Shanghai

I went to visit my friends down south in Dongguan, Guangdong. From there we went to Guangzhou and took a train to Shanghai. We bought the tickets too late so we missed out on beds, and when we got on we were lucky to get seats as they sell as many tickets as they can, so there are always people standing. The train had more then 15 carriages and the ride was very slow and bumpy. 

The trip took almost 21 hours. We left Guangzhou at 2pm and arrived in Shanghai the next day at 10:45am. I was sitting virtually the whole way. When we first left it was so hot inside, and the carriage was full of cigarette smoke. Unfortunately, the windows were all sealed shut. There were so many people standing or sitting in the aisles on their luggage.

After six hours or so, I got up to go to the toilet. I stepped over a few people sleeping on the floor, and when I reached the toilets I discovered they were squat toilets. I won't go into too much detail of what I saw, but just try and imagine what happens when people try using a squat toilet on a moving bumpy train. I decided to stand and let someone have my seat for the last five hours as I was sick of sitting down.

When we finally arrived, we went to my friend's cousin's place to stay there during our trip. The next day we visited the Bund, which is the main walkway by the harbour. The bund is lined by European style buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The Bund

They served as banks and trade-houses from the UK, the US, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The city skyline viewed from the Bund. You can see the famous Pearl TV Tower on the left.

Shanghai is a very nice city, with a lot to do and see, it has a very modern feel to it and the streets are very clean which is always a plus.

During my stay we visited the Yuyuan Garden, which was filled with old buildings and shops, and a constant flow of people.

We stopped by one of the tea houses there to try Shanghai's world famous Xiaolong Dumplings (小笼包). They were absolutely delicious.

The next day we went to visit the West Lake in Hangzhou, just two hours outside Shanghai. We went for a boat ride around the massive lake. It was very peaceful and scenic, but unfortunately it was raining constantly.

My grandmother is a devout Catholic, so she wanted me to visit a cathedral in Shanghai that she had heard about. It's called Saint Ignatius' Cathedral and is located in the suburb of Xujiahui (徐家汇). The Cathedral was built in the early 1900's by French Jesuits. 

Although I do not believe in any religion, I still admire beautiful architecture of both religious and secular buildings alike. The cathedral itself is a very nice building, and the interior is truly worth seeing, filled with white stone, beautiful stain-glass windows and artworks. 

Later on we went across the river to go up the pearl TV tower, but the line was too long as this was during the time of the Shanghai World Expo.  We decided to just go and eat dinner nearby instead. At around 10:30pm, we decided to head back to the apartment, but we didn't realise the subway had already closed and there were no buses going across the river. We ended up having to catch a taxi and split the cost between us, which the total came to 120 RMB.

The next day, we went to the World Expo. It was so crowded with long lines, and it was very hot and humid, but it was well worth seeing. The grounds were so big and the pavilions looked really interesting, especially the Chinese one which was by far the largest and towered above the rest. 

The Chinese pavilion. To get a sense of the enormity of this pavilion, just see if you can spot the people at the top of the stairs.

Israeli pavilion.

We got to the expo at 10:30am and left at 9:30pm, so it was a very long day. We managed to get inside a fair few pavilions, including China, Pakistan, Israel, New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, Australia, and Finland.

Taiwanese pavilion.

Australian pavilion.

Serbian pavilion.

Spanish pavilion.

UK pavilion.

Feel free to view my full albums with all of my photos from Shanghai, the West Lake and the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

Ankang

I went with a group of international students who were also studying Chinese at Shaanxi Normal University to the city of Ankang (安康), just a couple of hours south of Xi'an. We were invited by the local Ankang City council to participate in the opening ceremony of their annual celebrations for the Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 Duānwǔjié). Our travel there and back, plus our food, accommodation and sports uniforms were all paid for by the local council.  We even met the mayor of the city and the organisers of the festival. 

We arrived in Ankang in the afternoon on Monday 14 June 2010. We had dinner then went for a walk around the town. 

The next morning, we participated in the street parade as a part of the opening ceremony. Our group carried a flag that read 国际友人, meaning "international friends". The parade ended on the banks of the Han River (汉江) where we listened to some speeches and then posed for photos with the locals.

That afternoon we went for a trip to the nearby Xiangxi Cave, said to be the place where Lü Dongbin (one of the Eight immortals of Taoism) educated himself. This shrine dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). 

We climbed the steep stairs to the temple at the top of the hill where we came across a group of musicians and dancers. 

A painting on one of the walls inside the temple.

Later that afternoon, we returned to Ankang to practise our rowing in the dragon boats. Around half of the international students were from Kazakhstan, so they formed one team all dressed in blue, and the rest of us were dressed in white. 

That evening we went for a walk around the town again, this time along the river bank where the locals were out enjoying the warm summer air and going for a swim in the cool water. 

Before long, we attracted a bit of a crowd. Some just wanted to have a chat and ask us all about what we were doing in China, and others were fascinated by an African-American student's tightly plaited hair and dark skin. When they felt her hair, they didn't think it was real. I was told by this same student that in some places they even want to rub her skin to see if the colour would come off, as they thought it looked like she had covered herself in make-up.

The next morning, we got up early and went back down to the river, this time to participate in the opening ceremony of the Dragon Boat Race. Before we got in the water, we had some hard boiled eggs and traditional dumplings called "zongzi" (粽子) made of sticky rice with pork and nuts all wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. 

Our dragon boat (the white one).

During the ceremony, we rowed our boat down the river past a large crowd watching from the shore. We had to row to the beat of a drum to keep us in time. Fireworks were going off everywhere, some fireworks were even set-off from the back of our boat. It was so loud and lively, with the smell of gunpowder in the air, the cheers of the spectators and firecrackers along the river banks, and the sound of drums beating and rowers chanting. 

