Travelling through China has been a lot of fun, but it’s not exactly the easiest place to get around – mainly due to linguistic difficulties. As we’ve said before, the collection of languages called ‘Chinese’ are impossible! Even trying to make yourself understood for basic phrases is a nightmare, and the locals do not allow for this. If they speak no English they do not even try to help your understanding of what they are saying by pronouncing carefully or slowly – if anything they speed up and yap at you as if you’re being difficult! Not helpful! Oh well, at least we got around it most of the time. I was quite proud of my Chinese character writing by the end of the trip!
One thing that is very obvious out here at the moment is that China is mad about the Olympic games. OK, you might expect Beijing to be excited, but the rest of the country is almost as caught up. Beijing itself is in the final throes of a substantial makeover – it has a lovely new airport completed in the nick of time, and many of the down-town buildings we saw last year have been rebuilt. Er, and some have been pulled down for reconstruction… but looking at the rate of putting them back up they are never going to get it all done in time! But the temples have been given facelifts, the parks look fantastically well tended, and the Forbidden City has had more than just a lick of paint. Just as you’d probably expect.
The strange thing is that the rest of China seems to be trying to follow suit. Every town or city we visited had major squares given over to celebration of the Games – complete with huge silken models of the ‘Friendlies’ (the Olympic cartoon mascots that get EVERYWHERE). Every town seems to have its own array of ‘Official’ Olympic shops, there are banners across streets, posters on lampposts and in shop windows… you get the picture. We’re really curious to see if the UK will be this strongly infected with Olympic fever in a few years time!
We actually left mainland China in a lot of style. When getting to Pudong airport in Shanghai you can catch the world’s only Magnetically propelled train – the Maglev. It’s very, very, VERY fast! Each train carriage has a digital speedometer, so we watched the world wiz by at a top speed of 431 km / hour. That’s about 267 miles / hour! Not bad for an airport shuttle. Then when we checked in we were seriously jammy, and managed to get a free upgrade to business class for our flight to Hong Kong. This is the first time it’s ever happened to me (although Gary’s been lucky once before) and it was great! We had huge, comfy reclining seats, we were served edible airline food, NICE wine – and best of all, Haagen Das ice-cream for dessert! Perfect! I hope this happens again some time.
Leaving the SARs Hong Kong and Macau was a bit of a comedown. We found Asia’s answer to EasyJet and Ryan Air: Air Asia. A nice little low-cost airline with fares to Bangkok for only £50 each. Not bad for a 3 hour flight, but unfortunately no free upgrades to Business Class. Actually, no Business Class at all come to think of it!
Anyway, to end our experiences in China, we’ll give you the inevitable scary versus fun listings:
Some things we’ve found great…
1. The Great Wall. Predictable entry, eh? Well, it’s brilliant. Huge, long, and very impressively snake-like as it winds over hills and mountains. More than anything we’ve seen on this trip so far (including the Taj Mahal, Jaisalmer, Terracotta Warriors etc) we would really recommend you see this. Go to Simatai if you can as it is particularly impressive there, and you can have a ride on the rope way (what we’d call a zipline or flying fox) back down over the lake after your climb!
One thing that is very obvious out here at the moment is that China is mad about the Olympic games. OK, you might expect Beijing to be excited, but the rest of the country is almost as caught up. Beijing itself is in the final throes of a substantial makeover – it has a lovely new airport completed in the nick of time, and many of the down-town buildings we saw last year have been rebuilt. Er, and some have been pulled down for reconstruction… but looking at the rate of putting them back up they are never going to get it all done in time! But the temples have been given facelifts, the parks look fantastically well tended, and the Forbidden City has had more than just a lick of paint. Just as you’d probably expect.
The strange thing is that the rest of China seems to be trying to follow suit. Every town or city we visited had major squares given over to celebration of the Games – complete with huge silken models of the ‘Friendlies’ (the Olympic cartoon mascots that get EVERYWHERE). Every town seems to have its own array of ‘Official’ Olympic shops, there are banners across streets, posters on lampposts and in shop windows… you get the picture. We’re really curious to see if the UK will be this strongly infected with Olympic fever in a few years time!
We actually left mainland China in a lot of style. When getting to Pudong airport in Shanghai you can catch the world’s only Magnetically propelled train – the Maglev. It’s very, very, VERY fast! Each train carriage has a digital speedometer, so we watched the world wiz by at a top speed of 431 km / hour. That’s about 267 miles / hour! Not bad for an airport shuttle. Then when we checked in we were seriously jammy, and managed to get a free upgrade to business class for our flight to Hong Kong. This is the first time it’s ever happened to me (although Gary’s been lucky once before) and it was great! We had huge, comfy reclining seats, we were served edible airline food, NICE wine – and best of all, Haagen Das ice-cream for dessert! Perfect! I hope this happens again some time.Leaving the SARs Hong Kong and Macau was a bit of a comedown. We found Asia’s answer to EasyJet and Ryan Air: Air Asia. A nice little low-cost airline with fares to Bangkok for only £50 each. Not bad for a 3 hour flight, but unfortunately no free upgrades to Business Class. Actually, no Business Class at all come to think of it!
