Hello!
The big highlight of the solar eclipse is in the link below.
Well, after the lovely outing to Cybermart again, we had Thai hot pot, not being able to find a little sheep outlet nearby. Quite good, but not quite what I was after. The lights of Nanjing Rd are something else, and so we did a bit of wandering to check it out. Photos in the link that follows.
We were going to go to a water village called Zhujiajiao the next day, but in the end it was all a bit much, and so we ended up going to Yuyuan gardens and attached market instead. The gardens weren't hugely special, but it provided a bit of escape from the bustle of Shanghai, and we spent a bit of time wandering around. Saw some kittens, probably all from the same litter, tiny little neglected and flea-ridden things. Really quite sad, but there was nothing that we could realistically do about them. Putting food in front of them, they had no idea what to do, and would sniff it, then fall over, then forget it was there.
On Friday we left for Beijing. Check out from our hostel was at midday and so we had a 5 or 6 hour wait before we caught a taxi to Shanghai railway station. The train journey was fine, we had a soft sleeper, and I slept like the dead most of the way. The same can't be said for Jason, but I wasn't awake for that. It was a 10 hour trip, and on the other end, the queue for the taxis was absolutely brutal. After about 30 minutes waiting in the line, we finally got to a taxi, who didn't know where our hostel was, and so it was back in the queue for us, but not really, because by this point the queue has morphed into an all-out tooth and nail every man for himself fight.
We eventually got to where we had to go, and Beijing is pretty awesome. The temperature isn't revolting, but that's mostly because the humidity isn't as awful. We're about a 15 minute walk from Tianneman square and the forbidden city. We went to the forbidden city and Tianneman square on a Sunday, and that was a massive mistake. Crowds were huge, and it was a pretty hot, sunny day. We didn't end up staying for long because it was hard to move around, but we've been back to Tianneman square since. We're going back tomorrow again, because we want to see (pickled) Mao in his memorial hall. The queue is massive and there's no bags allowed, so we're going first thing in the morning with just our wallets.
Because the forbidden city was so crowded, we decided to take a day trip out to the summer palace, and that was fantastic. So much variety and amazing views, difficult to really describe except in photos, which will be coming soon.
After the summer palace, (same day), we went to Beijing's electronics market, which was really different to Shanghai's in that hardly any Westerners were there, and they were even more ready to pounce.
Foodwise, we've had so many treats this trip. In Shanghai we went to South Beauty restaurant, extravagant and delicious, for a fraction of the cost you'd pay back home. Went to a cheapo dumpling place and had xiao long bao, the soup dumplings, but they weren't as good as the dumpling place I used to go to. Thai hot pot, dim sum at Xintiandi, Sichuan, a little bit of street food (I can't trust it as much in Summer).
In Beijing, it's been even more varied. Went to a Sichuan place called Spicy Grandma, where we had the most amazing braised pork belly which remained amazing until the point where the fat on the pork changed from "mmmmm rich and yummy" to "oh my god I feel suddenly ill". Went to Quanjude Roast duck restaurant - arguably the best in Beijing, 5 storeys high, queues of over 40 at each floor, and geez the duck was good. We went to "Ghost Street" - a place full of eateries, and I took Jason to REAL hot pot, which was great, even if we left the place sweating. We went back again last night, but this time had the arabic-inspired Xinjiang cuisine. It was really cool to have dumplings filled with spices you'd expect in a doner kebab. Ghost street is amazing at night, and again photos are forthcoming, but not yet.
Last little bit before I sign off on this massive update. Today we went to the Mutianyu section of the great wall, and it was fantastic. Photos to come soon.
Below is a link to Jason's photos, he's been more selective with the upload than I have, and so most of them are worth looking at.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/derphead/sets/72157621870975258/
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
It's hot. Hot is an understatement. Most of this week the days have had minimums of 27-29 and maximums of 36-39. The heat's not the thing that's getting us down though, it's the humidity. We've had to change the way we approach what we're doing, which means less extended walking, and more frequent trips to air conditioned shopping malls just to cool down. Even though the actual temperature's been 36+, the apparent temperature, with the humidity, is about 43 degrees, and the other day it got to 40 with an apparent temperature of 45.
Enough of the whingeing though, we've been having an interesting time so far. The hostel we're in is quite nice, nice staff, clean rooms, free breakfast (yayyy!). However, the area we're in, basically as soon as we're out of the hostel....well....it's a hole. Good thing the train's so close, we've been out of the area every day to find something worth seeing.
Went to the Pearl tower for dinner at the revolving restaurant just above the observation deck. Great view, but it was a huge mistake to go on a Saturday night. Queues like you wouldn't believe, and wait times for lifts going up and then going back down again. The whole difference in personal space expectations has gotten to both of us a bit. I don't like being squeezed up next to people when it's already 30ish degrees inside.
While we were at the Pearl tower, we got grabbed by a random Chinese couple who asked us whether we could take a photo. Fine fine, no problem. Oh....you mean you want to be IN the photo with us? Oh...okay? Random, very random. So I returned the request just so that I could get a record of it. If you know either Yen Hao or his lovely girlfriend, please let them know that they're strange.
