From Chongqing to Beijing

Last time, we heard that our hero had arrived in Chongqing and our readers were left on the edge of their seats whilst he checked into a hotel. Let's see how the drama is unfolding...

Hello!

I'm in Beijing now after going to Shanghai, Beijing, North Korea and back to Beijing again (just arrived this morning). I'm falling further and further behind in updating my blog but I have a few spare hours now so can catch up on the housekeeping.

After the dodgy hostel in Yichang and the boat trip I decided that I needed a bit of luxury so I pushed the boat out and checked into a more expensive hotel than usual and had a ridiculously extravagant shower and a well deserved lie in. The next day I went out to see Chongqing and was surprised by just how big the place is. I'd never really heard of it before but it has a population of around 3 million people (or 15 million people if you believe this site http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Population/population-cities.html - Chongqing is a bit of an anomaly in China so different people measure the population in different ways). I heard a statistic the other day that the UK has 5 cities with over 1 million people and China has 94 cities with over 1 million people.

Anyway, it was a nice place to chill out for a bit and while I was still pretty much the only western person there (apart from an old, seriously lost looking European couple) I didn't seem to attract quite as much attention as I had in some of the other places I'd been to so it was a bit more relaxing. Because I was pampering myself for the day I went to Pizza Hut for the first time on this trip and stuffed my face with pizza and ice cream. It was great!

I rolled out of the restaurant and went to book my plane ticket to Shanghai. I was going to go to Xi'an but decided that I'd go to Shanghai and try to sort out my Russian visa at the embassy there and then head up to Beijing for my North Korea trip. I managed to get a flight the next morning at 7:30am so I did some of the sights of Chongqing, one of which included a cable car ride across the Yangzi river - although the pollution was so bad that you couldn't make much out and then I had an early night so that I could get a taxi early in the morning. I wasn't sure if there would be any around but I could worry about that later.

Just as I was going off to sleep the phone in my room rang and a strange Chinese woman was on the line. I'd heard about this before and assumed it was a prostitute offering her services so I just unplugged the phone and tried to get to sleep. Then the phone in the toilet rang so I had to get up to unplug that as well - I double locked the door too just in case she burst in and forced herself upon me as most women tend to do when they see me.

My alarm went off at 5am and I went downstairs to check out and try and find a taxi. There was no one at reception but the security guard went off and came back with a woman in a hotel outfit with her pajamas protruding from underneath her suit so I guess I must have got her out of bed. She didn't seem too pleased but I was lucky enough to not really care less.

As it happens, I got a taxi really easily but as we got to the airport I could see that the lights were off and there was no one around except for one or two people hanging around outside. For a moment I thought that he'd brought me to the wrong airport and I wondered whether to even get out of the taxi but I guessed that the airport was just shut so I got out and waited. Eventually the doors opened so we piled in but it was quite strange sitting around while the airport woke up around us with lights flickering on and departure boards coming to life.

The flight was pretty uneventful and I got into Shanghai easily but a combination of a woefully inadequate Lonely Planet map and my stupidity meant that I wandered around Shanghai for 45 minutes until I managed to find somewhere to stay. In the end I was quite lucky since I got a reasonably cheap dorm room which was empty for all but one of the nights of my stay and it had a TV with Star Movies that was showing a James Bond movie marathon type thing each evening so I could catch a movie before I went to sleep.

Shanghai seemed pretty cool. I expected it to be like Hong Kong but it wasn't quite as manic and was a lot more spacious. My hostel wasn't far from the main shopping/tourist street that led down to the 'Bund' that consisted of a load of colonial buildings built on the waterfront in the 20s and 30s and in a variety of styles from Europe and America. Then over the other side of the water is the typical Shanghai skyline that has only really appeared in the last ten or fifteen years. As I got the bus from the airport to the town I was amazed at just how many skyscrapers there were and I wasn't surprised to hear that Shanghai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Walking down the main tourist street was quite nice because it was pedestrianised but it was a bit of a pain because every couple of minutes a tout would come up trying to sell you either DVD's, a watch bag or a suit. It was funny for about 10 seconds and then it started to get annoying so I put on my "I'm really grumpy" face which usually works well in the UK. It didn't work so well in Shanghai so I was forced to deliver the odd flying kick to the sternum to ward them off. I found this a bit tiring though so I just ignored them and they ended up getting bored and leaving me alone. In the evening though, the things on offer changed from watches and DVD's to massages, women and sex. For some reason this totally wound me up and I was a getting a bit angry and curt with them so I started to avoid this street at night.

There were loads of tourists in Shanghai and it was quite a change from the last week. If I'm honest I sort of missed the minor-celebrity status I had in the other places but on the other hand it made Shanghai a nice and easy place to spend a few days so I visited a couple of museums and went to the Oriental Pearl tower (essentially a big tower that defines the Shanghai skyline) as well as going to the Shanghai Library to use the internet and look at some UK newspapers. I'm now an official member of the Shanghai Library! There was a restaurant across the road the library called the Brasil Steak House that did a great buffet lunch consisting of giant slabs of various types of meat and potatoes. It was heaven and I was so full up when I left that I didn't need to get any dinner that evening.

After speaking with Cath and the hassle it was going to be to sort out a Russian Visa for the two of us (the bureaucracy in Russia is crippling- especially if you're trying to sort it out from China) we decided that I'd get a firm in Beijing to sort out the Trans-Siberian for me and we would meet in Poland instead. I didn't have much else left to do in Shanghai so I booked my train to Beijing (which involved a lot of pushing and shoving and elbows in the ribs at the train station - it was quite the mass of humanity) and I also booked my flight to Nepal as well since I've got a trek booked there on the 27th April.

One thing that I should mention about Shanghai is the traffic. Quite frankly I've never seen such a shambles (and I've been to Rome) and crossing the road was quite the adventure as well. Traffic lights appeared to be there for decoration and it didn't seem to be too clear what side of the road you were meant to drive on. Pavements were frequently just as dangerous as cycles and scooters came tearing down next to you with inches to spare and you were often accompanied across a zebra crossing with motorbikes and carts. It was incredible and even more incredible was that I never saw any accidents. At one point, on a road where scooters and bikes had been banned there was a traffic jam on the pavement. They were just sitting there blasting their horns at each other and not moving and I couldn't get past, so I climbed over a few bikes and scooters - scraping them with my rucksack as I went. I didn't look back and for all I know they're still there.

The only other noteworthy thing that will stick in the mind about Shanghai was the man sitting at the side of a very busy road having a dump on the pavement. I would have enjoyed kicking him in the face as he squatted but I was too stunned and walked away not quite believing my eyes.

After that it was on to Beijing on a very plush overnight train. I only had two nights there before I headed off to North Korea and most of it was spent getting some shopping for the trip, sorting out currency, getting my camera fixed after it had developed a fault and generally getting myself organised.

I'd love to write about North Korea here but I've only just got back this morning and haven't quite managed to get my head around the place. It's a crazy place, that's for sure but I was surprised to find lots of very happy people and parts of the city to be really really pretty. It'll take me a while to write about everything I saw there so I'll save that for another day.

Until then - all the best!

Gregor