Shanghai part 2



With cousin Flynn and hamster!

 Shanghai to be continued....
This is a tack on for the previous post on Shanghai (as I was having difficulties in China with the Blog) so this will include the photos of stuff mentioned before.


Yuyuan Bazaar



Huxinting Teahouse with the zigzag bridge to keep away evil spirits.

Yuyuan Gardens

City lights in the Pudong





Pearl Tower at night



Wacky tourist tunnel lights!



Last night out with our tour families.



Hollander and Hannah dressed up for dinner.

Shanghai was the end of our trip so after leaving the tour group we stayed in a hotel for 4 days that we found our selves on the Internet which was fantastic called The Astor House Hotel.  We weren't sure that the booking was confirmed as no money was taken for a deposit when I phoned them but we had the perfect luxury room with extras in a lovely old sandstone building next to the Bund for the price of an ordinary hotel room in Australia (don't book on the net as the rate is ridiculous we paid $240 for an executive suite with breakfast and access to an executive lounge with extra food on tap for all of us - great!)

Our room at The Astor -felt pretty special.



The lobby at The Astor


The Astor House Hotel was the first western hotel established in China in 1846 on the Bund in Shanghai, (now known as the Pujiang Hotel in Chinese since 1959) it was once described as "one of the most famous hotels of the world", "the pride of Shanghai" and "the most luxurious hotel in the world", the architecture reflects the concession eras old world European influence.  The Lonely Planet comically describes it as 'British public school meets Victorian asylum' - with its polished floors, doormen in suit and tails, it certainly had lots of character. 

The Peacock Room

The Bund

Mummy on The Bund

The hotel was an experience that's why I'm mentioning it,  past famous guests included Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin (you could pay to stay in one of their rooms) and the dining room had to be seen to be believed - breakfast was served in the 'Peacock Room' - the original dance hall with chandeliers, grand ceilings and the old boxes (it was called the Peacock Room because the stage was backed by an arched coloured stain glass peacocks plumage). I had visions of flappers doing the Charleston right were I was sitting! It was really nice to get a taste of what it might of been like in its hey day.

From here we did our day trip to Zhujiajiao, explored the Bund and shops, and caught up with the cousins. 

Pearl tower and also the 'bottle openner' in back ground -tallest building in China



View from the Pearl Tower



Sprogs pretending to free fall



Convincing mummy to free fall



Is that you Marilyn?

We had a great time in China and we felt as though we had seen a lot. However it took some time to recover on returning home, the experience raised some concerns about our future as a nation and the future of the world.

I walked away with concerns about our environmental impact, it is in your face while you are there the impact of a developing country's break neck desire to get rich on the environment.  The lack of industry regulation was evident in the air that we had to breath in some regions and was spelt out in one of the news papers we were reading there that quoted a Government official stating that they would not address environmental issues until the West did, and that they wanted to focus on becoming a rich nation.  Some may argue that the West went through the same process 200 years ago when it entered the Industrial Revolution but we have different standards now.  I also felt guilty about the 'junk rubbish' that we import and buy in Australia - the cheap plastic toys that last a day from the '2 dollar shops' and also Australia's dependence on selling non renewable resources - coal - to be burnt in furnaces that provides the energy to make the junk.  Bit of a vicious circle to be stuck in!

Then I started to get worried about how small we were as a nation 22 million is nothing compared to China's 1.4 billion.  Julia Gillard was visiting when we were there and it was in the paper I read that she had signed off on allowing military maneuvers to occur in Australia with China.  Makes you think about the politicking involved in international trade and why nations like China feel they don't have to sign a Kyoto accord.  And why don't we have greater controls over foreign ownership of land and subsequently natural resources? maybe I'm crazy but it seems we are selling ourselves off.

Any way I get passionate about things sometimes and now feel abit overwhelmed about it all.  You just hope that it all works out and that instead of exporting coal we will develop an even greater commodity to export - why aren't we leaders in Solar panel technology.

I'm getting off the soap box now and saying that we had a great time, the kids loved it and I would highly recommend it. I just wish that the rate of making environmental and humanitarian changes could also meet the rate of rapid industrialisation.