More to report soon, we have to run a program to get around the great firewall of China, facebook etc is blocked over here because of the race riots in Urumqi. According to the media over here, everything is fine and the economy's improving, people are buying cars, shops are re-opening etc etc. It's amazing to watch the news sometimes.
Something that has struck us has been the fever about the total solar eclipse that happened earlier this morning. We had no idea it was happening until maybe the day after we arrived in Shanghai, but it seems that every tourist we've met so far is here to see it. We didn't go nuts for it like the others, but we took a walk to an open area to watch it. It's cloudy and raining today, with a much more bearable temperature of 30ish, which is lovely, but meant that we didn't see the sun at all, and weren't sure where to look. Seeing the daylight disappear in a matter of minutes and the dark of midnight set in at 9.30 in the morning was something else though, and despite not being sure where to look, it was dramatic and amazing. I can understand why people in years gone by took solar and lunar eclipses to be omens or signs, it was full on.
Yesterday we took a day trip to Suzhou on an arranged tour with some people from Switzerland. We went to some gardens, a temple and (my personal highlight of the trip) the Number 1 silk factory in Suzhou, where I bought some lovely lovely silk clothes. After shopping and lunch, we had a boat trip along one of the canals in Suzhou, and that was a nice break from the intense heat of the day.
On Monday we went out to the Dong Tai antiques market, picked up a copy of Mao's little red book from 1929, and a fan for fending off the heat. Went to Cybermart and did a bit of haggling for a couple of things. Then had lunch at Xintiandi (French Concession Area) at a place called Paradise, where the waitresses lured us in with "Welcome to Paradise!".
Overall, we're having a great time, heat notwithstanding. Looking forward to going out today, because it's actually weather I can stand, and I was starting to miss the rain!
We're going to Xintiandi today again for lunch, then to Cybermart for some more shopping, then we'll have a leisurely walk along Nanjing Rd, have hot pot for dinner, and check out the bright lights of Shanghai.
Photos of Suzhou and the stages of darkness for the eclipse are coming.
Below are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23928007@N04/sets/72157621771109360/
Enough of the whingeing though, we've been having an interesting time so far. The hostel we're in is quite nice, nice staff, clean rooms, free breakfast (yayyy!). However, the area we're in, basically as soon as we're out of the hostel....well....it's a hole. Good thing the train's so close, we've been out of the area every day to find something worth seeing.
Went to the Pearl tower for dinner at the revolving restaurant just above the observation deck. Great view, but it was a huge mistake to go on a Saturday night. Queues like you wouldn't believe, and wait times for lifts going up and then going back down again. The whole difference in personal space expectations has gotten to both of us a bit. I don't like being squeezed up next to people when it's already 30ish degrees inside.
While we were at the Pearl tower, we got grabbed by a random Chinese couple who asked us whether we could take a photo. Fine fine, no problem. Oh....you mean you want to be IN the photo with us? Oh...okay? Random, very random. So I returned the request just so that I could get a record of it. If you know either Yen Hao or his lovely girlfriend, please let them know that they're strange.
More to report soon, we have to run a program to get around the great firewall of China, facebook etc is blocked over here because of the race riots in Urumqi. According to the media over here, everything is fine and the economy's improving, people are buying cars, shops are re-opening etc etc. It's amazing to watch the news sometimes.
Something that has struck us has been the fever about the total solar eclipse that happened earlier this morning. We had no idea it was happening until maybe the day after we arrived in Shanghai, but it seems that every tourist we've met so far is here to see it. We didn't go nuts for it like the others, but we took a walk to an open area to watch it. It's cloudy and raining today, with a much more bearable temperature of 30ish, which is lovely, but meant that we didn't see the sun at all, and weren't sure where to look. Seeing the daylight disappear in a matter of minutes and the dark of midnight set in at 9.30 in the morning was something else though, and despite not being sure where to look, it was dramatic and amazing. I can understand why people in years gone by took solar and lunar eclipses to be omens or signs, it was full on.
Yesterday we took a day trip to Suzhou on an arranged tour with some people from Switzerland. We went to some gardens, a temple and (my personal highlight of the trip) the Number 1 silk factory in Suzhou, where I bought some lovely lovely silk clothes. After shopping and lunch, we had a boat trip along one of the canals in Suzhou, and that was a nice break from the intense heat of the day.
On Monday we went out to the Dong Tai antiques market, picked up a copy of Mao's little red book from 1929, and a fan for fending off the heat. Went to Cybermart and did a bit of haggling for a couple of things. Then had lunch at Xintiandi (French Concession Area) at a place called Paradise, where the waitresses lured us in with "Welcome to Paradise!".
Overall, we're having a great time, heat notwithstanding. Looking forward to going out today, because it's actually weather I can stand, and I was starting to miss the rain!
We're going to Xintiandi today again for lunch, then to Cybermart for some more shopping, then we'll have a leisurely walk along Nanjing Rd, have hot pot for dinner, and check out the bright lights of Shanghai.
Photos of Suzhou and the stages of darkness for the eclipse are coming.
Below are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23928007@N04/sets/72157621771109360/
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