Our packing, breakfast and check-out in Shanghai went as planned. Train ride to Hangzhou was about 1,5 hours and the train was quite fancy, even much nicer than the one we took from Beijing to Qingdao. Once we arrived in Hangzhou the first thing we tried to arrange was train tickets to Xiamen via Wenzhou. Well we got the tickets to Wenzhou just fine (leaving tomorrow, Sunday, evening at 21:41 and ride is about 8 hours), but from there on we were out of luck. Apparently there is no train traffic from Wenzhou to Xiamen. This is quite hard to believe as there are trains going everywhere :) Well, but it has to be possible to get from there to Xiamen somehow. We also tried to find out about the travels to Xiamen in advance from Hangzhou - just to be sure that we won't be stuck there, but nobody was able to help. They could not even make a phone call for us to see how could we possibly get to Xiamen from our next destination. Oh well - we will see once we are there, what is the worst that can happen :D ?!
So but Hangzhou seems very nice at the first glance. We arrived at the local youth hostel and found this place to be packed, ended up getting 2 beds in a dormitory room again - this time we were squeezed into a room with 2 old guys :( But since this is a budget place and we need to sleep here only 1 night we figured that we will just try to manage somehow. Then took a wonderful walk in the town, found a crafts and gifts street and went crazy with shopping :-P There were so many so nice things that we could not resist. I tried to remind myself once in a while that i need to carry all this stuff on my back for the next month - it helped a bit :)
Now we are back at the hostel, and guess what :) :) we got free wireless here!!!! Now we can do all our CS'ing and looking up hostels and review travel options and get a flight to Vietnam and all this - weheee!
Tomorrow we are planning on walking around by the lake, perhaps go to some parks and find other sightseeing places here in town. Then probably a nice dinner and then to the train station.
Time is absolutely flying by - tomorrow it will be 2 weeks from our departure from Tallinn.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
day 13 - saying goodbyes to Shanghai - 29.08
waaa - i don't wanna leave :) Shanghai is wonderful, it is beautiful and it is convenient and it is exciting and it is pretty and did i say it is wonderful? We went to Cloud 9 this evening (just got back from there) in Jinmao Tower - WOOOOW. This lounge was on the 87th floor, had to take 3 different elevators to get there :) The very last floor, 88th is a viewing platform, but the access there is very expensive, so we just ordered a drink at the lounge for that money. It was amazing, all those other really tall and big buildings were like matchboxes looking from the tower. We got great table with a view to the Bund - amazing. Had 2 very tasty cocktails up there and just enjoyed the view - made us both speechless.
On our way back we had a last look at the city panorama and we said our goodbyes. Tomorrow morning we pack, eat a nice breakfast and then to the train station. We were joking with Riina, that once we start walking around in the city without a map it is time to leave as we have gotten too familiar with the city already. It has happened to Shanghai today :D
Shanghai was fabulous.
On our way back we had a last look at the city panorama and we said our goodbyes. Tomorrow morning we pack, eat a nice breakfast and then to the train station. We were joking with Riina, that once we start walking around in the city without a map it is time to leave as we have gotten too familiar with the city already. It has happened to Shanghai today :D
Shanghai was fabulous.
day 13 - last day in Shanghai - 29.08
Last night we met with another person from CS, local girl Ping. She took us out to eat to the promised Italian restaurant - food was delicious and this place even had desert! We got some cakes :) It was great. We also got whole lot of new information about Chinese culture and ways. She talked quite openly about marriage and family planning for an example as well and Chinese spirituality and connection to religion. Meeting locals adds so much more value to the trip - thank you CS :)
This morning our first trip was to the train station - we bought our train tickets to Hangzhou, train leaves tomorrow at 1pm. Most likely we will spend 1,5 days there. By the tourist guide this is suppose to be the most beautiful city in China - we'll see, famous attraction in town being the legendary West Lake. Population of the town (or rather city) is marked 6.16 million, most likely this number would vary by +1/2 million. Population of Shanghai is marked as 15 million and local girl thought it is more like 19 million in reality - sounds reasonable.
