A Fishy Shanghai Weekend
I love going to aquariums. There is so much underwater life that is fascinatingly creepy. Looking at some of these species fills you with dread and uneasiness, and yet you can’t wait to see the next exhibit in hopes that it will be even more bizarre. Every aquarium I’ve been to has had a fish I’ve never seen before, too. Like the garden eels in the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. Man, those are some strange, freaky animals.
I’m still not sure if I love going to Shanghai, though. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on getting around the city, I’m just not particularly fond of the crowds and being accosted by so many locals to buy crap or practice English. More university students confront me in Shanghai than they do in Changzhou, and, taking others’ advice in mind, you can never be sure if these people only want to learn English from you or want to learn English and siphon your money.
On the subject of money, I’ve discovered two knock-off markets (one near the Science & Technology Museum and one on West Nanjing Road) that can be fun in small doses. Well, they’re fun if the vendors have what you’re looking for. The trouble I ran into last weekend was as irritating as it was baffling. I was on the lookout for an Xbox controller, but whenever I would ask a vendor if they had one, it turned into a huge fight.
“Do you have an Xbox controller?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Okay… where is it?”
“Give me a price.”
“Can’t I see the controller first?”
“No, you say how much you want.”
“Are you sure you have a controller?”
“Yes, I have.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“…”
“I want to see the controller.”
“No.”
“Then we’re done here.”
Why were they so secretive about the Xbox controller, when PS2 and Wii controllers were prominently displayed? Sometimes it felt like I was trying to buy marijuana. A few vendors, when asked, would run out of the store, then come back and say, “Yes, I have,” but they still wouldn’t show it to me. It sounded like only one store was selling controllers, and other vendors would have to buy it from them before selling it to me. I picture a smug Chinese guy sitting atop a pile of controllers, pointing his gold-studded scepter at the lower vendors.
The other thing I wanted to see while in Shanghai was the Barbie store. Okay, whatever you’re thinking, stop it. I was more interested in the bar on the top floor than the merchandise below, as the imagery of an overbearingly pink atmosphere and alcoholic drinks is pretty amusing. But though the outside of the store resonated with girlishness, the bar itself was absent of Barbie personality.
Hey, hot stuff, let’s practice English together.
Rafting through Zhanggong Cave in Yixing
I was a little low on things to do for Halloween. Visiting a cave, however, seemed like an appropriate activity. While Yixing is mostly famous for its teapots, there are also three caves in the area. Zhanggong is the least popular of the three, but we chose it, because… uh… why did we choose it, again? Zhanggong Cave is small, and most of the scenery inside is actually man-made. I could tell, because it was falling apart. The cheesy, colored lights don’t help the atmosphere much, either.
The cave is part of a larger park, and though it is the main attraction there (and the most expensive if you pay for everything individually), the other activities are what made the trip fun. They had two rafting “adventures” you could take, an hour-long drift down a narrow canal or a leisurely row in the dark underneath the cave. I’m glad I went, at least to see something besides another pagoda or temple (or DVD), but, overall, the teapots really are the best thing about Yixing.
P.S. The caption contest is closed, and a winner has been selected. Congratulations, Joe!
Nanshan Bamboo Forest in Liyang
National Day may not be the best time to travel to Shanghai or Beijing or Xi’an, but it’s a great opportunity to hit up nearby places of lesser interest. Like Liyang. There’s a bus from Changzhou to Liyang every 15 minutes, so there’s no rush to beat the holiday crowds. And in the forest, most of the tourists headed straight to the cable car, leaving us with a relatively quiet walk up the mountain.
I was here last year for the foreign teachers’ retreat, but I didn’t even make it to the halfway mark before having to head back to catch a bus. I almost had to do that again. The buses to and from the Liyang bus station stop running a little too early, which is the same problem my family and I rant into at Huanglong. We would have had to run through Huanglong to see it all. I did run through the bamboo forest to see it all. I guess the whole point is to come, take a picture, and leave to tell your friends about it.
Hey, guys, I saw some bamboo. Neener, neener, neener.
Yinqixing, Shanghai’s Indoor Skiing Dump
Avid snowboarders (and skiers, though I choose to recognize those wimps in parentheses) probably shouldn’t expect a lot from an indoor skiing area. In the case of Shanghai’s Yinqixing, it’s one short hill divided into three levels of difficulty that can be ridden top-to-bottom in 20 seconds. Watching the Chinese patrons, however, it was clear most of them had never gone skiing before and were just enjoying the thrill of “speeding” across snow and wiping out halfway down. But if they knew any better, they would know they were getting ripped off.
