Shanghai

It takes 3 flights to get from Kathmandu to Shanghai. The first is Kathmandu to Lhasa. The scenery from the plane as we come into Lhasa is incredible – high bare mountains; turquoise lakes and huge river valleys.

 

Photo 1 of view from the plane at Lhasa

 

As we go through security at Lhasa several foreign tourists have the pages about Tibet torn out of their China guide books.

The next two flights are Lhasa to Chengdu and Chengdu to Shanghai. At Chengdu airport I order a cup of tea in an airport café. I am caught a little unawares when this strange concoction arrives at my table. I had better get used to another culture shock on the way!

 

Photo 2 of tea at Chengdu

 

I get talking to a girl called Deanne who is on the same flights as me. She is from New Zealand and lives on a farm near Hamilton on the north island. She came to China with her husband, who had a business trip and then took a couple of side tours on her own to Tibet, Nepal and now to Shanghai. She is having a panic as she didn't realise she had to get her luggage off the plane at Chengdu and has to fight her way back through security to claim it. We exchange details of where we are staying in Shanghai and talk about meeting up in the next few days.

When I arrive at Shanghai it is midnight. The queue for taxis is organised and the taxis are well-maintained and have meters. Already things are very different from India and Nepal. Fortunately I have been advised to print out the name of where I am staying in Chinese, as the driver has no English.  I am a little nervous about where I am staying, because this will be my first hostel experience and I think the reception will close at 1am. I can imagine being dropped off by the taxi in the middle of Shanghai and not having a bed for the night. I try to mime that I want the taxi driver to call ahead to the hostel to let them know I am on my way, but he doesn't understand

The drive into the city from the airport takes an hour and is along modern motorway-style roads with many elevated sections and against a back-drop of high-rise buildings. The driver seems a little unsure exactly where we are going and keeps asking to look at the details. Eventually he drives the wrong way up a one-way street and asks another asks another taxi driver and we find we are directly outside the hostel. I jump out of the taxi to make sure the place is still open; but I needn't have worried there are still people in the bar area and I'm in and this will be my home for the next 4 nights.

The first night I am in a shared room for 4 with 2 sets of bunks. There is a nice man called Peter, from Taiwan, already in one bed. The other two bunks are currently unoccupied, but with evidence of girly things around. The room is in the middle of the building, with no external light and it is airless. It is hard to sleep and the two girls come in some hours later; they whisper quietly, but smell of drink. The next morning when Peter and are get up the girls are still asleep. I go to reception and ask if I can move to a room with an external window. I pack up my things and move out – the girls are still sleeping. The 2^nd room is much better. It still has two sets of bunks, but is more spacious and has windows overlooking a side alleyway. Later I meet my roommates. There is a guy from Israel who is in China to do some business in fireworks; a quiet guy from South Korea who wants to see some motor racing and Teddy from Sumatra. He looks to be in his 20s and he is an amazing guy. He has travelled extensively and is now studying Mandarin at Beijing University. He is friendly, helpful, very well-informed and interested in everything. He helps me bypass the Chinese block on my blog.

I take the short walk from the hostel to The Bund, which is the beautifully paved riverfront area where the big grand old buildings are located. These are banks and posh hotels and exclusive shops. As I am looking out over the river I hear a voice call my name and look round to see Deanne. We walk together along The Bund. It feels rather like walking along the banks of the Thames. It is the main holiday in China and the Bund is packed with Chinese tourists wandering along, or sitting to take in the view.

 

Photo 3 of tourist on The Bund

 

Across the river is the modern financial district of Pudong, with its high rise buildings. River cruise boats and working barges chug up and down the waterway.

 

Photo 4 of Pudong skyline

Photo 5 of boats on the river

 

It is hot and Shanghai is bathed in hazy sunshine, with no clear view of the sky. I don't know if this is caused by pollution, but the air does not feel particularly dirty. Several brides and groom are posing to have their pictures taken against the famous backdrops. Everything is very clean street cleaners dressed in blue and yellow uniforms are constantly sweeping up. There is lots of civic planting and gardeners are maintaining and watering the pots and beds.

 

Photo 6 planters of poinsettias

Photo 7 and 8 wedding photos

 

Deanne and I split up after agreeing to meet again later this evening for dinner. I leave the waterfront and walk down the main shopping street, which is packed. I go into a chemist to buy some shampoo. 3 excitable girls from behind the cosmetics counter swoop down on me and start pointing at and poking my face. Chinese beauty is about having a flawless, pale complexion and many of their skin products contain bleach. I realise that my freckled face, enhanced with the odd mosquito bite, must look like a disaster area to them. 

 

Photo 9 of main shopping street

 

I am beginning to understand the traffic, as I cross various intersections. There are traffic lights, but these do not apply to anything turning a corner and bikes and scooters cross over at any time. If in doubt I cross with a group of Chinese. Many of the bicycles and scooters are electric. There are also tricycles with boxes on the back for transporting goods.