How Oren saw most of China!


The Petersen log will next be featuring Vanuatu in July (thank goodness I'm finally up todate) where we will be relaxing in the sun for a week and trying a bit of French, checking out the Cascade Falls, and going to Tanna Island to see the active volcano up close.


Bye for now,


Susan and the gang!

The 'Silk Road' not so less travelled!

Traditional cocoon bed

While in Shanghai we went to a Silk factory and learnt about silk production. We saw how the cocoons are first boiled and how the threads - which are 1 kilometer long - are extracted with a brush and then thread onto the spinning machine to make the weaving fibre.  Cocoons are also stretched to form layers for quilts etc by stretching the intact cocoon firstly over a bamboo hoop then even further by hand with a group of workers. Ingenious!


Spinning the thread



The brush captures the silk thread


The legend of silk production in China is fascinating apparently Empress Hsi Ling Shi, wife of Emperor Huang Ti (also called the Yellow Emperor), was the first person to accidentally discover silk as weavable fiber.

One day, when the empress was sipping tea under a mulberry tree, a cocoon fell into her cup and began to unravel. The empress became so enamored with the shimmering threads, she discovered their source, the Bombyx mori silkworm found in the white mulberry. The empress soon developed sericulture, the cultivation of silkworms, and invented the reel and loom. Thus began the history of silk.

Whether or not the legend is accurate, it is certain that the earliest surviving references to silk history and production place it in China; and that for nearly 3 thousand years, the Chinese had a global monopoly on silk production.


Stretching the cocoon over bamboo.



Workers stretch the cocoon 'sock' even further



The kids have a turn.



Its really strong! many layers make a quilt. 

Though first reserved for Chinese royalty, silk spread gradually through the Chinese culture both geographically and socially. From there, silken garments began to reach regions throughout Asia. Silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants, because of its texture and luster.

Demand for this exotic fabric eventually created the lucrative trade route now known as The Silk Road, taking silk, porcelain and jade westward and bringing gold, silver, Arab horses and wools to the East. Rome was a major importer of silk and knew China as 'Seres' - the land of silk.




It was named the Silk Road after its most valuable commodity, silk was considered even more precious than gold!  The silk road became very busy in the Han dynasty exposing Xi'an the then capital of China to many influences from the west eg religion and art.


The Silk Road was some 4,000 miles long stretching from China to the Mediterranean Sea. A caravan tract, the Silk Road followed the Great Wall of China to the north-west, bypassing the Takla Makan desert, climbing the Pamir mountain range, crossing modern-day Afghanistan and going on to the Levant, with a major trading market in Damascus. From there, the merchandise was shipped across the Mediterranean Sea. Few people traveled the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.

The Chinese realized the value of the beautiful material they were producing and kept its secret safe from the rest of the world for more than 3000 years. Travelers were searched thoroughly at border crossings and anyone caught trying to smuggle eggs, cocoons or silkworms out of the country were summarily executed. Thus, under penalty of death, the mystery of sericulture remained a well-kept secret for almost three thousand years.

The final decline of the route came when large ships in the 15th century could travel with less cost and danger. However the geographical knowledge had grown immensely because of the routes as shown in the Catalan Map - a 14th century map made for Charles V of France in the middle ages. Also further details about China were aided by Marco Polo's account (1254 – 1324) he was a Christian merchant from the Venetian Republic whose travels were recorded in Il Milione, a book which introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China.

 'The Travels of Marco Polo' is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo. It describs travels through Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia between 1271 and 1291

Lifted facts from a number of sources hopefully research will be appreciated by off spring in coming years!


Susan

The 'Venice of the East' - Zhujiajiao gondolla's and other delights!

Gondolla's and Fangsheng Bridge

Zhujiajiao is a water canal town and is every thing you could imagine 'old China' to look like. So on one of our last days in Shanghai we ventured out on our own to see it, wanting the challenge - as Uncle Vic who lives in Shanghai was busy looking after sick cousin Flynn.


Our driver was racing Alex's rickshaw - we had the lighter load!



