Shanghai - again!

Shanghai and Sheffield High became much better acquainted today as we whizzed back and forth around this impressive city.

The sunny morning began with a stroll along the Bund to view the former colonial past and the heritage which gave forth Shanghai's origins as a centre of world trade and commerce.

From the Bund we crossed the river to Pudong (East Bank) and the modern commercial district to ascend the Jin Mao tower and a enjoy majestic 360 degree view from the observation deck on the 88th floor. The view back down through the hollow centre to the atrium below was rather more unnerving!

Back across the river, we went back to the past in the Yu gardens to enjoy a little peace and tranquility in this classical Chinese garden ... well it would have been had it not been thronged by so many tourists. (There was a cruise ship in town to swell the number of visitors). From one extreme to the other as we then joined the heaving hordes to test our bartering skills in the Bazaar.

Lunch replenished our energy reserves before we took a relaxing river cruise to enjoy both banks from an entirely different perspective. Our cultural appetites were then briefly sated as we took in some traditional Chinese art at Shanghai Museum. Having practised our bartering in the morning, it was off to the hustle and bustle of an indoor market on the Nanjing Road to finish our need to boost the Chinese economy.

After a final Chinese banquet, we were treated to an ever-changing light show as we returned to our hotel amidst the Shanghai neon.

A physicist out of his depth!

Having travelled from Beijing to Shanghai, I was particularly struck by the contrasts between these two vast cities, so in the spirit of the trip I was inspired to attempt a piece of poetry, however - 

I'm sure you know it,

But I'm no poet.

Contrasts

Blurred to bright

Grey to green

Shabby to chic

Shoddy to shiny

Urban to urbane

Stifling to stimulating

Squatting to sitting

Monochrome to multicoloured

Enervating to energising

Austere to ostentatious

Rectilinear to curvilinear

Dry and dusty to vibrant and vivacious

Beige Beijing to Shimmering Shanghai

(I. Guest)

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Thursday

Yesterday, after we had got off the night train and had breakfast at our hotel in Xian in which we would be spending the night, we took our coach to a local art museum full of wonderful paintings and shadow puppets etc. There we were shown round and told about a few of the paintings.

Then came, for me, challenging part. We were taught how to draw some Chinese ideogram characters, including the ones for the UK and China. It was tricky at first, but most of us got the hang of it towards the end of the session. Afterwards a few of us bought paintings done by art students.

We then took the coach to the Terracotta Warrior site. We parked our coach and took a buggy ride to the main site. First, we went into a 360 degree cinema to watch a 15 minute film about the creation and the discovery of the warriors.

We were then led to the biggest of the pits filled with lined up warriors. When they were first excavated they were in many pieces and still reconstruction is continuing today, many years later.

We then proceeded to have lunch.

Next, we went to a buddist temple. Inside the complex there was a large rectanglar tower with 8 floor which was used as a library for many scriptures although now, the building is empty so we didn't climb it. We also had around half an hour's free time to wander and explore the temple for ourselves. Some of my friends, Jess, Vicky, Yfke, and myself went and walked around the beautiful gardens.

We then went back to the hotel for about an hour to freshen up before tea. After tea, we then went out to the hussle and haggle of the night market. We were, again, given some time to wander about as we pleased.

We had a wonderful day and we were all exhausted.

Eleanor S.

Shanghai

We were welcomed to Shanghai by the monks at the Temple of the Jade Buddha, where we were refreshed and cleansed by a tea ceremony.

I am however resisting the temptation to paraphrase one of the notices in the Temple and claim the tea had been passed by the Buddha ... 

Late Thursday

All back safely from the night street market. Ten at night & we're out in t-shirts!

Thursday

A long but interesting day started as usual with the widely varied breakfast options we've enjoyed all week. In addition to the typically western options of cereals, fruit, juices (the Hawthorn was particularly pleasant), breads, eggs, meats, as one might expect, there were of course oriental options, so rice quite naturally, dumplings, salads, veg., soup and sundry other interesting offerings. Definitely something for everyone.

Temple of Heaven - Angels?

