We visited China in May 2012. It was only 2 months since Paul had passed away but I decided that we should fulfil our plans as this was a better idea than sitting around moping at home. We visited Beijing and Shanghai. The trip was far too brief to really get to know China.
The highlight for us was visiting the 798 Arts Precinct. Unfortunately I didn’t write a lot about our travels in China and this is all I’ve found so far.
Tuesday 14/5/2012
It’s almost 1pm. We are sitting in a bank waiting to change money. This morning we booked our tickets for the bullet train to Shanghai. It takes 5 hours to get there compared to the “normal” train which takes 20 hours, the average speed is 300 km per hour.
China has proven to be a bit more expensive than I first figured. But, what the hell. Why not just enjoy life and be done with it.
The staff at Double Happiness are very, very friendly and very service oriented. The guests are all a little bit like us. A touch more adventurous perhaps than most travellers. A lot of them have kids and quite a few are from Melbourne. We had dinner with a young couple from Brunswick last night named Josh and Irene. They are now on their way to Shanghai. The restaurant was schezuan style, the food overall was pretty good but much to our dismay we realized that we had more than likely eaten a plate of braised lizard. It was called “cold” chicken on the menu…..oh well.
The rooms at Double Happiness are small but very well presented, eclectic Chinese furniture, 4 poster traditional beds but we spend a lot of our time in the courtyard. The rooms are located around 2 narrow courtyards which has made it a very garrulous and social experience. There are Canadians, Danes, Americans and Australians around our courtyard but the faces change every day.
We are on our way to 798 Art Precinct again today. A lot of the big galleries were closed yesterday and the place is so big that you could spend a week there anyway. So far my impression of Chinese art is tinged with mixed feelings. It’s grand, brash and impressive, in your face, controversial and expensive. It makes me feel even better about what I have achieved with the Thai artists. I was in the right place at the right time.
Thursday 17/5
Wow! I’m sitting in my First Class seat on the bullet train about to exit Beijing South Station on a 300 km per hour journey to Shanghai. I’ve never travelled that fast on land.
The train has just left the station.
We are now travelling at 300km/h. It’s surprisingly smooth.
Monday 21/5
Goodbye Shanghai. Effectively we had 3 days there (4 nights), barely enough to scratch the surface. We arrived at Shanghai railway station at around 5pm, an hour later than expected due to a hold up just outside Shanghai. Georgie negotiated a fair price for our 30 minute trip into the centre of the city. The Ascott Shanghai is smack bang in the middle of Shanghai’s most upmarket shopping and eating area so we were surrounded by glitzy malls and “brand” stores with shiny window displays. At night there is so much light bouncing off the city that the sky is a strange mauvey purple colour.
The restaurants close by were full of wealthy westerners paying premium prices and dining Alfresco. I hadn’t hardly eaten all day so I was in a foul mood with low blood sugar and a wheezy head. Poor Georgie and Finn. They forgave me and we ended up having crappy room service and watching tele.
On Friday we took a “tourist” bus around all the significant spots like The Bund, this gave us some sort of bearings.
As usual the standard of the tourist attractions was somewhat disappointing. The Bund was a row of English style Bank buildings that would look ugly if placed next to some of Melbourne’s older buildings from the late 1800’s.
I had a romanticised idea of what it would be but it really didn’t meet my expectations.
I’m realizing more and more all the time what a wonderful city Melbourne is. It is world class.
We awoke to a wet Saturday morning but grabbed umbrellas and made our way back to a maze of alleyways that we had discovered on Friday night.