From the moment we left Guilin all the way to Shanghai about 4 days later, we became the main attraction. The whole time, we did not see another foreigner and we were stared at without interruption. It's a strange feeling and it made me rethink my desires for worldwide celebrity. Some people, always in a very polite (although a bit demanding) way, asked us for photos with them (some also didn't ask and just took photos anyway), or wanted to chat and ask us about our country (America to keep it simple). When we had questions, we targetted young nerdy teenagers who speak the best english since they learn it at school but they tend to get pretty overwhelmed so it's not always successful. The attention was bearable although it takes a bit of getting used to as it was constant to the point where some people would interrupt their conversations on the street to watch us walk by...
A little bit off the beaten track, we went to Heng Shan (one of 5 taoist mountains in China) for a couple of days. The weather was pretty bad but we decided to walk up the mountain anyway, to the peak about 15km up from the starting point in town. It took a bit over 5 hours and although the path was very well constructed (it felt a bit like visiting Katoomba on the week-end so not especially adventurous), it was a bit tough going only in one direction...up. Even though we didn't get the forecasted torrential rains, the whole mountain was covered in fog and we missed out on some probably pretty nice views which was a pity. There are temples all along the way and we have a good series of misty-rious photos of various things disappearing into the fog...The winner of the day though wasn't us. A chinese girl managed to walk up the whole mountain in high heels and mini-skirt! It was a pretty good effort considering it was drizzling to pouring the whole time and the whole thing involved thousands of steps! We decided that her boyfriend must have been one stingy bastard since you can also catch a cable car to the top...
A little bit off the beaten track, we went to Heng Shan (one of 5 taoist mountains in China) for a couple of days. The weather was pretty bad but we decided to walk up the mountain anyway, to the peak about 15km up from the starting point in town. It took a bit over 5 hours and although the path was very well constructed (it felt a bit like visiting Katoomba on the week-end so not especially adventurous), it was a bit tough going only in one direction...up. Even though we didn't get the forecasted torrential rains, the whole mountain was covered in fog and we missed out on some probably pretty nice views which was a pity. There are temples all along the way and we have a good series of misty-rious photos of various things disappearing into the fog...The winner of the day though wasn't us. A chinese girl managed to walk up the whole mountain in high heels and mini-skirt! It was a pretty good effort considering it was drizzling to pouring the whole time and the whole thing involved thousands of steps! We decided that her boyfriend must have been one stingy bastard since you can also catch a cable car to the top...
Chris pre-testing a Danish city bike
After Heng Shan, we caught a night train to Shanghai which took a little bit longer than expected. The night went very well but in the morning, we found that the train had been stationed for a very long time. There was a bit of a ruckus around our bunks and we worked out that people were looking at images of a train crash on a laptop. At that point, we worked out that we may not make to Shanghai by lunchtime...(Nota Bene: we are grateful that we were only indirectly affected by the landslide train crash which occurred somewhere ahead of us) Eventually, all the passengers were made to get off the train and stand on the platform. For a short while, it seemed that we would be put onto buses to another station and continue by train from there but in a very brief instant, chaos broke out, people started running around and screaming. The train company would not honor the tickets and we were on our own. We got on a train to NanJing which, to our surprise, took 10 hours to complete the journey. We arrived around 10pm and unsuccessfully tried to book tickets to Shanghai the next morning. No one could speak English and the ticket office was a mess with, again, people running around and screaming (a now familiar sight in China). We tried again in the morning and got on a fast train around mid-day. We made it to Shanghai a little bit over 24 hours late, c'est la vie!
Quirky Netherlands
Giant Mexican flowers
The beautiful UK sea urchin/fluff ball
After Heng Shan, we caught a night train to Shanghai which took a little bit longer than expected. The night went very well but in the morning, we found that the train had been stationed for a very long time. There was a bit of a ruckus around our bunks and we worked out that people were looking at images of a train crash on a laptop. At that point, we worked out that we may not make to Shanghai by lunchtime...(Nota Bene: we are grateful that we were only indirectly affected by the landslide train crash which occurred somewhere ahead of us) Eventually, all the passengers were made to get off the train and stand on the platform. For a short while, it seemed that we would be put onto buses to another station and continue by train from there but in a very brief instant, chaos broke out, people started running around and screaming. The train company would not honor the tickets and we were on our own. We got on a train to NanJing which, to our surprise, took 10 hours to complete the journey. We arrived around 10pm and unsuccessfully tried to book tickets to Shanghai the next morning. No one could speak English and the ticket office was a mess with, again, people running around and screaming (a now familiar sight in China). We tried again in the morning and got on a fast train around mid-day. We made it to Shanghai a little bit over 24 hours late, c'est la vie!
Quirky Netherlands
Giant Mexican flowers
The beautiful UK sea urchin/fluff ball
Kiwis performing the Haka to a bemused crowd of Chinese tourists
The Elegant Danish pavilion
We spent 3 days in Shanghai visiting a few areas of the city which was fine but the most note-worthy thing we did there was to visit the World Expo. At first, it was pretty weird. The China Pavilion is suitably impressive and stands close to the main entrance of the huge site. Quite close-by were all the pavilions for Asia and the Middle-East. They were actually all pretty bad and sad except for Korea which was a surprise (North Korea had a pavilion too which we thought was strange since the expo is pretty much one big tourism promotion...). Surprisingly, Japan's pavilion was shabby and ugly. The middle-Eastern ones either looked like high-school presentations or airport terminals. In another zone a bit further from the entrance were the Americas and Europe. That was fun! The pavilions were a lot better and some were really cool although visiting any of them required patience. Chinese people demonstrated a great paradox. They refuse to stand in lines at train-stations but they are quite happy to line up for 4 hours to visit the "Pavilion de la France". We observed a lot on what makes or breaks a pavillion in terms of information, circulation and appearance. Some of our favourites were UK for its beauty, Holland for its quirckiness, Denmark for its elegance, New Zealand for its beautiful sloped roof garden and Mexico for showing an original Frida Kahlo. We gave thumbs down to USA for looking like an Audi dealership, Italy for it's monumentality and Germany for being BORING! We took 280 photos which we will arrange in a gallery and you can judge for yourselves.
The Elegant Danish pavilion
We spent 3 days in Shanghai visiting a few areas of the city which was fine but the most note-worthy thing we did there was to visit the World Expo. At first, it was pretty weird. The China Pavilion is suitably impressive and stands close to the main entrance of the huge site. Quite close-by were all the pavilions for Asia and the Middle-East. They were actually all pretty bad and sad except for Korea which was a surprise (North Korea had a pavilion too which we thought was strange since the expo is pretty much one big tourism promotion...). Surprisingly, Japan's pavilion was shabby and ugly. The middle-Eastern ones either looked like high-school presentations or airport terminals. In another zone a bit further from the entrance were the Americas and Europe. That was fun! The pavilions were a lot better and some were really cool although visiting any of them required patience. Chinese people demonstrated a great paradox. They refuse to stand in lines at train-stations but they are quite happy to line up for 4 hours to visit the "Pavilion de la France". We observed a lot on what makes or breaks a pavillion in terms of information, circulation and appearance. Some of our favourites were UK for its beauty, Holland for its quirckiness, Denmark for its elegance, New Zealand for its beautiful sloped roof garden and Mexico for showing an original Frida Kahlo. We gave thumbs down to USA for looking like an Audi dealership, Italy for it's monumentality and Germany for being BORING! We took 280 photos which we will arrange in a gallery and you can judge for yourselves.
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