Both Sides of the Causeway

On the train... nothing much to do. People were kinda climbing around like monkeys at times; kinda hard for me to explain. But anyway, the beds were OK and it wasn't too cold. And since I didn't get enough sleep the past few days, I slept very well in the train. When I woke up...

Day 13

...I heard music! Gosh, they actually play music on the train. I remember hearing a weird song (like the original was supposed to be in English or something but they played a Chinese version) but I can't remember what song it was.

Anyway, can't remember much of what happened between then and the seminar. We attended a seminar on World Expo 2010 Shanghai. Unfortunately the main speaker spoke only in Mandarin. Fortunately, there was an interpreter who did instant translation on the spot after the main speaker spoke. That was a rare occasion: for many of the previous talks in Chinese the participants who didn't understand Chinese were kinda left out. Can't remember the details of the speech anymore, I guess that's why people like to make notes during speeches. But I can simply google/wiki it online =P

The rest of the day was free and easy! We got off the chartered bus somewhere near 南京路(Nanjing Road), which was one of the roads perpendicular to The Bund. Mostly did window shopping but many of us bought stuff at the Beijing 2008 Olympics shop. The longer we stayed inside the more stuff we bought. I was so tempted... yet this salesperson was like:" yar, it's quite expensive. You'll spend a lot of money if you want to buy them." and his colleague was like:"you're weird to dissuade your customer from buying stuff!". Ended up buying for everyone in my family.

In German this should be Nanjingstraße Fußgängerzone. Basically a road only for pedestrians.

Alice with the stuff she bought. Haha. Just kidding. It was all our stuff.

Time went by quite fast and we decided to move on to 城隍庙 (Chenghuang Miao). I didn't see any temple (庙) there but it was a nicely ornamented area. They either refurbished or built the Chinese-styled architecture there and lined the edges with lights. And there was also a small lake at the centre. Anyway, the shops were about to close so we hurried to this famous shop to try their 汤包, 饺子 etc. Didn't find it exceptionally tasty (in fact, a bit too salty), but it was still OK.

Nice place. Too bad we came quite late and shops were all about to close.

What I had for dinner. Definitely cheaper than what I have to pay for here in Europe! @.@

We had a 2nd group discussion either on this night or the next day. Can't remember. But anyway this time when they asked me to translate I said something like:" Thank you for letting me translate but I feel like I should let someone else experience this wonderful job of translation" So they got Xenia to do it, and soon after many other people helped in the translation as well. Didn't do much after that, just went to someone's room to chit chat.

...and we also 踢毽子, which disintegrated after a powerful kick by Lan Bin.

Day 14

I have to mention that Shanghai's pollution isn't as bad as Beijing's and it's still tolerable. Anyway, on this day we spent almost the whole day at 杭州 (Hangzhou), and we went there by "bullet train". It wasn't as fast as we expected it to be... merely peaking at around 140km/h.

和谐号, Harmony

Our first stop was 岳王庙 (Yuewang Miao), which was of course built to honour the Chinese hero 岳飞 Yue Fei. Those of us who came from Chinese schools and grew up with Chinese stories, myths etc. would know the many tales about Yue Fei when he was born, his tattoo on his back, to his death. And of course, the famous poem 满江红 ("Whole River Red"). There was a statue of him inside which the guide said wasn't how he looked like coz no one knows. And he also told us that during the Cultural Revolution they removed (or destroyed?) the statue and placed a statue of Mao Tse Tung instead. But of course now it is not there anymore.

Written on top, in a kinda messy calligraphic way and the traditional way from right to left, "还我江山" (Return me my land). Yue Fei was a patriotic general who wanted to help his country gain back lost territory.

Kneeling statues in front of Yue Fei's grave of 秦桧 and his wife, who supposedly were to blame for his death. There is a sign beside that asks of tourists not to spit on the statues. From what I read, in the past people would spit or even pee on the statues.

We then strolled around at the nearby 西湖 (West Lake). Apparently tradition speaks of "Ten Scenes of West Lake"（西湖十景) but I didn't know about it then. There were also some beautiful traditional buildings there but I didn't exactly find the whole place really charming. The sky was still hazy and it was a gloomy day. Or maybe I just didn't feel well. The area surrounding the lake was rather large and we didn't manage to see it all. In fact, I think there is much more to Hangzhou but we just didn't have the time.

The calm lake on a gloomy afternoon

Posing in front of a heroin whom I do not know

Beautiful Chinese architecture

We then went to this shopping street (I've forgotten what it's called). It was mainly a tourist street I suppose. Had some free 六月神仙茶 at a 药材店 (erm... Chinese Pharmacy?) to cool me down. There were lots of shops selling traditional stuff. I went to one shop that sold only Chopsticks. Someone told me about the Chinese Surname series so I went to inquire if they had my surname （彭）. The saleslady asked me how many I wanted. I said 6 (for my whole family!). And I was kinda lucky coz they only had 6 pairs left! However later when I thought about it, my mom doesn't have the same surname as me, but oh well, she's Mrs. Pang anyway =P

The shopping street

Went back to Shanghai via the "bullet train". Our bus driver doesn't seem to know the way well and got stuck in a jam (we learned more about that the following day), so we ended up being quite late for dinner. It was at a 云南 Yunnanese Restaurant (Yunnan, a province in South China). There were nice dances and music. There were also pictures with descriptions on the walls concerning 云南十八怪 (18 strange things of Yunnan).

Ah Mei trying out the Bamboo dance

As I didn't feel very well I slept early.

Day 15

On this morning we took a 1-hour bus ride to a place that I think was the office for the ports and stuff. Our bus driver missed a turn and we were late again. I seriously don't know if he follows the orders he was given. Oh well, anyway we then listened to some explanation about the 东海 Donghai bridge, which is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world, and also about 洋山深水港Yangshan Deepwater Port, which was on an island and connected to the mainland via Donghai bridge.

Outside the office building was a world map (not correctly represented i must say).

We then got the opportunity to travel to the actual Yangshan Deepwater Port. Donghai bridge was very long... It's not like Penang bridge where you can see where you are going; it was like a bridge to nowhere in the sea. But anyway Yangshan Island was actually a nice breezy place. There was building located amongst the rocks on a hill and I could imagine it to be a fantastic villa or mansion.

Windy. Yangshan deepwater port behind me.

The building amongst the rocks. Would be an amazing venue for parties.

We then went back to the mainland and visited the site of a city there are planning, in particular the lake located at the centre of the city called 滴水湖. In the afternoon we attended a talk by an Anthropologist. He talked to us about the changes in Shanghai society, and told us that at different levels of society in Shanghai you speak different languages: on the top, English; middle, Mandarin; bottom, Shanghainese. We had a tour of 复旦大学 (Fudan university) too.

Sculpture at Fudan University

There was supposed to be a sight-seeing activity at The Bund but somehow it didn't come to fruition, so instead me and Tee went together. It was beautiful with lots of lights. The 东方明珠"Pearl of the Orient" along with other buildings on 浦东(Pudong) part of Shanghai were doing a light-display show. I actually preferred the "traditional" side (The Bund) with its European architecture. Our guide told us previously that The Bund is like an architectural museum: each building has its roots in different European architectural styles of the early 20th century.