Shanghai - A City of Towers

So I promised in a previous post that I would post on our visit to Shanghai when I got a chance to put the pics on flickr, so while some are on there way up, here is my summary.

Shanghai is certainly a city of biggest and fastest. The most interesting thing about the city is the new right on top of the old, you literally have old traditional neiborhoods that are well over 100 years old being torn down to make way to a skyscraper or high rise condos in the same space. You can walk through these old poor areas, and cross the street and strain your neck at a skyscraper. We asked there was so much building going on in the old areas (basically shacks building additional floors one on top of another) and the reason is that when the government designates a block for regeneration then they pay out the current land owner based on SQ Footage. So folks have people on the inside that know this is going to happen, give the owners the heads up, and the building begins, all just to be torn down again.

So some of the biggest. Shanghai is home to two of the worlds tallest skyscrapers, and they are both new. D and I made the trip to the sky deck of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is no longer the worlds tallest building (Tai Pai 101 has beat it by adding a spire), but it is the worlds highest observation deck and the grand opening for the building was the day before our visit :-)... you are literally above all the other skyscrapers and above the clouds... plus the floor is glass (see the pic, we were walking across that top bridge above the hole in the building.

We also did a roundtrip journey on the Maglev Train, the fastest comercial train in the world, traveling at 341km per hour... I was very excited about this. Just to think we were literally floating on magnets.

Our visit included a walk through the French Concession, a walk along on the Bond (AKA British Concession) and your typical exploring.

I loved the pace of development, it was truly astounding. One other thing, when we drove to the Train Station (45mins in a bus) I kid you not, I must have seen 10 thousand 25+ floor apartment buildings as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Now I have to run, we are back in Beijing, about to catch our flight to Osaka, Japan.

- Ryan

We are high in the Longji Rice Terraces

So today we made the trek to the Longji Rice Terraces and are now staying in a all woodern guesthouse purched on the top of the Terraces. Its raining outside and we are literally above the clouds. We are hoping we will have clear skies tomorrow for the views as we hike 6 hours through the terraces to the next village and another questhouse. Ok so how am I typing this, well it is clear profit is not an issue for China Telecom because they have DSL everywhere...

This is just a beautiful part of the world, and the people are so friendly. I had an old lady tell me I need to have a baby that will grow even taller :-)

Discovering Yangshuo

We are on our 3rd night Yangshuo, actually we just arrived at a small remote country guesthouse outside of Yangshuo. When you think of China you are thinking of Yangshuo, the vistas are breathtaking. The little guesthouse we are spending the next two nights at is very basic, but the location is awesome, we are hidden in a valley at the base of limestone cliffs in the jungle. And they have wifi!!!!!

Time for a cold beer....

Sent from my iPhone

22 hours on a train to Yangshuo

Greetings friends and family,

2 days ago we left the skyscrapers of Shanghai, and joined a sleeper train to Guilin in the Guangxi Province. The journey took 22 hours and was followed by a public bus ride for an hour and a half to the town of Yangshuo.

First the train, what is it like? Well, it is very basic, the train card has rows of bunks, 3 stacked one on top of the other, 2 rows face each other, so in essence you have groups of 6 bunks. The is one corridor along the left side of the train just wide enough for 1 person to stand or sit, and this is where you pass the time, making pot noodles, talking, looking out the window etc. How do you make dinner? Well there is boiling hot water at the end of each car, so either you make noodles, or you bring something ready made to eat on the train. There is no privacy, which is good and bad. The good is you get to hang out with fellow travelers/ locals and talk, play cards etc. The bad is "there is no privacy". Also if you are unfortunate to be near the end of a car then you have to deal with the odor or the toilets and people standing in the door smoking all day/ night. All in all a pretty rough experience, but you don't really have much choice if you want to get into rural china.

We are hear now and it is an amazing setting, we are sitting on the Li River, surrounded by soaring limestone peaks wherever you look. After a very late night out on the town yesterday, we spent today walking the town, and taking in the vistas. Tomorrow morning we plan to get up early and learn some Tai Chi, and then in the afternoon we make our way into the rice lands of China and what is supposed to be some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.

PS. I will write a post on Shanghai when I get a chance to upload photos and video...

Ryan

A great way to spend your morning in Xi'an, a 14km bike ride on top of the city walls

If you get up early you can see the folks of Xi'an exercising in the city parks

Terracotta Army Video Clip

More China Video....

