Jay K.
[yes, Beijing to Qingdao! 8 hours! Hard Seat!]
Ep.14 Are we moving forward?
Right now I am in Shanghai. This is my last night in Shanghai and I will go to Hangzhou tomorrow. There are still many places to go and many days to travel, but I want to start writing now, because I don’t want to forget things happened during the earlier parts of my trip.
So I started my trip exactly a week ago. August 18th Monday I left Beijing. I went down to Qingdao, my first destination.
Qingdao: the City of Beer and Beach.
I took “the hard seat” train to Qingdao from Beijing. I got on the train around 11pm and got off at 7am. “Hard seat” is the cheapest and lowest train class where 6 people sit together. I didn’t know the Hard Seat is actually hard. It was much more uncomfortable than I imagined. I really couldn’t sleep well. Eight hours of hard seat riding was painful, and at that time I didn’t know I would ride hard seat for 14 hrs on the same day. Alas!
[Qingdao, you easily can find western architecture in the city]
Anyway, 8hrs later I got to Qingdao. The first thing I had to do was to buy a train ticket to Nanjing. My friend from Berkeley, Pedro was coming to Nanjing the next day and I had to join him there. Unfortunately, the only ticket I could buy/afford was the infamous hard seat and this time it would take for 14 hours. The worse is that I had to leave Qingdao at 3pm. It was already 8 o’clock, so I had only roughly 7 hours in Qingdao. I had to say it... “Shit!”
I wasn’t happy about it, but I wanted to enjoy my trip so I couldn’t be sad about it for more than 5 mins. I went to my hostel and checked in. The hostel was much nicer than I expected. It was very cozy and clean. If you guys travel anywhere in China, I recommend hostels. It’s cheap and fun! (I will talk more about hostel later). I took a quick shower and started my tour in Qingdao. At that point, I only had 6 hrs to wonder the city.
Qingdao, also known as Tsingtao, is located at the northeast of China. It was a fishing village until Germans took over and developed it rapidly. Germans built churches and railroads in the city. Also, they built the beer brewery which is now famous for Tsingdao beer. Later, Japanese took a control of the city until China regained it after the World War 2. Despite its historical turmoil and repetitive colonization, the city of Qingdao is very peaceful and beautiful. There are number of beaches that attract many Chinese. I visited one of them and swum! In the city, you also can see much western colonial architecture including impressive church buildings.
[The old man kept diving into ocean, I don't know it was for performance, or for his own hobby]
[the same old man, thanks him for nice pictures]
In Qingdao, I went to the beach and swum, walked around the old church area, climbed Signal Hill (it was used to give military signals) and ate brunch at KFC. I did all these things in 4 hours so that I could sleep for an hour before I leave Qingdao. I was pretty satisfied with my 6 hrs in Qingdao; of course, I wish I could have more time.
Right before I leave to catch my train to Nanjing, I broke my camera! I was cleaning it and I broke it. I did the same thing to my old camera exactly a year ago. I was so mad at myself. But again, I had to enjoy my trip; I didn’t have time to be mad at myself. I just packed up and headed to the train station. I was very afraid of 14 hrs of hard seat riding.
[Tsingtao Beer]
[Me after swimming]
[The Church]
[According to Lonely Planet, this was written during culuture revolution, and no one erased it after. It was very tempting, I could erase it.. but I didn't]
[The fountain I saw on the way to Mushroom tower]
[The Mushroom tower which was used for military signals back then]
Nanjing: the City of Ideology
[I went to clubbing with friends in Nanjing. The club in China]
The second time was much better than the first. Although it was a lot longer, hard seat to Nanjing from Qingdao wasn’t that painful. I met these two Chinese men on the train, let’s name them Wang and Zhang for convenience sake (actually I don’t know their names). Wang was from Suzhou and Zhang was from Shanghai. We talked about lots of things but mainly politics. They started talking to me when they found out that I am a Korean. Wang told me about Korean political situation and history, he was very familiar with them. He told me that he read them on the newspaper. I don’t trust media in China, but I guess it is doing a good job of educating its readers.
I understood only a half of what he was saying. Talking to them was a good chance to realize my improvement and limitation. Wang was very frank about everything. For example, he told me that South Koreans should hate Chinese for helping North Korea because it keeps preventing the unification of Koreas which is true. I asked him about Taiwan and China relationship. He gave me a typical Chinese answer which is that mainland cannot give up Taiwan because then it has to give up other conflict regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet. But, he agreed that Taiwan’s political system (law and order) is better than that of mainland. Including Wang and Zhang, I met many Chinese who know that their government is corrupt. Wang said, the government should correct itself little by little.
The second “hard seat” ride was better than the first, because I met them and it was interesting to talk to them. Also, I was used to hard seat so I actually could sleep this time. I slept at 10pm and when I woke up the train was passing the Yangzi River—the longest river in China. I said a goodbye to Wang and Zhang and got off at Nanjing station around 6am.
[Confucius statue in Confucius Temple in Nanjing]
I met Pedro at the station who was coming from Beijing. We took a cab to my roommate Noel’s friends’ apartment in Nanjing. Noel was also coming to Nanjing that day from Shanghai. Lynne, Noel’s friend, was a very nice person. I really thank her for letting us to stay at her apartment. She was from University of Arizona. We both took a shower first. We both were tired but Pedro was more tired because it was his first time riding a hard seat train (also for 14 hrs). We had to take a nap first before we start the sightseeing.
I don’t want to explain everything that I had done in chronological order, because that’s just boring. I will tell you guys the places we went.
