Day 26/63

It was pissing down rain on our last day in Shanghai, so as cheap as the possible tat around the corner would have been, we decided to spend our time in the hotel instead. We had some martinis and dumplings and headed for the airport in the afternoon. Goodbye Shanghai!

Overnight flight from Shanghai to Sydney was okay, 10 hours is still going to hurt, no matter how well you have managed the situation of inflatable pillows, flight socks, alcohol and entertainment. Of course your airline will contribute as well. We flew with Qantas this time, which probably hear me playing Balderdash with my husband before the flight… They totally ignored me on several occasions on service, including ‘forgetting us’ out of all the others while delivering dinner… I have now reached a point where I have seen many of the films on offer in the entertainment systems – I watch films a lot anyways, and this time the selection *in* the system was nothing like the one described in the little magazine they handed to us. However, I enjoyed State of Play and Young Victoria, finally some good airplane entertainment.

So do you know what QANTAS stands for? Because I should think: “Quick! Ask Nobbs to Attack Siperia” is a pretty good shot at it… Do I get your votes?

Day 25/63

We took the morning taxi to the bus station and headed for Zhouzhuang, the lake town. They call Zhouzhuang the Venice of the east. I’ve never been to Venice, but I would probably beg to differ. We got harassed once again by herds of tat grannies, up to our necks. I have learned by now to put them in from one ear and out from another. It seems as any place of ‘natural beauty’ in China is almost impossible to enjoy thanks to someone hassling you on one arm trying to con your money.

The place itself was exquisite, even though we were there on a rainy day, you could see the canals going around, the old Chinese people sorting their fish and fixing their boats. For a second there, I pretended to be a fly instead of a big fat bag of foreign money, which really was my current status on the streets.

There are great big houses in Zhouzhuang, with up to hundred rooms with real agars to cook on, paintings on walls, furniture and statues to admire. There was a man with birds that he had a ring through their necks, using them to catch the fish and then making them to vomit it. The Chengxu Taoist Temple on the area was very impressive with huge lakes around it. It was built during 1086-1093 of the Song Dynasty and also known as Sanctity Hall.

There was an Opera hall at the site, as well as dozens of restaurants and gift shops. We found a local craftsman at his work and bought a wooden carving of a dragon and the phoenix. It pleased us both and seemed like something we’d rather buy instead of the tons of tat which they were selling on the streets. We got pretty bored pretty soon and had a nice lunch in one of those houses by the canals, where you can almost feel the age of the opium wars on the window blinds.

Afterwards we found a post office with a couple of very surprised men who sold me 30 stamps to Europe. That was five quai each so I had to buy two that cost 2quai and 1 of 1 for each. A lot of trouble for a couple of postcards to send back home. Did I tell you that the Chinese don’t have glue on their stamps you are suppose to provide your own?

It is sad to see that actually the only way to enjoy China, seems to be to go somewhere that tourists have not yet been, because trip to Zhouzhuang was pretty shit as it is like this. I am so ready to get off this land now. Luckily we are flying off tomorrow.

Day 24/63

Today we went to the Shanghai Film Park. This meant waking up early, getting the taxi to the Stadium, getting the bus to the remote location where they shoot films every day. This particular studio is one of those where you can walk on set even when they are filming and they didn’t seem too fuzzed about me taking some pictures – at least not at first.

Something that came pretty obvious during this week in Shanghai, is that where Beijing and Xi’An are both cities best known because of their thousands of years of history – Shanghai is best known for its history during the last 100 years or so. Or better yet, it’s best known of the twenties and the thirties. So where the Xi’An Film studio has the entire First Emperor’s palace recreated along with a lot of terracotta soldiers, Shanghai’s Film Studio focuses on the Nanjing Road from the twenties.

One of my favorite films, Lust Caution was filmed here. My husband also thinks that Mummy three was filmed here… And when we were walking on the twenties roads, they were filming a piece of around 200 extras stomping on the streets with some cars, machine guns and old trams. There was an ‘older’ town area, some buildings which could have been prisons but were much more likely some industrial types from the thirties, some pieces of the Bund including a church and a statue of an angel… And that’s about it. There is a European village, but really, what a European Tourist would like to see in China is not some Swiss or British looking buildings and fountains.