We were towards the front of the procession, so we rowed into shore and sat in the boat to watch the other boats go past. They had singers, dancers and acrobats performing on a large cement area on the river bank. I was interviewed on camera and photographed by a local news crew.

After the performances, the other boats went back out onto the river where they took part in a traditional competition. We were still on the river bank, so we had front row seats. They set ducks and large fish loose into the river and then the teams in each boat had to compete to catch the animals. Each boat had one or two simmers that would jump in the water and grab as many fish or ducks as they could. Whoever had the most won and after the race they cooked up what they had caught. We all went back to the hotel for lunch and then got in the bus to go back to Xi'an. There was an actual Dragon Boat Race on later that afternoon, but unfortunately we weren't able to stay to see it. 

There are many stories behind the traditions of the dragon boat festival which began more than 2,500 years ago. The story that I head was that Qu Yuan, a loyal court official to the king of the state of Chu, committed suicide in protest of the corruption of the era by holding a large rock and jumping into the Miluo river. Legend has it that the locals rushed to save him in their fishing boats, however they were unable to recover his body. Racing out onto the water in boats to catching fish and ducks is supposed to be a reenactment of this. 

Click here to see all my photos from Ankang.

Hancheng

Looking down on the old part of the city from the park on top of the hill.

 Hancheng (韩城), located about three hours north-east of Xi'an, is a Chinese National Historic and Cultural city with its origins stretching as far back as the Jin Dynasty in the late 12th century. 

My three friends and I arrived by bus late in the evening. When we got off the bus, a Chinese woman who got off at the same stop asked us if we needed help. We told her we were going to look for a hotel, and we will be fine, we'll just get a taxi. She became very worried and quietly warned us it wasn't very safe for foreigners to be walking around at night with big bags. 

She ended up hailing two taxis and told both the drivers which hotel to take us to. She jumped in the taxi in front with two of my friends, and I hopped in the taxi behind with my other friend. We pulled up outside the hotel, and just after I paid the driver the fare, the Chinese woman got out and approached our driver to try pay him. It turns out she paid the fare in the other taxi and wanted to pay ours too. She even went inside and helped us book a room, even though we could all speak Chinese. Just before she left us she gave us her number and said we could call her if we need any help, and she even offered to show us around the city. 

An old pavilion in the park overlooking the old city.

The ceiling of the pavilion.

The next day we met up with her and she showed us around some of the sights before having lunch together. She even tried to pay for lunch but we beat her to it. We were very thankful for all of her help, but we insisted we would be fine from then on as she was home for the Qingming Festival (清明节) and she should go spend time with her family. 

We were confused by the fact that this city was supposedly around 800 years old, but all of the buildings were very new and the streets virtually empty of any traffic or pedestrians. We later discovered that this was the new part of the city which was situated on a sort of plateau, and down the side of the hill was the old city. As we walked around the new part of the city, people would stare at us wherever we went. When we tried to cross the street, the passing cars and motorbikes would slow down and even stop in front of us to stare at us, which made it impossible to cross to the other side. 

The pagoda overlooking the old part of the city.

We came across a park with a pagoda in the middle overlooking the old part of the city at the bottom of the hill. In front of the pagoda was an old man practising his calligraphy on the pavement by using a big brush and a bucket of water. He continued to use as many tiles as he needed until his work dried up on the other side, at which point he would go back and start again.

We stopped to watch and admire his artwork. He started to talk to us and eventually talked me into having a go. I went up and wrote my name in Chinese 和积臣 'He Jichen' (although I have since changed my Chinese name to 何杰森 'He Jiesen').

If you're unable to see the above video, click here.

After this we made our way down the slope further into the old part of the city and came across a Qingming Festival celebration. The Qingming Festival is part of the spring festivities, with its traditions dating back more than 2,500 years. In this particular festival the Chinese honour their ancestors by cleaning the graves of deceased relatives and making offerings of incense, food, tea and wine. 

If you're unable to see the above video, click here.

While this festival is a time for solemn commemoration of the dead, it is also a time for celebration, as it is around this time that flowers begin to bloom and leaves begin to grow on the trees, signifying new life.   

If you're unable to see the above video, click here.

You will see in the videos lots of the colour red. This is traditionally considered an auspicious colour as it is believed that devils and evil spirits are afraid of it. The clashing of cymbals and beating of drums is also supposed to scare away evil spirits.

The entrance gate to the Confucius Temple.

We had a look at the Confucius temple (文庙), which was built during the Yuan Dynasty around the 13th or 14th century in honour of Confucius. We had a look at the main courtyard and temple building, but unfortunately we didn't end up seeing the rest of the complex. 

The main courtyard of the Confucius Temple.

A depiction of a dragon on a wall within the Confucius Temple grounds.

In an alleyway beside the temple courtyard, we found a heap of old statues and stone carvings just sitting there in the open, many bearing very interesting motifs.

During our stay in Hancheng, we took a taxi to the Sima Qian temple just ten minutes south of the old city. The temple grounds houses the tomb of Sima Qian (145-90 BCE), a famous Chinese historian and litterateur who originates from the Hancheng area. The temple itself was built in 310 CE during the Western Jin Dynasty. This temple showcases more than 1,700 years of history. 

The Sima Qian Temple.

The path back down the hill, with the enormous freeway bridge in the background towering over the valley below.  

A stone within the grounds of the Sima Qian Temple.
It reads "without soldiers you have no power, but without virtue you cannot prosper".

Click here for my full photo album of Hancheng and the temples.