Tuesday, 29 September 2009

We're back from our excursion to Putuo Shan.

We had a great time, despite some challenges. We had an early call to the meeting point to catch the bus to the bus to the ferry (6:30 am), but there were mostly students in the group, and that age group can be a bit vague about time. We didn't depart on the first bus until after 7:00 am, and by that time Shanghai traffic is really beastly. Our tour guides manically cell phoned away and eliminated one of the buses (only "mostly necessary" not "absolutely necessary" — actually just a weird labor relations thing we never quite fully comprehended), but we still were over 30 minutes late catching our 9:30 ferry. But, no matter, they held the ferry for us (we were a large group, more than 70, and there is some power in numbers). The hotel was another challenge. For what was supposed to be a two star hotel, this one has quite a lot of ground to make up. The housekeeping staff begin their rounds at 6:00 am with gusto. This involves much loud screeching and bellowing up and down the long corridors, making sleeping-in an impossibility. Our room was right next to whatever medieval mechanism supplies the rooms with hot water, and that beast made the most indescribable noises while it was at work, intruding even further on our sleep time.

But just have a look at the pictures I took! (Here, here, and here.) The scenery was spectacular, the buddhist temples were fascinating, and it was great to get out of Shanghai for a weekend island getaway.

Having just got back, we are about to leave again.

All of China is set to go through a positive paroxysm of public patriotic psychosis this Thursday. Something called "National Day" is annually used by most Chinese as an excuse to take a week off from work. This year, National Day isn't just any old National Day, though. It is the 60^th anniversary of the 1949 revolution. Cities like Beijing and our Shanghai will become virtually edematous with a huge influx of visitors. Miles has eight days off (October 1 - 8) so we're clearing out, and heading about as far west away from the madness as we can. (We can always watch the parades on TV.)

We wanted to go to Tibet, but the authorities have closed the border, so we simply can't get there. As next best alternative, we're going to visit some provinces of western China that have Tibetan people and culture. Our itinerary involves visits to Tibetan monasteries (Labrang and Langmusi), an old garrison town (Songpan), and lots of natural sites (Tarzang Lake, Ganjia Grasslands, and Jiuzhaigou National Park). It is also involves some flights on some local Chinese airlines, so keep fingers crossed for us!

To close, here's another of those really special English signs:

I couldn't find the word "speel" in any online dictionary. I think most people ignored the English version of the warning. I certainly didn't see a lot of obviously falling people, however careful they might have been to do so.