21 July 2015

Gentlefolk,

This post is a series of photos which describe our time in Shanghai last week. I will do a separate post on our short visit to Suzhou,

On 8 July 2015 we took the fast train from Qingdao to Shanghai for the start of the summer university holidays (actually, Chinese teachers do an additional 3 week "short semester" and don't start their holidays until 25 July).

We had a week in Shanghai (including 24 hours in Suzhou) and then flew to Hong Kong where we are at present, visiting with our son Andrew and his family. We will fly to Australia on 24 July for five weeks, and then head north again for the start of the new academic year.

Shanghai

Superlatives best describe this city: huge; flashy; fashionable; dynamic; impressive; well-organised; clean; intense; crowded.

With a population of 23 million Shanghai is China's biggest urban center. Imagine the entire population of Australia in one city!

We spent a week here, and were impressed by the extensive and efficient transportation system (subway and bus and taxi).  The streets are clean and air quality is better than China's other mega-cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

Most residents live in apartments (which are among the most expensive in China).  It is a shopper's and foodies paradise, with lots of malls and many, many restaurants. There seems to be a Starbucks on every second corner.

Is Shanghai one of the 'great cities of the world'? Perhaps not quite in the same league as New York or London or Paris or Hong Kong or Singapore - but catching up fast.

On the fast train from Qingdao to Shanghai.  The journey took a little less than 7 hours.  Just imagine going from Melbourne to Brisbane in 7 hours! And at a ticket (second class) price of $80! Virtually every seat was occupied the whole way.  We have talked about a bullet train down the east coast of Australia, but unfortunately I doubt our small population would not sustain such a service at a reasonable price.

Our train hit a top speed of 310 km per hour (they are saying the next generation of fast trains will have a top speed of about 580 k/h). We didn't travel very long at the top speed, because the train had to slow down for the next station,  It was a remarkably smooth ride.  China has built 16,000 km of fast rail in just 10 years, and they will have 20,000 km by 2020 - a remarkable achievement.  The trains, both fast and slow, are very punctual.

The train traversed the heavily-populated provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu.  There were villages every few km, and the land was intensively cultivated the whole way.   What a contrast driving down the east coast of Australia from Brisbane to Sydney (and on to Canberra) where the land is mainly pasture and animals.

Some areas, for example around Weifang, incorporate many greenhouses for the growing of vegetables.

Old friend Rob Hodge invited us to use his apartment in Shanghai, which is centrally located near Jiangsu Road subway station on Line 2 (Changning District).  Very convenient: it is about 30 minutes from Hongqiao and 15 mins from Peoples Park. Thank you Rob for letting us stay in the apartment while you were in Sydney. This photo was taken from the bedroom window - high-rise buildings as far as the eye can see.

Of course we went to The Bund, the old business center of Shanghai.  Vera looking across the Huangpu River to the financial district of Pudong.  It is hard to believe that 25 years ago there were just a few villages in Pudong. This incredible development has taken place in just one generation.

Later we visited Pudong.  This part, on the banks of the river, is dominated by many high-rise buildings., including the three in this photograph.  The buildings are not just tall, but interesting in their own right.  On the left is the 492m World Financial Center; on the right is the new Shanghai Tower, at 632 m the tallest building in China,  It looks like a corkscrew, the effect produced by its outer glass skin twisting through 120 degrees. Impressive that Chinese are willing to adopt the latest technology and innovative designs.  

When the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower was built in 1994 it set the standard for Pudong's development.  We avoided the long queues for the Observation Deck and instead opted for the interesting Museum of Shanghai History in the basement.

On our last night in Shanghai (Thursday 16 July 2015) we visited the Bund, It was packed, wall-to-wall people, as seen in this photo.  We popped in to the Peace Hotel with its distinctive green roof , which we first visited in 1985 - I swear the same jazz band was still playing in the bar!

Although it was raining when we first visited the famous East Nanjing Street pedestrian mall - one kilometer of mall after mall - there were lots of people around. 

