China is full of art

During January and February, it is main winter holiday time in China.  My family and I are travelling to some of the big cities around China, beginning with Beijing, where we visited the Great Wall, Ming Tombs which were both was very chilly at -8.  We visited a Jade factory and traditional Tea House.  In one day we also visited the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace and a silk factory.  I had already visited these attractions in the summer of 2016 but it was nice to go with my family when it was less busy and no waiting times. I love art and my Mum found an area in Beijing called the 789 Art Zone where people spray paint the walls, a bit like in Berlin and showcase their art work in studios that you can visit.  We spent about 4 hours there and could have stayed longer as it had so much to see and so many little boutiques to visit.

  

From Beijing, we took the bullet train to Tianjin where I live.  My family were amazed that we were travelling at 280km per hour and travelled about 80miles in just over 20 minutes. One of the favourite places for the Scholars is the famous ‘Helens Bar’ and I took my family for a night out as well as the noodle bar, and then of course we went to the Ancient Culture Street and Italian Style Street. It was really cold in Tianjin and the Haihe River that runs through Tianjin was also frozen over so you could walk across it.

We then caught a 2 hour flight to Shanghai which has become my new favourite city in China. Most people who visit China start in Shanghai and it is a bit more Western than Tianjin and Beijing but still very much China. We took a bus tour to see the main sights and my Mum wanted to visit the biggest Starbucks in the world that had opened a few weeks before and people had queued to get in for more than 2 hours.  Thankfully we only waited 10 minutes as the fuss had died down.

We walked around Shanghai and found our way to the famous Bund which is amazing at night as all the buildings are lit up and reflect onto the river.   We decided to take the subway to go further out of the main tourist areas and after getting very lost we eventually made it to the Shanghai propaganda museum.  The museum is very hard to find as it is in the basement of a multi storey block were people live.  It is a really cool place as it is one of the only places in China that still has original propaganda posters, as most of the propaganda was destroyed after the Cultural Revolution once policies and attitudes had changed.

We then visited Yuyuan Gardens, which are traditional streets that have been pedestrianised; it was so nice to go when we did as it was the day before Chinese New Years’ Eve so everyone was in very high spirits and decorations were being sold left right and centre. Of course we then spent the Chinese New Year in Shanghai and went back to the Bund where all the buildings were lit up in red, as it’s the lucky colour of China. I was surprised to learn that very few cities in China have fire work displays as they don’t want the air quality to get any worse. It’s quite sad that the country that brought us fireworks now can’t have organised displays even though people still do let off fireworks. In Shanghai, there was an organised fireworks display until two years ago when people were squashed to death as so many people tried to fit on to the platform, so for good reason it no longer happens.

Another interesting thing that happens all over China is that people that have moved away from home, go back to their own villages for Chinese New Year, when we arrived in Shanghai, it was so busy and by New Years’ Eve, it was like a ghost town with shops closed and very few people around.

I love Shanghai for many reasons but one is that it is very fashion forward.  Every day, all day, I found myself falling in love with outfits worn by the young people. The food in Shanghai was also really good, a bit more expensive than I am used to in Tianjin.  Shanghai is famous for the ‘soup dumpling’ which is exactly what the name suggests, it is a dumpling filled with meat or vegetables and soup. Personally, they’re not my cup of tea, I’m not a fan of dumplings anyway, but my parents and brother really liked them.

This blog has been written on the very bumpy plane journey back to Tianjin where I say goodbye to my parents and brother, then I’ll pack my backpack and head to Thailand with Kirsty and Caitlin for the last two weeks of the winter holiday.  Some of the other Scholars have been backpacking around Asia for the last two months and it will be nice to catch up with some of them in Thailand. Anyway happy first day of the Spring Festival and first day of the New Year, hope this year brings everyone happiness and health.