#36 Unpack my bag, Pack my Heart

It has been a while since I’ve written. It has been a while since anything happened, since I packed my bag and left for home, and then I had to unpack my luggage, with all my possessions I had with me, from my mismatched pair of chopsticks to my trusty hoodie to my pile of random travel trinkets, and then…I had to take all the pieces of my heart and put them back in again. The pieces of my heart that I left in every corner, every street of every city and place I’ve been. To say the least, stepping out alone is a daunting experience. I am more than grateful for my exchange buddy Joey who came to pick me up on my first day when I arrived in Hong Kong. I wasn’t exactly petrified, but I was a little nervous as I didn’t know the way around or how things are done. Watching her bring me to my hall made everything less scary as I made them out to be in my head. I was late for orientation, so I didn’t meet the other exchange students from my same country. And as orientation came to an end, my six months began unfolding quicker than the rollercoaster’s whiz from the very top.

Settling down. Making myself at home was never easy. The bed was too hard, the closet too small…there wasn’t a proper place for me to set my belongings down. I wasn’t used to staying in a dorm since I commute back home. My roommate Jennifer is a godsent lifesaver, she let me borrow her spare duvet and her LAN cable to connect to the Internet. She’s easily one of the sweetest things that happened to me. A roommate from heaven, not easy to find, eh? As for the weather, it was freezing! Okay, not freezing, just really much too cold to do anything at all. I am a tropical girl, and I need my sunshine. The first few weeks was a battle against the unknown, the cold, the unfamiliar. The process to overcome was actually really refreshing and fun, since studying abroad is all about new experiences and challenges.

Stepping out of comfort zone. I admit, making friends isn’t as easy as “Hello, my name is…”. Well, it would if they forced us to wear those ugly nametags but we aren’t in kindergarten anymore. Since I’m Asian in an Asian city, I didn’t look like an obvious candidate as an exchange student. Naturally, nobody came up to me to say hello, since it was the second semester, and even the shyest freshman should have at least one friend by now, and from what I’ve seen, people generally tend to make friends with other exchange students quicker than the locals, just because we’re all strangers, outsiders. I had to say hello first, which wasn’t too difficult — I’m not particularly shy, and I made some friends by the end of first week.

Learning my way around. The minibus was a complete enigma. How to pay the fare. The fact that it can only fit 16 people, nothing more. Having to yell “”Mm goy, yao lok!” (Cantonese for “Please, I want to alight!”) so the bus will stop for you. A nightmare for the uninitiated, but something I had to get over. By the time I left, I was so completely confident and unabashed by my crummy Cantonese that I relish every chance I get to yell at the driver. 

Oh, the food! If you think Hong Kong is about dim sum, dim sum and more dim sum, you are WRONG. Tell me, how do the local people get by by eating dim sum everyday? Of course they don’t. They eat “Chinese food”, or what the Westerners like to call it. Chow mein and company, but not exactly the takeaway sort seen on American TV, and I haven’t seen a single “fortune cookie” in HK either. They have flavoured congee (aka porridge, a diluted version of rice), embellished with fried onion or century eggs or slices of chicken or duck meat, they have wanton (aka dumplings, not promiscuous) noodles, they have claypot rice, they have char siew or roasted pork, and of course, they have your standard array of Cantonese or Southern chinese dishes you can eat with rice. When all else fails, you can always head down to the little pockets of Thai or Western establishments for familiar food, or to Chungking Mansions for South Asian/Indian food, or SoHo for anything exotic (Nepalese/Mexican/Turkish/Thai) or European (Italian, French, German). And before you board your flight home, eat some egg tart and pineapple bun, please! It might just be the very thing you’ll miss!

Now, these things are only the beginning to the pains of packing my heart after heading for home.

#33 Eight Lessons For Travelling to Beijing By Train

Not many people enjoy reading a descriptive travel piece without any extra value towards their base of knowledge, so I shall give some travel ideas and dish out some advice about going to Beijing  instead. What’s of utmost concern to you, the free and easy traveler? Getting to your destination of choice, before anything else!

Lesson #1: Travel guide books may have some doubtful content, but they are mostly right! Believe what Lonely Planet says, at least the travel advice!

