China 2011 - Day 1: Shanghai - The Bund

You can't say you have been to Shanghai if you have never visited the Bund, then how can I miss it?  After lunch, I walked along Fuzhou Road, admiring, together with many many tourists from around the world, all the old colonial era, western style old buildings.  This area was previously the Shanghai International Settlement area, put it bluntly, colonial enclaves during the 1920s-30s.

As I was at the Bund in the afternoon, the sun was shining from the west, the old bund is cast in the shadows, looked dark and gloomy.  In contrast, the east side of the Huangpu River, is immersed in the golden sunshine.

It is ironic, but at the same time, natural.  Pudong used to be an area for the city poor, while Puxi is for the rich and influential, now Pudong is in modern glory, while the Bund looks like an old man living beyond his time.  

China 2011 - Day 1: Shanghai Museum

Immediately after I settled down at the youth hostel, I went to visit Shanghai Museum, which is just 10 minutes walk away from the hostel.

Shanghai Museum is the top 3 museums in China, and claims one of the best collection of Chinese antiques.  It is new building right in the center of People's Park, is of the shape of a Chinese Ding 鼎, an ancient container for food, and the subsequently, became the symbol of imperial power.   Here below you can see a small one, just to give you some idea of what it is.  This is also an exhibit at the Shanghai Museum.

The museum has a total of 6 stories, and divided into many galleries, based on theme, including Chinese bronzeware, jade, Chinese calligraphy, paintings, etc.  If you are an antique, then you can spend the whole day in it.  

 Of the many wonderful artifacts, visitors' attentions were drawn to this particular Buddha's statue.  All 3 photographs are of the same statue, but from left, front and right.  From different angle, the Buddha image looks different, although maybe just slightly.  Our ancestors were great craft men who created such wonderful piece of work.  To tell you the truth:  Why did our ancestors can do it?  They didn't have TV nor Internet :)

In the Chinese calligraphy gallery, you can have the honour to admire great works from famous Chinese literals such as Dong Qichang 董其昌, Su Dongpo 苏东坡.

Chinese love jade.  A fine Chinese should have the same qualities as jade, which are仁，义，智，勇，洁.

And do you find this artifact look very familiar?

A similar artifact is on display at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Arts Museum (You can find the previous post here).  That bowl was found in a merchant shipwreck off Indonesia, carrying many Chinese goods probably on its way to the Middle East.

Shanghai Museum is such a great place to spend a whole day, exchanging ideas with many great minds in the past.  In addition, admission is free!

China 2011 - Day 1: Arriving in Shanghai

Wow... Finally I set off for my 3-week trip to China on 11 Dec 2011.  My flight from Singapore to Shanghai by SIA is at the wee hours of 1.20am.  It is a RED EYE flight, but yet they still charge so much for the air ticket.

I arrived at PuDong International Airport at around 5 plus in the morning.  Hardly anyone in the airport.  By the time I managed to go through immigration and took my luggage, it was already 6 plus.  Just nice the Shanghai Metro starts its first trip for the day.

Heyhey, here is a video I took on the metro from the airport to downtown Shanghai.  Ample space for every passenger, you can do whatever you like.  I didn't know at the time, but later after staying in Shanghai for a couple of days, such an empty train is something to be greatly appreciated.  Shanghai metro is worse than Singapore, they have to pack even more people.

I got off at People's Park station, and started searching for the youth hostel I had booked.

People's Park area is the city center, and very close to the most famous landmark - the Bund.

And I spotted our Capitaland's Raffles Place right at the People's Park metro station, along Fuzhou Road.  It is almost identical to what you have in Singapore, the shops are the same, so it is quite boring for me :)

After quite a while of searching, I finally found my youth hostel, which is quite a bit of distance from People's Park.  It is tucked in one small lane, right next to a wet market.

The place is actually not bad, it is modern and clean, except the room is a bit small, and there is forever a smell in stairs well.  As it is next to the wet market, so sometimes it is quite noisy.  My first night of stay was quite terrible, lots of noise from humans and cars, but then the following night was all quiet and peaceful.

Here is a video of the room.  It is reasonably sized, with attached bath room.  The price is 180 yuan/night, no breakfast or anything else.

Ok, that's for the first part of the day.  Next posts I will bring you to the Shanghai Museum and the Bund, the most famous landmark of Shanghai.