 

Photo 10 of bikes and scooters at a junction

Photo 11 of helpful street sign

Photo 12 of tricycle

 

 Am beginning to feel hungry and turn down a side road that has various eateries, from small stalls where they are cooking and serving from hatches to sit down restaurants. I choose on that has a menu with pictures of the dishes and descriptions in English and Chinese.

 

Photo 13 of food stall

Photo 14 of picture menu.

 

There are various things on the menu that I don't fancy. Here is a selection of some of the things I think I will bypass:

Bull's penis in casserole

Spices donkey meat

Special style beef tendon jelly

Stewed gluten with veg in casserole

Roasted smelly bean curd

Green pepper and orchid explodes pig belly

Sautéed bullfrog in chilli sauce

Pig blood vegetables with sweet potato noodles

Braised fish head in clay pot

Public boiler of chicken

The boiler wraps up flesh

I choose a sweet and sour pork dish, which looks from the picture like something from a Chinese restaurant at home. It is quite tasty, but when I have finished there is a great pool of glutinous oil in the bottom of the bowl.

After lunch I walk to a public park. It feels rather like central park in New York, an oasis surrounded by high rise buildings. It is beautifully maintained and many Chinese people are taking their leisure here.

 

Photo 15 park with high rise buildings

Photo 16 of family in the park

 

A group of men are flying kites. They are made from wood and paper and look like realistic hawks. They fly them from wooden reels, rather like on a fishing rod and they make them swoop and hover very convincingly.

 

Photo 17 of kite reel

Photo 18 of hawk kite

 

In the evening I meet up with Debbie. We tell each other about our day since we met earlier. She was keen to do some shopping and particularly wanted some fake items – bags and wallets. She couldn't find what she wanted in the regular shops, but she was then approached by a woman who beckoned her into a shop. With much looking over her shoulder, she knocked on a wall at the back of the shop and it was opened to reveal a hidden inside room full of the stuff she was after. She bought several things and was pleased with her purchases.

 

Photo 19 Deanne with 'Gucci' bag

 

The Bud at night is stunning with the buildings and the boats on the river all lit up and loads of people wandering around to take in the sight.

 

Photo 20 The Bund at night

Photo 21 me on The Bund

Photo 22 boats on the river and Pudong district

Photo 23 Pudong skyline from a bridge

Photo 24 tourists admire the river

 

The next day I take a walk to find the old town. I am standing at an intersection studying my map and meet a woman who is doing the same. We get chatting and agree to go together to the old town. Her name is Christiane. She is German, lives in Switzerland and is currently working in Shanghai for 3 months.

The old town is touristy and very busy, but satisfying in that it has the pagoda-shaped roofs that you might imagine.

 

Photo 25, 26 of the old town

Photo 27 of gift shop in the old town

 

Leaving the touristy old town we look for more authentic streets and turn up one which is a bustling seafood market.

 

Photo 28 authentic old street

Photo 29 seafood market

 

Not many streets from here the modern high rise flats loom. These authentic old streets won't exist for much longer. The Chinese consider these a symbol of poverty and old times and they will soon be demolished to make way for high-rise flats.

 

Photo 30 old town with high rise flats behind

 

Chistiane invites me to join her and two friends for dinner and I am delighted to accept. We navigate our way from the old town towards the district of the restaurant, maps in hand.  As we are walking a western couple come in the opposite direction. They stop us to ask if we know the way to the old town. We give them the directions they need and in chatting I find out they live in Kingsbridge. I should have got their name – someone probably knows them.

While we are waiting for Christiane's friends we come across a very modern area with a colourful fountain and an outdoor stage and amphitheatre. A band is playing cover numbers and little girls from the audience sit on the front of the stage to watch.

 

Photo 31 fountain

Photo 32 band and little girls

 

We meet up with Christiane's friends and go to a western-style café bar for dinner. There is Lauren, who is 21 and from Canada, but currently studying Mandarin and business studies at Shanghai University and Andreu from Spain, who is a colleague of Christiane's. He also lives in Switzerland and is currently working in Shanghai for 6 weeks. We have a jolly evening.

 

Photo 33 new friends for dinner

 

My overriding impression of Shanghai is that it is a city of contrasts and surprises.

Boudhanath

Debbie and I walk away from Pushupatinath and through the back streets of the nearby town to find the Buddhist temple of Boudhanath, which is a world heritage site. In the past traders pilgrims and travellers sought blessing here for safe passage over the mountain passes out of the Kathmandu valley and gave thanks for their safe arrival.  It is still a major destination of pilgrims and is one of the largest and most significant Buddhist monuments in the world.

