I've been putting off updating the blog for a couple of days as I honestly didn't know how to tackle telling you everything that I've done, seen, learnt, and experienced over the last three weeks or so. The first week in China already seems like a world away. It has been a trip of three parts really: the first week travelling around with one group, sightseeing and far and wide across the country; the second with mostly the same group but slightly smaller walking the wall and getting off the beaten track; and now I'm independently in Shanghai staying with a Danish couple who are friends of my parents in the lap of luxury (well compared to where I have been anyway).
It has been a fascinating time though. China is a puzzling place. The North is very different to the South and the two biggest cities I've been to (Beijing and Shanghai) couldn't be more different, positively poles apart. The juxtaposition of old and new, communist and capitalist, wealth and poverty, city and country life, and the difference in attitiudes of the people have made it a crazy country to get your head around. I've learnt so much about the history: dynasties from Tang to Qing, fighting with the French, American, British, Japanese, the influence of the Manchurians, Mongols, Tibetans etc. More about Buddhism, Taoism. But have also seen with my own eyes the quaint remnants of communism, particularly in the smaller towns and villages that we visited: what I would call the 'uniform' of some of the older generation (blue caps, old military-style clothing all battered and dirt-ridden), the standard issue vehicles (burgundy three-wheel mini trucks with motorcycle handlebars, bigger blue three-wheel trucks, half-motorbike half-van taxis on a teeny scale). Unfortunately I didn't get any of them on camera as we mostly saw them from the bus travelling through. We had to get used to all the stares in the countryside while we were walking the Wall and staying in out of the way locations, though still within fairly close proximity to Beijing. And the uniformity of the buildings, people's humble abodes at first glance look like mini industrial estates where you think you might find people doing pottery or other industrious things. But then you realise that's where people live. The shops resemble toilet blocks if it weren't for the windows displaying their goods, clad in white oblong tiles.
We have travelled by pratically every mode of transport you can think of too. Plane, bus, sleeper train, normal train, boat, ferry, bamboo raft, rickshaw, tuk tuk, oversized golf cart, 'lady' bike, knackered old bike not even worthy of payment to hire, and a lot on foot. Oh how my knees suffered from all that climbing up and down steep, barely-there steps! And while I can't honestly say I've loved every minute of it (certainly not when tired, shoved around by too many Chinese tourists, encountered yet another foul and unhygienic squat toilet, suffered yet another cold shower or laid awake on a jolting sleeper train) but there have definitely been way more plus points than downsides.
But can I just say how I'm loving Shanghai?! The people are much friendlier and westernised than in Beijing. They speak more English and the city is kind of a cross between Hong Kong and New York. All the art deco architecture on the Bund is stunning and we ventured into a couple of plush hotel lobbies to be greeted with just the most decadent marble, painted ceilings, and all the little touches that transport you right back to the 1920s (I think I lived a past life in that decade!). Lone, who has kindly put me up and been showing me the city's sights, took me to an old part of town today that is mostly taken over with trendy, arty little boutiques but you come across the odd building where people are still living in traditional style. Refusing to move from their homes, which are dark and dirty with only outside washing facilities and no toilet - only in China would you have the two running alongside each other in a tiny street.
I have also been relishing eating healthier, familiar food such as salads, fruit, pasta and potatoes. Although I like Chinese food we were all craving something a bit different and meals without rice or noodles. And then there's the wine! Lovely French wine. We had some 'Great Wall wine' a couple of nights but it was nothing to write home about (even though I am) and most of the time was spent drinking Tsingtao, Yanjing and Snow beer.
I'll write more tomorrow when I can get my head round the details. I have to email my content as there are so many things that only sporadically work out here or not at all (Google, Facebook, Youtube, photo-sharing sites).
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