The local tourists (and I mean women) however, seem to come to the film park in couples, dressed in HUGE gowns, dragging their poor, bored husbands/boyfriends around the streets with a photographer, to take the pictures of themselves, pretending to be countesses or queens of the era. I might have been tempted, but thank god I will never fit a Chinese gown of any size…

We had lunch in a café that was clearly meant for foreign stars as most of its menu was pizza items. It took an hour to get served and eaten, but it didn’t really matter because our bus back was 14:30 and there really wasn’t *that* much to see. I enjoyed myself in the film park, but just because I am a film freak and I love stalking people with my camera. But just like so many things in Shanghai, it kind of left you feeling like you could have gotten something better… That it’s not exactly half as impressive as the Northern cities of China, or half as interesting as the film studio in Kyoto.

Finnworld 23

Fourth day in Shanghai

We decided to have another easy-going day in China. This meant a taxi to the Buddhist temple of Long Hua Sí, on the other side of the town. This one had a big pagoda attached to it as well. Overall yellow temple had a very extensive collection of Buddhas and Buddhist saints. I lurked around with my camera and even spotted some monks in their orange robes. Somehow Buddha didn’t really want me to have many good pictures of them since when ever they showed up, I had either the wrong lens on or the memory card was full.

Our mission was to find Shanghai’s Tourist Tour Bus Center, which according to RURUBU, is inside the Shanghai stadium. When looking at the map provided to us by the hotel, you might see that Long Hua Si and the stadium are rather close to each other. This would of course make sense, in case you’d trust a map made by the Chinese. The walk itself took about an hour, in which time we did find *a bus stop* which had a DVD store on the back of it.

The Tourist Bus Center is located underneath the staircase number five of the stadium. Just in case this is knowledge that you need at any point in your life… In the remote occasion that you do need it though, it’s rather useful. It’s a BIG Stadium, just take my word for it. We bought some tickets to the Shanghai Film Studios for tomorrow, which is coming to be a habit of ours. Film studio visits are often an excellent way to spend a day in China/Japan.

Outside the Tourist Bus Center, there is also a great Tibetian restaurant. My husband and I have in our trips had food from most areas of China, but never from Tibet before. This turned out to be an excellent lunch despite of us once again ordering way much more than we can eat… However, you didn’t think that Palak Paneer comes with an entire load of bread, or that their dumplings are *nine* huge bundles of goodness… Probably the best meal in China so far.

We took the metro to a park, just because it was once again almost impossible to get a taxi and this park called Zhongshan like many Chinese parks, was where you can find amusements. As can be expected, there was a wedding going on. Why someone would like to get married in a park on a cloudy Sunday while tons of people are camping out, flying their kites and herding their children – escapes my attention. But in any case, there it was, a markee, some bow decorated chairs and a pyramid of champagne classes, with the DJ playing Rihanna songs. Wedding business in this city is huge.

Other park amusements included a fallen apart amusement park with some rides way past their hey days. Oh, and a completely un-fantastically to a business suit dressed Opera singer performing Beijing Opera to a bunch of smokers and tat sellers. You got the occasional kite flyer man with their wives bored to death performing their morning Tai Chi while aiding the kite flying on an almost still day. I can’t possibly understand, what kind of life these people have and where does the joy come to it… But I am sure that it’s just my elitist nature of living in a country where you don’t have to share the one tree on your hill with three million other three lovers.

Day 22/63

Third day in Shanghai.

We decided to take it easy today, which for our standards means that we do more like a 7hour day than 10 hour day out of the hotel room comforts. This decision was based upon the fact that I seem to have made some of my muscles on the chest ache when I walk – I imagine this was due to at least five hour walks that we’ve now done for four weeks and possibly the 7-10kg of camera gear that I carry on my right shoulder. This is only a right side issue, so I can see a connection there. However, I really don’t want to be one of those broken tourists that can’t walk anywhere, so I am trying to have less walking and more doodling in museums and so on.

So our plan was to head underneath the construction site of Death, which is the Pund at the moment. There is a whole space-like tunnel that goes underneath the river Pu and takes you to the tourist attractions on the other side. Better yet, it’s about five minutes walk from our hotel. This is of course if you can get past the traffic of Death, which goes on the side of the construction site.

