China Part 5 - Hong Kong and Beijing

A combination of sleep deprivation and constipation was starting to get me down, I was drained and cranky. A great mood to celebrate our anniversary!! We got on a self driving train to South HK island, and then a bus to breezy Aberdeen fishing town. Then it was another bus to Stanley which was pleasant enough. Hard to imagine it's on the same island as the rest of the metropolis. Running on empty, we went back to the New Territories to visit the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery, which was pretty impressive but best of all it wasn't too busy. After a bit of a wait, we had a decent meal at mall restaurant. 

After recharging at the hotel, we killed some time on the Blackpool-esque tram lines before meeting my cousin Dom on HK island, taking in a couple of bars and sampling some fine local beers. Neither of us could remember how long it had been since we had last seen each other, but it was amazing to see another familiar face on this side of the world. The Rugby 7s tournament surrounded us with drunks all dressed up like one massive stag/hen do, spilling out of the bars and making a scene. Walking the streets was like a night out anywhere in England (apart from weather etc etc). 

I had a good night's sleep at last, but unfortunately this was our final night. We took in the History Museum, which was thankfully free on this occasion, before finding a cat café. Then we met Dom one last time for lunch at Second Draft, a great Craft Beer bar with brilliant food. It was another example that it doesn’t matter how long you’re apart from someone, you  can almost always catch up whenever. Then it was time to board the shiny airport express to zoom past the many, many tower blocks. We spent our last HK$ on beer and chocolate. I watched Coco on the flight and cried. 

Then we had a shit time. Here’s a freeform ramble on what went down:

Our original flight to Beijing was cancelled and moved back 24 hours, so the airline was supposed to put us up in a hotel. We landed at midnight to find most help desks closed. A woman at the Hainan Airlines desk sent us to the information desk. Information Desk person told us to find the Hong Kong Airlines office on the third floor. These were administrative and not open to the public, and also closed. Back to Hainan woman, who did not want to help us, and basically told us “not my problem, bye”. Information Desk guy, who was well meaning but ultimately clueless, told us to go to another terminal. Arriving at this terminal, we finally found someone willing to help, who sent us downstairs, and someone else directed us to the Transfer Accommodation desk. Onto our fifth person, who rang Hong Kong Airlines. The airline told her “not our problem, bye”. We responded with their email that said “don't worry, we'll provide a hotel!!” Finally getting somewhere. This was 1am. We were told to wait to be driven to hotel, this shouldn’t be longer than 15 mins. 30 mins passed. Then an hour. People who arrived after us were being taken away before us. I burst into tears. Finally we were taken to hotel pushing 3am. 

The lesson is - if an airline cancels your flight and offers you accommodation, don't accept, just book with someone else if you can. And we won’t be travelling with Hainan Airlines again.

Lots of people had recommended things that we should do with our half day in Beijing that we weren't meant to have. Unfortunately I woke up not feeling like doing anything, and just wanting to go home. We emerged from the hotel around midday and headed into the city centre. Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City were both closed, but it meant things were pretty quiet everywhere went went. We walked round a few parks, one with a large lake was pretty nice, plus local and tourist neighbourhoods. However, the previous night had extinguished my spirit. I was done.

We got to the airport and experienced more Hainan Airline fuckery. We had reserved seats, what we thought would give us legroom, but we were told had to pay again for the real deal. We protested, but ultimately I had to do pay up in order to even be remotely comfortable. Then they said they wouldn't accept Mastercard, when that was all I had. I was about to give up, when to just get rid of us they said “for free!” and shooed us away. We definitely won’t be using these clowns in the future.

Our final hours were spent with yet more beer and chocolate. We boarded at 1am, and after all that nonsense I ended up having the most rest I’d ever managed on a long haul flight.

So, some conclusions! It was another amazing trip that was unfortunately blighted by the last 24 hours. If we had gone straight home from HK, as was the original plan, it would have ended on a positive note. That aside, Hong Kong was everything I had hoped it would be, and Macau was a revelation. People always make something better, and seeing Ed & Dom along the way was a definite highlight. There feels like so much more that we could have done, so a return is very likely. But there’s still so much more of the world to see for the first time.