A photos taken at 9pm on a Thursday night, in about the same location as the one above.  East Nanjing Street was ablaze with neon lights and even more crowded than during the day. 

The impressive Shanghai Museum.

We visited the Xintiandi development - "old Shanghai" rebuilt and revitalised.   Later we visited another old-new area, Tianzifang, which was actually more authentic and fun than Xintiandi.  

The inaugural meeting of the Communist Party of China was held in a house in Xintiandi on 23 July 1921 - now the site of a popular museum.  This diorama purports to show a young Mao Ze Dong addressing the meeting, but I doubt he was very prominent. It took another 15 years, during the Long March, for Mao to become the undisputed leader of a small and shattered CPC; and, almost miraculously,  in another 15 years he was the undisputed leader of  'New China'.

The agenda of the inaugural meeting of the CPC on 23 July 1921; the police threatened, so the following day the meeting continued on a hired boat on a local lake.  28 years later, in 1949, Communist forces defeated the Kuomintang to become the ruling party of China. Today it is the largest political party in the world, with 88 million members.

Our Wendy Wu tour group (May 2008) visited this Starbucks in Xintiandi. Good memories. 

Andy and his lovely girlfriend Iris invited us to the superb Polo restaurant (Shanghai food).  He is the nephew of a good friend in Sydney, Angie.  We met him when they visited Qingdao  about 3 years ago.

One of my ex-students, Fan Jian Yi (Danny), invited us to lunch at his parents place.  A lovely gesture, and we spent a delightful afternoon getting to know his family.

St Ignatius, the Catholic Cathedral of Shanghai, was built in 1904.  Sunday English mass was just starting when we visited, so we stayed for the serive - it was a full house. 

We visited the former residence and office of Soong Ching Ling, wife of Sun Yat Sen, the first President of the Republic of China (he died in 1925). Her sister Soong Mei Ling married Chiang Kai Shek and fled with him to Taiwan in 1949.  In contrast, Ching Ling stayed to help reconstruct China after the devastating civil war. She served as a Vice President of the PRC until her death in 1981.  She is widely admired for her patriotism, as evidenced by the numbers of visitors to her ex-residence.

Doesn't this building remind you of the famous Flatiron Building in New York?

Shanghai's huge Public Library.

Inside one of the metro trains.  Excellent system, always crowded.  What did we ever do before smart-phones?

No visit to Shanghai is complete without seeing the Yu Yuan Garden and Old Town.  The Ming-style garden took 18 years to construct (1559-77).   This is the 'Zig-Zag Bridge' designed to confuse evil spirits. 

We did a short visit to Suzhou, "the Venice of China", which is only 45 minutes by fast train from Shanghai.  This post is already long enough, so I'll cover the Suzhou trip in a separate post.

Shit happens

I had the wallet with all my Aussie cards (credit cards, driver's licence, etc) when we left Qingdao, but when I looked for it a few days later it was nowhere to be found.

We searched high and low: nothing, nada, nichts, zilch. Panic.

Luckily Rob Hodge had insisted we join WeChat, and we were able to seek his help via that marvellous app.  He arranged for the CBA to call our mobile (it took almost 30 minutes to be connected to an operator - luckily they had called us!), and we were able to cancel all our credit cards.  

We'll get replacement cards in Australia next week, and new licence, etc.  Nuisance. 

We could see from our online bank accounts that the credit cards had not been used.  I don't think the wallet was stolen - most likely it fell out of my backpack when I was mucking around with all our luggage.  I guess it was found by someone, who would have taken out the money (about $30) and probably threw away the cards and other ID.  

Vera swears she will not travel around Europe with me next year, unless I smarten up and look after my things properly.  I have promised to do so.

...

That's it for this post.  

Best wishes, keep well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah (The Intrepid Duo)

English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao

www.upc.edu.cn

Tuesday, 21 July 2015 (currently in Hong Kong)