Back to China - Shanghai - Nanjing - Hangzhou - 2012 - Page 1

I had to break the news to my missus that I was again buggering off to China. Chocolate seems to work well in such circumstances. She was a bit surprised I only bothered to tell her the night before.

Me, in my red colored street at 4 AM on a Monday morning. The red lights are to help the homeless people that live in my street get some well earned rest from all their drinking, can collecting, pissing on my fence etc.

Qantas recognise how awesome I am once again, with a free business class upgrade.

And here I am. Looking thrilled to be on holidays!

Lunch entree was pretty good, a carrot soup. They put cream in it which was annoying.

Lunch main was a bit weird, its a chicken breast, skin on, with walnuts (those dark things) and snow peas cooked for what must have been 2 or 3 weeks. Theres also a potato and celeriac gratin, which was quite nice, but largely it was just potato.
Dessert was offered, some enormous slab of cheesecake, I opted for fruit, and didnt take a photo of fruit.

The light dinner turned out to be a rack of lamb. It was very nice actually. With roasted parsnips and other things. Again I had fruit for dessert. The larger choice was rhubarb and peach pie with creme fraiche and a selection of cheeses and desseret wines etc.
OK, enough food photos. I didnt even take a photo of the outside of the plane!

Here I am, on the Maglev. I rode it last time too so didnt bother with photos, just photos of me, looking thrilled.

The maglev doesnt go all the way into the city, as they ran out of magnets. So you have to transfer to the metro instead. My carriage buddy is enjoying a rest on a pillow of cans and bottles with a mattress made of newspaper. He seems to be enjoying the air conditioning.
Actually its not too hot, but its certainly windy!

After checking in, I headed into town to buy shorts, as who knows when or if my bag will get here (they say 11am tomorrow).
I didnt buy any underwear though, so I got commando colored shorts because tomorrow is commando day.

This actual photo is Nanjing Road East. Full of people offering you all kinds of services if you are a single male. However now I speak Chinese. I can tell Chinese peasent girls that not only do I not want their services, but I also have no money as I am a train ticket and I like noodles.

I stopped on the way back to participate in some mass line dancing. By now due to the wind, and 10 hours on a plane, I looked like young einstein, so the line dancing grandmas were terrified of me. More than usual.

The hotel room comes with breakfast. The room is great by the way, its an apartment hotel and has a kitchen, big tv, huge bed, full bath, you get the idea.
If you dont have the breakfast the receptionists chase after you to remind you. I choose the healthy things as ever, beans, egg and fruit. The egg goes really well with apple.

OK, time to make this all a tax deduction. This is as far as I can tell a Chinese grease trap truck, the drums on the back seemed to have waste cooking fat in them, and it certainly was a familiar smell.
I also noted the driver was getting his next job via a smartphone, but im pretty sure it was just an SMS.

Next up, the wheely bin electric transport scooter. The workers sort the recyclables on the spot, no need for sorting at recycling centres etc.
OK, thats enough for today, there will be more waste management stories to come.

This is the Shanghai central station, which is smaller than the new Hongqiao station which I have been to before. I couldnt really find a way to take photos of the platforms without a ticket. I will probably be back later to go to Nanjing.

Despite warnings that pickpockets can remove your wedding ring with chopsticks without you even noticing, a large number of people have no issue sleeping outside with all their bags piled up nearby. This method also works for me, if you look poor and homeless, no one will rob you.

I presume this monument is dedicated to all the girls who talk on the telephone and forget that their skirt has blown up in the wind. And thats as good a reason as any for a monument.

In a nearby park, to save money for old people, they put the daily newspaper behind glass and you can walk along and read it before you head off to do your ribbon dancing. Perhaps they put the ribbon dancing championship results in the paper.

Nanna is contemplating doing the right thing by her children who have to support her.

All hail Chinese genetic engineering. For it is the hybrid elephant / rhino / shark. I shall call you SHARKEPHINO!

Theres a massive line to buy steam pork buns from this place at 10AM. I joined the back of the line but it didnt move for 10 minutes so I left. Most people use lining up as a social activity I think.