My journey to Beijing is an exhausting, close to hellish, train ride, but nevertheless rather ‘adventurous’ and thus made it pretty unforgettable indeed. It did occur to me to book tickets in advance, but since we decided to take the train from Shenzhen (China) instead of Hung Hom (Hong Kong), we needed to buy them in SZ. And we didn’t want to make the extra trip across the border, so we just simply hoped there were tickets to Beijing while we arrived in SZ. Bad move, because there weren’t ANY seats left, let alone sleepers! Booking train tickets in China can be a bitch, so unless you go to a travel agent, you can’t get return tickets, because tickets are only sold at the point of departure. The only good thing is that we paid RMB260 for a one-way ticket, and that’s half the price of a hard-sleeper and near 1/10 of a plane ticket. Money saved in exchange for some physical hardship. Aah, come on, this is what travelling is ALL about! 🙂

Lesson #2: Always buy tickets in advance to avoid surprises and potentially uncomfortable situations, and especially if you can’t bear to stand throughout a 24-hour train ride.

We were determined to get our asses to Beijing the next day, so in the spirit of adrenaline-charged adventure, we bought a “no seat” ticket, which is essentially just a standing space confined to a particular carriage on the train. This proved to be a challenge, especially the culture shock at first. When Lonely Planet mentioned that hard seaters could be quite unbearable and not for the uninitiated, they were absolutely right. In a narrow aisle space of less than 50cm along the carriage stood at least 25-30 people who all purchased “no seat” tickets.

Lesson #3: Know your threshold before you embark on an adventurous journey.

We sit, we stand, we whine and we grumble…in the hard seat carriage

After 1-2 hours of standing, and with the prospect of standing for another 23 hours at the back of our minds, we decided to sit in the aisle, while people continued to walk up and down the extremely narrow aisle, going to the extremely unsanitary bathroom, or just near the doors for a smoke. It was warm and stuffy, people were eating and YELLING at each other (no fear, this is how Chinese people conduct a cordial conversation). The smoke from both ends of the carriage wafted in and filled the space, since there was civic mindedness in people to close the carriage doors. On top of this olfactory annoyance, there would be annoying standing passengers who would plonk their butt down onto a seat they didn’t pay for, and ask a paid seated passenger to scoot aside to make space, and they usually do because they want to avoid making a scene. Essentially this means that you won’t be spared from having your private space invaded even if you DID manage to secure a hard seat for yourself. For the pampered tourist, this would be the part where you will flung your prissy ass across the tracks and contemplate suicide because you won’t be able to stand this nonsense.

Lesson #4: When in China, do as the Chinese do.

Very soon, adversity forced us to learn the Chinese way. Whenever someone stood up to use the bathroom, we would take their seats until they return to give us the evil eye, of which we would promptly ignore and dismiss. Close to nighttime, after 10 hours of sitting/crouching/standing like an illegal immigrant smuggling into another country, we decided to conquer some space, and sat at someone’s seat and just refused to get up, managing to get 2 hours’ of nap while the rightful passengers stood and watched us (rather patiently, in fact). At this point, I realized that these people must be regulars in these situations and they are quite nice indeed to not have demanded for their seats back, knowing that standing passengers have much rougher time on the ride than they do.

Lesson #5: Be flexible and willing to part with a little money for some precious slumber.

We didn’t learn the Chinese way quick enough though. By 2am, we felt the exhaustion settling in and we were desperate to look for a place to sleep. Looked for the train conductor in hopes of upgrading to a sleeper. No luck… Decided to go to sleep in the restaurant car instead. Passengers need to be paying customers in order to stay there, so we paid RMB35 each for the standard snack set they had on the menu to earn the right to stay until 6am. I later learnt that we could actually spend that RMB35 and stay in the restaurant car from 10pm to 6am, but it was good enough for us to have a bit of personal space for 4 hours. Even though the seats were too short length-wise and a little hard in spite of the padding, I promptly fell asleep, curled up like a fetus, only awoken by a crick in the neck…

Lesson #6: The beautiful moments on a journey are transient and unpredictable, when they appear, just sit back and enjoy.

Sunrise, sunrise…

The sun began peeking out from under the horizon at a little before 6am. The scenery of the countryside was dream-like and whimsically beautiful. A thick blanket of fog shrouded the rolling plains of farmland somewhere 8 hours south of Beijing, around one-third of the journey left (near Jinan perhaps?). The sunrise was spectacular, since we were facing seawards towards the east. The weather was balmy and crisp, very promising for a great day out in the city…though it was really too early to tell since we were still far from reaching our destination. We were recharged even though we barely slept, but the little shuteye and the prospect of actually surviving this “worth a story-telling session” train ride perked us up and gave us the strength we needed to endure till the end.

