Alex Goes To China

We decided to go to Guilin after all. Nanjing was sending Jo and I both a little mental as we waited for a call from Jo’s friend. While we waited, heavy rain flooded our proposed next destination. Within a couple of days the rain subsided and the flood waters that engulfed the Guilin rivers were gone. A persistent Chinese man, that I had contacted about accommodation days before, promised that if we came, he would refund us if the trip was ruined by flooding. This gave us confidence that all was well and so we got a flight that day, and we are so glad we did.

Guilin is a dream; with 200 million year old rock formations surrounding the small city (pop. 700,000ish) its lakes, moats and rivers decorate a fantastic landscape. Picturesque rice patties that seem more like a gigantic earth art installation than functional agriculture encompass the city. The air is clean, the sky blue and it is a welcome relief after the smog and noise of Nanjing.

We were met at the apartment upon arrival by a local girl calling herself Wendy, who happens to have a degree in English and an Australian boyfriend. She invited us for drinks at the local expat trap, an Irish pub that is about as Irish as a Bulgarian sumo wrestler. We played drinking games until 1am until Jo and I returned to our apartment to sleep.

We are planning a 2 hour boat trip to Yangshuo next down the Li Jiang (Li River) in a bamboo boat. We have been promised that the flooding from days before will not affect us.

I have also added a map of our travels here and some recent pics (click on thumbs):

View Alex Goes To China in a google map

Here are some images in (sort of) chronological order from the trip so far. We are nearly halfway though our journey and so far we have been to Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. We were planning to go to Guilin today, but the flood alerts are changing our thinking. Not sure what we are doing now… in the meantime, please enjoy my photos (click on the thumbnails below for larger images):

Last Saturday night Jo and I caught a sleeper from Beijing to Shanghai. We shared a cabin with two Chinese men; an old, retired businessman and a salesman in his early 20s. The old man spoke very good English and told us about his work auditing factories in China for American companies.

When we arrived in Shanghai we were really tired. It was 7.30am and we couldn’t check-in to our hotel until 10am, so we hanged around a Chinese fast food joint and ate some MSG while we waited.

After we checked-in and got some rest, we had a look around. We are staying near Huaihai Rd, the French Concession and The Bund in the heart of Shanghai. These areas are very westernised but in quite different ways. The Bund is like the city from a Hollywood remake of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Jetsons. The French Concession is a bizarre version of Paris circa 1930 complete with Art Deco and Baroque architecture. And Huaihai is another one of those International shopping malls with every designer label you can think of plus a few local brands that have made enough money to afford the rent.

Some of the highlights of this area have been away from the tourist traps. We went to a pet shop down the road that had frogs, squirrels, chinchillas, crickets, turtles and much, much more. Also Jo and I went for a late night massage (fearful we would be offered a happy ending). Instead we got a traditional Chinese massage. My masseuse was small and young and yet her hands were so strong I am sure she could crush a skull with a casual clench of her fingers. My back still hurts, but in a good way. I can feel the tension from dragging luggage around and sleeping on strange beds melting as my back heals.

On Friday Jo and I are going to Fudan University to meet some artists, teachers and students at the Shangahai Institute of VIsial Art (SIVA). There is a 5 hour itinerary for the visit including lunch. I am looking forward to the opportunity to see how arts education functions at this university. Perhaps I will do part of my PhD there…

Overall I have to say I think I prefer Beijing to Shanghai. My Beijing experience was more grassroots and communal compared to my impressions of Shanghai. Shanghai has a more corporate, commercial feeling. The common comparison of Shanghai being like Sydney and Beijing more like Melbourne is probably accurate. These are only first impressions though, and judging them this early is a little premature.

Hot, wet and noisy; Shanghai from on high.