China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

China Part 4 - Hong Kong and Macau

Our journey to HK started with a little bump, we’d accidentally booked to go to the wrong station in Shenzhen. Thankfully that didn’t take long to rectify, and we made our way through another well air conditioned mentro - boxing gloves were attached to the hand grips in some faded sponsorship. It was a smooth transition across both borders, and before I knew it we were on a train through the New Territories. I’d read about Chungking Mansions and thought god no, that place sounds like hell. So guess where we were staying! In it’s defence, it was cheap, the wifi worked (no more VPN needed) and it was a prime location. But it was also a sweaty cupboard that kept finding new ways to injure me, and I hardly slept during our four nights there. And the photo from the hotel booking website was unbelievably misleading. 

Hong Kong really is London on the orient, there’s so much familiarity. Driving on our side of the road. Double decker buses. Same font on the road signs. People stand on the right on escalators. Many, many little details that made the whole place feel strangely familiar, albeit full of millions of strangers. But these were strangers that carried themselves with a bit more politeness than what we had experienced on the mainland.

We started with a walk around the skyscrapers, then we met a former colleague of Angelos’ who lives out there now, and went for what was probably the best Chinese meal of the holiday in Mong Kok. We finished the evening back on the waterfront, seeing all the buildings lit up.

With minimal sleep, we got up early for a ferry to Macau (pro tip - book your ticket the day before, and don’t forget your passport). I think this was a national holiday weekend, but we managed to avoid the crowds for most of the day. If HK is an outpost of the British empire, Macau is a chill mediterranean city, from the tiled pavements to the vibrant painted buildings. The old part of the town had the same sun bleached urban decay vibe as Patra. It was a another strange experience seeing something so familiar yet so foreign. We spent the afternoon walking from one garden or castle to the next, Lou Lim Ioc Garden being a particular highlight. Once again I could feel the sunburn and once again did absolutely nothing about it. This led to some serious Lobster Face.

Struggling to find a bus, we took a taxi across to Taipa. Starting in an older part, again busy with tourists who seem to all walk up and down one street, we managed to ditch the crowds by just turning a corner and heading for Antonios. One guide book said “if you only eat one meal in Macau, this is the place” and I couldn’t agree more. It was the best food of the whole holiday, beautiful Portuguese cuisine. We had octopus salad, cod fish cakes, crisp salty salmon with white sauce, garlic mash and vegetables that exploded with flavour, washed down with my old love Super Bock. We then took a walk to casino region, utterly bizarre to be in Lisbon one minute and Vegas the next. We took in The Venetian which had a shopping mall in the style of an indoor Venice, because of course it does. Unbelievable opulence everywhere you turn, and very chatty gondola operators. We exited through one of the casino floors, my first time amongst the card tables and fruit machines. Now I never have to go to New Vegas or Venice, not that I wanted to. We made our way to the ferry terminal past other crazy casinos - water displays and cable cars everywhere. We naively thought we could just get any boat back, but seeing the crowds gave me a nagging feeling. Nag confirmed - there were no standard class seats available until midnight (four hours away). To speed things up a little, we splashed out on some first class seats to get us home earlier. Sometimes you have to treat yourself. Got two free beers on the way back and everything.

Our next day took in several locations. We started with what was probably my favourite of the day - Nan Lian Gardens. That was followed by a nunnery, a busy temple, flower and bird markets, cats in windows and Kowloon Park. By this stage, it had started to rain a bit. As we were near the end and hadn’t experienced a drop before now, I didn’t mind so much. However, as it also wasn’t forecast, we were without jackets, so we sheltered somewhere for lunch and the rain had gone by the time we were done.

