China, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai

Final China Observations

Joel

Overall, my visit to China was extremely hot – but otherwise fantastic. The people seemed very friendly and accommodating. Most didn’t know English but were eager and happy to communicate through translation apps. The Chinese people we dealt with seemed very honest and trustworthy. The environment seemed very safe and family oriented – with children playing freely and being looked after by all. We never felt unwelcome anywhere we went.

Some things seemed a bit different. There were constant surveillance cameras everywhere up on posts overlooking intersections and public areas. So, on the one hand, you would think people were terrified of the police, but we found the police relaxed and the local Chinese people joking around with them at intersections in Shanghai.

I never had any stomach problems from any of the food that I ate, but I couldn’t always identify what I was eating. A lot of things tasted like chicken, but I was pretty sure what I was eating was not chicken. Interestingly, restaurants outsourced their dishes cleaning to external services that washed and returned the dishes wrapped in plastic for next use. You would often be handed shrink-wrapped dished and cutlery when sitting down in a restaurant.

Finally, the WeChat app was used for EVERYTHING: Texting, Sharing Pictures & Videos, Talking, Advertising, and purchasing everything imaginable. It seemed to be central to everyone’s existence in China.

Singapore

Unexpected visit to Singapore

Joel

Well, perhaps my pointing out to the Qantas rep in Shanghai that I bought these airline tickets directly from Qantas may have helped (when they told me I would need to deal with my travel agent. “You are my travel agent”, I was able to say) – but I was fortunate enough to be greeted at Singapore airport by a Qantas official holding a sign with my name on it when I got off the plane. Evidently, I must have been the only transfer passenger because they didn’t appear to be waiting for anyone else. Qantas met me and somewhat clandestinely handed me a piece of paper with the name of a hotel name on it. They verbally gave me instructions “take a taxi to this hotel and tell them you are from the Chinese Eastern flight and they will take care of everything for the next 24 hours – including meals and the taxis.” The next flight to Perth wasn’t until 6:30 pm – arriving at midnight.

It was nice to take a short break in Singapore, but I couldn’t do much on short notice. I was only able to get 3 hours sleep after getting in so late. Changi airport had the longest immigration line I had seen in years and I was not full of energy. I looked into a few things to do there that I have not done before, but reservations were required and unavailable for and my umbrella and shorts were trapped in my suitcase at the airport. I had suggested retrieving the suitcase when I was arriving but was discouraged from doing so due to the time involved in hunting it down.

In the end, I just took a stroll around the neighbourhood and did a bit of window shopping between naps. The meals were great: a breakfast and lunch smorgasbord of local and Western dishes – which were very popular family feasts patronized by the local Singaporeans on this Sunday.

China, Shanghai

Last Morning in Shanghai

Joel

I had the morning to continue snooping a bit around beautiful Shanghai. We went on a walk to a nearby neighbourhood with several open houses that were once residences to famous poets and playwrights. They were very fashionable neighbourhoods for the wealthy Shanghai set. We visited the homes of several of these Chinese authors to see how they lived. There was a steady stream of visitors to these open house museums filtering in to see these places.

It finally came time for me to head to the airport. Everything seemed to go smoothly until the last half hour before my flight was due to take off. Suddenly, an announcement was made in Mandarin that led to huge gasps from my fellow waiting passengers. That can’t be good, I thought. Sure enough, a four-hour delay was finally announced in English. The delay was due to a mechanical issue that required a replacement plane be used.

Knowing this would screw up my connection in Singapore and knowing there were few alternative options for other ways of getting to Perth, I immediately started working on resolving the issue. There was an 18-hour gap between flights to Perth out of Singapore, so I tried contacting various parties to see what could be done to ensure I was back in time for work on Monday. In essence, Qantas disowned any responsibility for the problem and claimed it was China Eastern’s problem and China Eastern claimed it was Qantas’ problem to get me to Perth. I could only get as far as a consensus that I would have to get the issue resolved after landing in Singapore.

Before I left Shanghai, China Eastern handed everyone wads of 600 yuan as compensation. They only announced the handout in Mandarin, so I only found out about this when a very nice bilingual woman went around and told all the Westerners what they were entitled to. We had to approach a desk to ask for the payment.

China, Shanghai

Yuyuan Gardens and The Shanghai Museum

Joel

We decided to hit the gardens today – which turned out to be a bit hard to find the entrance for behind its walls. The experience dragged us through a very touristy shopping area with beautiful traditional architecture. There were cool back alleys to get there – but the gardens themselves were packed. Beautiful, nevertheless.

From there did a bit of shopping and then tried looking for a cab. An unofficial taxi pulled up and offered to take us all to the Shanghai Museum for 30 yuan. We accepted his offer and got in the museum just before the lines started to form outside. Perfect timing and nice to get out of the heat. It was a great museum full of interesting art exhibitions on various topics: currency, paintings, calligraphy, furniture, jade, clothing/culture, ceramics, etc. Being my last night in Shanghai, I headed to The Bund on my own to see the spectacle and get some obligatory Shanghai skyline pictures.

China, Shanghai

Another day, another bullet train…

Joel

Today was a travel day to our final destination: Shanghai. This was my first foray into 2nd class seats (because the 1st class seats were sold out). They were not as nice at 1st class, but they were certainly tolerable. We made it up to the end of the train line in about three hours but then had to wait another 2 1/2 hours for the driver to find us in the massive train station / international airport and get us to our hotel. Suddenly we found ourselves amongst many fellow Westerners again – so not quite like the fun of before.

