her way back with Wayne. I promise I will not go all the way into the canyon and carefully carry on. It's slow going, making sure that the steep steps are not slippery and squeezing past tourists who are so scared they are practically crawling. 

West Sea Canyon (spot the Flying Rock)

 But it's also completely breathtaking. With nothing below my feet and across but the vast expanse of the canyon and the wind tearing on my clothes, I feel like I am flying. 

I take photographs holding on to a chain with one hand. To one lookout point, I only edge out on my bum. 

A further lookout point to be reached via bridge with only knee-high railing is my personal bridge too far. Below the bridge is nothing but abyss and I turn back and head back up.

Some other tourists don't have the same qualms. The steps they pose on hang over the void.

On the way back it starts to rain, but I have to stop and watch a bird whisperer. He is whistling on a blade of grass – and the birds are hopping around him, chirping in reply.

Back at the hostel Wayne and I go for a massage next door. Although I am fully clothed for my back pounding, massages, like dorms, are a gender matched. My female therapist moans and groans while she elbows the knots between my shoulder blades. It must sound like quite different kind of massage from the corridor, I think, grinning through the pain. I am unsure if I am culturally expected to moan in return and limit myself to the occasional appreciative little shriek.

Dinner at the over-priced soup kitchen below our dorms is a simple affair. 

If you ignore the presentation, the food is actually quite edible. We jolly things up with a prize-giving and award Wayne the gold-medal for outstanding cheer and sacrifices for the greater good, ie Jeannine's and mine.

Before lights-out Jeannine and I watch a local soap opera set in imperial China with our newly arrived dorm mates. It's entertaining to follow the intrigues without understanding the words. It's still raining, so instead of getting up for the crack of dawn, chances are we'll sleep in tomorrow.