On the first day, Pedro and I went to Confucius Temple. Confucius is one of the most important philosophers in history of China. I read many of his books and really admire him and his philosophy, so I was excited to go his temple. The temple wasn’t as magnificent as I expected. It was more like a temple for souvenir shops and tourists. It was still interesting to visit though. The temple was burned and destroyed several times, but it was repetitively restored by the government and donation from privates, which shows the importance of Confucius in Chinese society.
On the second day, we went to the Purple Mountain, the biggest tourist sites in Nanjing. Many historical sights are scattered over this mountain including Dr. Sun’s Mausoleum, Ming Tomb, and Linggu Temple. It was really a hot day, but we visited all places on that mountain. Dr. Sun is respected by many Chinese regardless of their ideology. He is regarded as the father of modern China. He is often forgotten by people because of two charismatic leaders who followed after him—Mao of the communist and Chang Kai-shek of Taiwan. Since the Dr. Sun’s Mausoleum was built by Kuomintang government, you can see many Kuomintangs’ symbols around the building which is currently on the flag of Taiwan. It is hard to imagine that the symbol of Taiwan is well preserved and displayed in mainland.
[The way to Dr. Sun's Mausoleum, omg]
[The symbol of Taiwan in Dr. Sun's mausoleum]
[the way back]
[Pedro, my good friend from Berkeley]
On the last day, I went to Yangzi River Bridge. As I told you guys already, Yangzi River, also called Chang Jiang in Chinese is the longest river in China and the third longest river in the world. Let me quote Lonely Planet for more details, “Opened on 23 December 1968, it’s one of the longest bridges in China—a double-decker with a 4500m-long road on top and a train line below”. Before this bridge, there was no direct train road between Shanghai and Beijing. This bridge is significant mainly because it signifies the greatness of the CCP.
The construction of the bridge was originally started by Soviet engineers, but Russia pulled out in 60s due to conflict between China and USSR. The CCP continued its construction and finally finished in 1968. You can see the communist slogan carved on one pillar of the bridge saying “The people—only the people—are the driving force behind world history”. There is also a statue of Mao and some other socialist statues.
[This is a local market that I found when I was lost on the way to Yangzi River Bridge]
I called Nanjing “the City of Ideology” because the city is full of ideological marks: Confucius Temple, the remnants of Kuomintang, and the greatest accomplishment of the CCP. I didn’t write here but I also went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum. It was horrible, but the government did really a good job of building the museum. The museum was very modern and everything was well displayed. Anyway, it was interesting to see these places representing different ideologies. Hanging out with friends was also fun in Nanjing, furthermore Lynne’s apartment was very comfortable.
[“The people—only the people—are the driving force behind world history”]
[Chairman Mao statue under the Bridge]
Shanghai: the City of Great Leap Forward
After staying three nights at Nanjing, I and Noel went to Shanghai, which was only 2 hours away from Nanjing by the “fast train”. Shanghai! The city is well-known to foreigners; it is the symbol of rapidly developing China. It can be called New York of China. As I expected, the city was full of sky-crappers. The city was very bright at nights.
There were also many colonial architectural buildings. These buildings were so beautiful and elegant. I particularly loved the small back streets of Shanghai. They were full of people, stores and life! I liked them more than Nanjing Donglu which is glamorous shopping district of Shanghai. The Bund was also very nice; there you can see the brilliant lights of sky crappers across the river.
[Interesting statues on the Yangzi River Bridge]
However, behind this alluring city, there was a dark side. I saw many beggars on the streets, begging money from foreigners. I’m sure there were many of them in Beijing before the government cleaned them for the Olympic. Anyway, I didn’t see any beggars in Beijing so that it was a little shocking to me seeing beggars at Shanghai.
I know what I saw at Shanghai is only a tip of ice berg. China is still relatively a poor country. Only big cities are well developed, many other regions are still starving. Of course, I am not saying everyone in United States is well off. Anyway, I was very disappointed at this point. China is developing, no doubt for that. We, mankind, rapidly developed over the last two hundred years. But, are we really moving forward?
The question stroked me as I was walking the streets of Shanghai. Are we moving forward? I couldn’t answer it. Although our living standard has been improved so much since 19th century, there are so many problems left to solve and new problems are daily produced. It seems like we are not moving forward at all. But it has to be, it has to be moving forward.
I loved Shanghai regardless of this unsolvable problem. There is one more thing to tell you guys about Shanghai. At the hostel that Noel and I were staying, two Chinese girls moved into our room. Yes, finally a drama in my trip! One was Anna, who was kicked out of her school dorm and had to stay at the hostel until she find a new place. She was from Hangzhou—my next destination—and graduated from one of the famous university in China. She was two years older than me.
The other one was Jinling, who was travelling by herself. She was from Guangzhou—also one of my destination—and the same age as me. Jinling was a very outgoing girl. It was the first time she came to Shanghai, and she really wanted us to go with her for sightseeing. We decided to go together, because it seemed fun. Also, she was planning to go to Hangzhou one the same day as we planned to, so we decided to go to Hangzhou together.
After we left Shanghai, Noel said we were very lucky getting these two roommates. I agree so. Jinling and I became a good friend. I am planning to visit her when I go to Guangzhou. About Anna, it is a little strange and ridiculous to say, but I think she liked me. I swear I felt it. Of course, I cannot be sure about it, but I think she did and I hope she did. I am also visiting Anna again, because I left something at the hostel and she is holding it for me. I look forward to see both of them again.
I liked Shanghai not only because of the city itself, but also because of them. This is it for now, I left Hangzhou this morning and heading Xiamen.
Ps. Pictures that I took in Shanghai are not included in this episode, cuz it will be too long. I will upload them in my next episode.
Ps2. More pictures can be found http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamadreamer/ as usual
Ps3. I will upload the second part of my trip very soon... hopely.
I miss you guys all..
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