SMOOTH LANDING IN THE MEGACITY, SHANGHAI
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA
After almost a month in Japan we were excited to continue our travel in China, the ever-changing dynamic mega-country. We didn’t have enough knowledge about the Chinese culture and people so we didn’t really know what to expect here, but we knew that there’s a vast amount of natural beauty, fabulous cuisine and vibrant economic growth that is transforming the country almost overnight.
We had to realise already at the airport some clear differences to the Japanese people: in general, Chinese people are much louder, they don’t stand in the queue calmly waiting for their turn, but they cut through the line (even by physically pushing you away) and if you’re not alert your place will be taken in a second. We had a few funny situations, for instance when we waved for a taxi to stop, started talking to the driver, then a local jumped into the car and took it over – we were speechless by surprise. At several occasions we were waiting in a queue for tickets or for public transportation when locals saw that we were not straight behind the person in front of us (but there was a 30-centimetre gap), so they jumped ahead and took our place. As English is rarely spoken there’s no way to express your disappointment, so you might get frustrated. We tried to understand instead the reason for this behaviour, and we could explain it by the huge crowds that people are used to, and which, they feel, forces them to stand up and represent their own interests.
The lack of English skills reaches very high levels in most of the regions we have visited, mainly in the countryside. The situation is best in bigger cities, especially in Shanghai which has a huge expat community, but English is not common even at touristic places away from Shanghai, as most visitors are Chinese so there’s no reliance on foreign tourism – which is a new phenomenon to us. Those who don’t speak English tend to avoid contact with foreigners at all, so if we tried to ask a question we often got the response “No”, without any further explanation. It’s then up to us to decide what the “no” refers to… In general, we found that people are much less willing to help strangers (at least foreigners), or take the time at all to understand a question. This makes a trip hard at places with no English signs, characters or any sort of information.
Naturally, we have also met some extremely nice and helpful people along the way, and at some hostels we were treated with stuff who spoke excellent English, so we can’t generalize our impressions on everyone. It also seems that some of the younger generations are more open to make contact with foreigners and are more helpful too. The rising tendency needs to continue and more foreigners need to visit China, especially in the countryside, for locals to get accustomed to them and become more open to some interaction. Currently at many places Western visitors are still very rarely seen, so locals look at them like an attraction which they need to take pictures with (to post on their local social media site, We Chat).
Also, the internet is censored in China, with access to Facebook and Google (including Google Maps, Google Search, Gmail) blocked, which makes life much more challenging. For searches we are forced to use Bing or Yahoo, which seem like suboptimal solutions to say the least. But probably the biggest pain is not being able to use Google Maps when looking for an address – although it would be challenging even so, since there isn’t a single way to translate Chinese characters to English (Pinyin is supposed to do that, but it doesn’t seem to be consistently and universally used) – good luck finding a street if there are multiple ways of spelling it! In theory, you can get around these blockages with a VPN service, but in practice these are frequently blocked too.
Our friends in Shanghai, Siyi and Santi helped us to get a Chinese SIM card and hence also internet access for the rest of our trip, which made a real difference for us! It`s difficult if a foreigner wants to arrange it for themselves, but we would recommend to try it at all costs as it can be a savior at many hard situations to have online access and to be able to call local numbers.
SHANGHAI SIGHTSEEING
Now, after a couple of weeks in China we have had some time to gather a wider range of experiences, so we can truly appreciate how smooth our arrival in Shanghai was thanks to our friends, Siyi and Santi, and the fact that we started our visit in the most Westernized corner of the country. We had an absolutely fantastic time in Shanghai, visiting the nicest spots and parts of the city and trying the best of local food at a wide range of restaurants!
As the very first point of interest, we tried the Maglev from the airport to the city, which is the high-speed magnetic train reaching 430km/hour during its 8-minute(!) journey. It takes about 3-4 minutes to reach this speed, then it runs at maximum speed for about 2 minutes before slowing down for its destination. It was a really impressive experience, the first time we truly felt like we could hardly see what we pass outside because of the speed! The train also turns on the way and the centrifugal force makes you very conscious of the effect that even a slightest mistake would have.
