i just got home last night. and when i say last night i really mean last NIGHT. why? i'll tell you later, first things first. it has been some week...
a week ago we arrived in shanghai without anything out of the ordinary to speak of. the problems started when we arrived at the youth hostel we had booked. the passports of three of my friends were still at the office where visas are given. although they did have copies and evidence from the school that this was where their passports really were, and the clerk at the hostel had said it was no problem on the phone (twice), they now would not let us in. we ended up wandering through the city for more than half a day with all our luggage, looking for a place to stay. because of the olympics there is this new rule in china that foreigners can only stay at hotels or hostels that have a permit to admit them. which practically means that foreigners can only stay at fancy, expensive hotels. me and my friends of course are only students and don't have very much money to spend. in the end we had to split up. everyone with a passport except from me went to the earlier booked hostel and the ones without a passport and me went to a sort of (illegal no doubt) small, inexpensive hotel were only one passport was needed to book a room.
shanghai was beautiful. i've been to the bund, nanjing road, xintiandi, ate the world's most famous xiaolongbao (steamed buns with meat), went to see the seventh shanghai biennale in the shanghai art museum (my uncle participates) and watched the stunning pudong skyline.
wednesday we went to hangzhou by train. having arrived in supposedly the most beautiful city on earth, also called "the city of heaven" by marco polo (if he indeed ever was in china), we took a black taxi into town. this particular week being a national holiday resulted in an overly crowded hangzhou. luckily our taxi driver knew a hotel with some rooms still available, not too far from the famous west lake. we took two double rooms with the eight of us to share expenses. four girls in one room, four boys in the other. i had been two hangzhou before twice in summertime, at the time i had found it pretty crowded, i had never imagined it would be at least thrice as busy this week. we went for a stroll by the lake, went to the leifeng pagoda and did some excellent shopping. the leifeng pagoda was the greatest disappointment of this week i think. i somehow expected it to be authentic, but when we arrived there we soon realised it was completely new. crowded with tourists standing in line for the escalators and elevators (meant for the elderly and disabled) too lazy to walk the stairs to the top. once you reach the top and manage to find a good spot in the crowd you do get a magnificent view though...
overall both cities were very nice. if it wasn't for the overflow of chinese tourists and their tendency to take pictures of everything they see (preferably with themselves in front of it) my impression of them might have been close to perfect. i don't understand the total 'i have to take a picture of everything that crosses my path no matter what it is' frenzy of the chinese. it's like they go someplace, take pictures of everything only to see where they've been when they get home. they don't seem to really look around, it's very strange.
saturday we went back to shanghai, and sunday at four o'clock in the morning we took the train back to beijing. we had bought tickets for the only train still available when we arrived in shanghai the first time this week. they were tickets for hard seats (the worst you can get) and it would take us about twelve hours to reach beijing. we weren't exactly looking forward to our trip home, but when we were on the train there somehow were non-taken hard sleepers left, and if we paid extra we could get them. so we paid the extra money and were all really releived not to have to sit in a crowded coupe for twelve hours in a row. but as our journey proceeded it slowly began to dawn on us that this train would take a lot longer than promised to reach beijing. it stopped at allmost every slightly bigger town and drove much slower than our train on the way to shanghai. when at about six o'clock in the evening we still hadn't reached beijing and tong went to inquire why it took so long it turned out we would not reach beijing untill four in the morning. TWENTYFOUR HOURS on a bloody train!!! and it was freezing cold too! we weren't the only passengers who at first weren't aware of this. it seemed that at the ticket office they told practically everyone headed for beijing that it would only take twelve hours, to avoid not being able to sell the tickets! i for sure have never heard of such a thing. the food on the train was sold out in no time, so at every stop everyone ran out of the train to buy instant noodles and water at the small carts at the platforms. one of the weirdest things i've ever seen.
so i'm home again. i skipped class today. bad i know, but i was just too tired. i don't feel ready yet to go back to my going to school every day life. but then again, do i ever? :P
first song of the day: 'blackbird' by the beatles
xxx