During lunch time we wondered around by the skyscrapers across from the river, by Jinmao Tower and other tall buildings like the funny TV tower with round red bubbles. Later in the evening when it gets darker, we will try to visit Cloud 9 bar that is located on the 87th floor of Jinmao Tower. This is the tallest building in China - 420.5m :)
We also stopped by at China Sex Culture Museum, it ended up being just one exhibition by the tourist tunnel. Now we are hiding from pouring rain in Starbucks Coffee place on the wrong side of the river :) I guess no Bund walk for us today as it is totally pouring outside. Too bad there is no internet, then we would have something to do at least while just sitting around in here. There is suppose to be internet in every Starbucks Coffee but in reality it is not so, even the people who work here were helpless in this regard. So we were taking thousand and one pictures of the rain through the window :)
Later we ran over to the shopping mall across the road in hope for internet there. Shopping mall is 9 stories of shops and each level is probably as big as whole Kaubamaja :D And guess what - there is no internet in the whole area, crazy huh :) Oh and on our way to the shopping mall we got soaked of course. Later we made our way to the hostel, got changed, went out for a small portion of the Bund walk and then headed over to the small streets in search of fried dumplings. After about 30 minutes of searching we found one place - oh boy were those good! This dinner was under 15 EEK for us :) and we were so full afterwards that we could barely walk.
This morning our first trip was to the train station - we bought our train tickets to Hangzhou, train leaves tomorrow at 1pm. Most likely we will spend 1,5 days there. By the tourist guide this is suppose to be the most beautiful city in China - we'll see, famous attraction in town being the legendary West Lake. Population of the town (or rather city) is marked 6.16 million, most likely this number would vary by +1/2 million. Population of Shanghai is marked as 15 million and local girl thought it is more like 19 million in reality - sounds reasonable.
During lunch time we wondered around by the skyscrapers across from the river, by Jinmao Tower and other tall buildings like the funny TV tower with round red bubbles. Later in the evening when it gets darker, we will try to visit Cloud 9 bar that is located on the 87th floor of Jinmao Tower. This is the tallest building in China - 420.5m :)
We also stopped by at China Sex Culture Museum, it ended up being just one exhibition by the tourist tunnel. Now we are hiding from pouring rain in Starbucks Coffee place on the wrong side of the river :) I guess no Bund walk for us today as it is totally pouring outside. Too bad there is no internet, then we would have something to do at least while just sitting around in here. There is suppose to be internet in every Starbucks Coffee but in reality it is not so, even the people who work here were helpless in this regard. So we were taking thousand and one pictures of the rain through the window :)
Later we ran over to the shopping mall across the road in hope for internet there. Shopping mall is 9 stories of shops and each level is probably as big as whole Kaubamaja :D And guess what - there is no internet in the whole area, crazy huh :) Oh and on our way to the shopping mall we got soaked of course. Later we made our way to the hostel, got changed, went out for a small portion of the Bund walk and then headed over to the small streets in search of fried dumplings. After about 30 minutes of searching we found one place - oh boy were those good! This dinner was under 15 EEK for us :) and we were so full afterwards that we could barely walk.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
day 12 - general notes about china vol.1
I already mentioned that there are TV's in public transportation here - this is so convenient. Think about going to work in the morning and watching the morning news while sitting in traffic :) perfect huh :)
Wanted to talk about Chinese language as well. It was Kenny who explained it to us of how it works, he has studied it intensively for 2 months and speaks it to some level now. So first there are the chinese characters, each character can be translated to latin syllables - this is how we can understand and comprehend the language. Then there are 4 tones for speaking each syllable which means that each syllable can be said in 4 ways and each way you say has a different meaning :) Fun huh :)
There are wonderful snacks available here. First great snack we found was dried kiwi fruit. It is peeled and nicely sliced up, each slice is dried and packaged on its own in a little bag, yummi stuff. Then we found dried bananas - nothing special, just like we have it at home. Next we found some interesting orange round things. We opened the package up and at some, they were sugary and chewy, tasted very good - but we have no idea what it is :) We are guessing this is dried sweetened carrot, but this is just a guess. Then last night walking to the store we were caught by one guy who was selling nut cake :) It was about 20cm in height and perhaps a bit under 1m each side forming this huge cake type thing. We got a little slice of it, which ended up being quite pricey as the price came with weight. Anyhoo, but the cake consisted of chopped up nuts and something sweet and sticky, maybe condensed milk or something like that. The whole thing formed quite a solid mass, perhaps there are also some fruits or something else mixed in there - no idea, it tastes wonderful though.
