Hangzhou

Last Saturday we went for a day trip Hangzhou with a bunch of old friends in Shanghai. We took the ever-smooth bullet train - beaming us there in like 1h15 mins (for your reference - last time we took the bus back from Hangzhou to Shanghai and it took us 4hrs).
It was such a coincidence that we found Meijiawu & the Bamboo lined Path at Yunqi (thanks to More Hangzhou) - it was only 20 mins (or 41 RMB cab ride away) from the train station. And there we were in the midst of lush greens and tea fields:


Not only that we were even touching actual soil while hiking up the mountains for awhile - (note: hiking paths in China are usually very nicely paved) - but we also didn't see a single soul for like 2 hours! It was really a great day. And for the people in Shanghai reading this - go to Meijiawu when in Hangzhou! (not the Westlake) It's only 1h15min way by train - really a perfect getaway for a day or two to get out the hustle and bustle of downtown Shanghai.

Dalian

It seems like we have been traveling non-stop these days (hmmm think we actually do)

O & L and I went to visit Paris in Dalian over the weekend.



The city itself didn't have too much to offer in sites and city life, but.....it does have nature and ocean (and as I heard - wild growing grass - as in the smoking kind - on some of the mountain hills) Having living in Shanghai for almost two years, I really starting to notice that I am getting tired of all the noises and pollution. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is still an amazing city to be in, but the intensity of the people and pollution just wears you down after awhile.


(yes the sky was that blue :-D)

In that sense I think Dalian will be the perfect city for us to live in for sometime. It has lots of green hills surrounding the city (you can basically see green everywhere), smart (urban) planning, and the people we have met there are just so polite and generous. Not to mention the crystal clear blue sky on the first day we arrived.

The university we will be studying at also looked pretty good, most of the students do not speak a word of English - so we'll be able to focus on speaking mandarin to fellow students :-) Can't wait to go back to study Chinese and living in Dalian for awhile!

Suzhou

Yesterday O & I went on a day trip to Suzhou. Gosh I really don't understand, after living here for almost two years why we didn't go there before. It was so easy to go there by train.
On our way over, we took the new Chinese bullet train to Suzhou (it only took us 35 mins!). Wow the train looked slick. Many of the regional trains in and around Shanghai have been switched to bullet trains. You can now reach Nanjing in like 2 hours! (last time we went to Nanjing it took us 3,5 hours by the fast train, and almost 6 hours with the slow train)

The entry into Suzhou was horrible, like any other touristy destination in China. After you get out of the train station, people immediately start haggling and yelling trying to sell a 'tour around the city'. Once we got out of that part of town, we made the mistake to go to the number one tourist destination of Suzhou - Tiger Hill. Gosh, during these times I realize once again that I live in a country with 1.3 billion people. Imagine a crowd of people just coming out of a big stadium concert, but this time including one of out ten people holding a flag up and a microphone yelling out loud what this site is all about. I tell you...it is LOUD. I mean it is a beautiful park, if you are able to get away from the big crowds.

Much nicer part of the city is when we walked from Tiger Hill to Lingering park. It was very local, quiet and an 'old' part of town right by the water. (and after all, Suzhou is a 'water town')
[check out this article of Newsweek] While walking through the narrow streets, we encounter the cutest little old lady and asked us if we had lunch yet, so she could make lunch for us. Thinking that it maybe a bit awkward, we did follow her to her home (read: a 2 x 2 room, with no windows) and started chatting for a little bit. Apparently she didn't have any family anymore in Henan (another province) and came to Suzhou a couple years ago because she knew some other Henan people that could take care of her.

I wasn't really looking forward going to Suzhou, since all I wanted for this weekend was a nice and quiet weekend. (I have traveling quite a bit lately) But it was well worth it. :-) And now with the easy and quickness of the bullet trains around Shanghai, O & I decided that we need to see some other cities close to Shanghai - like Ningbo or any other city 2/3 hours away from Shanghai for like a short weekend or so. :-)

From Suzhou

Dalian here we come!

Finally booked our tickets to Dalian for next weekend :-)
Our adventure taking off from August is coming closer and closer...O & I will be going there to check out the city, visit Paris, and to check out our future school.

Very very exciting times ahead!

For the ones not knowing anything about Dalian - check out this website or this one

And here you can see where Dalian is on the Chinese map.

