Hong Kong - Shanghai - Beijing

I can't see my blog! Am trying to figure out, where my last entry ended, but the page won't open. Probably Chinese censorship! (everytime you enter the internet in an internet cafe you have to show your passport...) *just kidding*

To start from the beginning (or a bit later): I am traveling with Erkki (my flatmate-turned-travel-companion). We booked tickets for Shanghai last week on Tuesday and left on Thursday to Shenzhen (cheaper (domestic) flight from there). The time in between was really busy with booking my onward flights to NZ, cleaning the apartment (which we got in a terrible fight over since I felt I was doing it all on my own; men are just all lazy or then I just "put my priorities wrong"), packing (i.e. throwing stuff away). The ususal. I left with two backpacks (a 10l and a 20l one, not much for 7 weeks!) but have diminished my belongings further (now to about 1 backpack, let's see how much I buy!).
Shanghai was awesome! We had 3 days there, of which we spent one in Hangzhou in the bordering Zhejiang province. Hangzhou has a huge lake (West lake), formerly a lagoon, with a lot of temples and pagodas. (interesting?) The other two days, we went to Nanjing Road, the People's square and up Jin Mao Tower in the Pudong financial district, which consisted of merely a couple of rice fields around 10 years ago. Coming to speak of high buildings, this is the 5th highest or so in the world (and after being in HK I have seen or been on 5 of the top ten highest buildings, only missing the Empire State and everything in Chcago. Weird to think that a lot of the skyscrapers are actually in Asia!). We took a lot of time getting around- Shanghai is huge (by far the biggest city I have ever been to). Finding the right bus or train and buying the right tickets is sometimes challenging especially since I have forgotten most of my Chinese (if it was ever "my" Chinese) except for the numbers and "thank you". Shanghai will be also remembered for the BEST dumpling I have ever had! Thanks Jack!

One day was spent with Erkki's friend Jack on the campus in the Shanghai Jiaotong University (in English: The Shanghai Normal University of Transportation, one of the top universities in China.... what a (c******** translation!), having a 5 hour dinner at a Xinjiang restaurant (no pork, great food!, a lot of booze....), meeting a lot of friends friends and going to sing karaoke until 4 am! It was one of the best nights; I felt very much at home and seeing Chinese culture at its purest *smile*.

Sunday night we hopped on the night train, but got only seats, no sleepers. The train stations work perfectly, there re waiting rooms assigned for each train from which everyone enters the platform and is led to one's carriage and place. The night was long and a bit sleepless, but we got to Beijing early on Monday morning, which left the whole day for sightseeing.

After finding a hostel, I went to Tian'anmen square and the Forbidden City - massive, amazing... Exciting the north gate, I took some random bus east and got out at Dongsi from which I walked a couple of kilometres south to Wangfujing. The smog and heat make walking quite strenuous. Head, throat and eyes start hurting. I fell into bed after a short night in Sanlitun (Beijing LKF) and good kebab pizza (???).

Beijing is apart from the major sights like any other Chinese city, nothing special. I thought it would be much more problematic. It is big, but still easy to get around. A lot fo construction going on, as everywhere else in the booming parts of China. The smog is worse than in HK, that as the only minus. A lot of beggars and others trying to sell you things, but I guess that is normal. And it is not cheap - ok, we are "Chinese" students with our HK student IDs and get a lot of things cheaper (that was one of Erkki's clever tricks), but still: food, entrance tickets to sights... the money goes!

Today we went to some clothes and silk market to order a suit for Erkki's dad who had provided us with all the measures. The bargaining took 40 minutes or so, but we got the price for a kashmir suit down to 1500 yuan... I guess it is ok (they said we are "almost" Chinese). After that we went by subway to Qianmen, where the LP indicated a shopping street -everything was however empty and ready to be torn dopwn. Would be interesting to know, what will stand there next (and when) - everything in China changes so fast! We walked to the Temple of Heaven park which was very impressive ( a lot of tourists though) and continued from there to the silk market, a mall a la Shenzhen (been there, done that... a lot of little things nobody REALLY needs, but I had to buy pearl earrings for one ten yuan anyways ... But I have to limit my shopping just because I do not want to have to carry everything with me!). From there back to the hostel and off to get tickets for the night train on Thursday to Xi'an. And now trying to organize our trip to the great wall tomorrow....

Read a horrible book by a German author btw. About a rich women finding the love of her life, who uses her as a cash cow for his ex-wife-turned misstress. In the end he kills her (and himself) by poison in their summer cottage in rural Spain. Literary worth little; content awful. Don't read!