Lesson #7: Do amaze yourself by how much discomfort and torture you can actually tolerate, after all, we are made to get used to all sorts of situations.

Many passengers began to alight at the few stations before entering Beijing proper. The carriages cleared up a little and soon there were vacant seats around. Like vultures hungry for a bloody meal, we swooped down and secured some and proceeded to snooze on and off until we reached Beijing West Railway Station. Along the way, babies squealed, grown men talked loudly on cell phones and a travelling salesman hawked his wares along the train aisles…but all of these were muted into a blur. We have developed immunity to what we had thought irritating and intolerable the day before. And, before long, we arrived in Beijing, bleary-eyed but fully charged with excitement, and ready to explore the capital of one of the biggest countries and greatest economic powerhouses of today, China.

Lesson #8: Trains are the new IT way to travel!

Train rides are affordable and relatively comfortable, if you take a soft seat, hard or soft sleeper. You save time from having to travel to an airport, which is usually situated at a far-off location from the city centre, and having to check in 2 hours earlier, all of which are precious time you could use for sightseeing. The rest of the ride can be spent sleeping (for overnight trains), reading, bonding with your travelling buddies, or enjoying the sights outside the window. Contrary to popular belief, trains are not entirely unsanitary and “rocky” (however this all depends on your threshold). Taking a plane may be the more sophisticated way to go, but trains have way better scenery than a crummy window seat. Wider windows, and being on the ground offers more things to see.

So if you are strong enough, don’t be afraid to endure some hardship to save money! All the discomfort and torturous moments would have been ‘nothing’… in retrospect, that is.

#30 Shanghai – View From the Top (of the World…almost)

Night 2

Date: 22 March (evening)
Weather: 8°C

Sparkling Oriental Pearl Tower

View from the top… Jinmao Tower

By night, Shanghai transforms into a gorgeous sea of twinkling lights. Bathed in an ethereal glow of platinum and gold from the lights in the streets below, the towering skyscrapers illuminated by rainbow lights popped against the inky black sky.

We headed up the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai’s architectural icon, to catch a panaromic night view of the city of Shanghai. Ascending up skywards at 7 metres/second on the elevator, we reached the lower sphere where we could revel in the expanse of the city, as well as the night scene of the Huangpu River down below. The cars and people below were only slightly bigger than ants. The view from the upper sphere was almost the same as that of the lower sphere, the novelty quickly wore off especially after walking one round in the previous sphere. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience…the tower definitely looked more spectacular from outside. The wind was super duper strong up there, and you can feel your cheeks ripple. It also upped the wind chill factor, and we were freezing our asses up there… I jogged around the space module (first sphere from the bottom) to keep warm and tried to take some pictures before I catch frostbite. The weather was crisp and beautiful, would be just perfect if it weren’t so cold! 🙂

A better option would be to go to the Jinmao Tower’s observation deck instead, but I guess it is too late for me now. Laters…for you guys who have yet to see Shanghai…

Shanghai Old Street （上海老街）

Shanghai Old Street runs adjacent to Yuyuan Gardens, and boasts a variety of small bargain clothing stores, restaurants, antique shops and tea shops etc. If you feel like flexing your bargaining muscles, here is probably a good place to do it…even though most of the stuff here are already at discounted rates and have prominent signs that warn “NO BARGAINING”. This street doesn’t have much shelter, so if it rains…good luck to you.

Xintiandi (新天地）

I’ll have one of those! Yum.

Xintiandi is a sophisticated, trendy entertainment and F&B nightlife spot where you can find cosy restaurants with ambience ranging from romantic to rowdy… The pubs and restaurants are restored from the old traditional stone gate houses (石库门) — a classic case of adaptive reuse! 🙂 The whole atmosphere oozes of old meets new Shanghai. Tres chic! Since it was my sister Kate’s birthday we decided to go into one of the restaurants there to celebrate.. Look at the drinks menu…they have the Shanghai-esque version of one of the most known cocktails of all the time…it’s called Sex on The Bund. Doesn’t sound very sexy, but could be fun… 😉

#28 Shanghai: Whore of the Orient No More

Day 1

Date: 21 March (evening)
Weather: 10°C – 18°C

 
Maglev from Pudong International Airport going at above 300km/h (not its fastest speed)

Nanjing Donglu – Pedestrianized shopping street

 
Flashing lights along Nanjing Donglu

 
Colonial architecture amidst international brand names

Bank of China building on The Bund

Paris of the East, Whore of the Orient…names that Shanghai used to go by. Looking at the vibrant cosmopolitan Chinese city, also the most populous with more than 20 million people, there is no doubt that Shanghai can definitely hold its own. A dazzling gem with its unique sparkle and sass, the city boasts a beautiful skyline on The Bund by the Huangpu River, dotted by squat colonial buildings and modern mega structures of steel and glass.

