The first week or so we were stuck on this insipid package tour which took us to as many scam "tourist malls" and other tourist traps as it did to actual sites of interest. The tour was dirt cheap so I guess you get what you pay for. With my parents in-tow I guess it was the easiest way to "see" China but of course it meant sacrificing my time and independence and not getting to see everything I wanted to.
Beijing
We started off with a few days in and around Beijing before flying down to Nanjing and environs, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou and finally Shanghai where the package tour finally finished and my brother and I had a couple days to ourselves sans the 'rents as they went ahead to Guangzhou to see the family. My brother and I re-joined them yesterday as we flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou.
Beijing was a lot of fun, I saw Tianamen Square, toured the Forbidden City, I kept on remembering scenes from the movie the Last Emperor and was comparing this palace to Versailles in France. I stood at the top of the stairs of the palace and imagined what it must have felt like for the Emperors who stood there and gazed upon their courts below.
I then visited the Temple of Heaven Park and saw Beijingers at play, for such a conservative town it was nice to see people dancing, playing music and singing en masse before visiting the actual temple.
I climbed up a portion of the Great Wall of China. Mao Zedong said, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" but Ghengis Khan said, "The strength of a wall depends on the courage those who defend it!" Regardless, it was a real workout climbing it.
I toured the Olympic sites in Beijing and had a chance to visit inside National Stadium aka the Bird's Nest. I remember watching the stunning pageant that was the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics almost a year ago. It was one of the most impressive theatrical events I had ever seen and it was surreal visiting the venue. Surprisingly, the stadium looks a lot smaller in person than it did on TV. The place still retains that amazing energy from a year ago and it felt amazing to walk around the track and imagine what it must have felt like for the Olympians to enter the stadium and circle that same track to the cheers of thousands.
Nanjing
In Nanjing, I had a chance to visit the Zonghua Gate, one of the gates of the original city walls. It was a sobering experience to stand on top of the gate and recall that this was one of the gates of the city that the retreating Chinese government officials had locked, trapping the citizens of Nanjing inside to be massacred by the approaching Japanese Imperial Army during the rape of Nanking.
Wuxi / Suzhou / Hangzhou
The next few days saw visits to Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou to experience the "classical" China of temples, gardens and water towns. I toured the area around Tai Lake and West Lake as well as visiting Shantangjie in Suzhou which is a water town . . . although it's reputation as "Venice of the East" is exaggerated.
Shanghai
Finally, we arrived in Shanghai. Shanghai has been one of my favourite cities on the trip. Although apparently 2009 is a bit of an off-year to visit China. We're too late for the party of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and too early for the part of Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Already a city in rapid development/re-development, all of Shanghai is virtually a construction site as the city furiously prepares for Expo 2010. The city's famous Bund road is awash in construction as several countries' pavilions for the world fair are being built there. East Nanjing Road is as colourful as ever although it wasn't as up-market as high-fashion shopping streets in other places such as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs Élysées in Paris, Oxford Street in London or Ginza in Tokyo. It did, however, have an abundance of seedy guys hawking fake watches or offering "pretty girl, massage".
The Pudong new district is a stunning city-scape straight out of a sci-fi movie, especially with the iconic Oriental Pearl TV tower. I had the chance to ascend to the 100th floor observation deck at the newly-opened Shanghai World Financial Centre . . . although by this time next year there will apparently be an even higher observation deck at the Shanghai Tower being built next door. It was pretty cloudy/hazy when I went up but as the sun set and the lights came up in Shanghai it made for a stunning view. My brother and I also stopped for a drink with a view, chilling at a bar almost half a kilometer in the air, above the clouds!
We also had a chance to ride the Maglev from Shanghai to Pudong International Airport. The Shanghai maglev was the first and only magnetic levitation train in commercial operation. With a top speed of 430 Km/h it soared past the countryside and made the cars on the adjacent freeway look like they were driving backwards. The 30 Km trip only takes 7 minutes and you only cruise at the top 430 kph speed for a minute or two but it felt exciting and cutting-edge nonetheless.
Kaiping, Guangdong
I'm currently in the town of Kaiping in the southern Guangdong province where my family originates. While we've been very lucky with the weather for the trip so far, the infamous Chinese summer heat and humidity have been kept at bay and it has been reasonably tolerable the past couple weeks, there's currently a tropical storm/typhoon rolling around in the area (the storm is named Goni). It was windy with torrential downpours today.
We went to visit my grandparents who were ecstatic to see us, they hadn't seen us for probably over ten years. I met my aunts, uncles and cousins too and they prepared lunch for us. It was really interesting to finally meet them and I think my brother and I were as much of a curiosity for them as they were for us. It was strange to think of these people who are as close to me as the aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother's side, whom I grew up, with but who are essentially complete strangers. Even more interesting was observing my father who was basically re-united with his estranged family after almost forty years.
They were very warm and welcoming, despite our limited ability to communicate directly (i.e. not through my parents) and I was only asked once when I was going to buy a house and get married :P
More interestingly was when it came time to leave the storm had flooded the road in front of my grandparents' apartment building . . . we had to wade through thigh-high raw sewage water to get back to the car, it was disgusting. I couldn't wait to get back to shower. Still, it really gave me a new-found appreciation for what I have back home and maybe I'll curse a little less next time I'm crunching through a (relatively clean) snowbank this winter.
I'll be spending a few more days in Kaiping. We're slated to go to Macau tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad, we're probably also going to day trip to Guangzhou and possibly the Shenzen "Special Economic Zone" before finishing the trip in Hong Kong. I'll be back in Canada on the 19th.
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