Blue skies...gray skies

We are back in Tianjin (or as we affectionately call it TJ) after a long weekend of traveling in southern China. As it is after most vacations, it was difficult to come back to work at the CDC today. It is half way through Tuesday afternoon and I’m counting the hours until I can go back to the apartment and take a nap.

To travel throughout the country, many people travel by train. It is very convenient and most are very nice, not to mention rather inexpensive. For our weekend trips to Beijing, we always travel by train. It is much faster and a much more pleasant than a car ride. Hands down. Much better. Plus the tickets are about 6 USD. Considering that gas in the states is over 4 USD, I think that is a pretty good price to travel 120 km. However, there are some small catches to taking trains here. Tickets must be purchased at the train station and are only available 10 days before the departure date. So you cannot really plan too far in advance. I have also heard that the lines to purchase tickets can be quite long, taking hours to purchase tickets. We have been lucky and not experienced this, even when we traveled to Beijing over Dragon Boat Festival weekend the lines we not too bad. You just need to watch for people who try to sneak in front you, especially in front of foreigners who obviously do not speak the language. We have perfected the box-out method of waiting in line. :) We had some help from our CDC co-workers to look for train tickets to Shanghai, which is about 1000 km south of TJ. It is an overnight train, leaving around 8pm and arriving in Shanghai the following morning. There are different types of tickets available as well, seat or sleeper, hard or soft, all with varying prices that increase based on comfort basically. However, because our co-workers are so great and treat us wonderfully, they also researched airfare for us as well. It turned out that flying would be cheaper than a soft sleeper (the most expensive) on the train. So we decided to just fly, which for us would be more convenient and give us more time in Shanghai. We booked our flight through a travel agent about 1 week before we left and tickets were about $150. Not bad. Airfare for me to get home to South Dakota from Detroit is usually three times that, booked over 2 months in advance. In comparison, this was quite the deal.

Despite the record-breaking heat wave in Shanghai over the weekend, we had a great time. There were blue skies and sunny days. These have been very few and far between in TJ lately. And by lately, I mean the last month and a half. I thought AA was bad in the winter, gray all the time and very dreary. I can’t decide which city is worse. So even with the extreme heat, it was great to see blue. We took strolls along the Bund, which I think is the name for the area around the Huang River, but I’m not really sure. I’m still a bit confused about what the Bund is exactly. The city skyline is quite amazing. It is a sight to behold at night. The buildings are beautiful. The lights go out at 10pm, so you need to be out before then to get the full effect.

We spent the 4th of July sightseeing around Shanghai. We visited the Pearl TV Tower, a landmark building on the Huang Riverfront. A very cool building with amazing views of the city. Since we had rather clear skies, visibility was really good. Skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. The buildings are very architecturally interesting as well, very beautiful. There were some other fun attractions inside the Pearl as well, rollercoaster simulations, a real rollercoaster, and a space museum. On Friday night, we took a boat ride on the river. Very cool. No fireworks, but it was a fun way to spend the 4th.

There are many famous, beautiful cities in very near Shanghai, such as Suzhou, Nanjing, and, our personal favorite, Hangzhou. The one English speaking TV channel here features countless commercials for the city of Hangzhou. The advertisements certain caught our attention. So when we discovered it was only a short train ride from Shanghai, we put a visit to this city on our itinerary. So on Saturday, we (meaning mostly Keith and Jeff) navigated the Shanghai metro to get to the train station to go to discover the mystery of China (that’s what the slogan is anyway. Hangzhou – discover the mystery of China. Very catchy). After a delightful hour and a half train ride, we wondered what mysteries to uncover first. We began our adventures by walking along West Lake, which was very near our Ramada Hotel. (Yay for American hotels with American-style breakfasts!) We thought the weather in Shanghai was great, but it was nothing compared to Hangzhou. Clear blue skies with light clouds and we could even see the moon at night! It was wicked hot as well. But the heat is more tolerable when you can see a lake with mountains surrounding it. Much more pleasant than only seeing buildings and other city-sights all the time. I have grown weary of the city sprawl and I miss the wide open spaces of South Dakota and Wyoming and the trees of Ann Arbor. I never thought I would miss the boring landscapes of I-29 or I-90 so much. :) We also visited several historical temples in Hangzhou, Lei Feng Temple (it was destroyed and then rebuilt in 2002 so it has many modern amenities that seem out of place at an ancient temple), and the Lingyin Temple.

For me, the undoubted highlight of the entire trip was the blue sky, sunshine, and the scenery. Today it is very gray in TJ. The usual smoggy gray sky is mixed with dreary rain. Never a good combination. Knowing this is what was waiting for us back in TJ made us even more reluctant to come back. Like I mentioned earlier, it is always difficult to revert back to real life after a fun vacation. This one was rough. I really enjoy traveling around China. I know I have said this before as well…but we have managed quite well with our extremely limited language skills. Basically, we have none. But we have communicated with people rather easily. We have found that usually there is at least one person who can speak a bit of English. And there is the universal language…pantomime. :) In many situations, it works surprisingly well. I only have three more weeks here in China, so I don’t have many more opportunities to visit other cities and historical sites here. I’m already planning my next visit to this great country. There is so much more that I'd like to see.