Having arrived at the Pudong International Airport at around 7pm (Shanghai local time), we boarded the Maglev train that took us from the airport to Long Yang Metro station where we switched trains to go on to the city centre. Went to the popular pedestrianized shopping street called Nanjing Donglu. The street was packed with scores of tourists and locals alike, strolling and taking pictures, enjoying a fun night of shopping out, darting in and out of the stores, where fanciful and trendy window displays beckoned the inner shopaholic to let go and join the party. Sightseeing trams ran up and down the street, constantly honking at the crowd to part and give way. Quite annoying indeed… but you can’t blame them if they don’t understand the true concept of pedestrianization. A city of where illegal peddlers selling fake LVs and Pradas tout for customers on the street corner just near the original boutique itself. Nothing really goes by any rules here, and indeed it is a place where everything and anything goes…

#26 Karst in Beauty: Guilin and Yangshuo

Day 1 @ Guilin (Saturday 28/02)

王府独秀峰

Reed Flute Cave 芦笛岩 @ 穿山天然公园

Elephant Trunk Hill 象鼻山

We arrived in Guilin a little before 7 in the morning. Stepping off the train after a surprisingly good night’s sleep on the rockin’ ride, we were greeted with light rain and pretty chilly weather at 8°C. Fending off street vendors and cab drivers harassing us to patronise them, we looked for our hotel and found it quickly enough with the help of the trusty map…it helps that the town centre of Guilin is not too big. Breakfast was a quick and inexpensive affair, RMB3 for a bowl of steaming rice noodles… it reminds me that you don’t need a lot of money to buy happiness even if it’s for a couple of minutes. After much deliberation, we decided to go on a CITS tour, since it’s more economical and they can take us to more places in a set amount of time. Paid RMB200 each for a package tour which brought us to 4 attractions:

王府+独秀峰
刘三姐歌舞表演
穿山天然公园
游览十座山 (象鼻山，叠彩山) 

The scenery was simply marvellous and breathtaking — what everyone said was true, the beauty is indescribable. The karst mountains looked like they were watercolour paintings whipped out of the hands of goddesses from heaven…wispy white clouds swirling around the sharp, undulating range of emerald gray hills. A whiff of the chilly air sent a refreshing jolt to my head as I took in the sights. The ferry ride around the upstream portion of the Li River brought us to see ten of the most distinctive mountains of Guilin, including the must-see Elephant Trunk Hill.

The photos do the real scenery no justice – Guilin must be THE place to look at karst mountains…that’s what we thought until we headed to the adjacent town, the grossly underrated, but definitely more hip town of Yangshuo.

Day 2 @ Longji Rice Terraces and Yangshuo (Sunday 01/03)

Zhuang tribal-style architecture 壮族式建筑物

Seven Stars and A Moon 七星伴月@ Longji Rice Terraces 龙脊梯田

March arrived for me in rainy Guilin. We forged on in the 4°C cold to Longji Rice Terraces and Yangshuo. Fortunately we managed to secure a driver for the next few days, which made travelling around these remote parts so much more convenient. The rice terraces were located 77km north of Guilin. Its lush rice terraces stacked right up to the clouds are the main attraction of the place. Having existed for 800 years since the Sui Dynasty, the village on which the terraces are located was founded as an attempt to become a self-sufficient community. Longji is home to the Long-haired Clan as well as the Zhuang tribe. The weather was exceptionally cold, especially more so for us who were grossly under-dressed for the sudden cold draft, but the hike up the terraces really warmed us up a great deal. Mist shrouded the tops of the mountains so we didn’t complete the hike to the top, but we definitely managed to see one of the best sights on the slopes for this time of the year.

