Shanghai

I finally rode the Chinese Bullet train. I have several good things to say about it. I already discussed the problems, which center on the station service. The train itself was a pleasure; it was a modern train.

Both the interior ventilation and the lights worked. The seals between the cars were in good repair; this means that my seat, between the car connections, was not a deafening experience. There were no vendors and the toilets were clean and modern.

Compare this to the, all to common, older cars in service that are ventilated by means of opening the windows and a small number of ceiling fans that rattle against their safety cages. Power for these fans, and cabin lights, is supplied by generators that are belt driven off of a pulley on the car, resulting in lights that flicker and vary, when they work at all. As I have mentioned in the past, the toilets are often a hole in the floor of the car. Compared to this the bullet train was a marvel of luxury; the seats were even padded.

I have not made much of a point about the speed for two simple reasons. First, it is a bullet train; you expect it to be fast. The second reason was that on such a short run, only about 90Km, it never managed to get, fully, up to speed and topped out at about 230 K/h, which is just less than 144Mph.

Because it was so late, Shanghai railway station, gladly, did not live up, or down, to its reputation of being a massive peasant encampment and a sea of vendors, poorly, managed by a disinterested railway staff. Instead, it was quiet and well managed. I was directed to the correct bus by a staff that was bored and tired enough to actually be interested in being helpful. I got to my bus rather quickly where my destination was rechecked (I had taken the precaution of printing the destination, in Chinese, in a large font before I left) and when I reached my stop, the bus driver informed me that I was there.

At that point I phoned the Hiker Youth Hostel again, as I had been trying to do all day, and this time I got a person. I was given correct directions and within minuets was walking in the door. Unlike the last place, as I walked through the door I knew I was in a hostel; if I had not seen the sign I would have noticed, walking through the door, the music, the activity in the lounge and the sound of billiards. It was a little after 10:30p.m. And I was in ShangHai.

The reason that I had been trying to contact them all day was that I was actually scheduled to arrive the next day, as I said; I had just gotten bored in SuZhou. My arrival caused some confusion as they thought that I was late and was convinced that they had already let out my room. The solution that they offered was to call around to other hostels to find me a room or to allow me to, at no charge, in the lobby. Seeing as that offer included a shower, pillows, a blanket, and what really was a comfortable couch, I chose the latter.

As the lounge activity died down, and I finished writing, it was about 1a.m. and time to get some sleep. What I did not realize, although I have seen it in enough hotels that I should have expected it, was that the staff also sleeps in the lounge. It was in no way a problem, it just took me a moment to figure out what all these other people were doing there when I woke up about three a.m.

The building was starting to come back to life by about seven a.m. By ten in the morning I had a bed (although I still could not use it because it had not been changed, but this gave me a place to drop my bag). The only remaining challenge was to secure a return train ticket.

I told the desk what I needed and they reported needing a deposit of payment in advance. So, I went in search of a bank. During my walk to the bank I also took a moment to get breakfast from a vendor with a cart. It was no real search seeing as I had seen a bank the previous night while walking.

I then returned to the desk and explained to them what I needed. Basically, I need a ticket back to Xinyang. I want a soft sleeper but am willing to settle for a hard sleeper. Further, I want it on the fourth; however, I am willing to leave on the third or the fifth. I am being very flexible in there plans. The only two things are that I want to be back in time for school and would like to spend an afternoon in Zumaden before school starts. I returned tonight to find that there were no soft sleepers on the fifth, I restated my flexibility and the priority in my plans and they stated that they would check tomorrow. If it turns out that they still haven't gotten me a train ticket then I will try booking a boat ticket back to SuZhou and getting a ticket there.

I then went and got a pair of pants and returned to drop my existing laundry off with reception. When I returned to the lobby I met a pair that I thought were a couple and discovered that he was a Chinese who had spent sometime in the states and she was his student. They then offered to have her show me to one of the places that I had intended to go. On the way there she offered to pay for a river trip that she stated she had also never gone on. Her reasoning was that, by this time, she had discovered that she was getting good quality tutoring for the cost on entertaining me for a day (yes, my scam detector was running on high). We then walked to a large tourist shopping district that was crowded way beyond Disneyland. Speaking of crowds, my morning walks were deceptive. Later in the day, when the people were out, I discovered that this is a truly crowded city.