We arrived to Shanghai in heavy rain, so after getting off the Maglev we had a bit hard time finding our way in the city. We were looking for the right public transportation at the bus station where even acting skills did not suffice to ask for some help, and where google maps (which we looked up the night before from Japan) took us to a wrong location – this is when we learnt that (even if you manage to get access through VPN) it does not give you the correct directions in China... When, as our final solution, we tried to grab a taxi, no one wanted to stop for us as it would have been too much hassle for them, speaking no English. Although we had our address written in Chinese we didn’t even get a chance to show it to the driver! It took some time to finally get to Siyi and Santi’s place, where we got into the protection of locals with Chinese skills, so our difficulties all vanished in a minute.
The next couple of days we spent visiting the city together:
We started in the beautiful Yu Garden, a great example of Chinese gardens, architecture and furniture in the heart of the city, surrounded by traditional Chinese buildings.
We continued with a visit to the Jing`an Buddhist Temple with golden roofs and a mystical atmosphere, where locals pay their respect to gods. The temple complex is, a bit unconventionally, surrounded by skyscrapers.
The Bund is the well-known promenade along the river with buildings from the mid-19th century onwards when the city was a Western colony. The buildings resemble of those in European avenues and are currently hotels, banks and other financial institutions. It’s a lovely view in both daylight and when the night falls.
The other side of the river offers the famous view that most people are familiar with from Shanghai: the view with the Shanghai Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the other skyscrapers of the Pudong district. Apart from some of the skyscrapers which are used for offices, this is a residential district. You can get to this side with a short ferry ride, which is especially picturesque at night.
We also visited the Shanghai Museum, a great collection of many arts associated with China, like ceramics, jade, bronze, calligraphy and paintings. The museum is free, one of the very few free attractions in the city, and it’s a good place to get an understanding of these arts and their development over the history of China.
Transportation and pollution
When wandering around the city we noticed for the first time how crowded the streets and public transportation are, almost any time of the day, a new phenomenon to us! Tubes run every couple of minutes even in the very early hours to be able to deal with the crowds, which we haven`t experienced in Europe! Apart from the tube, however, public transport is often replaced, or at least supplemented with taxis, to much higher degrees than in Europe. It’s a surprisingly fast and cheap way of travelling in the city. Traffic jams cause much less problem than we expected due to the strict restrictions of running a car: although people can get a car, license plates are sold to only those few who win the chance to get one at a lottery. In big cities entrants have to pay to be part of the lottery, then to buy the plate too, so that they can run their car on the roads. Cars from other provinces can only be used on roads in bigger cities at certain times, which regulation is enforced by cameras on the roads and high penalties. Even despite these efforts (it is said that the worst polluters are factories), we witnessed incredible levels of smog, it looks like the city is covered in a grey cloud, hence you can only see the city from a tower on special days with very clean air and clean weather conditions. Surprisingly, masks against smog, were much more rarely used on the streets than in Japan, where the air is still much cleaner.
Cuisine
Thanks to our fantastic hosts we tried a wide range of typical Shanghainese food at local corners, as well as the best of some other regions. Normally people order a few plates of food for the table, with a staple, the base dish which can be rice or noodle, and then all food is shared. It’s a useful way for the experimental, like us, to try many different dishes. We tried the real Shanghai-style dumplings filled with vegetables, pork or shrimps. We also had stir-fried vegetables, steamed fish, chicken and many-many more. Here are a few photos to imagine the abundance of variety. One of my learnings about the Chinese cuisine is that you`ll love it if you`re a fan of garlic, which I absolutely am! Most stir-fried dish use a good handful of garlic, which is similar to many Thai dishes, but the outcome is still different, something we`ll need to learn to replicate at our new home!
Siyi and Santi also made a phenomenal dinner for us with tofu, beef, vegetables and the tasty sweet dumplings filled with bean paste or sesame cream! So yummi!!