We went for more of a walk around HK island - this is where all the white people have been hiding, amongst the antique stores and coffee shops. Then it was on to Hong Kong park, which was nice enough, and I made a bird friend in the aviary. The queue for the Peak funicular train was nuts, so we got on a bus and I promptly fell asleep. Waking up a bit groggy, my first experience of the view from the top was on a half closed viewing platform in a shopping mall. The main viewing area was another one of those tourist tat areas, but the view down to the city was pretty stunning. It was also pretty breezy, which felt good on the old sunburn. There was a large queue for the bus back down. Maybe it was the lack of sleep talking, but I was feeling some disappointment. If we had walked up to the top, would that have been better? Would we have earned it more? We’ll never know. Back to the waterfront for it’s big light show, which quite frankly was no Bund display. The night ended on a better note - our block of Chungking had a fantastic curry house which was very popular.

China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

China Part 3 - Xiamen

We were woken up at 3am by delirious screaming outside our hotel. It’s not easy to shut the windows when the aircon doesn't work and it's 25 degrees in your room. Still, it was another day on the move and another intimidating huge high speed rail station. We had an eight hour journey ahead of us, only an hour shorter than our flight to Beijing. Still, a combination of podcasts and snacks made it fly by. Somewhere we passed through along the way was letting off fireworks in the afternoon.

For the first time this trip we were staying in a hotel that gave us breakfast, so I stuffed myself with dumplings, mushroom stir fry, pancakes and real tea. Heaven. It was still warm out, and I still regretted not bringing shorts. Before the metro, the main way to get around the city was an express busway on a viaduct, which was pleasingly covered in plants and vines. This matched the national grid boxes that all had various beautiful scenes painted on them. The bus ticket machine only accepted mobile payments - we noticed that this default mode of paying for an increasingly cashless society, but thankfully had a manned booth for purchasing tokens as well. We went to wrong ferry terminal, and after several attempts we eventually found a member of staff who would not only talk to us but also give us correct directions. We walked to proper terminal for the Gulangyu ferry but soon realised you needed ID for tickets, and we had forgotten our passports. We settled for a day of walking instead.

Then came a low point - we passed a dead kitten in the street. The number of stray cats we’d seen up until that point had been fairly low, and the ones we did see during this holiday mostly seemed seemed well fed and looked after. Trying not to dwell on this, we paused for lunch so Angelos could get some birthday cake and I could get some much needed aircon and a delicious pint cup of milky sweet tea. 

We pushed on through the blazing heat to Nanputuo Temple, climbing a steep hill and feeling the sunburn once again. Reaching the peak, we made our ascent through Wanshi botanical garden - an incredibly pleasant park whose highlights included a cacti collection and a stage next to a pond where the wind rustling through the trees sounded like applause. Everywhere we went the water levels looked low, but the lawns were kept neat and well watered. We then made our way back to town through the Railway Culture Park - a former train line transformed into a popular footpath.

Back at the hotel the extent of my sunburn made itself known, but as a dumb white English bitch this is how I prove that I have been on holiday. We considered trying to find a local seafood restaurant, but then Angelos said the 8 words that reaffirmed my love for him - “shall we just go to the beer place?” The evening started with a pleasant walk around the seafront. I didn't bring my camera along so for once I enjoyed just taking it all in. We found Fat Fat Beer Horse in a trendy area surrounding a repurposed factory. It had a beautiful old industrial style - exposed pipes and so on. We spoke to the German owner, had some amazing burgers and were even treated to their new pork scratchings. We made liberal use of their happy hour and I slowly made my way through their menu of beers - special shout out to Pink Dolphin Tears. It was then a quick march to get the last metro, rushing past smokey restaurants, hosed down fish markets and cars racing through red lights. 

The next morning, passports in hand, we walked to the busy ferry terminal. Xiamen has the concrete and topiary feel of mid 90s development. We spent the best part of three hours waiting for a boat to Gulangyu island. Yesterday was quite tiring, so it was good to balance this out with some sitting down. We don't really do relaxing holidays, so the closest I get are the hours spent on transport or in waiting lounges. 