Lao Ban Zhai 老半斋

Lao Ban Zhai is a famous restaurant for Shanghainese food in Fuzhou Road, Shanghai.  During my recent visit to Shanghai, I paid them a visit in the evening.  Lao Ban Zhai is famous for their Chai Fan, basically it means vegie and rice.  What really is it?  I have no idea, as they only sell Chai Fan for lunch.

I ordered a fried eel noodle and mutton as a cold dish.

Here is the fried eel noodle.  The eel had been first deep fried, and the it is mixed with the noodle in the soup. The eel was quite crispy due to the deep fry.  Overall, I think it was just so so, not very outstanding.  The portion of noodle is small, just 100g.

The mutton cold dish was ok, but again it was not outstanding.  Average is the best that I can say of this dish.

The total cost for these two dishes was close to 50 yuan.  The lady at the cashier was aghast by the amount of food I ordered as if it were too much.  However, it was just as I had guessed, the food was not enough for me :(

At Lao Ban Zhai, you have to first order your dishes at the cashier, pay up, then you will get your 'tickets'.  Pass the tickets to the waitress there then they will bring the food to you.  For cold dishes, you have to go and get them yourself.

Lao Ban Zhai is recommended by some travel guide books, but I personally don't really like it.  Over priced.

My Train Experiences in China

During my recent visit to China, I took an over night train from Tulufan吐鲁番 (Turpan) to LiuYuan (柳园).  At Tulufan Railway Station, they don't sell any sleeper train tickets within 10 days.  Our only option was to get a non-sleeper train ticket.  To make it worse, there was no more seats available, we could only get no-seat tickets, at the same price as tickets with a seat!

I was naively thinking that there might not be many people in the train as it was low season for travelers, not realising that in Xinjiang, workers from other provinces in China usually start to go back to their home town 1 month before Chinese New Year.  As 2012's Chinese New Year came in on 23 Jan, so Christmas time is already the beginning of ChunYun(春运), meaning workers going home in large numbers for Chinese New Year.

The train was to depart Tulufan station at 11pm, but having nothing to do, we arrived at around 7pm.  There was some unrest in Xinjiang, and as a result, people coming into train stations and bus terminals, have to go through security check.

The station building itself is quite run down and it is small.  People crowded in the waiting room.  Some had seats, some didn't and sat on the floor.  The station itself is supposed to be smoke free, but people still smoked discretely in the waiting hall.  At the male toilet, then it was a different story.  There is a loud speaker right outside the male toilet, announcing no smoking is allowed in the male toilet.  But the reality is you can smell the smoke outside the toilet.  Going inside, many people were smoking there.

The male toilet is still the old style public toilet.  This means there are no doors.  People shit right in front of others who pass by.  It is like a parade of buttocks.

30 minutes before our train departure, we started to go to the platform.  Before that, we need get our tickets checked by the railway staff.  It was a nightmare.  There was no queue, and everybody just pushed ahead.  Some railway staff attempted to restore orderly, but their efforts are in vain.  They are out-numbered.

Boarding the train is another nightmare.  The carts were crowded and you could hardly moved.  And people with very big luggage, blocking the passageway in the cart.

I quickly found a vacant seat to sit down.  At Tulufan, it was still not so bad, there were still some vacant seats available, but after the train reached Hami, all the seats were taken by their rightful owners.  We really had to stand.  I was really lucky that out of the 8.5 hours train journey, I only had to stand for around 4 hours.

In the train, the temperature was high at around 27C, while outside temperature was at -16C!  People were sweating in the train.  The train was a smoke free train, but then nobody enforces this rule.  Sitting next to me there were two railway staff members.  They were smoking non-stop, one cigarette after another.  They didn't stop smoking for even a minute from Tulufan to Shanshan, where alighted.

It was a small society in the train, there were many kinds of people there.

There was a young lady, who was going to somewhere I couldn't remember, but she had to spend 3 days 3 nights in the train, without a seat!  She is young and at least average looking, and she was aware of that.  Using her charm to men, especially the older men, she managed to get some sympathy from men, occasionally got a seat for a while, or at least a small stool from someone for her to sit.

There are also two types of people in the train.  Some people have their rightful seats, and they are willing to share their seat with those who don't for some time.  Some people are more territory conscious.  They claimed their seats, and their territory, like animals peeing to show who is the boss.