I was fully aware I wouldn’t be getting the full mountain and trees experience and was planning to have fun, anyway, but things started off on a sour note when we arrived and saw that the prices had been raised 40 yuan. Wait a minute! I had checked the website in the morning before heading out, and it said nothing about a National Day surcharge. That extra money was only there to take advantage of us, too, because the park wasn’t even fully-operational during this important week.
The cashier confided in us that the snow wasn’t very good, and the third (advanced) part of the hill was closed. This was what we came to Shanghai to do, though, so we bit the bullet and paid for an hour (138 yuan). The cashier was right; the snow was horribly slushy and shallow. The beginner’s part of the hill wasn’t steep at all, and the lifts to take you up were broken. The park didn’t get them running again until we’d already been there for 30 minutes (and after they started running, they kept shutting down every few minutes), meaning we spent most of the time lugging our skis up the hill. Man, I was so pissed off.
On Yinqixing’s behalf, they did warn us about some of these setbacks, but the broken lift pushed me over the edge. I don’t care if it is a major holiday, you simply cannot charge people extra when the equipment’s not working (and don’t get me started on the missing third tier, either). This is so typical of China. They’ll start construction on a tourist attraction, cover up significant parts of it, and still ask for the same (or even a higher) price. It’s unacceptable, and I let Yinqixing know that.
At first, the cashier didn’t care about our complaints and thought our request for a refund was ridiculous. “I told you about the snow,” she said. “It’s a national holiday. The lifts were working. The website doesn’t lie. Nobody else ever complains.” Then she called the manager and, thinking we couldn’t understand Chinese, vented her frustrations to him. I don’t think she even relayed the complete reason why we wanted our money back, but the manager, after three calls, finally agreed to refund 30 yuan each. Better, but I still wasn’t pleased with the park’s overall performance and vowed never to come skiing here again. I advise you to do the same.
Dinosaur Park in Changzhou
My National Day vacation started a little earlier than the rest of Changzhou, so I took advantage of the free day and hit up Dinosaur Park before the holiday rush took over. You don’t want to go to Dinosaur Park on a busy day; the lines for all the rides are almost two hours long. You don’t want to go when the tickets are half price (60 yuan), either, because this means the park is only half open. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Now that I got a dose of the full experience, I have a much better appreciation for the dino-themed amusement park. Sadly, I can’t get the damn theme music out of my head. If the rides themselves don’t make you queasy, the obnoxious, repetitive music that never stops looping will test your endurance. I had an upset stomach the whole day, too, since I was stupid enough to ride the swinging pendulum twice in a row. It was fun the first time, but a second go was a big mistake. Amusingly, the park expects this kind of behavior:
For those interested in seeing Dinosaur Park, there are a few big rides that cater towards the older, harder-stomached crowds. While you wait for your insides to stop jiggling, you can also check out a mock tropical rain forest, a museum, or a couple of theatrical shows featuring underpaid employees dressed like goofy animals. Don’t read this as a glowing advertisement, though. I realize it’s not as good as the amusement parks back in the US, but when you’ve been stuck in Jiangsu province for 15 months, you have to reassess your standards.
Top Five Favorite Attractions in China
I need to rectify the bitterness from my previous tourism rant with something a little more positive. Granted, I may be jumping the gun on this post, but the majority of my traveling is over. I don’t think I’ll be seeing any other big attractions in the next four months. As you read through these (or skip straight to the bottom), keep in mind that my picks are based on favorable weather conditions, crowds, and timeliness. The Li River, for instance, probably would have ranked higher (or at all) if it had come at the beginning of my summer vacation instead of the end.
5. Lingshan Buddha in Wuxi
Despite everything else I’ve recently seen, one of my favorite sightseeing moments is still the Lingshan Buddha in nearby Wuxi. Maybe I’m a little biased, because it was the first trip I went on alone, but it really is a nice park. And the closer you get to the 88-meter high Buddha, the more impressive it becomes, until you’re standing right next to its big, bronze toe.
4. Great Wall of China
In 2005, I hadn’t yet seen a lot of great places in China and was beginning to lose faith in the tourism scene. Then I went to the Great Wall, and it actually exceeded my expectations and restored my love for the country. Even after going a third time this last summer, I still highly recommend it and still believe it deserves its place as the most iconic attraction of China.
3. Yellow Mountains (Huangshan)
I had tried twice before to go to Huangshan and got rained out both times. When I finally did go in 2006, it was an overcast day. The clouds obstructed every great view and didn’t allow any of my pictures to turn out, but I still enjoyed it more than the Great Wall. Natural scenery simply appeals to me more. Huangshan is such an interesting area, too, looking like an enormous pile of leftovers from other mountains.
