Shanghai 上海 and Hangzhou 杭州
The 月(month) started with a seven day school week after catching up with the days we had off for the Mid-Autumn festival. At the beginning of the month, we had a full week off university where we all took advantage of the time and a few of us decided to travel to Shanghai and Hangzhou whereas others traveled down to Xi’an to see the Terracotta warriors.
The holiday began with us rushing to the station to get the best space with our standing ticket. We hopped onto the 火车 (train) with so much hope for it to only be knocked down when the conductor glanced at our tickets and pointed to a carriage packed full with people and it was at that moment that we all realised what we had just got ourselves into. When we got into our carriage it was absolute carnage with people shoving one another to get through especially us as we didn't have a seat so were constantly in the way. Arran decided to try and sleep by lying down with his head under one set of seats, his body in the aisle and his legs underneath the opposite set of seats. Later on Alyssa and I both copied him in an unsuccessful attempt to get some sleep.
After the 17 hour 火车 journey we finally arrived in 上海 (Shanghai) at 下午五点半 (5.30pm). The first on our agenda was the Yuyuan old street which could be one of the busiest streets I’ve ever experienced filled with ancient culture and shops with shopkeepers bartering with the tourists hoping to come out with a great deal. There were loads of food places selling crab on a stick, stinky tofu and so much more. As we walked through the street we came across the City God temple which has a history of over 600 years. The temple is one of the most iconic scenic spots in 上海 where tourists from all over the world will come to experience it first hand and where others come to pray. The Yu Gardens was incredible as it is a garden of about five acres of land in the center of Shanghai with rivers, ponds with fish, bridges going over the water and the exquisite Jade Rock. In the evening, we went to the Bund which is known for all the European architecture and was packed full of people walking about trying to get the famous 上海 skyline photo with the Pearl Tower.
We had about half a day to fill with the rest of the main attractions in 上海. In the 上午, we went to visit the Jade Buddha Temple which was only a 十分钟 walk away from our accommodation. The Jade temple was great as it was very calm and quiet whilst showing the traditional Chinese architecture. Later on, we headed to the peoples square which was again beautiful.
I previously spoke about in my last blog how Western food is uncommon in Tianjin however when I arrived in 上海 I was amazed to see how many westerners there were and the number of Western restaurants. I found Shanghai is massively influenced by western cities and we struggled to find a Chinese restaurant and had to resort to a German restaurant for the first night and a French bakery before heading off to Hangzhou. In Shanghai, I was amazed by the amount of smart advertising they did. In the subway when the trains were moving they had a tv outside of the subway on the wall and were playing videos which I am still confused by how it works; making the video keep up with the speed of the train. Another thing that they did on the subways was making the handles slightly bigger and posting advertisements on them.
On the first day of Hangzhou, we were all eager to head out and explore. We walked around the west lake which is where the picture on the 1 yuan note is taken. The west lake was stunning and so relaxing. Walking around Hangzhou it felt like I was at home with the mountains and trees surrounding us. Whilst exploring trying to find some tea fields a lady approached us when we were walking past her house or so I thought it was, and she managed to persuade us to come and have some of the local tea at her cafe. We spent a while there just playing cards and drinking 龙井茶 (dragon well tea). The sun had started to set so we decided to set off and continue walking through the village that we came across. We managed to get into a tea field with not many questions asked and we were able to see the sun setting which was the most incredible view I’ve seen which the photos don’t give the place enough justice with the colours in the sky being much more vibrant.
The final day was great, the weather was amazing and we headed off to the Longjing tea village. During our visit, we noticed that there was a hut up this hill where we could see walkers. We decided to go and check the hut out but without realising (as I may have been too focused on taking photos constantly) we ended up walking past it. On our way up this mountain (hill), there was a couple of Chinese kids that were super excited to see some foreigners and were delighted to be able to practice some of their English while we walked up.
A week after returning we were able to meet with some of the Scottish headteachers that were currently in Tianjin, I was able to see my old deputy headteacher. It was great to have a catch up and to see a familiar face.
If you would like to see more about our journey I managed to make a video to show what we did in 上海和杭州 you can check it out here.