China 360 (Courtney)

The last 3 days have really given Marcus and I a whirlwind tour of how vastly different each part of China is. We spent the weekend in Shanghai, to catch up with Barb and Metta, some people we know through Marcus' family. We stayed at the same hotel, and I can honestly say I have never (likely will never again!) stayed anywhere so opulent. Now I know that there are luxury resorts all over the world, but my normal mode of accomodation overseas generally involved overcrowded dormrooms, the stench of others and dodgy bathrooms! Not so Shanghai.

The room, and the night view from the room - it was
pretty spectacular.

We stayed at a hotel called the Pudi Boutique Hotel, and I seriously cannot thank Jann and Barb enough, as this was a present to Marcus and I. It was just fantastic and was exactly what we needed so a thousand thank-you's to you. For the first time since the 19th of February I felt properly clean, relaxed and like myself. The room we were staying in was just amazing - you walked down this large hallway that had a kitchenette type thing, into the main room, which consisted the most comfy bed ever, a large telly which was in this built in mini bar which swivled so you could watch the telly from bed, the couch over looking Shanghai or...from the massively luxurious bath! Yup, the walls of the bathroom were glass so you could see out the windows whilst you bathed. The bathroom was to die for, the world's biggest shower (I am not kidding when I say I had a 30 minute shower that afternoon), a huge deep bath, it was just gorgeous.

The room had this great chaise lounge from which you
you could overlook parts of Shanghai. It was so much
more comfortable than our wooden couch.

Opposite the elevator on our floor was this amazing installation.
Every bird cage had lightbulbs in them that would subtly change colour.

The world's coolest alarm clock. The actual numbers were
projected onto the roof.

We left Wuxi early on Saturday morning, courtesy of the lovely school driver. We hadn't been too fussed about catching the bus, but we awoke on Saturday to find it bucketing with rain and about 3 degrees - not ideal weather! The train station, whilst looking absolutely chaotic, is surprisingly easy to figure out (Sa, I was expecting many Europe train type episodes!). We caught the bullet train which took an hour and was a really enjoyable experience. For the price of 39 yuan (about $6) you couldn't get better value.

Arriving at Shanghai, I had expected to have been transported to this magical wonderland. Wuxi and it's grey, smoggy outlook has been getting to me and I was looking forward to the bright city lights of Shanghai - I'm a city girl after all, I always love big cities more than anything when I am travelling. Well, we get off the train and you could have sworn you were still in Wuxi. Rain, cold, grey sky, noise, rubbish, dirt...where were all the big buildings, sophisticated shops?! Everyone on the train is herded into two lanes to get out of the building, it was China chaos at it's best. No one queues in this country - it's every man for himself! A fight broke out in the aisle next to us, seemingly over a small girl...it was madness! We stand in the rain trying to get our bearings and realise we are at a taxi rank - perfect! The guy knew exactly where we wanted to go so off we went. Shanghai is such a massive city, we saw only but a small part of it on the weekend, and will literally take us many, many trips to really get an understanding of the city and to see all of it!

We wandered around for a while until it was nearly check in time. Of course we didn't realise that because Barb was already there we could have checked in straight away! But nevermind, it gave us the chance to watch a very funny stage show, have a coffee and even buy an umbrella for Marcus from a lady on the street. That's one thing that I love about China, you need something, you can buy it!


After we got settled in and stopped drooling over the room, we headed out with Barb and Metta to hit some shops. The weather was so awful it didn't leave us a lot of options, so we headed to this massive indoor market (at a train subway station no less!). This suited us fine as we wanted to buy some "Chinese" things for the apartment. We spent hours at this place, bartering over all manner of things. It felt like we had bought a lot at the time (and we were somewhat limited because we needed to get it back on the train) but now I wish we had have bought more! We will definately be going back. We got right into the bargaining, and i think next time we might be even harder!

A couple of hours were spent relaxing in the room before we headed out for dinner. Barb had wanted to go to this "Happy Duck" place which is known for its amazing duck (obviously) but the place was packed so we ended up walking to a little place, almost like a fast food outlet. Walking around the streets at night was fantastic. We were staying just in the French Concession part of the city, which has some amazing architecture - you could almost think you were in a European city, which whilst lovely, is kind of odd! Shanghai at night is amazing, so many buildings and lights and just people everywhere, I tried my best to soak it all up.

Self portrait time!

Shanghai at night. It was really beautiful.

