Shanghai

The end of the trip – the metropolis of Shanghai. People say it’s like no other Chinese city, and it certainly had a more European feel in many ways – not least the hundreds of coffee shops everywhere – but it is still undeniably China, with electric scooters running amok, nobody standing politely in a queue for anything, and so on.

I did a lot of walking and not many main sights, having decided I’d seen enough temples and pagodas and what-not earlier on. I did do the Shanghai History Museum on arrival day, which was great; well laid-out and interesting, and QUIET, so it was possible to browse the exhibits and read all the information without jostling for space with other people. In the evening of day 1 I caught up with the two girls who had been our key organisers for the Asian Games, one of whom is studying in Shanghai and the other who was down for the weekend, and we ate fried dumplings and saw the lights on the Bund.

Day 2 dawned beautifully sunny and bright, so I took advantage of the weather to go up the Shanghai Tower. It’s China’s tallest building and the third tallest in the world, and also has the world’s highest observation deck at 562m or 118 stories. The views were superb. On the advice of friends I paid for the full package which took you to the 126th floor to see the building’s damper and the huge jade sculpture which sits atop the damper, which they’ve used to make a sort of music and light show. It was pretty cool.

Modern art was the theme for the rest of the day – a poke around the M50 contemporary art area, where a bunch of artists have colonised a former industrial area and put in galleries, and then on to the Jing’an Sculpture Park. There was a free concert in the park I hung out at for a little bit too. I had a bit of a food nightmare in the evening; Googling night markets suggested there would be one near my hotel, but when I arrived, it was non-existent and I spent half an hour wandering around until I found somewhere which would serve me some food. Apart from that, it was a good day.

The last day was, as last days can be, a little aimless. I went to the French Concession, the old colonial area where the French used to run their businesses, and did some last-minute shopping. I wanted to go to the arts and crafts museum, but it was closed for lunch when I arrived, so I had another wander until I managed to find a mall and a restaurant for something to eat.

Then it was generally more wandering up to Fuxing (French) Park and on to the modern, flashy Xiantiandi area, where I’d hoped to find some food but it was way too posh and Western. So the trip finished back in the Yu Garden area where I’d been on the first evening to graze on random snacks, and then to the hotel for a last beer on the rooftop.

By this point my payment app, Alipay, had decided I’d spent too much and declined to let me pay for the beer (luckily normal card payment came to the rescue). The holiday was clearly ended.

Practicalities:

• Shanghai’s metro is the best way of getting around although stations are not always close to sights, and there will still be a lot of walking
• You need a passport to buy a ticket for the Shanghai Tower. I just rocked up and walked straight in – queues were developing later, however I couldn’t work out how to book online
• If you see a branch of Yang’s Fried Dumplings stop and eat there

Suzhou

Between Nanjing and Shanghai, and on the course of the Grand Canal as it runs north from Hangzhou to Beijing, is the old town of Suzhou. Of course these days a lot of it is modern and it’s not so small, but it still has quite a lot of old amid the high-rises and development.

Suzhou is famous for its gardens. The imperial Chinese loved to build complexes where a house meets a garden, with wooden pavilions giving way to ponds, rockeries and trees in a way that feels natural and symbiotic. The pavilions are the sorts of places where you would spend the afternoon reading or painting, while your koi carp swam around in the pond just outside.

I had a day and a half in Suzhou, which I spent wandering around the gardens and failing to wander around museums. The first half-day, after arrival, involved a ‘scenic area’ with a pagoda and a temple in a little park hard by the city walls and the canal. I walked out of it along the canal and up to the next garden, and finally on to a last garden for the day, and then I walked back along streets with interesting shops and plenty of cafés and so on, with a stop for a beer en route. Near the hotel I found some food and was randomly stopped by a guy who wanted to ask if I was ready to marry and move to China (I ran away).

 

Day 2 was a little less successful and a little more meandering, although mostly I enjoyed it. The temple with the pagoda which started the day was nice, but then the museum was so busy the only time slot I could reserve was in the evening. And the Humble Administrators’ Garden next door, the real draw of Suzhou, was insanely busy once I’d finally worked out how to get into it. I crawled around following queues of tour groups and wished it was less busy.

The other gardens of the day were much less bad, however, and it was nice walking along the touristy street, Pinjiang Road, which is another of Suzhou’s big draws. But the other two museums I had earmarked were closed – at least, one was definitely closed for renovation, and I think I walked past the other but there were no signs or open doors. As it got muggier I got progressively more tired and eventually called it a day, giving up on the evening museum slot.

Despite this I did really like Suzhou, it was walkable and had lots of character.

 

Practicalities:

• Getting to Suzhou from Nanjing was easy – 90 minutes on the train
• Suzhou’s metro is small and easy to navigate, although misses out a chunk of the area you want to visit
• Take your passport when visiting the gardens as you’ll need to show it to get tickets