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We managed to get the high speed train from Zhengzhou to Shanghai, so it only took six and a half hours as opposed to the 13 hours it would have taken on the slow train. The moment we got to Shanghai it felt so civilised - the station was shiny and new, there were restaurants with English menus, and it was all so clean. We stayed in Shanghai for 4 nights and absolutely loved it, especially after our time in Dengfeng.
Shanghai is a huge city but it felt really different from the other Chinese cities we had been to. It had a much more positive energy and the city felt like it had grown naturally rather than just been developed suddenly. We didn't do any tours in Shanghai, instead we just walked around the different parts of the city. The first place we headed to was "The Bund". We didn't really know what to expect from it apart from it being a nice place to visit. It turned out to be very nice indeed. The area was on the riverside and had a large pedestrianised area. From "The Bund" we had the classic view of the downtown Shanghai skyline with lots of sci-fi looking buildings. We walked from there up Nanjing road where there are hundreds of shops and malls. We returned to see Nanjing at night to see all the neon lights. We contemplated visiting the National Museum in the centre of the People's Park, however after reading reviews saying how manic it was, we decided to give it a miss. We enjoyed Shanghai as it was fairly easy to get around and we had a nice break from doing tours.
We got the high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing - apparently it's the fastest train in the world. There was a screen on the train that told us our speed. We kept taking photos of it when we thought we had reached the top speed, but it kept getting faster. It peaked at 310 kmph (that's over 190mph!)
We had a quiet first day in Beijing because the weather was appalling. The view over the city was rather gloomy and the buildings didn't look as impressive as Shanghai. We didn't have a very good first impression of the place. On our second day we visited Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. There were hundreds of people all walking the same way as us. We had to go through security (like at an airport) to get into the square. It was a massive area but it was pretty full still with the amount of people in it! Looking over the square was a big picture of Chairman Mao. Having read a little bit about what life was like in China when Mao was in charge, we found it strange to have his picture up. It would be a bit like having a picture of Hitler up in the centre of Berlin or Pol Pot's picture up in Phnom Pehn. I guess while China is Communist he will always be officially viewed as a heroic figure. I don't know what Chinese people really think of him now - I was a bit afraid to ask. I might be jailed for treason or conspiracy or something! We walked through an impressive gate to get to the entrance of the Forbidden City. It was extremely busy in this area too, with lots of touts asking us if we'd been to the Great Wall yet (we answered "yes"!). Going into the Forbidden City was very impressive too, we had to walk through a tunnel and the large beautiful buildings were revealed to us on the other side. There were so many buildings to look at and also a lovely garden at the back of it. There were a few exhibitions of jade and bronze vases etc, and royal clothes the emperor would have worn. It was an amazing site but a very tiring day as every little space in the entire complex was full of manic Chinese people pushing to get a look into the windows of buildings, climbing over walls and on top of rocks, and trying to open doors that were obviously locked! They were behaving worse than children. The following day we took the metro to the outskirts of the city to see the Summer Palace, which is where the emperor would retreat to in the summer. This was also a very big site but it had more open spaces of countryside and a huge lake with a lovely bridge (the 17-arches bridge). We saw a nice Buddhist temple (up some steep steps), an open air theatre, and we walked around a small lake on a very narrow street that had lots of different shops selling souvenirs or food. We enjoyed this place better than the Forbidden City, although it was still very busy - but not quite as manic.
A couple of days later we had a trip to the Great Wall. The part of the wall we visited was sold to us as being the best preserved section and also not as busy as some other bits. It was a two hour drive away. Unfortunately the weather was once again gloomy - not the ideal day to visit, but there was nothing we could do about that. When we arrived our guide gave a brief talk about the wall and told us we had three and a half hours to explore. There were two directions to go - one which took 3 hours to walk there and back, the other taking less time but was much steeper. We got a chair lift up the the wall, and decided to go for the longer walk. As expected, the wall seemed to go on forever. We didn't realise how hilly it would be - there were so many steps and steep slopes! Due to the rain (which by this stage had stopped), the path was incredibly slippery, so we had to be very careful. The views were okay, and we decided that it looked mystical instead of just plain misty. The wall was a lot quieter than the previous places we had visited in Beijing, and there was a much higher percentage of Western tourists. It was nice to have a break from the pushing and shoving! After an hour and a half of careful walking (when we were supposed to be at the end of the section) we saw the wall still went on as far as the eye could see, and decided to head back. To get down from the wall you have a choice - chair lift or toboggan. We chose toboggan, and it was so much fun! Since it had been raining, they had closed the toboggan track due to it being too dangerous, however by the time we got there it was just about ready to open. That was lucky as it meant we weren't stuck behind slow people and could go down full speed.
And so our time in China came to an end. We had been in the country for 6 weeks and seen a full range of places. China was certainly not our favourite country we've visited, but on reflection I think we visited it at a special time. It's a strange country in a time of transition and I don't know how it's going to end up. They seem to embrace Western culture on one hand, while keeping their Communist controls on the other.
Off to Japan next, and hopefully life will make more sense there! We're looking forward to being in a free country after 2 months of communism.
D & S
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