This alleyway and the museum off to the right is the site of the First communist youth league. In the early 1900's they went to Beijing and protested at Tiananmen square. This seems to have been somewhat more succesful than tank boy was in the 80's.
I was surprised to be thrown out of here by security, at first I was outraged, but he was saying something about 11 and hour to me in Chinese. The sign out the front confirms they are closed between 11 AM and 1 PM. Presumably to go over the road and line up for steamed pork buns.

Lanzhou style beef noodle has taken over for me from Taiwanese style as my favourite. Mainly because Adelaide has an awesome place called Noodle Kingdom on Gouger street. I was keen to find out if the Adelaide version is the same as the Shanghai version of the Lanzhou favourite. Lanzhou is a city in western China, one day I will go there just to have soup.

The good news, Adelaide does it the same as Shanghai. The flavour of the soup and style of hand made on the spot noodles were the same. There was less beef here in China, and at first I was annoyed at that. Then when I paid and it was $1.20 I was less annoyed.
As long as I dont grow a second eyebrow or need a stomach transplant as a result, then I will be back, who can turn down a meal for $1.20!

This last photo is for all the c++ people I work with. Your jobs have been outsourced and migrated to a new gelato beverage platform.

The chaotic and hot Shanghai train ticket office. Every line has its own loudspeaker system. The usual Chinese queue rules apply.
1. Barge straight up to the window in front of everyone and make as much noise as possible.
2. Get yelled at by everyone in line and grabbed and pushed to the back.
3. Periodically push to the front again and plead your case with everyone as to why you get to push in.
4. Be moved to the very back, losing your place.
5. Explain to those now in front of you that your rightful place is in front of them.

Multiply this by 3 or 4 people trying this simultaneously in each line and it becomes confusing to remember whos pushing in and who isnt. Once they start crossing lines it becomes a debacle.

Mcdonalds in China has also adopted the slider hype for mini burgers. Only theres are a bit different. I havent worked out whats actually on them, I may have to go to Mcdonalds!

Xujiahui at night. I took more photos for myself to enjoy as I know no one else does. The text on the globe is animated, it says 'Giant globe has animated text'.

Rather than show you my dinner, I will show you it being prepared. It may be a foodcourt but everything gets made from scratch while you wait, with a lot of yelling. I ordered beef and lotus root but was given something else. I actually think I was given someone elses order, I showed my receipt but the chef insisted.
I got a heap of mystery meat of all different colors, possibly bullfrog as that was on the menu elsewhere. It was nice enough, I couldnt eat it all.

I couldnt eat all my dinner so I thought I would have dessert.
Unfortunately this was some nice looking fruit with cubes of grass jelly, which would have been great. But once I ordered it a series of sauces was poured over it for no good reason which turned into a thin brown goo.
The grass jelly was nice though, you can really taste the grass.

Wandering around back streets near my hotel, I stumbled upon an illegal card game. I think they were playing for real money, everyone was deadly silent.
For no good reason, they have set up in the middle of the road, leaving barely enough room for a car to pass.
The game was thrilling, as every now and then the men would gasp, and eventually a cheer erupted. I lurked in the shadows hoping it might turn into a fight when someone played a 5th ace, but left dissapointed.

There was of course a neat line of people waiting for the boarding of the train, until boarding was called. Then chaos ensued, complete with whistle blowing officials being ignored.

Here I am hanging out at the bar, chatting up the waitress. My pickup line was 'I dont like beer, give me tea', spoken in half assed mandarin of course. This was required because as I approached the bar she immediately took a Heineken from the fridge. Thats racist.
I found myself at the bar because I was seated in the middle of a group of 3. In the aisle was presumably a sumo wrestler on holidays from Kyoto, and in the window a mother with her two children on her lap, one of them looked about 12 years old. The younger of her kids then threw a 2 litre bottle of water on the ground and a river started running down the aisle. Thats when I headed to the bar.

Look closely at the picture, I had to get down low to get in the photo. The guy behind me has no idea what I am doing. He has no right to judge me though, hes carrying a man bag!

The scene when exiting the station. Hmmm. I have no idea which way to go. I can see that the other side of the station has lots of big buildings and nice looking areas. This is a common trick at Chinese train stations, they always force you to exit on the shitty side and make it exceptionally difficult to get back under the tracks.
The reason for this as best I can tell is to make you pay for a coach tour, hundreds of such tours are leaving from under the train station, complete with people on loud speakers racing around touting for suckers.

