#15 beijing #16 shanghai

At last: a long overdue update on our travels!
#15 Beijing
From Lhasa, Tibet we boarded the new rail line (that cost billions to make due to it being built on peat/permafrost which shifts during seasonal temperature changes). Tickets were pretty bloody expensive (especially for Asia - US$150 each for a 48-hour trip), so I had high hopes for luxury travel a la the Orient Express. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, largely because the biggest drawcard of buying a first-class ticket - personal television sets - weren't working! Dammit, we had brand-new tvs above each of our beds, but there was something wrong with the transmission so we got nothing for the entire 48 hours.
There were four of us in our cabin - Kris, myself, Colin the American dude who we might be living with in NYC, and this really nice Chinese lady, Shaumei. She had pretty good English, so we tried asking her a few curly questions about the culture, but I think we stepped over the line when we asked her about the Tianamen massacre. Her: complete silence. Us: suddenly very embarrassed and remorseful. She's 36, so I think she would've been a university student when it happened and probably knew some of the students who were killed. Huge faux pas on our part!
Another interesting feature of the train is that it's non-smoking... but all the staff would sit in the dining carriage, smoking like chimneys. Did I mention the train also boasted some of the laziest hospitality staff I've ever encountered?
Because our time was limited, we could only pass through a string of cities and watch them from our cabin - Xian and the terracotta warriors (would've loved to go there, one for next time), and the city of Lhanzhou, which has the honour of being "the most polluted city on the planet", according to our Lonely Planet guide.
Yet, despite a few drawbacks, it was truly a great experience - glorious scenery, super-comfy beds.... er, that's about it.
As the train pulled into Beijing station, I was expecting to be overwhelmed by the pollution and chaos of one of the world's most populous cities, but it was all surprisingly pleasant. Lovely trimmed flower beds, clear blue skies, lots of signs in English, an abundance of clean public toilets... hmm, all a bit too good, if you know what I mean? I get the feeling that the Commie government has been gearing up for the Olympics, big time. Also, all the locals were so nice to us - and the taxi drivers and wait staff in restaurants REFUSED to take tips. Quite refreshing after SE Asia, Nepal and Tibet.
On our first day in Beijing we visited an antique market. I was expecting a few rows of stalls - instead it was this huge undercover area with about 30 rows of stalls, surrounded by even more antique shops on all sides. And everything so bloody cheap! I guess it is the birthplace of 'Made in China', but really - nice beads for 40 cents? It's a wonder how they make a profit at all.
Another feature of Beijing that I loved was the city's ancient hutongs, or paved courtyards and cobbled alleyways. We were staying near Nanluogu Xiang street which is full of old hutongs, and lots of rickshaw-cycle tours would whizz through the street every day. It was also a great "eat street" (shoot me for using that word), with heaps of cute hole-in-the-wall restaurants (also dirt cheap - $2 or $3 for a big meal), chic cafes and bars. I was quite impressed with myself for being able to order a meal for Kris and myself from a Chinese-only menu (my year 12 Japanese came in handy, after all). 'Cept I ordered some sort of fish for myself, and got pre-frozen fishballs (erk), and ordered meat for Kris, and got pre-frozen meatballs. Still, I was on the right path!
We also feasted on Peking duck on our last night - and in this regard, the birthplace of the dish did not disappoint! Kris loved it - juice dripping down his chin, you can just imagine...
While I was loving the whole eating/shopping aspect of Beijing, being the mid-time point of our trip, I suddenly was completely over sightseeing, and had a minor tanty and didn't want to go to the Great Wall. As you can see from the pics, Kris finally did get me to go, and I'm glad I went, but it was a bit overrated - soooo many tourists, no room to move, sooo many steps. Still, I managed to do a good "I`m on the trip of a lifetime!" impression in that jumping pic, no?
Weirdest thing we saw in Beijing: Couples in matching clothes, everywhere. I think it's cool here - god knows why.

#16 Shanghai
After four days, we were on another overnight train, this time to Shanghai. It was equally as comfy (though no TVs at all this time), and we had an equally lovely cabin comrade: 24-year-old lawyer's assistant, Cheney. Not having learnt our lesson last time, and so curious were we about the Chinese culture and government, we probed him with a few questions. After asking about the one-child policy, we got onto the topic of religion and I asked him about Falun Gong. Whoops. He laughed selfconsciously and said, "Don't ask me about falun gong. It's different." But why is it different? "Just please don't ask me about it." Okay.... 'nuff said.
And so we trundled into Shanghai. Bright lights, big city - it didn't disappoint. The sweeping arc of the Bund beside the water was beautiful, and there were so many swish restaurants and buildings... but I was so taken with Beijing (which I didn't expect to like), so that Shanghai wasn't quite as glorious as I'd expected. Apparently Shanghai and Beijing share the same Sydney vs Melbourne rivalry that we have (ie Shanghai = Sydney, the financial heart of the country and physically more stunning, while Beijing = Melbourne, the artsy cultural centre), so of course I was rooting for Beijing!
Still, we had a helluva lotta fun in Shanghai. I met up with old friend Samuel Derwent Tsang (sorry, have to address you by your full name!) who's working as an architect in Shanghai. We also hung out with Ben & Georgina Boyd (yes guys, you made it onto the blog!), who were visiting Ben's parents who live in Shanghai, right before they set off on their own Tibet tour. Ben's parents took us to Cloud Nine - this luxe bar on the 87th floor of Shanghai's tallest building with spectacular views over the water - then we went to a restaurant in the French quarter. The next night Samuel took us all to an R&B mega club, with lots of Chinese-American chicks in short shorts. Cool! Unfortunately Kris and I partied a little too long and, after going to bed at 5am, we slept through our 6.30am alarm call and promptly missed our 10am flight to England - whoops. So we had one whole day of lazing around in bed...
Some things we won't forget:
* Liquid poo spewing out of a drain outside Beijing station, one of the busiest areas of the city. Just like squeezing a tube of toothpaste...
* A man inside a swanky Shanghai department store, holding his 3-year-old grandson above a rubbish bin so that he could pee into it. The security guard not caring.
* Alfresco dating service in Renmin Park, Shanghai. Picture this: hundreds of middle-aged Chinese men and women, some holding pictures of their children and a description of them on A4 paper, others browsing through the various descriptions and pictures. At first I thought it was a meeting point for parents looking for (very long) lost children who'd gone missing during the cultural revolution, but then we realised that it was actually a grassroots dating service. Yes, they were all parents desperately trying to find a mate for their ageing children. Things included in the description of the (un)likely candidates: age, weight, height, monthly income, place of residence, other assets. Haven't they heard of matchmaker.com?!