This week we have said our goodbyes to friends and places in Suzhou and started on our grand adventure across China. For the next 2ish months we will be living out of backpacks (that weigh almost as much as us) and soaking up as much of China as time - and money - will allow.
For the next week and a half, we are winding our way down to Guangzhou to meet friends and then spending July travelling up to Beijing via what we've (rather arbitrarily) decided are China's highlights. Once we hit Guangzhou our plans become a little hazy, but until then Jenny and I have a plan! Presented in the least elegant way our plan is:
Shanghai - Hangzhou - Xiamen & Guang Yu - Fujian Tulou - Guangzhou.
Look it up on a map, it's not a bad start to an adventure at all!
But for now our journey starts in China's most metropolitan city, Shanghai. This was a gentle easing into our journey; we'd been to Shanghai before and sort of had a feel for the city, but don't think that meant things ran entirely smoothly! Wednesday morning we left Suzhou with our lives bundled up on our backs, slightly scared by the sheer weight we were carrying. The thought of carrying this weight around for the next few months was not an entirely pleasant one and our immediate priority was to secure a seat on the metro on our way to Suzhou rail station. Once on our train zooming towards Shanghai at 300mph, with our bags safely and thankfully stored away off our backs, the excitment really set in. We were on our way! Finally after months of waiting and weeks of planning it was all happening.
Our hostel was a mix of good and bad, fantastically located, ridiculously hot but it served its purpose as a base for the few days. We spent the first afternoon settling ourselves and getting a cheap and cheerful dinner of niurou mian (beef noodles in broth, a China staple) before heading out to tick off the first big thing on our list, cocktails high above the Shanghai skyline.
We opted to fufil this wish at Cloud 9, a bar on the 84th floor of one of Shanghai's towering skyscrapers. The views as dusk turned into night were beautiful and there really is no better way to enjoy a sky-high priced cocktail than in a sky high bar. We'd done the obligatory walk along the Bund when we came before, this was an entirely different perspective!
The next day we decided to see what Shanghai's temples had to offer so spent the day wandering around a temple strewn area of the city and picking up the worst map ever in the process. This map led us astray many times over the two days we were in Shanghai but we made it to the Jade Buddha Temple in spite of, not because of, it.
After getting our fill of spirituality for the day we went to soak up the culture of the Shanghai Museum. I really enjoyed the museum, especially the terrifying ceremonial and opera masks and the sculpture of what looked like a garden gnome riding a camel (both beautifully pictured below).
That evening we went to tick off the second big thing on our to-do list, the toilet restaurant. I will admit it isn't the most cultured or mature stop on our agenda but it sure was fun! 'More Than Toilet' is essentially a toilet themed restaurant.
You sit on toilets, glass table tops cover a sink complete with a plastic turd, and food and drinks are served in a variety of toilet themed dishes. Unsurprisingly, a large proportion of the conversation that evening was toilet themed but the food was pretty good and the highlight was without doubt the soft-serve chocolate icecream turd served in a squat toilet. In equal parts gruesome and very tasty!
Our third and final day we tested our haggling skills at the fakes market before hauling our bags on again and heading back to a train station to catch the train to out next destination, Hangzhou. We had been told that, because trains were so frequent from Shanghai to Hangzhou, there was no need to book a train in advance. Big mistake. When we arrived at the train station, looking to get a train at 5ish, we were told that the only train we could get was at 7:30pm and that there were only first class tickets available. Luckily the journey isn't too long so the first class ticket wasn't too expensive but, even though sitting in first class as I write I think its rather nice to travel in style, I don't think our budget can withstand the price for future journeys!
Shanghai was a fun few days bug now I'm ready to move on to something new, to see and experience a city we've never been to before. Hangzhou awaits!
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