About crime - as Kenny told us, it is quite safe in China. Penalties for small theft are very harsh and the prisons are probably worst in the world so there is not much crime around - just as Mart guessed.
When i asked about the movie theaters and how popular they are, then the local girl looked at me kinda funny and said that it is so much easier to grab a pirated copy from the street :) So that is what we did this evening - grabbed to movies from the street sellers, in English of course, total 16CNY. Movie tickets are between 30 and 80CNY depending on a movie :)
Wanted to talk about Chinese language as well. It was Kenny who explained it to us of how it works, he has studied it intensively for 2 months and speaks it to some level now. So first there are the chinese characters, each character can be translated to latin syllables - this is how we can understand and comprehend the language. Then there are 4 tones for speaking each syllable which means that each syllable can be said in 4 ways and each way you say has a different meaning :) Fun huh :)
There are wonderful snacks available here. First great snack we found was dried kiwi fruit. It is peeled and nicely sliced up, each slice is dried and packaged on its own in a little bag, yummi stuff. Then we found dried bananas - nothing special, just like we have it at home. Next we found some interesting orange round things. We opened the package up and at some, they were sugary and chewy, tasted very good - but we have no idea what it is :) We are guessing this is dried sweetened carrot, but this is just a guess. Then last night walking to the store we were caught by one guy who was selling nut cake :) It was about 20cm in height and perhaps a bit under 1m each side forming this huge cake type thing. We got a little slice of it, which ended up being quite pricey as the price came with weight. Anyhoo, but the cake consisted of chopped up nuts and something sweet and sticky, maybe condensed milk or something like that. The whole thing formed quite a solid mass, perhaps there are also some fruits or something else mixed in there - no idea, it tastes wonderful though.
About crime - as Kenny told us, it is quite safe in China. Penalties for small theft are very harsh and the prisons are probably worst in the world so there is not much crime around - just as Mart guessed.
When i asked about the movie theaters and how popular they are, then the local girl looked at me kinda funny and said that it is so much easier to grab a pirated copy from the street :) So that is what we did this evening - grabbed to movies from the street sellers, in English of course, total 16CNY. Movie tickets are between 30 and 80CNY depending on a movie :)
day 12 - Shanghai zoo - 28.08
In the morning we accidentally slept till 10:30, well actually we just decided that we won't set an alarm since there are 4 other people in the room and most likely we won't be able to get much sleep anyways. Well, we slept like babies :D Shower - noodle soup for breakfast and then to the zoo. For this we walked to the Peoples Square and looked for our bus stop - that took us ages. Peoples Square is this huuuge park and there must be at least 10 bus stop areas here, from each bus stop there are about 10 buses leaving. Finally we found the correct one. Bus ride to the zoo was 40 minutes as it is quite a bit off the center.
Zoo was nice, nothing too special but nice anyways. For better overview check the photos.