Oh and btw, what's going on with the whole Facebook frenzy lately? Gosh, they must sign up like a milllion new ppl every day ;-)

Back from Xiandu

Got back last Sunday from a marvelous trip to Xiandu (Zhejiang province) just a couple of hours away from Hangzhou. For the people interested in checking out sceneries outside the tourist traps and without hassle, then Xiandu is the place! It's has everything you need - greens&fresh air, old villages, bamboo rafting, trains, and Guilin-like scenery. I mean what more do you possible want out of a weekend trip??

After a 7 hour train trip, we basically went straight to hotel to go to bed, until we found out that there was only one room available (out of the three that we made the reservation for) Luckily they found another room in the hotel, but two of us had to sleep in a nearby (shabby) hotel. Let's just say so shabby that Bernard was not able to sleep at night, because his neighbors couldn't stay quiet...

Anyway, next day up in the mountains - wonderful 2,5 hour hike up in the mountains, with stunning scenery. After a big lunch we decided to do the bamboo rafting down the river. Well, that was something that the WildWater boats in theme parks could learn from:-) Man, I mean I was soaked! It was good fun.

Second day, it was raining cats and dogs in the morning and hung out in a local cafe most of the morning. Luckily the skies cleared a bit around 11:30, so we decided to go buy some rain coats and go to the old village anyway. After a near death experience (that is- not for the passengers but the pedestrians walking down the street) we arrived at the gates of the 200-years old village, walked around and had lunch at a local family's courtyard (since there weren't any restaurants we just asked one family if they wanted to prepare some food for us)

Check out some of the pictures I've taken there:

XianDu

Thank you again Daisy for organizing the trip!

Putuoshan trip

Last weekend, we went on a little trip outside Shanghai, looking for some fresh air and to see more of China than just Shanghai. We started with an overnight boat trip from Wusong Port to arrive in the early morning in Putuoshan. It was a bit difficult to get the boat tickets since it was "Buddha's birthday" weekend, but we managed to get 4th class boat tickets. Fourth class! Didn't even know that this existed:-) We went on the boat, and we just kept on going down on levels, until we finally reached our destination - right next to the loud roaring engine and a place with no proper ventilation and windows. It brought up memories of Titanic where Jack was stuck down in the bottom with the rest of the laymen, while the ship was sinking. Our level actually had gates to close off our level off as well....I just comforted myself knowing that there will not be any ice caps around this region.

After we arrived at 7 am in the morning at Putuoshan and fixed our hotel room, we started to look for some food in the 'village'. The first impression of this island was that it was overloaded with Chinese tourists with red caps and the groups were escorted with a tour guide with a flag and microfoon. At one point I overheard a guide yelling out numbers (from 1 to 20) to check if everybody was still with the group. I guess he gave every family a number, so he could easily check who was there or not.

While looking for a restaurant, we stumbled upon certain areas full of local life, they still had a few traditional courthouses. I really love this about China, just walking around different areas, and then just stumble upon these kind of surprises...

The island has a mountain that is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China, so it's full with temples, monks and nuns. On our visit I have spotted several nuns doing a pilgrimage, you can recognize this by seeing them walking three steps, kneel down, bowing with their heads on the floor, and then back up again. This is how they have traveled all the way.

When we went to one particular temple, build around an impressive cave, I was struck with a BIG mountain of money that was out there on the table in the temple, for everybody to see. I don't think I have ever seen so much money in my whole life...The monks were counting the money they got from donations. It was just so weird to me that they we so out in the open about it. (although they didn't let us take any pictures) I guess it's a big industry here with all the pilgrims and tourists coming here every year.

Hiking was great, it's so good not to be in the city but out in nature, albeit in Chinese style: together with thousands of yelling Chinese tourist, a paved path (complete with stairs and railing), fake wooden lamp posts, and even speakers playing soothing songs along the route:-)

Check out some of my pictures here.
I bet there will be more to come considering that 4 out of 6 people of our trip had a big D-SLR camera. (3 out of 4 were Nikon :-D)

Jinan

Gosh, time really flies! Suddenly it's already the end of February, and it seemed like yesterday that I have put in the last entry below. Chinese New Year just passed, and as always it has been crazy! The whole city was on fire. My friend Memy from the Netherlands decided on a whim to come over to Shanghai for a few days, it was really great. Besides showing the usual stuff, she also was able to see the craziest time in China. :-)

In the last weekend of the Chinese New Year Oscar, Alex and I went to Jinan and Mingshui (Shandong province). The two white boys, were supposed to be the 'token white guy' for an English school. I just tagged along and took the opportunity to take some more pictures and get out of Shanghai. Times like these you just realize how expensive Shanghai actually is! I mean rent, taxis, dinners are up to a tenfold cheaper then here. :-)