We first got to our bridge of choice only to find not one, but THREE wedding couples getting their pictures taken on the bridge with Shanghai behind them. It’s Saturday in China… Everyone wants to get married in hotels here, so this is why also there was a wedding going on in the breakfast room of our hotel when we came back in the evening.

After skipping our near deaths by following what we call ‘Mr. Carrier Bag’ (any local person who is crossing the road, probably knows what they are doing. If they are carrying a carrier bag, then they are probably locals as well, hence the name) over the Zebra crossings of Death, we got into the sightseeing tunnel. It’s quite a Science Fiction ride with flashy lights going around – my camera really loved that tunnel as you can see.

On the other side you find all kinds of attractions like the aquarium and the TV tower. We were not interested in any of those, but the museum which was at the bottom of the weird looking tower. This was the museum for the history of Shanghai. It was done in a form of miniatures and puppets, but like everything that the Chinese do – they had put some serious man power into it. Perhaps the best miniature/puppet museum that I’ve ever been to…Beatles museum had nothing going on in comparison to this one, sorry Liverpool! This certainly told the story of the city very well, made it even look much more interesting than it actually is.

I suppose the most significant turn in the history of Shanghai are the Opium wars in1839-1842 and 1856-1860. See, Her Majesty the Queen Victoria of Great Britain ruled the world back then and Britain had a problem. The British wanted Tea, which the Chinese had. British were exporting tat to India back then from Britain, and there was a flaw in their chain of exports – China didn’t want anything that the Indians would have had. However, Indians were producing a lot of Opium, which in the minds of a super power looked like: Let’s make the Chinese drug addicts, so that we can get our Tea… Sad but true.

After the Opium wars however, Shanghai opened up to the foreign influence and all of the powers back then got their own little shares of the city to live on. This is why this city is so much more foreign like built, specially the Pund area. Sadly I have to say, that I prefer areas of China and Japan, with lesser influence from the foreigners and more from the locals. I can get someone speaking English to me back home…

After the museum, we wondered around in a shopping mall filled with stores that you’d get back home in Europe. We had lunch with a view over the river and the Pund on the sixth floor and then listened to a rock band, which had not really gotten their sound-checks right before starting to play because their back-up went in the middle of a song, several times. The ground floor also had some men dressed as big pieces of President cheese, which was excitement to me, even though they seemed to just scare the children.

Back through the shuttle of lights lead us to the Nanjing road of tat once again and we were lured into one of the underground shopping stall-installments. Any label product of sun glasses, jeans, watches, bags and belts – you name it. And they’ll sell it to you really cheap. Are these fakes or are we just paying stupid prices in Europe – I have no idea. But I also have no problem of my husband paying a third of what a pair of Hugo Boss jeans cost in Europe, when they look exactly the same. I broke my 10euro sun glasses that I bought from Japan, so I bought a pair of 2euro Calvin Kleins… They perform the same function after all.

After some work back in the hotel room, we gathered ourselves and wandered on the North side of the hotel… The Chinese close their shops and restaurants by eight a clock, so if you want to eat out, you better be quick. We did surprise a local food establishment by turning up at 7:45pm, but they did give us enough food for four people for just 2,8euros (including 0,75litres of beer for each of us)… It was a purely functional and useful day in Shanghai. All we could ask for and more.

Day 21/63

I fucking hate Shanghai. I know it’s a personal opinion, but that’s how I feel. And I am a person who *loves* China. One of the greatest experiences I ever had was in Xi’An and Beijing, but this city makes it impossible to enjoy oneself. Even when the prices are ridiculously low.

Today we had a nice breakfast in the hotel’s 2nd floor and had an hour of typing before leaving the room at 11ish. We took a taxi to a park in the French Concession for more shopping opportunities. This got immediately some ‘hello lady, do you want a watch?’ types on our face, even before standing up from the taxi. My husband calculated how many times someone came up to him trying to sell something today and that was 19. Could be worse, I suppose. We saw some pajama practice and sword action with grannies, oh and some people hugging trees in the park. Always a good show the Chinese parks in the morning.