I’d seen an article branding Gulangyu difficult to get to now. I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but the system in the terminal was unorganised and overrun with tour groups. The island itself was pleasant but underwhelming. That we spent longer waiting for the ferry than on Gulangyu itself says it all. The alternative was a day out to Yongdian which would have added some rural contrasts and ancient villages into the mix - we’d been very urban the entire holiday. But giving the following day’s schedule of travel, a quiet day was probably for the best. Think I enjoyed the walk to and from the ferry terminal much more than what happened in-between. 

After purchasing the now standard journey snacks and recharging at the hotel, it was back out for food. We made it as far as around the corner ordered a little feast, again making the most of a picture menu with English captions. “Highlight” was bullfrog in a dish that had the most chilli I had ever seen. I wouldn’t recommend it.

China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

China Part 2 - Qingdao and Nanjing

We had a 5am start which more or less fitted with my messed up sleep pattern. It was interesting to see the city so quiet, the main noise was the street cleaning machines with their gift card melodies. We hopped on the first metro of the morning out to the older main line station. To my delight, we were in first class. Not only that, it was an exclusive compartment in the nose of the train. We had this to ourselves for the first hour or so, but even when it was full it only had three other people. Free snacks, swanky toilet, I could so get used to this. At 300 km/h we sped once again through the familiar scenes of high rise developments.

Qingdao North station with its recent metro line gave us a modern welcome. We went for a brief walk around the waterfront near our hotel. Qingdao would have had a lot of development for the 2008 Olympic sailing events, but it's starting to crumble a bit now. However, it is about to host a security conference, so the whole city was getting a bit of a face lift. There was development and refurbishment wherever we turned. 

My friend Ed had been living there for a few years and, reunited with him, we got a taxi to the German quarter for its interesting architecture and beach, plus more photos with excited locals. Heading back into the city, we had a filling dinner of squid ink dumplings, meatball soup and fish at a mall restaurant. Then it was on to a bar for beers that, shock, weren't listed on Untappd. Well, it was just called Citra. 

My attempts at sleep were still not fully successful, but at least we had a later start. It was good to see a city off the main tourist trail that, realistically, we would not have visited if it wasn’t for visiting someone here. It also meant we were more or less the only non locals in any given area, so this meant even more stares. We started at a pier, and then attempted the naval museum and lighthouse peninsula, but both of these were closed as part of the city-wide renovation. We lucked out by finding a nearby restaurant that had both English staff and an English menu. I feasted on Abalone in oyster sauce with a big plate of fried rice. 

We then walked along the coast through various parks and more disused Olympic areas that were still being kept pristine, and on to Zhongshan Park with its confusing autumnal tones. In the evening met Ed again who gave us a tour of his apartment and neighbourhood. His 32nd floor flat offered stunning views. Then we went up to Lican to Opera Brew, an amazing brew pub where we ate a feast of many delights and I had several of their beers. We only just caught the last metro home. It was bizarre seeing such a familiar face in an unfamiliar land, but as we spent most of our time eating and drinking it didn’t take long to adjust to our old routines.

The next day moved on to Nanjing, re-tracing almost our entire journey back the way we came, and checking in to our third Orange Select hotel. In the humid afternoon heat we went to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and surrounding park, before trying to find somewhere to eat. Relying on guide books for restaurant recommendations is not always successful, especially when it can be a struggle to work out what street you’re on. One of my least favourite things is to walk around starving, aimlessly in search of food based sanctuary. Eventually we accidentally stumbled across the place we were actually looking for. It was good combination of a picture menu on a wall that we could point to and big, filling bowls of noodle based meals. It even had a cat in a cage, which didn't sound too happy. After the now standard ice cream pick me up, we ended the day with a walk through Xuanwuhu Park and its various mini islands - one of which inexplicably had two McDonald's. 

