Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Shanghai
I just got back from China a couple of days ago. My family went with a tour group to Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi and a couple more places. I'll blog about it here, the length of the posts will depend on how lazy I am, haha. There may be some Chinese words here and there. I'll include the hanyu pinyin for those whose computer can't display Chinese text.
We woke up very early to catch the SQ flight to Shanghai. The rest of the tour group took some other airline, but we had to take SQ because we booked too late and the other flight was full. As a result, we got there later than the rest.
The tour guide met us at the airport. She was holding up a little paper sign stating what tour group she's leading. We boarded the bus and went to 南京步行街。 (nanjing bu4 xing2 jie1) This is basically a pedestrian shopping street.
The way of life in a busy city like Shanghai is very different. Their level of courtesy makes Singapore look good in comparison. The people there don't queue, it seems like a foreign concept to them. We were buying some snacks at a little stall. They have a window for customers to buy food. In Singapore, there would be a nice orderly queue. Not so in Shanghai. Instead they have this mass of people crowding around the window, all clamouring for attention. To buy anything, you have to join the scrum and push your way to the front.
There is also no respect for personal space. At the airport, we had to hand in a health declaration form. Apparently you have to hand in different forms at difference counters, but I didn't know that, so I gave the guy at the first counter all the documents. He took some time to sort those out. Meanwhile, another Chinese guy who obviously knows the system was waiting directly behind him, instead of behind the line drawn on the ground like he should be doing.
Traffic is chaos as well. Traffic lights are guidelines rather than strict rules to be followed. It is very common to see vehicles driving nonchalantly past red lights. Zebra crossings exist, but don't expect vehicles to stop. You have to spot the gaps to cross the road. This is true at traffic lights too. Even when the lights are against them, they still have the audacity to horn at people crossing at the pedestrian crossings.
In Sg, turning vehicles have to give way to pedestrians. This isn't true in Shanghai, or any of the other parts of China I visited on this tour. The vehicles will actually just drive right through a crowd of pedestrians. Lonely Planet is right. You have to look in all directions when crossing roads.
As we're not really the shopping type, we just wandered up and down the street, waiting for the time when we were supposed to return and meet the tour guide and the rest of our group. Here's an idea of what the street looks like.
After dinner, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower. It's very much like the Sydney Tower, a large tall structure with an observation deck. The observation deck of the Oriental Pearl Tower is 263m above the ground. The night view of Shanghai is spectacular, as many of their skyscrapers are very well lit. As this was a guided tour, we stopped there for a whirlwind photo session before moving on to the next item on the programme, a cruise down the Huangpu river.
Once again, the selfish mentality of the Chinese nationals showed. They talked loudly, push and shoved to get to the upper deck, smoked everywhere and insisted on hogging the good photo spots. All this only applies to those I've seen. I know many others who are very polite and courteous. Anyway, the skyline of Shanghai is beautiful. Here's a picture. That alien looking structure on the left with the pointy tip is the Oriental Pearl Tower. Ignoring the loud music and constant cigarette smoke, the view from the boat was very good. Finding a good smoke free spot to enjoy it was the main challenge.
This concludes the first day of our tour in China. More will be coming, hope I'm not boring you people.
We woke up very early to catch the SQ flight to Shanghai. The rest of the tour group took some other airline, but we had to take SQ because we booked too late and the other flight was full. As a result, we got there later than the rest.
The tour guide met us at the airport. She was holding up a little paper sign stating what tour group she's leading. We boarded the bus and went to 南京步行街。 (nanjing bu4 xing2 jie1) This is basically a pedestrian shopping street.
The way of life in a busy city like Shanghai is very different. Their level of courtesy makes Singapore look good in comparison. The people there don't queue, it seems like a foreign concept to them. We were buying some snacks at a little stall. They have a window for customers to buy food. In Singapore, there would be a nice orderly queue. Not so in Shanghai. Instead they have this mass of people crowding around the window, all clamouring for attention. To buy anything, you have to join the scrum and push your way to the front.
There is also no respect for personal space. At the airport, we had to hand in a health declaration form. Apparently you have to hand in different forms at difference counters, but I didn't know that, so I gave the guy at the first counter all the documents. He took some time to sort those out. Meanwhile, another Chinese guy who obviously knows the system was waiting directly behind him, instead of behind the line drawn on the ground like he should be doing.
Traffic is chaos as well. Traffic lights are guidelines rather than strict rules to be followed. It is very common to see vehicles driving nonchalantly past red lights. Zebra crossings exist, but don't expect vehicles to stop. You have to spot the gaps to cross the road. This is true at traffic lights too. Even when the lights are against them, they still have the audacity to horn at people crossing at the pedestrian crossings.
In Sg, turning vehicles have to give way to pedestrians. This isn't true in Shanghai, or any of the other parts of China I visited on this tour. The vehicles will actually just drive right through a crowd of pedestrians. Lonely Planet is right. You have to look in all directions when crossing roads.
As we're not really the shopping type, we just wandered up and down the street, waiting for the time when we were supposed to return and meet the tour guide and the rest of our group. Here's an idea of what the street looks like.
After dinner, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower. It's very much like the Sydney Tower, a large tall structure with an observation deck. The observation deck of the Oriental Pearl Tower is 263m above the ground. The night view of Shanghai is spectacular, as many of their skyscrapers are very well lit. As this was a guided tour, we stopped there for a whirlwind photo session before moving on to the next item on the programme, a cruise down the Huangpu river.
Once again, the selfish mentality of the Chinese nationals showed. They talked loudly, push and shoved to get to the upper deck, smoked everywhere and insisted on hogging the good photo spots. All this only applies to those I've seen. I know many others who are very polite and courteous. Anyway, the skyline of Shanghai is beautiful. Here's a picture. That alien looking structure on the left with the pointy tip is the Oriental Pearl Tower. Ignoring the loud music and constant cigarette smoke, the view from the boat was very good. Finding a good smoke free spot to enjoy it was the main challenge.
This concludes the first day of our tour in China. More will be coming, hope I'm not boring you people.
posted by cosine @ 8:29 AM 