Anyway, to end our experiences in China, we’ll give you the inevitable scary versus fun listings:
Some things we’ve found great…
1. The Great Wall. Predictable entry, eh? Well, it’s brilliant. Huge, long, and very impressively snake-like as it winds over hills and mountains. More than anything we’ve seen on this trip so far (including the Taj Mahal, Jaisalmer, Terracotta Warriors etc) we would really recommend you see this. Go to Simatai if you can as it is particularly impressive there, and you can have a ride on the rope way (what we’d call a zipline or flying fox) back down over the lake after your climb!
2. Musical fountains and light displays. This is something they do surprisingly well in China. There are lots of places where they have silly huge fountains with choreographed jets of water rising and falling to music – we saw them in Xi’an, Hangzhou, and of course, Macau. Some of the effects are really impressive such as simulations of tsunamis or opening flowers, especially when combined with tacky under water lighting, or better still, occasional jets of fire! Really silly. Hong Kong’s answer to this is the ‘Symphony of Lights’ – a nightly display where many of the major buildings flash their lights and green lasers in synch with music across the harbour. Apparently it’s in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest permanent light display. The music is incredibly cheesy, but the whole thing is so ridiculous and over the top it’s brilliant!
3. Trains. Once you’ve found a way to book tickets the rail network in China is cheap, efficient, and actually usually runs to time. Scarily the trains often leave slightly early – which is a shock to the system after living in the UK. The best are the Bullet trains – just like the Japanese ones, but a fraction of the price. There is a drawback however. When waiting for a train you are not allowed onto the platform, but held in large waiting areas instead. People are only let through the barriers a few minutes before the train arrives, so you get a stampede in busy stations as hundreds of people try to catch their train. It’s a shame, and spoils what would otherwise be a great network.
4. JJ Inns. Formally known as JinJiang Inns, this fantastic chain of business hotels has loads of branches across China. They are clean, spacious, give you nice complementary internet connections and tea, and best of all: REALLY cheap. Usually about £15 a night! We loved them, and will miss them in Thailand. Apparently there are other similar chains of hotels in China, but we stuck with JJ Inns as they were so good – and as they have a website which allows you to reserve rooms reliably without needing to enter your credit-card details. Brilliant!
5. Chinese Food. Dim Sum – lovely little Chinese Dumplings - are great. They come in all shapes and sizes, steamed, fried, boiled… lots of variety. And they are especially nice to eat when you choose them from trolleys in Hong Kong. And that’s just one example! Beijing duck is very delicious, incredibly rich – and has enough calories to last you out a few weeks without food! China is a very large place with loads of regional foods, many of which are absolutely delicious. But (see below) order with care or you might get a scorpion or a bullfrog…
6. Non-Chinese Foods. What we found surprising is that some western foods are incredibly well produced in China. We’ve had the best popcorn and candy floss we’ve ever tasted out here. And they have some great sushi, especially in Shanghai. Go to number 666 Fuzhou Street and eat at the fantastic Japanese restaurant on the ground floor.
And some scary things…
1. Scorpions on Sticks. OK, we’ll deal with food in general in a moment, but this delicacy deserves a special mention. Even the Chinese seemed to find it strangely fascinating – loads of them were taking photos of the wriggling kebabs at the same time as us! We still haven’t worked out whether you are meant to eat the little devils alive and wriggling or if they get fried first. Anyone know? Please reply to this post as we’re very curious!
And some scary things…
1. Scorpions on Sticks. OK, we’ll deal with food in general in a moment, but this delicacy deserves a special mention. Even the Chinese seemed to find it strangely fascinating – loads of them were taking photos of the wriggling kebabs at the same time as us! We still haven’t worked out whether you are meant to eat the little devils alive and wriggling or if they get fried first. Anyone know? Please reply to this post as we’re very curious!
2. Other scary foods. Erm, well, if you’re board of scorpions you could try a variety of insects, or how about chicken feet? Freshly steamed of course. Or other options include braised pig’s intestines, spicy duck’s neck or stewed bull-frog. And many, many more. Yum. Tempted?
3. Bridal Parlours. These things weren’t so popular in Beijing, Hong Kong or Shanghai, but you could find them on virtually every street in the other cities. The parlours seem to specialise in dressing the bridal couple up in as hideous and elaborate (and garishly coloured) wedding clothes as possible, before taking pictures of them. Many of them seem to advertise these pictures with computer generated backgrounds, so the couple look as if they are on an athletics track, or in a field or something. Very odd. Is this an essential part of getting married in China? Do these places even outfit the couple for their big day? Or are they just photo shops? We didn’t have a clue, but we were fascinated by how popular they were. And by the spectacularly hideous bride’s dresses in the windows! Some were truly impressive - my favourite was a marshmallow shaped monstrosity made of mass of bright yellow fills!
4. The language(s). Tonal. Millions of incompatible dialects. People that speak REALLY fast. And a written language that manages to be more complicated and less intuitive than Japanese. Impressive and ultimately impossible.
5. Whistle Blowing Traffic People. Now China actually has a very well ordered traffic system, with reasonable roads, lane discipline, traffic lights etc. It works well. Unfortunately it is supplemented by whistle-blowing people at some major junctions who wave at traffic, pedestrians, and blow the incredibly shrill whistles continually. On and on… nightmare. And completely unnecessary too, as all they do is look at the traffic lights and then tell the traffic to what the lights are already telling them! Why? The sad thing is that after a few days in Thailand we’ve seen them here too. Grr, more earache.
6. Hotel calls in the middle of the night. OK, this isn’t limited to China. ‘Massagee? You want massagee? Soooo Beautiful. Massagee OK?!’. Gary was impressed!
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