I am most afraid of the train reaching a station.  When the train reaches a station, means more passengers will board the train.   That means at least one hour of chaos, with people fighting, arguing for seats, and space for luggage storage.  With more passengers, the temperature will rise further, and more people smoking.  The air quality in the cart became more and more unbearable.

I had a conversation with a young man who was traveling with his father, to go back to his hometown of Shuzhou from Shanshan, Xinjiang.  He is working at a construction company in Xinjiang.  He told me that in Xinjiang, they can only work 10 out of 12 months in a year, as the temperature is too low to do any work for the two coldest months.  For these two months without work, they will just go home and relax, without pay of course.  He and his father had traveled on this route a number of times, and always taking the train without sleeper.  I was very surprised.  I asked him why he didn't travel by air?  Especially his father is already old, and there is no way to get some good rest in a non-sleeper train.  He said they couldn't afford it.  The air ticket costs around 3000-4000 yuan return.  It is like his one month pay, 10% of what he earns in a year.

Then there was a non-Han Chinese young man.  He looked very young, probably just 20 years old, yet he had been working for 3 years.  He had also traveled this route a number of times.  This young man reminded me about the restaurant we went to in Tulufan.  In that small restaurant, from waitress to the cook, everybody was very young, probably late teens to early 20s.  People seem to start work early in this part of the country.

I must also mention a group of workers who were sitting opposite to me for a period of time.  They blasted loud music from their handphones, talked loudly at the wee hours of the day, played cards on the seats loudly, and walked around half naked.  It is a loud reminder that China is still a developing country.  There is still a lot of work to do in terms of education.  The way to become a developed & gracious nation is long and full of obstacles.

Another group of people I must mention are the railway staff.  They pushed their sales carts back and forth from time to time, causing lots of disturbances to the passengers.  Can you imagine their sales cart had to pass through a path full of people, sitting, sleeping, and standing?  The railway staff care about nothing, but their sales.  The comfort level of the passengers is basically none of their business.

The 8.5 hours long journey was a torture to me, and it felt like a century.  However, many more people in that train had to live in the train for a couple of days.  That's their yearly routine.  The government has not offered them any other alternatives.

I am lucky, I only had to go through their torture probably just once, it is not my yearly routine.  I wish in the near future, those people don't have to go through this torture either.  

Memorial Museum of Generalissimo Sun Yat-Sen's Mansion

Watched the movie 1911 Revolution yesterday, and it reminds me of my visit to the Memorial Museum of Generalissimo Sun Yat-Sen's Mansion earlier this year in Guangzhou.

Usually, the museum is quite empty, hardly with any visitors, but I visited it on the first day of Chinese New Year, long queues of people at the entrance, waiting for distribution of free entry tickets at each hour.  The museum offers free entry, but they control the number of visitors to, I think, 3000 per day.

The mansion has obviously been renovated, with all the fresh paint visible over the entire building compound.  And, in order not to obstruct the architectural beauty of the mansion, a small part of a nearby bridge was removed.  You see, we Cantonese are really serious in preserving our heritage.  :)

There are two western style buildings in the compound, used to be connected on the second floor with a bridge, but then that is gone.

Within the building itself, there are displays of artifacts related to the operation of the generalissimo during its heydays, offering a glimpse into the life of those challenging days.

Here is the meeting room where Dr Sun used to hold his meetings.

Quiet, airy corridor, perfect for a lazy summer afternoon in the heat of southern China.

Looking over the old structure, we can see the modern Guangzhou, covered in a thin layer of mist.

It is a nice place to remember those who dedicated their lives in the past for the betterment of our lives today.  If you are not interested in history, at least it is a nice place to sit back and relax, and enjoy the view of modern Guangzhou.

If you can read Chinese, more information about the museum can be found at this link.

Guangzhou Lizhiwan (荔枝湾)

In Seoul, South Korea, there is a place called Cheonggyecheon.  It is one of the great achievements of the incumbent President - Lee Myung-bak, when he was the mayor of Seoul.  Cheonggyecheon used to be nothing but a polluted, smelly stream in the city.  The previous mayors chose to simply cover up this smelly stream with concrete and forget about it, but Lee decided to do something to it and restore it to its original beauty.  And indeed he made it.  Then a years earlier, some government officials from Guangdong province in China visited Cheonggyecheon, so they decided to do the same, then came the Lizhiwan.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Here you see the new Lizhiwan at night.  Elegant bridges, winding water ways, blue-grey brick buildings of typical South China architecture, illuminated under the Chinese New Year festive light-up, bump boats ferrying tourists, local and non-local, along the waterways.