Arriving in Zhujiajiao

 Zhujiajiao is situated on a water canal 30 km west from Shanghai, it was during the Ming dynasty it flourished as a commercial centre. What remains today is a mix of Ming and Qing dynasty shopping alley ways, stone bridges and old town architecture. Of all its bridges the Fangsheng Bridge stands out, built in 1571 it spans 72 m has five arches and is the most photographed.

Lots of live turtles, snails and fish for sale.



Watch out for the turtle man - he has a stick!



No point trying to escape!

Zhujiajiao is about 1hr out of town by local bus. The adventure started just as we got settled in our seats. A fight broke out between an old Chinese lady who it appeared was unhappy about her seat allocation.  Yelling ensued with the driver and included the people at the front of the bus and us the only Westerners on it, she was waving her hands about and getting very agitated.  In the end she shuffled off to her seat at the back of the bus only once some other people moved and we showed her our seat numbers were correct. Phew!


Under the offering tree at a Buddhist temple.



Visiting a traditional Chinese chemist.



Buying toffy goo on a stick.

When we arrived we were dropped out side the town centre so some enterprising local rickshaw drivers picked us up and gave us the grand tour of the towns alleys, bridges, temples, old post office, and an old Chinese herbalist shop. We really enjoyed wandering around the alleys looking at the food on offer (eg. marinated pork bits nimbly wrapped in leaves with rice), Alex tried the toffy goo sold on two sticks that you had to keep moving to avoid getting tarred! and the many shops selling tourist trinkets.


Canals still used for transporting agricultural products.



Taking in the sights of the market lanes.

The town is gorgeous - a little Venice of the East. We had a gondola boat ride up one of the canals which was nice, it had an obvious slower pace to the larger towns and not many tourists - mostly Chinese day trippers


Most restaurants served stir fried frog, eel, fish, turtle and other meats. Not too appealing so we comically motioned a chicken laying an egg stirring in rice successfully and had a great meal of 'stirr fried egg and rice' in a lovely restaurant with only us in it and the happy family who were pleased to have us.




Hollander in front of the restaurant we went to for lunch.



Chop stick savvy!


Haven't mentioned the toilets in China yet, usually not a great experience and hard to negotiate with the kids. Must always take your own paper and wipes. They are squat types sometimes with a bucket of water and always next to the kitchen which is a bit off putting.  So you usually have to walk past the cooks and tanks of fish/eels/and other critters to go.


View from the gondola.




Relaxing on the canal.

 
We had a lovely day exploring the town until a sudden down pour happened in the afternoon for which we sheltered in a groovy little Tibetan tea house. When the storm past the kids ventured outside while we were finishing up in the cafe, we wondered what was engaging them next to the canal. Unfortunately the kids were a bit traumatized by finding a new kitten left out in a gutter which they wanted to look after. I had to explain that it was probably going to die with out its mother and that we couldn't bring it back to Australia - so began the howling which attracted alot of curiosity. Local shop keepers came out to see what the fuss was so we had to drag the kids away. Anyway all part of the adventure of traveling in a developing country.


Chillin at the Tibetan cafe.


The Chinese were great engineers, one of their greatest feats was to build The Grand Canal, which Zhujiajiao is apart of.  The canal started in 486BC and was built over a 1000 yrs making it the worlds largest man made water way. Its purpose was to link the Yangzi to the Yellow River and the towns along the way for trade - it spans from Beijing to Hangzhou. The rise of railway lead to its demise but it is still used for barges transporting agricultural produce and tourists wanting to see the decorative bridges and architecture of towns like Wuzhen,  Suzhou and of course Zhujiajiao.

We left Zhujiajiao feeling great about our independent adventure and glad that we made the effort.

Zai Jian!

Susan

Yangshuo oh Yangshuo how I love you so.....

We took a night flight from the new airport at Xi'an to Guilin, as our journey was continuing south.  On the way we passed the new mega city that was built in the middle of no where to support the expected growing tourism, but the tall buildings appeared deserted (saw recently a report on '4 Corners' about such developments in China where regional areas are required to meet GDP targets and the best way to do it in a 'directive economy' is to build buildings that no local can buy - virtually building new glossy ghost towns).