Our day's activities began at the Temple of Heaven, a vast parkland and temple complex formerly the dominant place of worship for the Emperors. Spectacular and impressive though in different ways from a European cathedral, but no longer still in use as a place of prayer. However it wasn't the structures which left a lasting impression, but the use as a social space to which the surrounding park had been put. The elderly and retired, but far from infirm came to meet, play cards or chess (or keepy-uppy!), do Tai Chi or stretching, dance or exercise on the thoughtfully provided apparatus. A palpable sense of community surrounded the whole area.

Then a quick visit to see how freshwater pearls are cultivates before a splendid buffet lunch - the sweet dishes proving particularly popular. After lunch we visited the Houtong district to sample a little flavour of how 'old' Beijing was prior to the redevelopments ... and to get there, a short rickshaw ride (or rather the 21st century equivalent; a trikeshaw)

By the time we reached the Summer Palace, the temperature had risen, a breeze had stirred and the smog had lifted to allow us to enjoy the Emperor's summer retreat at its best. The lake and location were stunning, though it was somewhat tricky separating the modern from the original. Given that it had been sacked many times by various interlopers, what we saw would have been unlikely to have been there from the outset.

With luggage already aboard the coach it was off to the station to catch our sleeper train to Xian. To conjure a mental image, think Euston station at 5pm; it was heaving, but with Jun Li our guide for a short while longer, all went smoothly, we boarded the train , sorted our cabins and departed on time.

Wednesday

Well, we've awoken to a grey day today; our first with no sun.

Walking the Wall

Walking up the Great Wall of China was such an experience and one which I will remember for ever.

The beginning of the Wall had a gift shop where Lucy, Olivia and I purchased a lock with our names engraved on the back. We locked it on to the handrail of the Wall and hopefully, it will remain there for a long time showing people from all around the world that we have been and experienced one of the seven wonders of the world.

India Yardley 10X 

After Dinner

After dinner, the more adventurous of the party ventured to watch some traditional Beijing opera scenes. The outfits were elaborate and intricate, the face-painted masks, bright and bold.

Overall, the experience was enlightening, especially the opera-styled music and oriental instruments, strange to hear for those from the western world. 

Tuesday 26 March

Today we rose early.

Of course, despite our lovely tour guide - Johnny's - enthusiasm, most of us we not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after a late night at the Martial Arts Theatre.  This led to a slightly late departure to our intended destination of the Great Wall of China.

We stopped at a jade factory en route, where we saw the processes involved in carving jade. A majority of us were taken in by the exquisite sculptures and beautiful jewellery available in the shop, but one or two of us had to remind ourselves that there are other places and other things that we may wish to purchase, to stop ourselves from spending all our Yuan.

Once we peeled ourselves away from the factory, we continued to the Great Wall. The minute we set foot off the coach, we were a hit with the Chinese tourists, who started conversations with many of us. We then embarked on our hike up the wall.

Many of us wanted to reach the top, but once we started climbing it, we changed our minds, and walked as far as we could manage.

All the hard work was worth it in the end, as the views were spectacular, giving us ample photo opportunities.

After the Wall, we had lunch in a restaurant above a Cloisonné factory (cloisonné is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects - Ed) which presented another shopping opportunity for the shoppers in the group to buy the products available, avoiding the 7ft tall vases.

The Ming Tombs were next on the agenda, which was relaxing and educational, despite the fact that it required yet more walking.  The visit was also amusing due to an incident with a cleaner talking Johnny's water bottle without asking, pouring out the contents and throwing it away. As you can imagine, Johnny was not impressed.

We rounded off the eventful day with a long drive back to Beijing city centre, and dinner in a restaurant where we contemplated the thoughts of a goldfish and cleared two plates of egg fried rice per table.

On arrival back at the hotel, we said goodnight to Johnny and Dong the bus driver using our new linguistic talents in Chinese, and made a start with 'packing' our suitcases in preparation for the overnight train to Xian.

Siobhan Francis.

A Poem!

Inspired by the falling snowflakes which ushered our departure -

The dancer

I dance on and on,

Swerving and cartwheeling blindly,

I dance on and on,

Only gravity binds me,

I dance on and on,

Leaping and jumping wildly,

I dance on and on,

Yet all the while I am falling, ever so slightly.

