After some
initial trepidation (“do I have to?”) and cajoling by showing him several
pictures of how cool Shanghai is, my husband Sam agreed to come visit me for fun and
adventures, involving bullet trains, the Great Wall and eating actual weird
things!
Despite a few
hiccups at the airport late at night when he landed, we were finally reunited
after a month apart.
The first day was
spent mainly recovering from the long trip and jet lag, and then we just about
managed to find the hotel in Xujiahui (as we decided not to risk sneaking Sam
into my dorms on the first night) and then met up with Lu to pick up our bullet
train tickets for Beijing.
As a thank you
for assisting us with picking up our tickets, we wanted to take Lu out for
dinner (not to mention that she could help us negotiate the perilous world of
Chinese restaurants in a busy city like Shanghai with its dubious levels of
English translation!). And boy, did we need her help. After much deliberation,
we ended up at a place called “Grandma’s Home” (外婆家) that makes a fantastic tasting chicken cooked in tea
(or so we were told). After waiting for what seemed an age for a table via a
ticketing system (apparently this is perfectly normal for Shanghai restaurants and
it was very busy on a Saturday night), we finally got to a table and ordered the
said chicken. Ten minutes later, it turned out we were too late, and that this
chicken had already sold out for the night! So instead, we ordered another
chicken dish, which sounded reasonable enough on the translation in the menu as
“chicken belly with bamboo shoots”. Since pork belly is very delicious, we
figured chicken belly would also be the same.
But what I didn’t
bank on was that something had been lost in translation – namely that “belly”
meant “organs from the belly”! So basically we had unwittingly ordered something
truly weird but genuinely Chinese. Of course by the time we realized this, we
had already taken several mouthfuls (Sam included). Despite the squeamish
factor, it actually tasted okay! In particular, the chicken hearts were quite
nice, as they were lean, with no sinewy bits and had a great, subtle, gamey
flavour. Much better than liver with it’s really, really weird texture and overpowering
strong flavour. I was starting to see what my dad likes about these things……
Also, since it
was a proper Chinese restaurant, of course there were only chopsticks – and
this was Sam’s first time properly eating with them!
Regardless, he
was determined not to be defeated by a couple of sticks and ate his first meal
with aplomb (although a lot of the rice ended up outside the bowl).
This place was
actually really great value for money, with a 500 ml tankard of Tsing Tao beer
only costing £1.50 and the whole meal for the three of us was about £12. Would
go back again, but maybe not at such a busy time! Now I’m starting to
understand why the lab people always eat at 5 pm! The place was so busy, I’m
not sure if we’d have actually received half our food if it wasn’t for Lu, who
dutifully went up to the waiters what seemed like every five minutes at the
beginning to get them to bring all the things that we ordered.
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| We robably couldn’t have eaten anything at this restaurant if it wasn’t for Lu's assistance! |
Randomly, they
also served potato smiles under the English translation of “potato cupid”!
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| "Potato cupid"
The following morning, we set off for a fun-filled day starting with taking Sam around Yu gardens and the surrounding market stalls, after he insisted that he wanted to see “something Chinese”. I think the crowds pushed Sam to his limits, but he liked the cute nick nacks you could buy around the stalls, and commissioned this special piece of art work for us for only 120 RMB (this is probably really expensive, since all prices around Yu Gardens are inflated, but hey). We posed dutifully while the paper artist studied us and attempted to recreate us in red paper (although Sam insists his staring at us was just for show, since we don’t look hardly anything like our red silhouettes!).
|
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| Trepidation over how good our paper cut silhouettes would look given that this guy was doing it all free hand |
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| End result of our papercutting silhouette |
Not entirely sure from what angle Sam’s
hair looks like this, but a cute image nonetheless, and we had the Chinese text
reliably confirmed by a friendly security guard later.
We then went into
Yu Gardens which Sam seemed to enjoy very much, taking lots of photos:
We also headed to
Century Park later and rented a bike buggy, which was quite cheap, only 100 RMB
deposit and 50 RMB per hour.
And a little bit
of kite flying:
But as the
evening was drawing to a close, we headed to the Bund, and had dinner at the
Subways there. Yes, this was a bit of a cop out, and we joked that Sam’s diet
would be barely different to what it normally was at home, but I think after
yesterday’s excitement (and wait), we needed some easy convenience food. And
frankly, Sam’s visit gave me the first opportunity to eat some Western food
since I’ve arrived here. I’d not yet dared to venture into Western fast food
places up until now, partly a combination of a fear of what I could be served
in case nobody spoke English, but also because I felt it would be a travesty to
do so in a country with such a varied and interesting cuisine. (McDonald’s
chips have never tasted so good!). Having said that, a lot of the other western
guys in my dorm unashamedly head to places that they know serves good western
food, and I rarely see them in the canteen.