The temperature continued to rise, and I really regretted not bringing shorts. We started by visiting some gardens round the corner from our hotel, which were thankfully less busy and had more cats than previous places. After taking several wrong turns through an Olympic training centre, we found our way back to Zhongshan Park, serenaded by the pleasant screaming of cicadas in the trees. This was a great afternoon. One ticket got you into several beautiful attractions. We climbed Linggu Tower and visited several temples. I was starting to wonder where all the people were at, then we found them. The many, many steps to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was the busiest location yet, and gave us some hazy views of the city below. 

All that climbing and walking and heat made me hungry and grumpy. Cheering up after a massive dumpling and some sweet bread, we prepared ourselves for visiting the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. A brutal yet vital experience. This, plus what I read in Korea last year, has really put my thoughts on Japan in a different context. On a lighter note, I was swarmed by around 100 local primary school kids on our exit, which was frankly terrifying. 

We then tried to go on a walk atop the impressively huge city walls, but unfortunately we were too late. This was a shame, as that would have been a great additional to our visit. We made do with a stroll in their shadow around Xuanwu lake at dusk. Then we had another unsuccessful evening trying to find restaurants that may no longer exist. We stumbled across First Mate Steamed Seafood, which had no English speaking staff, so there were some awkward exchanges on translation apps. We accidentally ordered a full meal between us, including an octopus we had just seen looking forlorn in a tank before we sat down. Poor little guy. After that we walked along a street that was entirely shut down on one side for several blocks - possibly earmarked for demolition? It was an odd sight. 

Nanjing was our third contrasting city in a row, and I really enjoyed it. There was almost too much to see in our short time there.

China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

China Part 1 - Shanghai and Hangzhou

Our trips to Japan and Korea were 6 years apart, but Korea was less than a year ago. With those holidays in my mind, VPNs installed and “thank you” in Mandarin memorised, it was time to explore China. We use Seat Guru to find me the best leg room for my tallness, and unfortunately they let us down for the first time. Luckily I was able to to move into a better seat. I hardly slept on the journey out there, but I’m used to that by now. This was probably the least stressful journey I ever had. Perhaps the Calm app is working.

Our flight was to Beijing, with a short wait before heading on to Shanghai. We landed around 10am and I had the familiar feeling of stumbling onto an unfamiliar metro system and being stared at by the local (and as a bonus, two Germans guys who totally didn’t realise I could understand every tenth word they said). Every station across the country has a security check before you enter. This ranged from putting your bag through a scanner to a full on metal detector search. It felt like overkill to begin with, but soon became routine.

Check-in wasn’t until 2pm, so we had an initial explore of the city, starting through a busy and uninspiring urban shopping area, constantly hassled to buy watches, bags, girls or “anything you want, man”. We then reached The Bund, the city’s signature vista of modern skyscrapers across the Huangpu river. It was a hazy day and I could already feel the beginnings of sunburn. 

Then we wondered around the Yuyuan Old Street area, a collection of tourist shops, attractions and food stalls in modern build of old style buildings. By this stage the hunger and the jetlag were really making itself known, so we went to El Willy's. How could you resist with a name like that? It was situated in a grand old building that was also hosting a wedding at the time. A subtly filling tapas meal later, we checked in to our hotel. A recurring theme from recent trips - the bathroom had a glass wall so you could see EVERYTHING. Luckily it also had a modesty blind. It was mid afternoon and over 24 hours of minimal sleep was causing us both to crash bad, but we forced ourselves out again. 

We started with a ride on the Maglev train to the international airport. Current restrictions mean it can “only” travel at 300 km/h. I was enjoying hearing a couple next to me speaking in broad Yorkshire tones, only to realise they were actually talking in Chinese and I was in the middle of some Jetlag hallucinations. A pink ice cream gave me a pick me up. 

Then we went for a walk through a couple of neighbourhoods before reaching the spectacle of The Bund at night. This is when it comes alive and becomes iconic - stunning views and light displays for miles. I was stopped a few times by groups of locals who wanted to have their photo taken with me. This must be what Trixie Mattel feels like. Back at the hotel my jetlagged brain decided it was a good idea to pour boiling water into a plastic bottle. Time for bed.