Our walk in the French region took us through shopping streets of dress-makers and all kinds of tat and it had just started to rain when we happened upon this small, cat-pee smelling junk shop, which seemed to sell DVDs of tv series, which is what I was after anyways. Let’s just say that I went slightly mental and purchased the small amount of 11 entire series (some of which have up to six seasons) with a fair price.

When it was time for lunch, we seemed to be on streets that only sold overly priced food for foreigners. Those places are often also tasteless, so I suggested we try to find a small place somewhere and as a miracle, an off the road restaurant came along. Our three course meal and two bottles of water was the whole of 25 quai, (2,5euros TOTAL) and it was really good. That’s the only thing this city has going on for it: Cheap food, cheap shopping.

After some more walking around in the area, we decided to get the metro to People’s square to see the Shanghai museum. As far as museums go, this was a quality visit. Lovely, western style bathrooms, clean exhibition halls, good access, no admission fee… However, the collection didn’t really show us anything very exciting that we had not seen before. Specialy as the one section of minorities that we were there for anyways – was the only being renovated and re-shaped. In any case, this well-air conditioned oasis in the middle or the people’s square was the high light of my day.

The weather had been piling up onto a hard, thick mass of humidity and as we walked out of the museum, we could not see the buildings around very well. At this time in Australia, there has been a massive, red sand storm – this was nothing like that, but we are certainly keeping our eyes open. We had dinner in a kind of a tunnel of fast food, but for the locals, so it was once again really good but really cheap. The Whole of 2-3euros / plate.

It’s the getting home from the city what kills you at the end of the night. The taxi drives really do not know where they are going they have no idea where the area of the hotel or anything is… And they are really not stopping for you, even if you’d be standing on the taxi station. You do get offers from dodgy cars pretending to be taxis, but I’d rather keep my life thanks. Two motorcyclists even offered to take us home, but after an hour of trying, I decided we’d get a metro for one stop onto the Pund and by some miracle we did get a taxi from there. Okay, this one was old, deaf and not knowing where anything is, but after about 10 minutes of negotiations and map showing, he managed to recognize the Russian consulate right next to our hotel. So conveniently, we got back.

The streets of Shanghai make you really angry. I think perhaps that’s why the Chinese are always yelling and pouting, because their living conditions are so fucked up… I am glad that I have had lovely two weeks in other parts of China, because if this would be what I got to my face first, I’d never come back. Doesn’t help that the Pund is a construction site – they are trying to make it beautiful for the Expo next year, so this year everything is even more horrible than it’d normally be.

What can I say: Shanghai is a cock and a half. Nothing personal, just the way it made me feel.

Day 20/63

We left Japan expecting it to be a culture shock. Even as we’ve been to both countries, we’ve never gone from one to another. We got the Maglev train from the Shanghai airport to town. This is a bullet train that goes 300km/hour, just because there are no rails, just magnetic tracks where it floats on. On curves, it goes kind of sideways, which is very spooky. The train journey to Shanghai only takes eight minutes, which my husband decided that we’d spend in the first class, as it was the whole of 10euros each.

We got a taxi from the other side of the river ‘Huang Pu’ to our hotel, which is the Astor House hotel, the first luxurious and modern hotel in the city, right on the Pund. The Pund is the area where the British settled down after the opium wars and eventually all the other foreign powers such as the Germans, the Americans and so on joined them. However, the French couldn’t live with the British, so they have their own area ‘the French concession’…

Our hotel the Astor House is rather impressive. Even as they are over 160 years old, they have gotten the hang of modern days. There is internet installed in the rooms for a small fee (very slow connection, but anyways) and the bathroom has hair dryers, the light switch is on the door so that you keep your key in a safe place and so on. The room reminds me of the room I stayed in Athens, wooden floors, huge bathroom… All very nice. You could even stay at a celebrity’s room, meaning where someone famous stayed like Charlie Chaplin, Bertrand Russell or Albert Einstein. What is more attractive to me though, is that in three metres out of the door, you get to a bridge which gives out the classic view over Shanghai with the television mast building. I’ll use that for some photos later on for sure.