Walking along Lizhiwan, you might wonder whether time has gone back to the glory days of Lizhiwan, which was the richest part of Guangzhou City in the days of Qing Dynasty.  Being the only port allowed to trade with foreigners, Guangzhou was thriving in business.  Came with the upper class life-style of the business elites.  Lizhiwan has the highest concentration of famous restaurants with history dating back to the Qing Dynasty, and they are still in business and thriving today.

Next time when you visit Guangzhou, pay Lizhiwan a visit.  You have a feast to your taste buds, as well as to your eyes.

The Peak Hong Kong: Then and Now

The peak is one of the most popular tourist spot in Hong Kong.  It represents the prosperity of the former British colony.  Now let's take a look how it was like in the past.

Looking down from the Peak, we see low-rise colonial buildings everywhere.  At a quick glance, you might mistake this Pearl of the Orient as somewhere in Europe. 

Looking down from the Peak now, skyscrapers are crowded all around the beautiful Victoria Harbour.  The buildings are modern, chic and elegant.  Nobody could imagine it was no more than a small little fishing port in the southern tip of mainland China.  The colonial style old buildings are gone together with their British masters.

The mist covering the city is unmissable, signifying this modern city is another victim of uncontrolled urban development, at the expenses of permanent damage to mother nature.  Hong Kongers like to blame mainland Chinese for the pollution, accusing mainland Chinese of not punishing those pollutant producing industries.  However, the fact is many such industries are from Hong Kong!  Well, whatever it is, let's all love our mother Earth.

Guangzhou: Then and Now

Here is a photo of Dr Sun Yat-sen's Memorial Hall in Guangzhou (Canton), China.  During my days in Guangzhou, this memorial hall was a 'sacred' or sensitive place, as it was in memory of the founding father of Republic of China, which fled to Taiwan after the Nationalist government lost the civil war. 

This was then:

And it is now:

The structure didn't change much, but do you notice the absence of Dr Sun's statue in the 'then' photo?  Another less obvious point is the quality of air.  In the 'then' photo, although in black & white, the sky appeared to be clear, while in the 'now' photo, the hall is covered in a light mist, a result of the poor air quality in Guangzhou.  Blue sky is something hard to come by these days in Guangzhou. 

And then I found another photo/painting of the same scene.  Judging by the Japanese characters written on this photo/painting, it seems like the painting was done during Japanese occupation period (Oct 21st, 1938 - Sept, 1945).  Dr Sun's statue was not there either.  It will be interesting to know when they put up the statue. 

Just a brief introduction about this landmark.  The memorial hall is in memory of, of course, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who helped over-turned the Qing Dynasty and established the first republic on Chinese soil, the Republic of China in 1912, and became the very first President of the republic.  The hall has an octagonal shaped dome with no supporting pillars, very much like the octagonal dome of Florence duomo.

The construction of the hall stared in 1929, and completed in 1931. 

Daylight 'Robbery' at Baiyun Airport

You may sometimes wonder how the Chinese make so much money. Now I show you how. I bought a bottle of 600ml water at a typical convenience store, it costs me RMB2.00. This is a pretty typical price for bottled water.

Then today, I bought exactly the same brand, same volume of water at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou. Guess how much it cost me? 2 times? 3 times? Nah, far from it. It was 10 times!!!
That bottle of water cost me RMB20.00. They can charge such high price because they are the monopoly. Nobody else in the restricted area sells bottled water. With the new safety measures prohibiting passengers from carrying liquid more than 100ml, the only obvious party benefited from this measure seems to be the stores selling bottled water. And guess what, usually it is those passengers taking budget airlines have to buy from them, as water will cost about the same onboard the budget flight.

Moral of the story? Better get rich and make sure you always have the luxury to take the full-fledged airlines, which provides drinks & food onboard :)

Pollution in Guangzhou

It has been a week since I came back from South Korea to Guangzhou. The pollution is Guangzhou is, one word, BAD!!!

On a sunny day, you will still see the blue sky, but it is only limited to the sky right above you. If you look around from a high rise building, you can see very clearly a layer of smog covering the city, covering all the buildings. Pollutants are rampant in the air we breath.

The leading professor in the battle with SARS, Prof. Zhong Nan-shan(钟南山), who is a specialist in respiratory system deseases, once said that the lungs of people living in Guangzhou are mostly black! The reason? The air is too polluted!