Now I understand why Kenny told us yesterday that there is nothing touristy to see in Shanghai - because all there is is mediocre and elsewhere it is much better and nicer. But oh well - we are fine with mediocre sights as well, it is still Shanghai :) And to say the least - Shanghai is great :) It is definitely the highlight of our travels so far. It has great architecture and skyscrapers, it has nice parks, it is cleaner than the other cities we have seen so far in China, it has more this big city feeling than Beijing, people speak a bit of English even so the communication is a bit better and so on and so on :D Me likes it here :D It was told us that Shanghai is only good for 3 things - shopping, eating in nice restaurants and partying. Last night we were at a foreign like restaurant and we both had a burger, this evening we should be taken to Italian restaurant Chinese way. Lets see what this will be like.
Future plans - leave to Hangzhou sometime on Saturday, will get train tickets tomorrow so will let you know then.
Zoo was nice, nothing too special but nice anyways. For better overview check the photos.
Now I understand why Kenny told us yesterday that there is nothing touristy to see in Shanghai - because all there is is mediocre and elsewhere it is much better and nicer. But oh well - we are fine with mediocre sights as well, it is still Shanghai :) And to say the least - Shanghai is great :) It is definitely the highlight of our travels so far. It has great architecture and skyscrapers, it has nice parks, it is cleaner than the other cities we have seen so far in China, it has more this big city feeling than Beijing, people speak a bit of English even so the communication is a bit better and so on and so on :D Me likes it here :D It was told us that Shanghai is only good for 3 things - shopping, eating in nice restaurants and partying. Last night we were at a foreign like restaurant and we both had a burger, this evening we should be taken to Italian restaurant Chinese way. Lets see what this will be like.
Future plans - leave to Hangzhou sometime on Saturday, will get train tickets tomorrow so will let you know then.
day 11 - Shanghai Museum and Maglev ride - 27.08
First touristy thing we figured to explore was Shanghai Museum. It gave an overview of the Chinese culture by displaying ancient art forms of pottery, sculpture, metal works, furniture, lettter seals, coins, paintings and calligraphy. Museum was located at a nice central location so all good - got some nice walk in as well.
Second attraction of the day was Maglev ride :D OhoOOOO that was COOL!!! We happened to get there at the time when it was going on maximum speed of 430-431 km/h :D Yeah, we got a round ticket so we got to do it twice! It was wonderful. Things were going by so quickly that it was like fast forwarding life :D
Finally we are seeing some Starbucks coffees around here and I checked with my phone for wifi - it was there :D YAY since the internet at the hostel is very expensive. Hostel is otherwise nice, we booked 2 beds in a 7 person room. All seems clean and fine so far. Showers and toilets are at the other end of the hallway and there is even a possibility to do laundry - which we are using already :D Tomorrow we will have some clean shirts!
For dinner we met up with Kenny from CS. He is living in Shanghai for another 3 weeks because of work, he has been here for 5 months already. It is always so fascinating to hear things from locals - or at least from people who have lived here for a while. I could have easily carried on our discussion for hours and hours, but it was getting late and we have had a long day today so it was time to get back. We did enjoy a short walk by the river and watched the lit up skyscrapers from both sides of the river - so nice, big cities are incredible. Kenny was telling us of how they turn off the lights around 11 at night in order to save energy as there are huge energy shortages in Shanghai, but apparently the ordered commercials must still stay as those have been paid for. He also gave us great hints on what to see and how to get the most out of Shanghai, also some tips on travelling.
We will stay in Shanghai at least till Saturday evening if not till Sunday evening. We have been pondering about how to make it to Hong Kong - the cheapest is to take a train, but train ride is 25 hours :(( I don't think I'm able to take that. At the hostel, in our room, one of the girls is from Hong Kong so she was gladly giving out information about getting there. Tomorrow we are meeting with a local girl for dinner, also from CS, so hopefully we will get more ideas on how to move on to Hong Kong from here. Will see, maybe there is a way to break the 25h trip to smaller chunks - if not, then gotta survive the 25h train ride somehow.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to Shanghai Zoo. Now I need to go and get the laundry and then to bed :)
Second attraction of the day was Maglev ride :D OhoOOOO that was COOL!!! We happened to get there at the time when it was going on maximum speed of 430-431 km/h :D Yeah, we got a round ticket so we got to do it twice! It was wonderful. Things were going by so quickly that it was like fast forwarding life :D
Finally we are seeing some Starbucks coffees around here and I checked with my phone for wifi - it was there :D YAY since the internet at the hostel is very expensive. Hostel is otherwise nice, we booked 2 beds in a 7 person room. All seems clean and fine so far. Showers and toilets are at the other end of the hallway and there is even a possibility to do laundry - which we are using already :D Tomorrow we will have some clean shirts!