After our tasty
meal, we headed up to the Bund to introduce Sam to the pretty city lights.
The next day was
our scheduled train to Beijing, which, on the recommendations from the lab
people, I finally decided to settle on the bullet train. I spent many days
umming and aahing about whether or not to fly, or to take the night train, but
I was advised that even though the plane is about $10 cheaper, actually even
though the plane is about $10 cheaper, actually it doesn’t work out better
either financially or time wise, because the airport is so far out of the city
it costs more to get into the centre, whereas the train stops at Beijing South
Railway station, which is on the metro line and pretty near the centre already.
Also whilst the flight only takes 2 hours compared to the 4 h 30 min to 5 h of
the bullet train, factoring in the 2 hour early arrival time for check in and
security, coupled with the said trip into the city afterwards, there isn’t much
time saved, if any. I was recommended against getting a night train, on account
that a fairly tall Chinese guy found the beds too short to sleep in, then Sam
and I would certainly be having our feet hanging off the end.
Arriving 30
minutes early, as recommended, we were ushered through security style gates,
and made it onto the futuristic looking platform where the Telegraph,
who were invited to review it along with other journalists from all over the
world when it was first completed in 2011, accurately
described how the “platform is so clean I can see the guard’s reflection in the
polished granite” as we depart. It’s still the same polished system running two
years later.
The overall
experience was very comfortable, and felt a little bit like a plane, complete
with flight, sorry, ride attendants. Although the train was obviously
travelling very fast, the journey was very smooth, and similar to when a plane
starts to speed up along the runway just before take-off. But since it never
takes off, there was no turbulence (yet another pro over taking a flight)! I
certainly didn’t feel as though any safety was being compromised, despite the
fact that the rail line was built very quickly and was actually finished ahead
of schedule. There’s something very satisfying about spotting that the train
speed is reading 303 km/h despite being very comfy in your seat.
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| Current speed on display while train attendant checks tickets |
Since there were
no size restrictions of the train carriage as there would have been for planes,
there was plenty of space for everyone.
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| In the comfy bullet train from Shanghai to Beijing |
Despite the many
seats you can see, even for people the size of me and Sam, we had really great
leg room, so that even if the person in front of you reclined their seat, it
didn’t really impact on your manoeuvrability at all. There was much more room
than in any flight I’ve ever taken.
Furthermore, at
each set of seats there was at least one plug socket, so that you could charge
your phone/tablet/laptop/camera or anything else you wanted during the long
journey. We chose to use this time to catch up on the Great British Bake Off
and Neighbours, which Sam had kindly brought along for me J. OMG Frances – style and substance!
Even the “facilities”
were okay, not the best in the world, but surprisingly clean compared to some
we’ve seen in the UK, and infinitely better than some shocking ones we’d seen
in other parts of China. The worst that it seemed to get was just that some people
appeared to be using them to have a secret smoke, and they didn’t even bother
to flush the ashes down the sink. But this was funny rather than anything else.
The views from
the train afforded some glimpse into the “real China” which we otherwise wouldn’t
get to see, going from one metropolis, to another. After the tower blocks of
cramped flats which we saw skirting the city where presumably the working
classes lived and commuted from, we were left with wide expanses of farm land,
initially rice fields, but later mainly corn.
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| Towering mega blocks on the outskirts of Shanghai |
We pulled into
Beijing South smoothly and on time, feeling like we’d had a very comfortable
and relaxing journey. As the journey was pretty convenient and impressive, it
makes me think of the contentious plans for Britain’s own high speed railway.
Whilst in theory and practice, having such a train journey is convenient and probably
superior to flying, you can see why this was needed in China – for the two
metropolises are about 800 miles apart, and both are important cities, housing
the lifeline of China’s major new businesses which continue to grow. Yet the
need in the UK is somewhat less obvious, with the physical distance between
even Edinburgh and London being half of that, and the political distance ever
widening, as Scotland is on the verge of independence, it is unclear whether Britain
would stand to benefit as much from a similar enterprise.
But with regards
to China’s achievements, I have to agree with Peter Foster’s closing statements
for the Telegraph – “Sometimes it’s impossible not to be swept up in admiration
of China as it revels in its newfound capabilities”.
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