From there, and lunch, we went to another garden; this was not comparable with the ones seen in ShuZhou however, it was interesting, relaxing, and there were some fantastic calligraphy artifacts, taken from the wild pidgin pagoda on Xian, on display.

From there I went to see the famous "nine curves" bridge, I am not clear why it is famous, but it is. This was followed by purchasing some DVDs' and a visit to some book stores in, yet another, crowded shopping district. From there, after dinner, we returned to the Bund, a famous park of Shanghai. Then, back to the Hostel from this description it may not seem it; but, it has been a full day.

Seeing as I actually had a bunk this night I pretty much slept in. I did not sleep in so much as some of my roommates, who I discovered just got out of the army in Singapore, but, for me, I did sleep in. I then fixed my breakfast and checked my email and was ready to go.

My two destinations for the day were both museums. There are two important museums that are both near the people's park. The first one is the museum of city planning. It is devoted to the history and future of Shanghai. This museum has a display that perpetuates the myth of the Bund once being signed, "No dogs or Chinese permitted," however; it is well known that no one can actually document such a sign having ever existed. This myth remains and is repeated as part of the, larger, "triumph over racism within their own land" since of achievement.

On my way there I did run into a form of the tea house scam a couple of times; at least I think I did, seeing as I just wandered off the moment I saw it developing. The scam goes like this, a pleasant young woman, or a small group of them, approaches a person and introduces themselves as a student and asks them to come to tea; or, if claiming to be an art student, to see an exhibition. Then the tea, or the art that is "given," is billed for, often at well above market rate. Seeing as the exact same line was used on me by three different women as I made my way through a large, several block, plaza, I can expect that this was the game of the day. The real looser in this scam is the legitimate student that wants to spend some time talking to a person from another country; the visitors are often too trepidatious to be courteous (I prefer the more direct approaches, then I can be more sure that I am not being rude as I ignore them and walk away).

The museum was very good for what it was; I would have liked to see more about the infrastructure; which, for a city of this size, is always an incredible achievement. It is interesting to see cities in China go away from a dense walkable and bikeable development to a system of residential communities and auto dependence. This is something that was done in the west with disastrous consequences.

Just leaving the museum of city planning was a strange experience that contained its own bit of irony. I followed the exit signs and they took me to a narrow, seldom used staircase. This staircase descended deep below ground level and it began to feel like one of those dreams in which one continues to descend, by a variety of means, until awakened. I finally came out in a duty, seldom used, passage, well below street level, which was detailed to appear as a street in Shanghai in 1910. Following this passage to its end let me out at a door marked, "staff only," on the other side. The door opened to an underground mall that provided pedestrian passage to several areas in the city. This led to a heavily trafficked passageway which took me to the park in front of the municipal museum.

The municipal museum is one of the best, if not the best, museums that I have seen in China. The displays were well lit and non-flash photography was permitted in nearly all of the exhibits. The collection was large and varied. It did not suffer from the "advance to the present" view of history but was instead logically arranged by artifact type. The building itself was a clean and modern building and while it, to, suffered from a vendor explosion; the placement of the vendors was tastefully done.

I remained in the building until I was chased out at closing time. There were a lot of western tourists and it was funny watching them react to the authoritarian way of chasing people out of the exhibits by the guards and police. It was clear that the guards and police viewed directing westerners to be akin to herding cats.

As I left I chatted with some students who I suspect were legitimate and just wanted to practice their English; but there is no way to be sure so I separated from them quickly. I then went to an early dinner, seeing as I had missed lunch while touring the museums. I then returned to my hostel, stopping to get some more DVDs along the way.

Upon arrival I found that the hostel had secured my return ticket to Xinyang and had finished my laundry, they even folded them for me and put them away. I then chatted with my Singaporean roommates who had just finished their compulsory service. They were using their exit money to do some touring before starting university the following year. It seems that the former enlisted members had hidden the former officers clothing leaving him no pants other than a pair of tight shorts with ,"hot buns," embroidered on the rear pocket (he referred to them as "gay" shorts). This indicated to me that relations between the ranks were quite collegial; they all seemed to be friends.

I then went for a last moment bit of shopping. I wanted to get Merry something for the help that she had provided me. I then returned to the hostel for the loud music in the lobby and a table to write on.