I refuse to be defeated, and walk through the highway tunnel. This is an exact mirror of my trip to Suzhou on my last visit to China.

Once on the right side of the tracks, literally, things look a lot nicer. The down town area is sort of finished, but many shops are still vacant.
Wuxi is very much a city undergoing a rapid transformation. Everything is covered in construction dust.
By the end of the day I had turned a strange shade of grey, possibly one of the 50.

Here you can pay to catch gold fish with a mini fishing rod. I am not sure what happens if you catch one as no one did. Read on for another chapter in Wuxi fishing.

The place is known for its canals. There are indeed many canals. Many have bridges over them. I followed these for many miles. If you like canals you will like Wuxi.
I dont advise following this canal, its a big circle that goes nowhere. It was also hot as hell.

China, leading the way. Even B grade cities have free bikes to rent, using solar power for you to register on the touch screens to borrow one.
By the way, Wuxi has a population of 6 million. Its considered a small city comparitively for this region.

Eventually the canal lead to here. I think parts of it were original, but much of it is fake. It is of course a tourist shopping mall, specially built for coaches to park at and have Chinese people spend up big on inflatable novelty hammers.
There was no food except deep fried snacks. I remained hungry.

Theres a large grid of streets all selling the same stuff. Underground theres a market selling fake handbags etc. I dont think I am the target demographic for this area.

I found a way to get up to the top. I dont think I was supposed to as the cleaners and old men without shirts laying on the ground sleeping up there seemed genuinely shocked when I arrived on the scene.
This doesnt phase me though, I have time to pose and look cool. Those are my new shorts, I like them so much I bought another pair in grey. I already spent $20 on myself. I blame Qantas for this, if they had not lost my bag theres no way I would have bought myself clothes.

Some of the many many cranes. If you like cranes you will love Wuxi. The new part of the city has massive empty malls filled with Gucci and similar stores. But no people, they also hide the bathrooms.
I started just going through exit doors looking for one, a security guy yelled at me, but I have learnt to just ignore that. Eventually I found a bathroom, a good thing as I had drunk over 6 litres of fluid since arriving!

Time for another adventure in fishing. Only look closely, they are feeding them with baby bottles on the end of the poles.
My theory is, if you are smart enough as a fish to survive being caught by kids in the paddling pool, as per the photo above, you graduate to the rock pool and live a life of luxury being hand fed by tourists.
Society rewards only winners, in human and fish. Which are you?

Go back a couple of streets and you find the edge of new, and the beginning of old. This looks like Beirut. I never actually went to Beirut but its my stereotype for bombed city.
Theres no one actually living in these places, presumably they came home one day to find all their stuff packed in a crate and a note explaining which bus to catch to their new home.

Final Wuxi picture, the train station. It was an exhausting day. My back is killing me, I am officially old. Im starting to worry that I am shrinking and will soon be a hunchback.
The train ride back was a lot less chaotic, but then once you get off at Shanghai station the exit is as far away from the metro as possible and the tunnel to get to line 1 is closed. So I had to walk another mile or so to get to the metro, with half a dozen guys on scooters following me offering a lift, busy explaining to me that the walk to the metro is far.

I probably wont walk too far tonight so dont expect too many photos, right now I am enjoying some orange rehydration salts I bought with me from Australia.

My dinner (only food pic of the day so shut up), Japanese curry. It was decent, most expensive thing on the menu at $4. It has good quality beef in it, still like all places in China they leave the skin / sinew on, but as its been stewed for ages it was tender.
If you have not had Japanese curry before, the omelette is stuffed with rice.
Also they like to put pickles and a salted plum on the plate as well. If you dont know what a salted plum is you might think someone chewed something and spat it back out on your plate.

Time for some in camera hand held HDR. Its a shame the van was parked there.

Cheers club is closed. I like this photo though.

I am not afraid to take my own photo of someone elses fashion shoot. Actually there were heaps of people around like this, I think they might have been students of some kind, high school formal perhaps?

The bund in HDR. I took what looks like HDR and added HDR to it. Oh yeah, hand held. My camera does cool stuff. Most of its useless, but its cool the first time you do it.

The other end of Nanjing Lu. Tonights response to the massage touts was (In Chinese) 'I am a poor student from Russia, I like apples'.