Our last stop in China was Shanghai, the city with the biggest urban population in the country, c25million. We took the high speed train from Beijing which took five and a half hours and reached a top speed of 345 kilometres per hour. It was also on time, or within one minute of the scheduled time at every stop, and only cost £64 each for a second class ticket with guaranteed seat and lots of leg room. I know the UK government is pushing ahead with renationalisation of the rail industry but I am not sure we will ever reach the level that China is currently at, even ignoring the imminent launch of 400 km/h trains.

Pip’s second heavenly shopping experience

We had no specific plans for our three night stop, or at least I thought not until Pip found out that Shanghai also has a friendship store like the one in Beijing, but with even more validated pre loved designer stuff. She had been so excited in the Beijing store that I couldn’t deny her the second leg although I am not sure why I was surprised that she suddenly “found out” as she had probably been searching since she left the one in Beijing.

I had a look round but apart from watches, which seemed good value, and belts which did not (also my weight and waist are reducing, probably from the copious sweating while carrying all her new handbags! Now the lightest I have been for 6 years, but more to go). So I spent a couple of hours people watching while Pip floated round like a kid in a sweet shop. Cut to the chase, another pre loved designer handbag at a very good price compared to what it would cost in the UK, so I am told.

Just for clarity her purchases were not from the area marked “High End” as she had asked them to set off the fire alarm if she went in there to avoid the chance of falling in love with something outside her preferred price range.

Shanghai city centre

Whether in a taxi or just walking along,  Shanghai feels very different to Beijing; more modern, multicultural and opulent. We thought it seemed more like Hong Kong than Beijing. There were no women walking round in traditional dress and there was a much more visible westerner presence so we could walk round without people showing any real interest in us (unless we were in a shop as Pip has found that sales staff across China follow you round and like to stand within three feet of you; maybe she just looks a bit suspect).

Every Chinese shopping centre or city has land trains and on Nanjing Road, the main pedestrian street in Shanghai, they had raised the level with at least three. Surprisingly the customers we saw on them were almost exclusively non western adults. We are not sure why as the main evening occupation in Shanghai seems to be gentle strolling down the exact same street.

The Bund

At night everyone heads towards the river for views of the spectacular skyline and lights. There are a range of building styles along the river that are interesting to see in daylight but as we know by now, China loves lights and neon.

Away from the city centre

You only have to go a relatively short distance out of the city centre before you become a novelty again. We had an apartment above a shopping plaza in Pudong, about 11 miles northwest of the city. We created quite a stir in every restaurant we went into and some girls we chatted to told us they were surprised to see Westerners in the area and wanted to know why on earth we were there. I didn’t have the heart to say it was mainly because it was cheap.

We also saw one of the infamous ear cleaning salons where you sit in a dentist type chair while a hygienist uses a microscopic camera to look in your ears and gently scrape out any wax or other crud they can find. Sounds pretty unpleasant for the hygienist just looking in ears all day but they kindly share that experience with both the customer and everyone walking past by broadcasting it on TV screens both inside and outside the shop. I decided against having it done as the thought of a closeup of my hairy ear forest was not something I, nor anyone else, needed to see.

Our China thoughts

China has definitely been the country where we have had to work and think hardest due to the scale of the country, size of the population, National holidays, language barrier, cultural differences and the general lack of tourism.

It has been harder to engage with people and learn about the country as they seem more wary and reserved, probably because most have not travelled out of China or had exposure to westerners in their country.

When we have had more detailed conversations with people the first impression was that they have seemed quite informed about other countries but as conversations progressed we found their information was mainly about things that are going wrong in those countries or do not fit the prescribed Chinese approach. This suggested to us that the media (government controlled) only reports on other countries in a negative way to reinforce the impression that China is better than everywhere else due to its strong government and policies.

Food

As I have previously posted, food has required more research than any other country due to ingredients being used that don’t always fit with our western preferences. Two of the latest dishes we identified and decided against were; spicy beauty hoof (three words that do not belong together when describing a dish) and braised turtle (how could we after swimming with their cousins in Gili Trawangan?)

Many restaurants don’t wash their plates, bowls, cups or chopsticks. Instead they are collected by companies who wash them, wrap each set in plastic and then deliver them back to the restaurant. Customers then unwrap them when they sit down and proceed to rinse them with the provided hot water or tea and then pour the used water and plastic in a big bowl on the table. Pip knew about this and we have heard audible gasps when locals have seen we know what to do.

Accomodation

The massive oversupply of residential construction as a result of debt based speculative building by development companies (Evergrande being the most widely known) has left a glut of empty apartments and half finished buildings across China. You see them from the train as you roll into cities. A lot of them were built on the expectation of greater movement from rural areas to tier three or four cities that has not happened, or as part of the “ghost cities” that the government has struggled to populate.  When I found out the suspected number it blew my mind.

65 to 80 million apartments are believed to be empty!!

There is always talk about the housing crisis in the UK with no obvious solution other than increased building, which does not seem to be happening. Should we all move to China so every man, woman and child can have an apartment each??

Other random / interesting? observations

On a sunny day in Xi’an I was surprised to find I was the only person wearing sunglasses. Why? One of the reasons is the belief amongst some Chinese people that wearing sunglasses can be seen as flashy or showing off,.

Lots of Chinese people wear t-shirts with slogans on them, always written in English, but they don’t speak the language. I suppose it is less risky than westerners who have Chinese symbol tattoos (myself included) with no real knowledge of what they translate to.

Prior to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 “queueing days” were introduced on the 11th of every month in certain districts to promote orderly lines, with phrases like “it’s civilised to queue, it’s glorious to be polite”. If you visit China please be aware that this idea and practice has not stood the test of time.

Goodbye China

There are beautiful places in China and we met some very kind and helpful people but having spent four weeks in the biggest, most populated cities we have ever experienced we can’t wait to get to the islands of the Philippines. Bring on the beach!!