Moon Hill 月亮山

Later on, we went round to Moon Hill, after lunch. The Moon Hill is very special — it has a gaping hole in the shape of a half moon high up in the middle of the rock face, and as you travel along the road around the area it is sitting on, you can see a gradual transformation of the ‘moon’, evolving from a full moon to a crescent moon, because there is a slab of rock right behind the gaping hole that slowly blocks out part of the hole as you move along. (This is something you can only truly appreciate and understand when you are there seeing it for yourself. At first when our driver described it to us it was hard to believe.)

Yangshuo 阳朔

We reached Yangshuo after nearly 4 hours of being on the road. For dinner we had the famous Yangshuo dish, beer fish, which is fried carp fish from the Li River cooked in a slightly spicy and sweet sauce made with local beer brewed using the Li River water. Explored the West Street, the main street in Yangshuo with souvenir shops and bars. 

Day 3 @ Yangshuo (Monday 02/03)

Drifting down Li River on a Bamboo Raft 游十座名山 – 漓江上游

What is a trip to Guilin and Yangshuo without an ‘authentic’ bamboo raft ride down the Li River? This time we went onto the river again from Xingping to Yangdi. We didn’t want to do the whole stretch of the river from Guilin to Yangshuo since it was deemed too time-consuming (four hours), expensive (RMB300) and it was too cold to enjoy the scenery on the deck with the blistering winds cutting our cheeks into shreds. Easily the most enjoyable part of the trip, the ride down the river on the raft was fun, relaxing and breathtaking despite the cold. We couldn’t stop shivering while we oohed and aahed at the mountains. Since it was an off-peak period — seriously only we would be crazy enough to take on the cruise in that sort of weather — the river was relatively calm and empty of similar bamboo rafts. Most other tourists opted for the bigger enclosed ferries, but they went so fast I thought it’d be impossible to truly appreciate the mountains and get a good snapshot of them.

Nine Horses Fresco 九马画山

The Nine Horses Fresco is the facade of a particular hill where you *could* supposedly see the outlines of nine horses by scrutinising the composition created by the moss and grayish rock face. According to urban legend, if one could make out all nine horses, he has the potential to become a Number One Scholar (狀元) in the Imperial Examinations. Too bad it doesn’t apply to modern-day exams, because we were sure we could see all of them!
At Xingping: Backdrop is the image on a RMB20 note
@兴坪: 二十元人民币钞票上的风景

Ever seen the back of a RMB20 note? That scene is RIGHT HERE in Guilin! A definite must-take even for the most camera-shy. The scenery was indeed gorgeous and you could see why it made its way onto a bill.

Day 4 @ Yangshuo/Guilin (Tuesday 03/03)

Green Lotus Peak 碧莲峰

Green Lotus Peak used to be a popular must-go tourist destination in Guilin, but ever since the foot of the hill was developed into a hotel resort that capitalised on the scenery around it, it was no longer as frequented due to inaccessibility and a hike in the entry fee. We got a glimpse of it from afar and thought it was a pity…a classic case of tourist development getting in the way of the natural landscape. It got its name because it resembles a closed lotus flower…

Shangri-La 世外桃源

Wind & Rain Bridge 风雨桥 @ Shangri-La

Shangri-La is apparently rated national AAAA scenic tourist attraction, but it failed to deliver up to expectations. The scenery, albeit quaint and beautiful, was not as picturesque or charming as described by Tao Yuan Ming (陶渊明) , a renowned poet/scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in his defining literary work 桃花源记, which described Shangri-La as a peaceful utopian-like residence where diligent young people and happy old folks lived in harmony, with rolling fields of farmland, mulberry trees and beautiful pools of clear water. The beauty of the scenery was marred by the addition of tourism infrastructure and the staged tribal performances. The Wind & Rain Bridge, once you walked across it, is supposed to wash away the trials and tribulations experienced in your life and helps you start afresh…you’ll soon realise that every bridge in a Chinese tourist attraction seemed to have certain ‘magical powers’.

Guilin Railway Station 桂林火车站

All good things must come to an end, and before we knew it we were back on the train to Shenzhen. The trains are really not that bad, just that the journey is a little long. Especially for those who don’t particularly enjoy flying, going by train can be pretty addictive. It makes you feel like a true traveler, hanging around locals and experiencing how they move around in their own country. I’m thinking, I might be back… but next time, it will be in the toasty heat of summer so I can fully appreciate the waterfalls and perhaps a refreshing dip in the river.