I am kind of afraid of staying in Guangzhou for more than one week. My sensitive nose always complains like hell. Don't think Guangzhou is a nice city to live in, until it cleans up its air & the environment.

Travel from Hongkong Airport to Guangzhou

For my last trip home, I took a flight to Hongkong, instead of a direct flight home. It is quite convenient to travel from Hongkong Airport to Guangzhou directly.

There are 3 coach companies offering coach service from the airport to various parts of Guangzhou. I personally have tried two, one is Wing Tung (永东), another is CTS (China Travel Service). They use a Hongkong coach to fetch you from the airport to Luo Ma Chow border crossing point. After you pass the Hongkong immigration and mainland China immigration, you will be a mainland Chinese coach all the way to your destination in Guangzhou City.

The coaches leave Hongkong airport once every 10-20 mins, quite frequent. You don't have to wait for too long. The coaches are not bad in general. There is an on-board toilet for you to relief yourself, and a water machine to provide drinking water.

Now it comes to the tricky part, which is the price. When you enquire, they will quote you a price of RMB250.00. As you hesitate or bargain, they will lower it to RMB200.00 immediately, and that's the price I paid for my ticket. Then later I realised in fact I can actually get it to as low as RMB150.00 for the trip! Please do learn my lesson!

I heard there is one more way to get to Guangzhou from Hongkong airport. Also by coach, but you don't have to get through the immigration at Luo Ma Chow. The price is higher at RMB230. But I couldn't get more details about that service.

Crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Hong Kong is part of China, Shenzhen is also part of China, but when you travel from one to other, you have to cross a border checkpoint just like you are crossing the border of two countries. One country, two systems!

Ok, the most popular and convenient checkpoint is no doubt LuoHu (罗湖) checkpoint. The inter-city train from Guangzhou East Railway station arrives directly at LuoHu checkpoint. You leave the train station, walk into the Mainland Chinese side of the immigration building, then walk to the Hong Kong side of the immigration building. Then you can walk directly to the Hong Kong MTR station which can bring you to anywhere in Hong Kong.

But LuoHu is usually very crowded with lots lots of people crossing the border. LuoHu area is also the breeding bed for all kinds of crimes, from petty theft to day-light robbery, to various scams by the con artists.

An alternative border crossing point, which I just discovered this past Chinese New Year, is the Futian Kou'an (福田口岸). From LuoHu train station, take Shenzhen's subway line 1 to Exhibition Centre, then transfer to line 3 to Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) station. The immigration building is part of the Shenzhen subway station building. On the other side of the border, that's Luo Ma Chow (落马州) station of Hong Kong's MTR train system. From there, you can go anywhere in Hong Kong too!

Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) is usually not crowded, with very few people in the immigration hall itself. Can you imagine I was there on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year and the immigration hall was mostly empty, while LuoHu side was very crowded.

From LuoHu or Luo Ma Chow to Hong Kong central is ~HK$43.00 on the MTR.

Next time, give Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) a try if you are crossing the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen :)

Guangzhou 1

The five-goat statue is the symbol of Guangzhou. Legend has it that five immortals came to Guangzhou riding on five goats. They blessed the city with wealth and prosperity before they returned to heaven, leaving behind the five goats. Ever since, Guangzhou has been a rich city. Till today, it is still one of the richest cities in China.

Guangzhou has a history of more than 2000 years, plays an important role in the spread of Zen Buddhism to China, is a sacred site for Muslims, and the base for the nationalists who overthrew the last feudal dynasty.

The founder of Chinese Zen Buddhism - Ven. Damo (达摩) first landed in China at Guang Xiao Temple (光孝寺), before he further his journey to the north and eventually settled down in Shaolin Temple. There are still legacies of his stay at Guangxiao Temple, including the well where he washed his ink stone.

Guangxiao Temple is also where the 6th Zen grand master Ven Huineng (惠能) was ordained. His hair was buried underneather the 7-level pagoda behind the main hall.

Guangziao Temple's official site is available here.

The Hair Pagoda of Ven Huineng

Guangzhou one of the earliest mosques in China. It is called Guangtasi (怀圣光塔寺), literally meaning in memory of the holy prophet. It has an Arab style tower in the mosque, which also served as a light tower in the ancient days. More information (in both Chinese and English) is available here.

(To be continued...)