Of course when you step out of the door, the misery of life in China immediately begins. You get the herds of ‘Hello Lady’s excuseme, would you lie to buy some tat?)… In here they are mostly pushing to buy watches.. Perhaps that’s the thing, certainly not postcards like back in Beijing. The best way to look at pushy sales people is not to give them an eye of any kind. You put your ‘ignoring’ face on and move along. I have been surprised on how they do come to you in English, rather than in Chinese. But I suppose this is the foreign area.

You can also see the foreign area in the prices of tat. We know that there are places, quieter streets, where the prices are about 20% of the prices here on the foreign area. We had a meal for 10euros, but we know, that is rather expensive for what we got, even if it was really good and three dishes with two teas. They have looked at the foreigners around and come to the conclusion that they *will* pay more. So why not charge more.

In any case, for our first day in Shanghai, we went walking around, shopping and photographing. I bought some really nice pashminas and we went a bit mental in a bookshop that had a DVD floor. The Chinese really like awards of all sorts, specially the Oscars, so they have fifteen different kinds of Oscar box sets, oscar films in different covers and so on. I recently watched all the best Picture winners, some of which were quite hard to find. Here they were all… Even “Wings” from 1928, for 1 euro… I bought some that I had not seen and some that I’ll rewatch, like “Mrs. Minniver”, which is a great film btw. These were not illegal copies of the films, even though those are also easy to get from the streets – normally with English and Chinese subtitles… We had earlier come across to one seller, but they have already gone to Blue-Ray… What kind of world is it, when the pirates have a format that you cannot play???

We eventually walked as far as the people’s square and then home again, through a detour that seemed to take forever. The pushy-yelling Chinese tired us out so much that eventually we got into a ‘Family-Mart’ (Japanese 7-11 chain) and got salad and sushi for dinner in our hotel room… This is how much we missed Japan! China such a difference to Japan, where politeness is *everything* and here you are expected to be as agnry, impolite, rude, shouty, pushy and merciless as possible. You should spit on the streets and lie and cheat. The whole consept of the society is so different… It’s like my husband pointed out. You feel like you are in Japan, but it looks like everything is falling apart. When you come back to your hotel, you feel like you are never going to wear your clothes again, because they are so dirty.

I think for tomorrow, I need to learn how to bargain and cheat… We are going shopping again in the French concession.

As we are going to three countries that demand visas, I thought I would start this process early.

China

I’ve been to China before in 2006 and the procedure is simple: You need to have a real one page visa included to your passport, this means sending your passport (or taking it to) the Chinese embassy of Helsinki.  Along with your passport, you need to send a passport picture of yourself and the form of application. The fee of the visa in 2009 was 40euros. You will be asked questions like “Do you have aids or leprosy?” (if yes, then don’t even think about coming to China)  and you need to provide your plane tickets.  Also, if you are a journalist of any sort, it’s probably best to mention it… Just tell them that you are a tourist. You never know with the Chinese, their paranoia is quite world known. The visa is valid for 3 months after you get it, so be sure to book it in the time frame of your trip. The bonus of 2009 is that you cannot send the passport and application in with a mail, so make sure you have a relative in or a visit coming up to Helsinki.

The bunch line is: Finland – Because life is not difficult enough!

Australia

For Australian visas, there’s plenty of websites that try to charge money for it. Better to use just the immigration services of the Australian government.  If you are just visiting and not immigrating or working there, then you should get eVisitor Visa for free. They also email it to you, so no big trouble getting one immediately. It  allows you to travel to and from Australia any number of times over the next 12 months. On each visit to Australia you can stay for a maximum of three (3) months.

USA

Well, I’ve never been to America before, but I have been told what to expect. Apparently, if you visit Canada while coming from and going to USA, it doesn’t really count like leaving the country… Thank goodness. You can find out pretty much all you want to know from from the US embasy in Helsinki.  There is a Visa Waiver Program which allows you to enter ‘without a visa’ for business or tourism, but only if you are eligible meaning that you don’t have a disease, criminal record, swine flu or other barrier of entry. Of course you also should not have had anything to do with the nazis or helping them. At the end, it’s a pretty easy procedure. They accept you online. Of course I am prepared the customs to be quite nasty. The day that I will arrive to the american soil, will also be the longest day of my life, lasting something like 47 hours. It’ll be something to write about at least I suppose.