The neighbourhood where our hotel was located was the old French quarter of Shanghai. It had beautiful tree-lined streets, shady sidewalks, and great parks to stroll around. The hotel itself was a former luxurious apartment building – which still retained old-school fixtures throughout. An old-school hotel with great views as well.

We attempted to venture out to The Bund in the evening but didn’t have much luck getting there.

China, Fujian

Typhoon Maria Day

Joel

Today was Typhoon Maria Day – meaning that everything was closed in anticipation of Typhoon Maria barreling through Wuyishan as a forecasted Category 4 Typhoon. When it hit the coast, it quickly dropped to a Category 3. And by the time it reached us, it had pretty much petered out into some blustery conditions with a bit of rain sprinkling here and there. So everything was cancelled for nothing. We ventured out in the morning to find ourselves back down at the wet market and decided to return home when the wind started picking up. Having decided some tea tasting should be on our travel agenda, we popped into a place that had a host that seemed to know a bit of English. We stayed there for a while trying out many teas and learning the proper tea tasting techniques before busting a move for the hotel – but not before she gave us the hard (but nice) sell to buy some of her inflatedly priced tea.

In the afternoon we called the Typhoon’s bluff and ventured out for a walk. We thought we would cross the bridge and see what we could see of the national park. Having not paid any park fees, we were being somewhat cautious about trespassing, but of what we did discover, we were very impressed with its beauty. There were beautiful old temples and a string of shops in a beautiful setting green lush setting. If it weren’t so ferociously hot, we would have taken a stab at climbing the peak.

China, Fujian

Xiamei Cultural Village

Joel

I went for an exploratory walk in the morning with my brother and his family passed through a Chinese wet market of interesting/odd foods and ended up visiting tea gardens to see sculptures and learn about the history of tea in China. Wuyishan is famous for its tea and attracts tea connoisseurs from all over China. Every hotel room has tea to sample and all the gear needed for a traditional tea drinking ceremony. We returned to our hotel rooms along with a beautiful river path with views of lush green Wuyishan mountain.

In the afternoon we hired a driver to take us to the Xiamei Cultural Village – an historic town dating back hundreds of years. Was very cool, full of historic alleyways and beautiful ancient architecture.

China, Fujian

Typhoon Maria visits Wuyishan

Joel

While waiting for my travelling companions to arrive, I had a bit of a snoop around Wuyishan – up and down the river and around town. The hotel in Wuyishan was in a very trendy neighbourhood with lots of boutique hotels and restaurants. It was a shame all the roads were dug up. The weather is very hot and humid. Typhoon Maria is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so the locals say the excessive heat is associated with that. Nobody in this town seems to speak English, so it is fun and tedious to ask questions and get things done via iPhone apps. I get the impression quite a few local Chinese had studied English in high school but forgot most of it. The mountains across the river are beautiful to look at on evening strolls. I spent most of the day tucked away in my hotel room processing pictures in air-conditioned comfort.

China, Fujian

Crawling the last few meters to Wuyishan

Joel

Time for another hop on China’s very fast and smooth bullet trains: this time from Xiamen to Wuyishan. Unlike the previous trains I took, this one topped 300kmh over its 4-hour journey. Wuyishan was very beautiful to arrive in, but getting to my hotel wasn’t easy. The hotel arranged driver failed to show up at the train station due to some language confusion, so I was forced to keep a dozen taxi drivers at bay while communicating with my hotel to try to find out what was wrong. Since nobody at the hotel or around me knew English, it was difficult to finally find a resolution. I was forced to find a willing taxi driver who would charge me for the same price I negotiated with the hotel. I found one willing, and we set off for the hotel.

It turned out that the driver had never heard of the hotel and had no idea how to get there. Once he found out, he wanted more money – but I insisted we stick to what was negotiated. When we arrived (using my Google Maps via VPN connection), we found the entire neighbourhood my hotel was located in dug up into muddy tracks that were inaccessible for the taxi. I had to hoof it through the dirty, muddy streets for the last several blocks – only to find out Google maps hotel location was off by several blocks. By the time I finally found the hotel, I was covered in sweat and not happy. It was extremely hot and humid. The hotel reimbursed me for the taxi charge and apologized repeatedly. I later learned the trick is to photograph your train ticket and send it to your hotel so there are no misunderstandings about where and when you need to be picked up.

I ventured off to a local supermarket to try and find something to nibble on while I waiting for my traveling companions to join me. There was no English spoken on site and my iPhone apps were not doing the best job of translating for me. At least I ended up in a nice hotel room with a beautiful view of Wuyishan mountain.

China, Fujian

Gulangyu Island

Joel

Back in Xiamen, we made a scheduled trip by ferry to visit Gulangyu Island, a small pedestrian-only UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site (as Kulangsu, a Historic International Settlement), an island in the middle of the estuary of the Chiu-lung River. We caught a taxi to the special tourist ferry terminal for 20 yuan, and could not find a return taxi for less than 50 yuan. Taxis seem to have the upper hand on negotiations here for some reason – definitely a seller’s market.

The island was great and I could have spent a lot more time there. It would have been fun to spend at least a night in one of the many historic accommodation options there. The island was full of endless laneways going off in all directions with plenty to eat and many scenic and historic locations to check out. We went to the famed Organ Museum and hoped it was meant to be the piano museum, housed in a beautiful old mansion up on a hill overlooking the harbour.

The island was once home to many Europeans and Japanese between 1842 to 1912 but is now occupied by around 20,000 people – who entertain 10 million visitors each year – making it one of China’s most visited tourist attractions.