August 13. 2012

First Impressions from China

Monday noon, Nanjin Donglu, Shanghai center. Sitting in a little Café, having an ice-cream, enjoying the airco and trying to sort out the impressions of the first few days here in China.

I arrived last Friday to visit Florian and to spend some time in Shanghai and the surroundings. Florian has been living in China now for more than two years, one in Shanghai. So, reasons enough to come over here.

On Friday evening, we went out for dinner to a local restaurant with Florians room-mate and a friend of hers. The pure Chinese menu was difficult to read even for Florian, so we got ourselves completely into the hands of our hosts and waited for the things to come up. I’m not totally sure what all these specialities were named, but all were delicious.

After dinner, we headed for the city center for a first look at the Pudong skyline from The Bund. It’s impressive to see how rapidly the city is growing, especially in Pudong. About 15 years ago, the area was more or less empty, just swamplands, some greenhouses. And nowadays, no other city in the world has as many skyscrapers as Shanghai has. More than 4,000 buildings are above 100 meters.

But still, Shanghai has its older parts. On Saturday, we went to the former French quarter, Fuxing park and Xintiandi. Lots of smaller, older buildings and narrow streets, very lovely.

Sunday morning we got up early and left for Suzhou and Tongli, a few hours south-west of Shanghai. The cities are so-called water-towns along the ancient canal from Shanghai to Beijing. Especially in Tongli, many of the old, medieval houses are still in use. And as there are not too many tourists, one still has a chance to really take a look around. There are still people living in the old town, plenty of craftsmen are working there. It’s really worth visiting.

In fact, it was so interesting, that we came back to Suzhou quite late. We didn’t have much time for the city left. It’s larger than Tongli, but the old parts are as narrow as Tongli, with countless winding alleyways.

August 14. 2012

Lustre of the Dragon Temple

I tried to escape the hurly-burly of the city today and decided to visit Longhua Temple instead. It is the largest Buddhist Temple in Shanghai and is located outside the city center. At least during the week, the area is not packed.

Most of the visitors come here to pray and worship. And it’s nice to just enjoy this quiet place.

As the weather was a lot better than the previous days, we went to The Bund again to do some night shots of Pudong and the boardwalk.

August 16. 2012

Last Evening in Shanghai

The last two days I explored Shanghai even more. After visiting Longhua Temple the day before, I went to the Jade Buddha Temple yesterday. Being built in 1918, it is one of the newest temples of the city. The site is a lot smaller than Longhua, but not less interesting.

Unfortunately, I can’t show any photos of the Jade Buddha itself, as it is forbidden to take any pictures. Well, it doesn’t really matter, as the other statues are even more fascinating.

Yesterday evening we went to the Old Town of Shanghai, which features numerous old and reconstructed buildings. It doesn’t have much in common with the hyper-modern parts of the city. Apart from the restaurants and shops, there are still many residential houses and narrow market streets with cook-shops.

I came back there today and visited Yu Garden. It is a wonderful oasis in the middle of this bustling city. Unfortunately, there are far too many tourists here.

At night, visibility was perfect, so we went to Pudong and went up the Shanghai World Financial Center to take a look at the city from the currently tallest building in the city.

August 20. 2012

Where Hollywood gets its Inspirations

We spent the weekend in Zhangjiajie, Hunan. The area is not really known among foreign tourists, but there are some very scenic and spectacular spots here, like Zhangjiajie Forest Park and Tianmen Mountain.

I was especially stunned by the bizarr rocks in the Forest Park. These tall and partly woody piles are several hundred meters in height. They also inspired the guys in Hollywood for the film Avatar.

There are several trails for visitors throughout the park. But it’s a bit strange for European visitors, that all these trails are paved, and there are always stairs. No real fun at 38° and hight air moisture. Besides, the area is packed, as usual in China. Chinese tour-guides always carry a microphone and speaker to treat their groups. And there are many groups here. When meeting at one of the hot spots, the guides try to drown out each other, making it challenging to find a nice spot for relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous landscape.

We stayed inside the park and took a quiet way down through a lonesome valley back to the park exit. Just two carriers and four tourists on the whole way.

Back in the town of Zhanjiajie, we took the cable car to Tianmen Mountain. Up there, one can have a walk along paths built onto the cliff face. Parts of the walk have a glass floor, offering a stunning view down into a valley about one thousand meters deep.

However, the main attraction is the Tianmen Cave, a natural hole in the mountain, about 130 meters height and some 30 meters wide. There are buses going from the middle station of the cablecar to a place below the cave. From there, a steep staircase featuring 999 stairs leads the last few hundred meters.

Tomorrow, we will travel to Zhangjiajie.