A visit to the summer palace outside Bejing:



A Visit to the Summer Palace, Beijing, China ... continued:



Our hike along the most beautiful section of the Great Wall, China:



Our hike along the most beautiful section of the Great Wall, China ... continued:



Our hike along the most beautiful section of the Great Wall, China ... more:



Our hike along the most beautiful section of the Great Wall, China ... the last clip:

Bejing (Disney World with out the rides)

Hi All,

So it figures that the worlds most populated country will be a little crowded, but after three days of sight seeing it does get to you. The first day we went to see the Olympic venues. The architecture was truly amazing and we loved every min. The Next day we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. The really frustrating thing is you pay for a through ticket, because you are told this will allow you entry to the building, but then find out that it lets you inside the court yard that surrounds the building and you have the privilege to look inside a door way. The last day in Beijing, we went to the Summer Palace, which in my opinion the best thing in Beijing. While everywhere is crowded, our best example was when we were finished at the summer palace on the third day and we had to walk through a long narrow path along the lake to get to our exit, my only thought was oh my god this is like Disney World with out the rides. We were packed in tight with people pushing just to get through. You think New York is crazy crowded, well you have not seen anything yet.

The other funny thing is everyone stares at us. Poor Ryan was sitting waiting for me to come out of the toilet and a man asked to take a picture with him because he was so tall. The next thing he knew he had like a group of 30 people wanting there picture with him. We all know how Ryan is about new people and attention to himself, so this made him very uncomfortable but he was a good sport, however as soon as he could escape towards me he did. Me on the other hand, I kept trying to move out of the way of some guys photos, only to realize that they just then kept repositioning to have me and another western girl in their photo, we hope this was because we were just different as westerners, but who knows what bodies our heads are going to be attached to on the web.

Yesterday we did the great wall which Ryan will talk about in his thoughts below.

Some observations from Ryan:

1. China is on a mission to modernise at any cost, cranes everywhere... and buildings going up left right and center. But they have a plan and are managing to it, you see this from the news stories on their development goals.
2. The pollution from the above growth is out of control, our throats hurt.
3. It appears that is acceptable for children to go anywhere in public (storm drains etc.), and nappies/ diapers are not used and kids pants have built in holes.
4. The squat toilet is king.... and not in a good way.
5. Beijing is incredibly clean for a city of 14 million.
6. A city of 400,000 is not considered a city, but a town.
7. Everything is done on a massive scale... never seen a train station so large.
8. The Internet is controlled, you need to register who you are, passport # etc.. to use.
9. The have really wicked cool architecture, old and new.
10. The people are very friendly, but there is very little English.
11. The food is either really good or really bad.
12. Your hands get tiered from eating with chopsticks.
13. Finding the right ATM is a mission in itself.
14. The Great Wall:

So we traveled by bus 4 hours to the most beautiful section of the great wall. It is remote so there was only ourselves and a few other folks on the wall. The walk was long, 30 towers in total, about 8km in length, but at very steep inclines and declines. It was tough going, but an incredible experience, and definitely a highlight of the trip, the views were amazing, the scale of the wall hard to describe. Part of the challenge was in the remote sections of the wall, huge blocks are coming apart which makes for very dangerous and exhausting footwork. Take a look at the video clips I am uploading right now.

Ok, that's it for now, we are in Xi'an right now... it is raining cats and dogs.

Ryan and Danielle

The Bejing Night Market, you need to see it to believe it!

Video from our walk through the Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China

Video from our walk through the Forbidden City

For more info on the forbidden City see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

Video from Beijing Olympic Green

Small bladders from Hong Kong to Beijing

We are now in Beijing, it was a really long and painful trip. Because of the time change we could not sleep a wink, and so I have completed watching the entire Cathy Pacific video library. The flight to Beijing from Hong Kong was a sight to be seen. First off, let me just say that before we left I used the very nice clean bathrooms next to the gate. Well, as soon as they turned off the seat belt sign, until it went back on for landing there was a queue of people waiting to use the toilet, it never ended, and was on both sides of the plane... I kid you not, never seen anything like it.

Anyway, Beijing Capital Airport was very cool architecture indeed and the metro was a breeze to navigate to our hotel. Ok, we need to get some shut eye now.

Itinerary Update

So we are sitting in Johannesburg, and about to board a plane to Beijing, with a connection in Hong Kong (we will be back to Hong Kong). This marks the beginning of a number of weeks exploring the vast country of China.

Later,

Ryan

Success

One other note, we were successful in getting me a Chinese Visa today in London... so we are locked and loaded for our trip to Asia.

Visa Drama

Man, I am hell annoyed. I paid a visa service to handle my Chinese visa and filled out all their forms. Well turns out the Chinese Gov will only issue a visa for 3 months from the date of issue, so I have a visa that gets me into China thru September, but I am only going in October. Not a lot of use to me. Would have been nice for the service to tell me that before they took my money and gave it to the Chinese. URGGGG!!!

The good news is Danielle got here Visa no problem. I guess they don't like the British and all. I am going to take a breath, apply for the Vietnam Visas and then rethink the approach to China.