You never know how your first night’s sleep is going to go. I SLEPT FOR 11 HOURS!! Feeling amazing, and starting the day on our familiar convenience store breakfast, we went round the corner to Yu Garden. This place summed up my feelings about a lot of Shanghai - “It Was Nice, But…”. A perfectly fine collection of ponds, pergolas and rock formations, it was relatively small for the intensely busy area it sat in, so I didn’t take a lot away from it.

Walking on, our trip to the History Museum was off due to it being closed on Mondays (pro tip: pretty much every place we have been to around the world has most things closed on Mondays). So we spent the next few hours on a huge walking tour, talking in various neighbourhoods and shopping areas ranging from the high end to the low. We paused for our first try of the local speciality - dumplings with vinegar.   

I had heard about the air pollution issues before we arrived. An air watch app said it was “dangerous” outside and masks should be worn. Unlike in Japan or Korea, where you were often the odd one out for not wearing a mask, hardly anyone here seemed to bother. I'm not sure if it was the hypochondriac in me, but breathing wasn't as easy as it could have been. It was like someone was constantly sitting on me, and not in a good way.

Reaching the river, passing several massive bridges, we found a newly installed walkway next to abandoned buildings from a 2010 expo - a strange area looking too modern to be not in use but crumbling enough to show it was slowly decaying. Walking along what we thought was a path, we heard shouting. This was a security guard informing us that we were heading for a dead end. This was a little harsh, I thought, and there was a sign showing this fact right in front of us. I tried to take a photo of a weathered mascot statue in front of one of the fenced off buildings, but heard shouting again. It was the same guy (“HEY! BOY!”) who seemed to take issue with me documenting this particular example of urban decay. Remembering where I was, I decided not to argue. There were security guards all along the waterfront, and also positioned pretty much anywhere tourists would go across the country.

Continuing along the river I saw the first example of what I’d see in many places - a whole row of shops and bars closed down - not looking that old, but all now out of use, almost definitely ahead of yet another redevelopment. We took a boat across the river to walk among the skyscrapers of Pudong. Seeing the Oriental TV Tower up close made it look like the next generation Transformer of the Berlin TV Tower. And was another example of something we’d never waste money on visiting. A nearby shopping mall had a “Food Opera” in its basement - you put money onto a prepaid card and visit as many stalls as you like. We squeezed in one more walk that evening among the lit up towers before my back gave out.

On the first night of a long haul holiday you pass out from exhaustion. The second night is more telling, and was a less successful sleep. It was an earlier start and the metro was thankfully a little less chaotic. We were going on a day trip, so we went out to Shanghai Hongqiao station. It was intimidatingly enormous and with good reason - it’s the largest railway station in Asia and is part of a hub connected to the international airport. We were heading for Hangzhou (pro tip - you’ll need your passport to purchase any long haul rail journey ticket) but also managed to collect all the tickets for our upcoming train journeys, much to the annoyance of the large queue behind us. On many occasions we queued up for things only to have people push right to the front. The Englishman in me will never be OK with that.

What followed was one of the highlights of the entire holiday. Walking from the staton and fuelling up on more 7-11 treats, we spent the day walking around the entirety of West Lake. After the smog of Shanghai it was literal breath of fresh air, and we were treated to clear skies and pleasant sunshine, with various detours to temples, gardens and pavilions. It was incredibly soothing. I didn’t think I’d have the stamina to walk around the whole thing, but we did. The best parts were where you were free from the onslaught of bikes and mini taxis. Heading back to the station we finally had a Chinese dinner in a chain restaurant. 

Returning to Shanghai and in the mood for a beer, we searched for the Boxing Cat Brewery (amazing name and logo). Unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment, but Daga brew pub next door gave us a pleasant wheat beer. On the way back to the hotel we stocked up on snacks for our first big train journey, tomorrow we were moving on.

China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5