China Part I - Yangshuo to Shanghai

Marx and Lenin having a good old chat in the park, Shanghai

We arrived in China after a short train journey from Hong Kong and everything felt very, very different. I think it was the first time on our trip that it was literally impossible to know what to do or where to go. For example, after crossing the border we had to go to a bus station to take an overnight bus to our first destination, Yangshuo. So imagine the scene – we were waved through the border gate by a Chinese man in Communist-looking uniform with a large gun. We both had large, heavy backpacks on our backs and a rucksack each on our front. Nothing is in English. All signs are in indecipherable Chinese script. Nobody speaks English; at all. No amount of broken Spanish, French, Italian or German that has helped us thus far will work. In fact even body language doesn’t seem to work – pointing and motioning results in blank stares or nervous laughter. We had absolutely no idea where to go in a large, noisy and manically busy city. And everybody was staring at us. Welcome to China - I have to say that we were loving it!

To cut a long story short we ended up finding the bus and travelled overnight to our first stop, Yangshuo. Yangshuo is quite touristy for China, although the vast majority of tourists are Chinese but it is also set in a beautiful setting, surrounded by karsts (giant granite spires) often shrouded in mist and its a very picturesque town. We hired bikes and explored the area, strolled around the town and took a two day trip to a place called the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces, several hours away its a stunning area where rice terraces have been sculpted into the land by the locals over hundreds of years (thus resulting in what looks like a dragon’s spine).

Yangshuo by day...

...and Yangshuo at night (the view from our terrace)

Some views at the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces

The sign on our 'hotel' at the rice terraces. The family we stayed with were unbelievably welcoming and kind

Very impressed with our first stop in China we boarded a 24hr train for Shanghai.

Elizabeth in the subway, Shanghai

Shanghai is exactly how you would imagine – daunting sky scrapers, its hot, its busy, its China (but somehow not the China that Elizabeth’s Granny would have known being born here in 1913...)

Shanghai - lots of neon and skyscrapers

We found a park to have a moment’s peace in and sat people-watching next to a large statue of Marx and Lenin. Parks typically are where the older locals hang out and exercise (if you can call it that). Apart from the traditional Tai Chi there are people also walking backwards around the park and screaming at full volume (apparently it's called therapeutic screaming).

Shanghai park

I had another classic Chinese experience in Shanghai when I was trying to get some more anti-malarial tablets. I went to the hospital pharmacy (having given up trying to explain to the chemists) armed with an old box of the pills and the Chinese translation written down on a piece of paper. Every time I reached the front of the queue they pointed me to a different counter, followed by more queuing and more pointing. After this happened several times I was sent to what looked like the grumpy old lady in charge:

Me: Do you have this [pointing and holding up box and translation].
The boss: No [nodding her head].
Me: Yes? [nodding] or no? [shaking my head]
The boss: No [nodding her head again].
Me: No? [shaking head]
The boss: No! [nodding her head and shaking her hand in a non-descript manner]

Again we Couch Surfed, this time with a German couple working at the Expo. We spent Elizabeth’s birthday wandering around the Expo which was incredible....

The entrance to the British pavilion at the expo

The inside of the British pavilion- each tube is filled with a different type of seeds

Outside the pavilion

The Chinese pavilion (in true Chinese style it dwarfed all the others)