Huang Shan

Stone Monkey Gazing Over a Sea of Clouds (It Wasn't Cloudy When I Was There)

Lots of people on the trail

Enjoying a rest

Huang Shan

Huang Shan

Huang Shan

The Easy Way to Climb the Mountain

How To Make Yourself Very Tired (And Smelly)

Saturday
05:30: Get up and have a shower.  Pack and check out of hostel.
06:15: Take minibus to bus transfer station.
07:30: Take bus to mountain cable car.
08:00: Battle hordes to buy cable car ticket (no one wants to wait in line) only to find out that I’m required to buy mountain park entrance park as well.
Mercilessly trample Chinese tourists underfoot to regain my place in the queue.
08:30: Take cable car up mountain.
09:00: Walk up and down mountain trails for 7 hours.
16:00: Line up for cable car down the mountain.
17:00: Get on cable car.
17:30: Get bus back to transfer station.
18:00: Find out that the minibuses back to city seemed to have stopped running.  Share taxi with other tourists.
19:30: Back in city.  Time to eat.
21:30: Take taxi to railway station.
22:30: Get on cheap-ass night train ($5 for 7 hour trip).  There are no separate seats, just bench seats.  People are getting on and off all night, which makes it hard to get much sleep.

Sunday
06:00: Arrive in Hefei.
06:30: Put luggage in left luggage area and curse woman at the train station who sold me tickets with such bad connecting times.
08:00: Have breakfast and then wander around train station.
Fulfil prophecy of the coming of the white man.  At least I assume that is what I must have done given the amount of people that stared at me.
Since Hefei is not renowned as a tourist city and I didn’t I see any other foreigners in the city, I’m guessing that a white man walking down the streets wearing a t-shirt with Japanese writing on it, is not a common occurence.
All within thirty minutes of wandering around the train station:
Grandmothers pointed me out to their grandchildren, mothers introduced their children to me, several people asked me if I was Japanese, people took photos of me, beggars showed me their wounds, people wanted to practice their English with me, ladies of ill repute invited me to sample their wares, and a gang of pickpockets followed me. (Fortunately I spotted them straight away and they went in search of easier prey.  Then they fled when the police arrived).
Spend rest of the day hanging around the waiting lounge and various restaurants.
22:30: Get on night train.  This is a more expensive train and has separate cabins with beds.

Monday
Still on the train.  Share cabin with Chinese doctor that speaks barely any English.  He is reading a book in Chinese about Rommel (the German World War II general) and is very excited because despite my attempts to convince him otherwise he thinks that I am German.

Tuesday
08:00: Arrive in Chengdu.
08:30: Take taxi to hostel.  Time for a shower!

I’m in Shanghai at the moment.

I flew to Osaka and had a great time catching up with lots of friends.
I visited a few of my favorite places in Osaka (Spa World, izakayas, and okonomiyaki and yakiniku restaurants) and also went for a swim in Lake Biwa near Kyoto.

I also visited Mimizuka, the Ear and Nose mound.  It was customary for samurai to show the heads of the enemies they had killed in battle to their lords as proof of their deeds.  When one of the Japanese warlords ordered the invasion of Korea in 1592 he wanted heads sent back from Korea.  There wasn’t room on the boats for all of the heads, so they sent back ears and noses instead.  They were later buried in a mound in Kyoto.  Now there is a marker and a sign in Japanese and Korean (but no English).

Mimizuka

Then I took the ferry from Osaka to Shanghai.  It’s a long trip (49 hours), but I was able to relax on the ship.  You could tell it was a Chinese operated ship.  As well as the standard facilities which you’d expect (bathrooms, reading rooms, restaurant) there was also a table-tennis table and a mahjong room.

One of my friends from Australia is living in Shanghai, so I’m staying with him.  Shanghai has an interesting history.  It was controlled by foreign powers after China lost the opium wars.  A museum in Shanghai refers to the Shanghai of that time as “a metropolis infested with foreign adventurers.”
Shanghai is a huge city and (even compared to Japan) everywhere seems crowded.  And people aren’t nearly as polite or patient as they are in Japan.  Shanghai is hosting the 2010 World Expo and there is a lot of construction going on at the moment.

Expo Mascot

I also visited People’s Park.   On Sundays lots of parents go there and display their unmarried adult children’s resumes, in the hopes of finding a match.

Looking for Love

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is one of Shanghai’s landmarks.

Oriental Pearl Tower

A sign at the tower’s entrance had the following message:

The ragamuffin, drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower.

Luckily I was allowed in.

There are some good views of the city from the observation decks (including a glass floor that you can walk on and look a long way down).

Shanghai Skyline

Oriental Pearl Observation Deck

The view of the city at night is especially impressive.

Shanghai Night Skyline

Handy Chinese Expression of the Day:

我不是鬼，我是僵尸。
Wo bu shi gui, wo shi jiangshi.
I’m not a ghost, I’m a zombie.