Shanghai

I read somewhere on line that even that in general Spring festival is logical nightmare in China there is a small gap when travelling is actually possible because most of the Chinese stay at home with their families. There was a good flight offer from Beijing to Shanghai by China Eastern Airlines. It was two hours flight and I was excited to see what kind of tiny aircraft it might be, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I boarded in the plane. For that two hours long domestic flight, the aircraft was same size than the one I flew from Finland to China: eight seats in a row with two aisles… That was the moment when I realized that there is huge population in China. 

In the morning of departure it was snowing in Beijing and arriving to Shanghai it was raining, which was actually the first time in almost two months that I see rain. Shanghai itself is really different from Beijing and it’s also huge. Best way to go around there is definitely use subway even that transfers and distances between stations or lines are quite long.

First stop was in Yuyuan gardens in Shanghai old town. One of the most beautiful things/places I’ve seen so far in China, I can just imagine the place spring or summer when it’s on its best. Even entering to those gardens, you have to cross the bridge of nine-zigzag. The story tells that the corners of the bridge stops evil spirits to enter to gardens because they are not able to go through that zigzag.

Another spot was called “water town” which means a bit same idea than in Venice (but not in same scale), small alleys and some canals where people move by boat. Obviously this was one just a very small one, ancient remaining of Shanghai’s history. Alleys over there were so narrow and so packed with people that walking around became so annoying at some stage that I decided to head up for somewhere else. Usually I am very good with all new food and ready to try out new things but in Shanghai and especially in that area there was one food that I would not touch, even the smell irritates me. The colour is black and it is actually called “stinky tofu” and there are no words to describe the smell of it!

Shanghai is much more modern than Beijing, mostly because the city itself has been developing rapidly since past few decades and become a business center of China. That is the story that can be seen on numerous skyscrapers and the famous bund area which is built by western nations after opium wars. A river boulevard looked much more like ones I’ve been in Europe than to be one located in China. From ancient days towards modern, we climbed up to the one skyscraper: Shanghai’s Financial Center, world highest observation deck according to Guinness World Records on year 2008 when it opened, 474 meters.  The timing was perfect, we were there just when it started to get dark so we saw Shanghai by night. After checking the view from “the sky”, I wanted to see possibly the most famous “post-card view” from Shanghai… Picture from the bund (the boulevard) towards the Shanghai towers.

It seems like in Shanghai people were a bit friendlier and also spoke better English than in Beijing. I liked Shanghai a lot, it was like mixture of West & East. I am very curious to see more places in China and compare them between each other. But before going to a new place, have to return to an old place, Beijing. In this scenario it meant 12 hrs train ride without sleeper bunk. There was no way to imagine what kind of seats were coming up, wooden flat benches or what… But it was a really positive surprise, seats actually were comfortable and a huge huge plus for me: There was lots of leg space so sleeping in the train actually was possible.