I dance on and on,

Though faster I fall,

I dance on and on,

To the ground I am called,

I dance on and on,

Though fate is approaching,

To the white arms of death I am bound.

I dance on and on,

And ecstasy fills me,

I dance on and on,

And sadness near kills me,

I dance on and on;

Fear it chills me,

I dance on and on;

To the end I am come.

I dance on and on,

Though I know what this dance brings me,

The first dance and the last dance,

Though I live for all eternity,

Reborn and reborn again until memory fails me.

For this is the dance of the snowflake,

Both beautiful and terrible,

Rich in both joy and grief,

For the ground I am destined,

And my hopes melt with the heat of the sun.

Yvke vdH

The Wall was indeed 'Great', but didn't defeat all

Conquering our fear of heights on the Great Wall of China... hundreds of steps up, hundreds more to go!

Victoria

A Quick Photo from Ming's Tombs

No Facebook in China

Just to mention to those of us at this end that Facebook is banned in China, so Facebook users cannot message one another between here and there.

The school email system is working happily between the two places, so that is another way to keep in touch.

Message from Freya - 

Thanks Mum! It's really great to hear from you. This is going to appear on the blog so I won't say much, other than I love you and miss you and I speak for all of us when I say its a great trip!!!

I'll talk to you soon.

Freya xxx 

A Full Day!

And what a full day it was! We eased in gently with a sleep in till our 7.00am  wake up call and a leisurely breakfast, but after that it was non-stop.

A short coach journey deposited us in Tiananmen Square, the scale of which is hard to appreciate without experiencing it. Chairman Mau's mausoleum is just one of many stately buildings co-located with the square, but they were all much more modern than our next target, the Forbidden City. Perhaps a contradiction in terms, since we were actually welcomed in, through the gate formerly reserved for the royal family in fact ... or perhaps they just recognised our class?

The scale of the city (formerly the Imperial Palace) is once more hard to believe until you begin to travel through it. At almost a kilometre long and half a kilometre wide, it boasted a retinue of 40 000 and reputedly contained over 9000 rooms. It was in the City that we spotted a sign to the 'Hall of the Supreme Principle' and briefly wondered whether it would make a good present for Mrs Dunsford (spelling notwithstanding).

After a banquet lunch, it was on to the Llama Temple to see a rather grand location given over to Buddhism. Previously a minor (?!) royal palace, it was hard not to see parallels with the Forbidden City and though it's more recent use may be more spiritual, it was another location rich in symbolism. Sticking with that theme, we then experienced a tea ceremony, though tasted only a few of the many thousand varieties of Chinese tea, including one with no tea in at all!

Our appetites whetted, we then enjoyed a Peking Duck dinner - "similar, but not the same as crispy aromatic duck like at home" was the opinion.

Finally our evening concluded with a Kung Fu show; a dramatic retelling of a classic story ... which fused together storytelling, dance, martial arts and gymnastics. Quite a show to end quite a day.

The Forbidden City - Monday 25 March

We're about to enter The Forbidden City - I hope we don't do anything that's not allowed!

Call that snow?! Pah!

Arranging to set off earlier proved to be a smart move and despite the severe blizzards, 18 + 2 hardy souls assembled and departed Pond Hill pretty much on time. Our drivers then did a masterful job of negotiating the M1 and associated routes to get us to Heathrow in plenty of time for our flight.

Off we were whisked into the leaden skies bound for China,  where a mostly sleepless 10 hours later we landed. The enormous airport at Beijing seemed almost as a ghost town and once our luggage was successfully recovered, we met our guide and driver for our stay.

Following a banquet lunch at (what for us was five in the morning) we made the short trip to the Olympic complex. Such amazing architecture bathed in the sharp spring sun made for quite a sight, with the "Bird's Nest" meriting special attention. Sad to see so little of it in use and apparently,  now only on rare occasions.

Back to the hotel for a much needed freshen up and maybe a quick nap for some, prior to our evening meal. Which is where this quick initial update heralds from ....

These things are sent to try us ...

Well the weather is bent on making our life rather difficult! However where there's a will, there's a way so we've adjusted our departure time and location to hopefully ease the situation.
We're now leaving at 08.00
from near to The Old Queen's Head pub on Pond Hill (behind the bus station and S1 2BG for sat navs) or


View Larger Map

Have a safe journey in the morning and we'll see you shortly before eight ... fingers crossed!