For dinner we met up with Kenny from CS. He is living in Shanghai for another 3 weeks because of work, he has been here for 5 months already. It is always so fascinating to hear things from locals - or at least from people who have lived here for a while. I could have easily carried on our discussion for hours and hours, but it was getting late and we have had a long day today so it was time to get back. We did enjoy a short walk by the river and watched the lit up skyscrapers from both sides of the river - so nice, big cities are incredible. Kenny was telling us of how they turn off the lights around 11 at night in order to save energy as there are huge energy shortages in Shanghai, but apparently the ordered commercials must still stay as those have been paid for. He also gave us great hints on what to see and how to get the most out of Shanghai, also some tips on travelling.
We will stay in Shanghai at least till Saturday evening if not till Sunday evening. We have been pondering about how to make it to Hong Kong - the cheapest is to take a train, but train ride is 25 hours :(( I don't think I'm able to take that. At the hostel, in our room, one of the girls is from Hong Kong so she was gladly giving out information about getting there. Tomorrow we are meeting with a local girl for dinner, also from CS, so hopefully we will get more ideas on how to move on to Hong Kong from here. Will see, maybe there is a way to break the 25h trip to smaller chunks - if not, then gotta survive the 25h train ride somehow.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to Shanghai Zoo. Now I need to go and get the laundry and then to bed :)
day 11 - arrival to Shanghai - 27.08
Train ride to Shanghai was not as bad as we thought. As it was night train then we got sleeping beds. There were 3 levels of them, I got the bottom one which was 7CNY more expensive than the middle one that Riina had. Third level bed was the cheapest. One little aisle had 3 beds on each side so 6 total. Each bed had a sheet, a pillow and a blanket - so all nice and comfortable for a good nights sleep. Train left the station at 21:53, lights were turned off at around 23:00, wake up call took place at 5:20 and train arrived in Shanghai at 6 in the morning. I got about 5 hours of good sleep :) and my mp3 player worked mostly like a charm :)
There was a mixup with our hostel bookings and the address that was given to us. Getting to the hotel was an experience on its own as we had decided to take the bus this time. One great thing that we have noticed about chinese is the way they help foreigners. Yes - notice how I say foreigners, as Kenny (one CS'r we met tonight) explained us then Chinese are representing their country when communicating with other cultures so they are very polite and helpful - same does not apply of how they treat each other. Anyhoo this one lady walked us to a bus station so that we would catch a correct bus, at the bus station she found a person who was travelling to the same area that we had to go to and then made it his duty that we would get where we needed to :) After a long walk we surely did make it :)
Once at the hostel we left our bags there as it was too early for check-in, took a shower there and then headed to town.
There was a mixup with our hostel bookings and the address that was given to us. Getting to the hotel was an experience on its own as we had decided to take the bus this time. One great thing that we have noticed about chinese is the way they help foreigners. Yes - notice how I say foreigners, as Kenny (one CS'r we met tonight) explained us then Chinese are representing their country when communicating with other cultures so they are very polite and helpful - same does not apply of how they treat each other. Anyhoo this one lady walked us to a bus station so that we would catch a correct bus, at the bus station she found a person who was travelling to the same area that we had to go to and then made it his duty that we would get where we needed to :) After a long walk we surely did make it :)
Once at the hostel we left our bags there as it was too early for check-in, took a shower there and then headed to town.
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