…Hello China
(Having our temperature checked upon landing in case of Swine Flu. RH photo shows the laser in action on a passenger’s forehead)
Friday was a long night; it began in Glasgow’s State bar and ended with frantic packing up and cleaning the flat! We have arrived safely after a smooth and uncomplicated journey. The long flight from Amsterdam (9 and a half hours) was punctuated with various snackettes and meals, but various passengers producing massive vocal yawns also disturbed my already restless sleep. My favourite aspect of the journey was the delay once we had landed in Shanghai, as we were not allowed to leave the flight without having our temperature checked by a cohort of cheaply futuristic white suited individuals with a laser.
The first thing to occur to me as we disembarked was that it was a sunny day with shadows, yet the sky was not blue at all, but a pale grey, with no trace of actual sun. Whether this is heat haze (as I hope) or pollution (as I suspect) I haven’t yet found out. I might not ask. We were driven the 2 hours to Suzhou, all the while marvelling at the expanse of urban proliferation that is Shanghai. We travelled at 100km per hour for well over an hour and there was no break in the cityscape at all. From the huge, endlessly straight motorway, we could catch sight of the wide boulevards of traffic through the city below us, enormous Art Deco business buildings and immense peeling tower blocks with their laundry flapping in the dusty breeze above the cars. The roads are another exciting mish mash of cars and taxis, trucks full of ripe, bouncing watermelons, vans with their doors hanging open, (one exposing a man hanging on to the goods inside, pressing his sandaled foot against the other door) but the best thing I saw was an entire full size tree on the back of a pick-up with it’s branches scraping the tarmac behind! It’s one crazy place and I have a feeling I ain’t seen nothing yet!
Once into Suzhou (which I learned contains 8 million people… “shen me!?”) there is tooting of horns almost constantly. It’s better to ignore the lack of seatbelts and driving ability. Interspersed in the mad racing traffic, in the city there are mopeds and electric bicycles shooting out from everywhere as if they’re being pumped from the back of other vehicles. Some carry three or four people at a time, but mostly just a couple of kids. Apparently people can carry washing machines on the back of their electric bicycles. I assume all these are electric because it’s simply too hot to pedal! I experienced full Shanghai heat as we left the car. From the frosty air-conditioned car, I felt like I hit a wall of magma. Within a second of moving, my thin trousers were roasted and cooking my legs and my eyes felt like dry salted peanuts. I have never been so hot. It is like an oven.
I’ll add more to this post tomorrow, but I’ll be up early and there’s just so much that’s new to tell! Pictures will follow too!
Morning dear, I couldn’t help checking your page once I got up. I was talking with Ben yesterday saying, ” can you believe that Rosie is in China now?” It just happened so fast.
When I just opened this page, the funny pictures bounced into my eyes first. I think its kind of too serious and I am also wondering how about if someone’s temperature is just a little bit higher than the normal one, will they be sent back to the departure country after 9 and a half hrs flight??
In terms of the sky, haha, I warned you. One of my Canadian customer asked the same question when he landed Shanghai. I won’t argue with you that its mainly because of pollution, but the weather is humid which means it could be ‘heat haze’ as you suspected.
Yes, you could see loads of ‘funny’ stuff on the endless motorway from PVG to Suzhou. Container or truck with all kinds of goods, is probably the commonest thing on it. The driver’s behaviour which you found is, once again, quite common. LOL
You are quite right about the electric bicycle, there is a ‘huge’ battery under the platform which runs it. Sometime, just as you saw, three or four people are on the same bicycle, it is more likely to be a commercial stuff, the driver offers short distance transportation to others, although it is illegal.
I just found that I have so many things to say to you, maybe I’ve written too much. Also I realized that I forgot to say I am glad to know your trip run smooth.
One more thing, once upon a time, my customer from abroad said ” If you can drive in China, you can drive anywhere in the world!” I think it is true.
Ok. I will stop.
Take care and enjoy your time in China. xx
Glad to hear that you have both arrived safe and sound. I don’t fancy the heat much, but the rest of it sounds fascinating. Love you XXXXXX
Dear Rosie
Congratulations on your safe arrival in China. You have done everyone proud. However i am very worried about your state of mind. You said, quote ‘We travelled at 100km per hour’. This is very serious, that you have adopted ‘km’. I do hope ying hasnt done so to. Now i talked to my chinese friend and se said you should visit the garden of cultivation-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Cultivation
Do enjoy. Remember to get stuck into everything. Get a bike, eat some horse privates and breathe in the fresh air of China.
Best of luck and say hi to Ying
Yassen
The “km” is only because the car I was in measured only in “km”, therefore we could not travel in any other unit. Plus, my maths is too poor to figure out the mile to kilometre ratio! As for a bike, Ying and I are working on it – I can’t wait!
rosie, what you have described is very interesting
, yet it is very dangerous, of course. however, this phenomenon can be seen in Bangkok, Thailand, Vietnam and some other southeast asian countires too.