Two days left! Excited? Me? Nah.

Anyone familiar with flash fiction? In China it's known as a 'smoke long' and is a style of writing characterised by its brevity (perhaps you can now work out why the Chinese might call it that?).

The '6 Word Story' takes it to its extreme and is ... well you get the idea. Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway wrote the first 6 Word Story to answer a challenge and win a bet. His attempt was "For sale: baby shoes, never used."

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by ecmp355: http://flickr.com/photos/ecmp355/6350308707/

So just six words must be a doddle surely? Well as always things aren't always necessarily as easy as they seem, especially when you're trying to be as economical as possible, yet make sure you don't lose any meaning. A bit like trying to report the Chancellor's budget in a single tweet!

So my challenge to you is to write a six word story about your preparations for China, or how you feel with two days left, or anything related to our adventure. Post your story in the comments of this post; you can do so anonymously but it would be good if you added your first name at the end of your story.

Now does the title of this post make a little more sense?

Wonder if our creativity will extend this far ...

I suspect we'll mainly be writing in English, but perhaps we ought to be at least aware of the great tradition of creative writing in China?

In the same way that historical periods in Britain are often named from monarchs or bloodlines (Victorian, Tudor), the same can be said of China in the form of its dynasties. You have probably heard of the Ming Dynasty (perhaps from hearing about Ming vases?), but were you aware that the Tang Dynasty was a time famous for another art entirely - poetry.

Here's a short video introducing some of the background to Tang poetry. See if you can see any similarities or differences with poetry from the West:

Don't forget your inhaler!

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by egorgrebnev: http://flickr.com/photos/17664666@N00/6558076321/

Unfortunately Beijing has once more been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Although we're going to enjoy some amazing sites and experiences whilst we're there, we might also have to endure Beijing's notorious pollution. As temporary visitors we shouldn't come to much harm, but if you have any respiratory problems such as asthma, it would be wise to make sure you have your inhaler and an adequate supply of medicine.


Fingers crossed that the weather will be kind to us and keep the pollution levels low.

This time next week ...

Well actually it won't be 'this time' next week because we'll be on on China time! Woohoo!
Just five more school days to get your last minute preparations done.

 cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by jimd2007: http://flickr.com/photos/7738503@N05/493603341/

Packing

A little advice? The place to start isn't with everything you want to take, it's with your suitcase. Assuming you don't have access to 'The Luggage' from the Discworld novels, you might not have much choice, but if you do, then choose one you can easily carry around. Yes it might have wheels on which will help walking longer distances around airports, but checking into hotels and on our overnight train journey, you're going to have to manhandle¹ it, so do please choose wisely. After that, your choice of things to take will be determined by what you can get in and from here on the choice will be personal and I leave it up to you.
You can of course take an item of hand luggage to carry on to the plane and that's where you'll need to make sure you have all you need to make your journey a comfortable one.

Charger

If you're taking any equipment which needs charging (mobile phone, camera etc), don't forget you'll need a suitable adapter. There's more information here, but do think carefully about any devices requiring heat (hair care?); though the voltage in China is close enough to that in the UK for them to work, not all sockets in hotel rooms are suitable.

¹An interesting term. Outdated? Alternatives? Discussed further here.

Casterbridge wish us well ...

"Considering your exciting overseas educational programme is now on the immediate horizon, we wanted to take this opportunity, to wish you all an excellent touring experience, which we sincerely hope goes extremely well, for all your students and accompanying teachers concerned.

On behalf of the company, we would like to wish you and your group an enjoyable visit to China."

(Patrick Sheridan)

Ni hao!

Only ten 'sleeps' left to go so it's time to start your last minute preparations.

It's always common decency to try to remember the most basic phrases in the language of the country you're visiting. How about learning the common courtesies as a start? Please and thank you, hello and goodbye ... after that, it's entirely up to you.

There are lots of places on the Internet where you can see and hear these introductory phrases. Just try searching for 'common mandarin phrases,' or pop across to 'Chinese phrases for travellers.'

Bu yong xie!