2. Ice and Snow World in Harbin
Every time I see pictures of Harbin, I have a hard time believing I was actually there. The whole city felt like stepping into the ice world of a video game, where shady taxi drivers and slippery sidewalks were the enemies. The snow and ice sculpture venues were particularly surreal, because they’re so different from all the other tourist spots in China. It’s damn cold, but this seasonal festival is well worth the visit.
1. Jiuzhaigou Valley / Huanglong
I have to put Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong together. Otherwise, they’d take up the first and second slots. They’re in the same vicinity, though, so it’s fair. And is this any surprise? I haven’t been able to shut up about them since I got back. Jiuzhaigou is, by far, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I know water like that exists in other parts of the world, but after seeing Jiuzhaigou, I don’t even care.
Yangshuo is a Better Friend than Guilin
When we first started planning our vacation, I was more interested in going to Guilin than anything else, even above Jiuzhaigou (which I was willing to cut out entirely due to time and budget restrictions). Seeing the mountains of Guilin had been at the heart of my travel yearnings since 2006, so it’s about time I finally got to fulfill that dream. Took long enough.
Everyone I knew who had been to Guilin before me said to skip Guilin and go straight to Yangshuo, a much smaller city along the Li River that caters a little too well to Western toilets tourists. After spending thee days in both Guilin and Yangshuo, I now know what they were talking about. Yangshuo has no shortage of beautiful mountains, and all the travel agencies there offer the same tours to nearby hot spots like the Longsheng Rice Terraces.
The appeal of going to Guilin first is to take a cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo, then stay in Yangshuo forever… or until they kick you out for rowdy behavior. This famous river cruise is so convoluted with other tour boats and onboard price-gouging, though, that it’s hard to really appreciate the scenery. My favorite part of Guilin/Yangshuo was actually a raft ride down a different, smaller, quieter river.
There is no shortage of travel agencies, so it’s easy to book any of these attractions on the fly. Why bother making plans ahead of time? Just come and wing it! Somebody is always there to sweep you off the street and offer you a ride to wherever you want to go. Rather annoyingly, too. Even when you tell one of these tour guides that you’ve already booked a tour, they’ll insist they are better and try to show you testimonials from previous travelers.
On our trek up to Moon Hill (pictured above), a couple of vendors tried to tag along. I already knew their scheme: as soon as we reached the top, they’d demand compensation for their phony friendship. Seen it before. So my family and I sat down and waited… and waited… and told them to go away… and waited… and waited… Finally, we stood and bolted past them. Instead of chasing after us, they hollered, “Go away! Go away!” They had the right idea all along.
Pandas and Buddhas in Chengdu
Of all the places we visited in China, we spent the least amount of time in Chengdu. The city was mostly included on our itinerary to act as a transfer point between Jiuzhaigou and Guilin. Chengdu is famous for pandas, though. That’s got to be worth something, right? There was originally a nature reserve in the city, but after the Sichuan earthquake, all the pandas were moved to an underwater station, where they are now guarded by sharks with rifles. Fortunately, Chengdu’s second major pandattraction, the Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, is still intact.
Alas, summer is not a good time to see pandas. In the event of rain or extreme temperatures, the pandas are kept inside, and all the visitors crowd around their small cages, trying to get a picture. The park would have been a letdown had we not discovered two “panda houses” away from all the other nurseries. It seemed like nobody else knew these houses existed, because they were void of tourists yet offered a fantastic, up-close view of a pair of pandas.
Another overlooked treasure at the park were the red pandas. Hey, guess what? Apparently there’s an animal called a red panda! I had no idea they existed. I’m going to go out on a limb, though, and say they’re cuter than regular pandas. Red pandas are now my dream pet. But they don’t get the same special treatment as their black-and-white counterparts; they’ve been relegated to only two nurseries and have no house to retreat to when the weather’s too hot (which is pretty much every day in China in the summer).
The other attraction I wanted to see in Chengdu was the Leshan Giant Buddha, which is in Leshan, not Chengdu, but… oh, shut up. Pictures I had seen of the 71-meter tall Buddha were very inconsistent, since the sight undergoes regular restoration. The old, weathered, plant-covered Buddha I was hoping to see looked a little too clean to be over 1,000 years old. It’s still an impressive structure and, had the weather been milder and the crowds thinner, I probably would have enjoyed it more.
I guess summer isn’t a good time to see Buddhas, either.
Loading ...