The place we went to for dinner, we will probably never again see or remember where it was. It looked like the interior of a food court/hungry jacks, just little tables everywhere. The food though is excellent! We ordered a whole pile of dished, this steamed eggplant dish which is one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten, some duck, a hot chicken dish which I couldn't get enough of, tofu..you name it! In true Chinese style everything comes at different times, eg the beer which came basically at the end of the meal, but it was all delicious.



After a quiet stroll back through the streets we slept the sleep of the dead in our comfy king size bed, well that was once the downstairs nightclub finished up for the night! Sunday Marcus and I hit the streets by ourselves, we seem to make a good team when it comes to travelling - Marcus is good with directions, and I'm good at the organising/smaller details part. So whilst Marcus will remember which street we are staying on, I'll take note of which train station we got off at. Seems to work well so far! We headed out to a dvd store that Barb had told us about. Normally this sort of shopping wouldn't interest me if I was overseas, but we are so starved for things to do of a night time here in Wuxi that we bought up big! We now have a nice pile of dvds to work our way through.


We spent some time in Fuxing Park which was just down the road from where we were staying. It's a quite beautiful park, but what makes it special is the people! Sunday's are obviously relaxation/family day and there was people everywhere. All the oldies doing tai chi, so many groups singing (everyone in China thinks they can sing!) and ballroom dancing!! It was like an audition for So You Think You Can Dance. Funny stuff.

So you think YOU can dance?

From here we caught the train to the People's Square, which I suppose is the centre of Shanghai. I really wanted to check out the Urban Planning Centre as I have been wanting to see this awesome exhibit. In the foyer they have a mini model of what Shanghai looks like now. Upstairs they have a whole floor dedicated to a model of what Shanghai will look like in 20 years. It is unbelievable the size of this thing. All of the buildings have been made in a white paper or balsa wood type material. They are so real looking, and also light up to give the appearance of night time. I could have spent all day examining all the different areas of Shanghai. The city itself is huge already, I can't imagine it being busier.

Some views of the exhibition. It made you want to crawl all amongst it!

Outside the Urban Planning Centre seems to be a great spot for Chinese people wanting to practise their English! We had a couple of conversations with some people, before chowing down on some fantastic street food (which may or may not have been the culprit of Marcus' blog which follows after this one). The rest of the afternoon we wandered around before making our way back to the hotel to grab our bags and say goodbye.


I can honestly say that I wanted to stay! Going back to Wuxi was a rather depressing thought, but it was actually still nice to open the door and be "home". We caught a taxi back from the train station as it was cold and dark and we have heard that the train station isn't the safest area at night (not that any are I suppose!). Well, I think the bus might have been a safer option! The taxi driver we had seemed to be on a mission to kill us all. None of them have seatbelts, so you basically spend the entire ride gripping on as best you can, and trying to figure out what would be the best way to protect yourself in the event of an accident! This was the closest we have come so far to hitting numerous pedestrians and scooters, it was quite terrifying! I must learn how to say in Chinese - "SLOW DOWN!!!!"


We have been home about 30 seconds when the neighbour knocks. Our neighbour looks like a lovely lady, but she doesn't speak English and we speak minimal Chinese so our interactions are fairly limited. She hands me two shopping bags and babbles away in Chinese for a while. I can only assume the bags are for me so thank her profusely. Marcus comes over to say hi and he picks up on one sentence that yes, indeed the bags are for me. So some more thank yous and smiles and we close the door. It is times like these that I wish I spoke Chinese, as I will NEVER know why she gave me what she gave me. One bag contained packets of serviettes. Odd, but everything in this country is a little weird. The other bag contained nothing but sanitary pads?! I don't know why, and never will.


So that was our weekend in Shanghai. We had a ball and can't wait to do some more exploring, it is a city that I would love to become really familiar with. Sadly Marcus came down with a nasty case of food poisoning, which you can read about just under this. Needless to say, our 360 degree view of China was completed yesterday. From downtown Wuxi, to the city lights of Shanghai and how the other half live, to a local Chinese hospital. There are no words to describe the state of this hospital, the rubbish, the filth...it was horrible. Whilst we waited for Mr Pan to battle the reception area (a hole in the wall to a dingy office area) Marcus asked me to find the bathrooms. I trekked down the hall and was led by my nose to the bathroom area, it was unmistakable that I had found them. I stuck my head inside and just felt so utterly sorry that Marcus was going to have to use these bathrooms in the state he was in. But, you can read all about it just below.....

The possible offending "Collon" snacks. Aptly named.

And finally some Chinglish on the train seat, it reads:

"The next passengers were ok, I will let you first on light footsteps.

Train runs more quickly walking more carefully and speak more civilised language.

Wandering the same journeyed passengers spoke softly and keep a civil tongue."