We enter the site through an ornate gateway off the main town road and suddenly it feels like a different place. The stupa rises up grandly in front of us and is surrounded by a circus of shops, houses, restaurants and monasteries. It looks almost like the set of a musical and I quite expect people to start throwing open shutters and dance into the street singing, 'Who will buy this beautiful morning?'

 The stupa

 

The buildings around the stupa

We walk once around the street, following the crowds in the usual clockwise direction, then we go through a small gateway which leads onto the stupa. There are prayer wheels, big and small; Buddhist monks sitting and walking and tourists wandering. We circumnavigate the stupa again this time following a narrow open-air passage just inside the wall. This temple accepts devotees from all over the world and at one place there are wooden pallet on the floor which people are using for meditation.

 Buddhist monk and prayer wheel

A couple of monks are washing out small stainless steel bowls and not far away the same bowls are lined up along a wall, each with a marigold floating in water. We don't know how these are used, but they look very pretty.

 Bowls of marigolds

We are in need of refreshment and find a restaurant in the circus, with a roof terrace. The view from here is stunning, with the stupa and its surrounding buildings set against a backdrop of hills.

Stupa and surrounding area

Sightseeing - Pushupatinath

 

The tour has now finished by Debbie and I are in Kathmandu for 1 more day and we decide to do some sightseeing. We take a taxi just outside the city to visit a holy Hindu sight by the banks of the Bagmati river. There is a huge Hindu temple here, which non-Hindus are not allowed to enter and it is also where many Hindus choose to be cremated.

The whole place is a strange mixture of religious significance and tourist attraction. On the approach to the site there are many stalls selling things to locals and tourist and once inside the site we are approached by several people who would like to be our guide. We turn them down and rely on our guide book. It is peculiar that tourists come here to see Hindu cremations and that's part of what we have come for too. We don't wish to be disrespectful, but to understand a little more about their culture. We cross the bridge over the holy river and look from the opposite side.

 

Photo 1 of bridge over the river

Photo 2 of Pushupatinath Temple

 

Below the Pushupatinath Temple only the richest people are cremated. There is a fire burning here, which is the remnants of a cremation. When the fire dies down the ashes will be swept into the river.

 

Photos 3 and 4 of cremation fire

 

There are two bodies lying on the ghats. One is lying near the river covered in an orange shroud and the other is lying on a step, covered in a white shroud. People are gathering on the ghats in preparation for this cremation.

 

Photo 5 of funeral preparations

 

Funerals are obviously very public affairs, as is seemingly every other aspect of their daily lives. Other activities go on nearby: lower down the steps some boys are using a spade to look for coins in the mud of the river. On the opposite bank 2 small boys are stripped to the waist and drive off the steps and swim in the river.

Below the bridge is the area where poorer people are cremated. Here there is one fire burning, but there are no relatives in evidence.

 

Photo 6 ghats below the bridge

 

We did not see a ceremony, but I have had it described to me by others. Apparently the body is carried by the sons, with the eldest at the front. They walk it 3 times around the prepared wood pile and place it on the top. Men have their heads facing north and women have their heads facing south. The dead person's head is shaved and so are the heads of the sonssons. The sons put their shaved hair on the pile. The eldest son gets some water from the holy river and puts it into the dead person's mouth. Then they light the fire and it gets going very quickly, then they put straw on top of the body and the whole thing goes up. Apparently it only takes an hour or so for the body to be burned and when it has all died down they push the ashes into the river.

On the bank of the river where we are walking a huge bamboo swing has been constructed for the Dashain festival. Hindus believe that once a year they must leave the ground and we have seen these swings being constructed in many settlements over the last few days.

 

Photo 7 of bamboo swing

 

Across from the bridge there are stone steps leading up the hill. Up here there are many small one-room Shiva temples. Walking past them is slightly surreal, as they are used as shelters by Sadhus and looking into a temple you are never quite sure if there will be someone lying down inside, or peering out.

 

Photo 8 steps up from the bridge

Photo 9 of Debbie peering through a Shiva temple

 

Sadhus are Hindu holy men, who have given up all possessions and are supported by donations from people. Smoking marijuiana is generally illegal in India, but the Sadhus are allowed to smoke as it is considered necessary for their spiritual life. They dress in outlandish costumes and make up and are happy to have their photos taken in return for money in order to supplement their income.

Two sadhus see me and Debbie coming up the steps they call out to us to come and sit down to have a photo and a blessing. Debbie has some US dollars and we had already agreed that we would give them 1 dollar each. As we talk to them and start to take photos other sadhus come over and join in. In the end there are 6 of them and they each get a dollar. As we are leaving one of them comes over with a handful of £1 coins and he wants me to take them and change them for Nepal rupees, but I can't help him. I don't want a handful of £1 coins either.

 

Photos 10 3 sadhus

Photo 11 me with 4 sadhus

Photo 12 6 sadhus

 

Then we carry on walking up the hill on the way to our next sightseeing destination of Bodnath.