I escorted Michelle's Mum Alice to Shanghai for her return flight to the land of Oz on Sunday. This worked out fairly well as Monday was a public holiday here for Mid-Autumn (or Moon) Festival which allowed me to act as an escort and still make it to all of my classes. Michelle's mum has been a great help and a wonderful companion through some tough and mind-numbing times. Not to mention that Penny loves her and enjoys her company immensely. So of course there were tears shed as we headed off to the airport at 11 am Sunday morning. Nanchang airport was a little better this time around and we sat down to possibly the most expensive coffee that I have had (in Australia or China). My flat white cost 68 RMB, which converts to about $10.00 AUD and it was made with long-life milk. So much for being a coffee Nazi-...they burned the milk...the crema tastes bitter... they packed the group head too tight...etc...- I was just happy that they seemed to have a functioning espresso machine. Anyway the flight was good and we even got a hot lunch of broad beans and prawns in a spicy sauce with a side of steamed rice. The rest of the flight from Nanchang was uneventful and we arrived and hour after take-off at Hong Qiao in Shanghai.
Alice's flight left Shanghai at 7.30 that night from Pudong so we had a bit of time in Shanghai and planned a quick visit to the Jade Buddha Temple. The taxi from Hong Qiao was lovely and seemed peaceful and civilised after the horn-honking cacophony and brain paralysing swerve fest of Nanchang. I'll blog about "it" at a later date... It was also raining in Shanghai which added to the sense of difference from the heat and dust of of the "Chang" (Nanchang that is...duh!)" WE taxied into the centre of town and checked into the much loved (by us anyway) 7th Heaven hotel. The concierge recognised me and we organised a taxi for Alice's airport trip before we had even checked in. Basically it was a drop and run and we dumped the bags in the room and headed off for a guerrilla tourist raid of the Jade Buddha Temple. We had around an hour and a half before the cab would be waiting. So we jumped another cab (hailed again by the ever helpful concierge guy...gotta love him!) and headed off. The roads were crowded and Nanjing road was packed, and I mean PACKED with people because of the long weekend. Doh!!
The cab took longer than expected...mostly due to the dodgy cabbie taking us along what I expect was the long tourist route to the temple. It took about 25 minutes and cost us 49 RMB which we passed through the mesh into the front seat and headed off down the street in the drizzle towards the black curved roof and saffron walls of the temple. Unsurprisingly it too was packed...and yes I still mean PACKED. We pushed in through the crowds of worshippers and foreign gawkers and made our way through the clouds of falling ash (from the worshiper's offerings) towards the back of the temple where the Jade Buddha is kept. I knew this as I had been there before and as such was determined to lead this raid successfully. We bought our second set of tickets (the first to get in the gate) and headed up the three flights of small narrow steps (whats China without small narrow steps after all?) to the viewing hall. Here we were met by the stragglers of a large French tour group...quelle horreur! The french in their arrogance (sorry couldn't help it and no I didn't really mean it and yes I know that all French are not arrogant and yes I know that doesn't make it better and yes I actually think France is a lovely country full of wonderful people...can I get back to the story now?? Good) had filled the whole viewing hall leaving us with an area of about 3 square feet from which we could see a thin line of what was presumably Jade that may or may not have been part of the anatomy of said Buddha.
Actually we saw a little of his face and one side and then had to leave to ensure a timely return to the hotel where the taxi to the airport would be waiting... So we pushed back out of the temple and hailed a cab...now this cab took about 10m minutes and cost 16 RMB very different from the nasty cabbie lady on the first trip...damn her eyes. If she had just driven us to the temple in the direct route Alice would have been able to spend another 15 minutes there! Oh well what are you gonna huh? Apart from maybe lying in wait and hunting her down in the hard streets of Shanghai. Lucky for her I have to get back to Nanchang...or I'd be all "Yeah actually I am talking to you...Yeah I do think you're funny!"
Hordes of worship hungry festival goers.
More of the same...
Good wishes written on red paper/ribbons tied to basically everything in the temple grounds.
So we made it back and got the bags and Alice headed off in a taxi through the holiday crowds towards Pudong and eventually Toowoomba. It was sad to see her go and she is missed here in our little house.
The rest of my time was spent searching for English language DVD's and books (of which I got many thanks for asking!) . I have mentioned the touts in Shanghai before on this blog and was determined to test their mettle (or perhaps it was a test of mine!!) So I bided my time and chose a guy that seemed nice and whose eyes weren't too close together. He beckoned to me through the crowd and I followed him a good 3 metres or so behind him because of his maddening pace and crowd dodging acumen. I dredged on behind him bouncing hapless Chinese left and right under my sweaty pumping arms (it was 35 degrees and about 100% humidity after all) until we came turned off Nanjing road and entered the seedy backstreets of Shanghai. We plunged on through a couple of other alleyways and eventually through the facade of a small dodgy Qi Pau (Chinese dress) shop into an air conditioned pirate wonderland...(queue the spinning camera and glittering lights). There was Prada, Gucci, Fendi, handbags, wallets, shoes, clothes and of course boxes and boxes and still more boxes of DVD's. Shazam!! All was good in the world. So I stocked up and headed off back to the hotel for beer and KFC to celebrate.
I tried to have a sleep in but ended up awake at 5:30 am and managed to doze on and off until about 7:00 am or so. Then it was Macca's for coffee before heading off in search of English books and magazines. I headed off to Fuzhou road a few blocks from the hotel invigorated by my screaming kick in the head cup of McDeath coffee. Most of the big shops don't open until 9:30 or 10 o'clock in Shanghai so I had a lot of wandering to do, all of which was accompanied by a warm drizzle and the usual crowds of Shanghai. The Bookstore finally opened and I headed in to emerge about an hour and a half later with a bag of books and mags.
My train left at 3:30 pm from Shanghai South station so I had time to kill. After heading back to the hotel I showered checked out and braved the streets in search of lunch. Fortunately I found it at a Xinjiang restaurant just down the road. For the uninitiated Xinjiang is a region in the far West of China and their cuisine revolves around barbecued lamb ( the are largely Muslim in faith...the people in Xinjiang that is, not the lambs), bread and salads. So I had some BBQ lamb sprinkled with cumin salt and chili served on flat bread and accompanied by a salad of cucumber, tomato and red onion dressed in fragrant peanut oil and garlic. Yum, yum! Outside the store I jumped a cab to the train station and at 3:30 I was ensconced in my first class seat (think plush airplane seating with plenty of legroom) as the train started to accelerate towards it's top speed of 200 km. Thankfully I had my MP3 player and the books that I had just bought to help pass the time. The guy next to me was going to Nanchang as well (I saw his ticket...he didn't speak once during the trip) and proceeded to make himself comfortable for what turned out to be a long sleep. I sat back and listened XTC's excellent English Settlement as we glided out of Shanghai, it made for a nice counter-point. I was back in Nanchang by around 8:30 pm and home by 9:15.
A pretty good trip made all the better to hear that Alice had arrived back in Oz safe and sound albeit tired and sick of flying (three flights in one day and a delay of a couple of hours out of Shanghai).
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