Flotilla of boats up the River Li

We arrived in Guilin close to midnight so Oren was in a screaming state too tired and uncomfortable.  I was also at the end of my tether the pace was getting to us  - Alex called it 'the no rest for the wicked tour'.  Any way we didn't spend much time in Guilin (population 700,000) but immediately appreciated the new landscape and weather - beautiful mountains and humid tropical weather the gaudy 'Los Vegas like' light displays at the airport indicated we were at a favoured local tourist destination.




The dramatic Karst mountains


Guilin and surrounds is known for its karst peaks that follow the Li River, inspiring poets and painters. Karst peaks are weathered limestone formations. Erosion caused by the warm climate and acid rainwater has created many peaks some dramatic vertical columns (fenglin karst) and others cone shaped meeting other cones with dips in between (fengcong karst), there are also abundant caves and sinkholes caused by cave-ins in the area.

Local fishermen selling crabs and fish to a boat cook.

The next morning we boarded our boat to cruise 4 hrs down the Li River to Yangshou.  The river is shallow but wide and the passing landscape is spectacular.  A flotilla of boats headed off together, it was interesting to watch us all navigate the winding river and to see the small fishing boats approaching to sell their catches to the tourist boats.  We passed lush green landscapes, tall bamboos, water buffalo, water birds and people going about their lives in villages along the river all under the backdrop of the eerie mountains. I spent my time taking lots of photos and enjoying watching the kids play their card games together.


Card games afloat!

We arrived in Yangshuo (population 310,000) relaxed and fell in love with the unique little town.  You can see why the Chinese love to come here for holidays. There are lane ways of market shops lots of nice eateries, and a real holiday buzz.  Every where you look it is gorgeous and the mountains dominate.



Cormorant fisherman



The clever cormorant

People here still travel on bamboo rafts and there are fishermen who still use trained cormorants to catch fish (though this is a tourist draw card too - you can have photos with the birds etc). The Chinese have been using tame cormorants for thousands of years. They fish at night with the birds wearing a collar so they can't swallow their catch.  They swim just below the surface along the raft towards a light which is hung from the bow. When the bird catches a fish the fisherman pulls it from the water to remove it, then at the end of the fishing night the birds are fed for their hard work.


Tia chi in the park



Oren doing high kicks!

Playing cards in the park



Spring flower garlands


In Yangshou we did a Tia Chi class in the local park - 'when in Rome!', and a painting class as the area is renowned for its art, and saw the spectacular 'Impression's' show set on a lake with a mountain back drop it is a dramatic performance with a cast of thousands depicting the story of the ethnic minority groups in the area with rousing ethnic music (it was put together by the same people who did the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics so you can imagine how great it was).


Learning to paint bamboo leaves



Budding artist!



Night life in Yangshou

 On one of the days we were in Yangshou we hired bikes and rode for 4 hrs into the country side.  Its crazy but I know I wouldn't have done it back home - safety standards just drop when abroad.  We navigated through erratic traffic in the city until the roads opened up to the green country side.  Then we had to watch the puddle pot holes and the trucks that lumbered by.  It was fun and the kids loved it.  We stopped at a farmers restaurant which was a bit dodgy - the Chinese eat every thing so the chicken stew had the head still in it which the kids didn't like much.  We went vego that day!

How deep are those puddles!



Petersen's go tandem



Farmers working the fields



I said no more photos!



We did it!



We love Yangshou



On our last day there we headed back to Guilin via a bus and visited Ludi Yan (the Reed Flute Caves) 10m caves winding for 500m through Guangming Hill, the grotto has many stalactites and stalagmites, the entrance was once covered with reeds that were used for making flutes thus the name. They aren't as spectacular as Jenolan's but the lights are colourful and very festive.

Whoa! crazy lights



We're Stalagmite and Stalactite!

 Next stop Shanghai, so will fill in some more details and photos which I haven't included in the previous post.

Zai Jian
Susan and gang