China
Touching down in Shanghai I could not believe I was in China. China! The place that you end up if you dig to the other side of the world. The red panda. The land that time forgot. An eminent world superpower deeply rooted in ancient tradition.
My friend William graciously met me at Pudong Airport and took the subway to the Jing’An neighborhood in Shanghai. My first impression of Shanghai was similar to New York City: trendy restaurants, hip bars, busy subways and well-dressed people rushing about doing business things. It is quite a bit more visceral and raw than NYC, however.
After settling in we went to Jing’An temple, an exemplary Buddhist pagoda in downtown Shanghai. Around the temple was intricate woodwork and fantastic bronze statues. The relaxed Chinese Buddhas are quite a bit different than the emaciated Buddhas in Thailand and Myanmar. He is a plump, squinty, jolly type of fellow. I like to think if him as the Santa Claus of Buddhas.
Next up we went to the illegal market on Nan Jing Lu. The market is a top destination for tourists because of the incredibly cheap knockoff (andgoods. I copped some (actually pretty nice) Yeezy sneakers for $15. Will bargained some Beats by Dre headphones down to $5. Walking away he found the package empty. Classic. We returned to the coy shop owner and left with some actual headphones which proceeded to break within a few days.
Down the street we saw the Bund River, where tourists gather and take pictures of the stellar skyline. Ancient buildings sit side-by-side drab concrete socialist architecture and beautiful modern skyscrapers.
From Shanghai we took a crazy fast train (300km/hr) to Yuyao, my friend’s home and where he is teaching English for the year. The cityscape, like much of urban China, is filled with huge, identical apartment buildings for block upon block of the city.
I took a lot of long walks in Yuyao. No matter how far I walked I could never reach the outside of the city. I often found myself walking beside the beautiful Yuyao river. Here you would find locals doing Tai Chi at sunset and relaxing.
On my friend’s 4-day weekend we took off for the famous Huangshan mountains. The jutting peaks were unlike anything I had seen before. Formed by a receding glacier, the peaks have been inspiration for poets and artists for centuries. Stone steps had been carved into the rock face thousands of years ago.
Overall we hiked about 26 miles through the crazy pathways atop the mountain. We stayed the night in a hostel at the top and then arose at 4AM to catch the sunrise.
The Huangshan Mountains are the inspiration for the magnificent peaks in the movie Avatar (with the blue people, not the Last Airbender). It is not hard to see why. You could feel the timelessness of these sublime peaks.
The final amazing destination I saw was Kuaiji Shan in Shaoxing, which we visited en route to Shanghai. Atop Kuaiji Mountain sits an epic temple. We walked up what felt like a million steps and were rewarded by an unbelievable view of the city and surrounding mountains.
China is one of the strangest places I have been yet in my travels. 1.3 billion inhabit this land, the most of any country. Shanghai alone has more people than Canada. This is part of the reason that China is known to have something of a selfish culture. People will cut in lines all the time. Passengers boarding the subway will push and shove past those getting off instead of just waiting. You can urinate and spit anywhere. It’s crazy.
It is also a difficult country to write about. I felt like I was only scratching the surface because of its enormity and ancient roots. China is polluted, unwieldy, and overbearing while at the same time retaining a deep sense of history, beautiful natural landscapes, and strong national identity. It would take many lifetimes to fully comprehend this beautiful behemoth.
