Exploring Eastern China

I fortunately had the opportunity to travel to Shanghai and the surrounding area for 9 days before our CWEF orientation at the end of August. Myself and two other Americans who teach English in Yunnan met at the Shanghai airport and headed into the largest city in China, Shanghai, population 15 million. We took the maglev from the airport into the city, a train that travels at over 300 mph! It took us 10 minutes to travel the distance it would normally take over an hour on the metro. We settled into our quaint hostel, preparing ourselves for the next day, when we were heading to the World Expo.

Shanghai and The World Expo

Being at the World Expo was a bit surreal. Not having heard much about the event back in America, the World Expo has been advertising around China since the 2008 Olympics. Shanghai basically revamped their city, building new metro lines, roads, hotels, etc. We went first thing in the morning to try and avoid as many long lines as possible. We went into the Chinese Province Pavilion first, to check out the different provinces and see our home province, Yunnan! Each province is unique making China very culturally diverse. The rest of the day truly felt like traveling around the world. To name just a few, we went into the Isreal, New Zealand, Peru, and Africa pavilions plus many more. It was an extremely hot day, above 100° F, so the length of the lines outside the pavilions determined a lot of which ones we went into.

The rest of our time in Shanghai consisted of Yu Yuan (Yu Gardens), The Bund, Renmin Guangchang (People’s Square), and my favorite, the Shanghai Museum. The museum had a painting and calligraphy section that I spent all my time in. My eyes were drawn to the traditional landscape paintings on long horizontal and vertical scrolls. The brush strokes, the ink, the paper, the mountains, the bamboo, the flowers, all so mesmerizing and beautiful. Needless to say, I am truly inspired to dust off my oil paints and brushes and get started on some Chinese landscapes myself.

Suzhou

Our next stop was Suzhou, a large city west of Shanghai, 2 hrs away by bus. Suzhou is known for its gardens, so we choose one out of the many, Zhouzheng Yuan (The Humble Administrators Garden) and spent several hours exploring the lush greenery, ponds and flowers. This garden was owned by a rich administrator and was very large and peaceful. It was a rather large tourist attraction so the garden lost some of its tranquil aspects to the crowds of tour groups, but I was able to sneak off into some nooks and relax next to some beautiful flowers and ponds.

Suzhou also offers some beautiful pagodas. We went to the Beisa Ta (North Temple Pagoda), climbed to the very top and looked out upon the entire city of Suzhou. It was interesting seeing ancient pagodas in the distance representing China’s past, and the tall, modern buildings and construction cranes representing China’s future, all together on one horizon. We also went to a silk museum and witnessed silk strands being extracted from the cocoons of silkworms. I really wanted to buy a whole silk bed set, but I don’t yet live that glamorous life.

Wuzhen & Hangzhou

On our way to the next big city, Hangzhou, we stopped in a small water town, Wuzhen. It was similar to Venice, Italy, with canals as streets, weaving around the small town, lots of bridges and boats transporting goods and people. Back on the bus, we headed for Hangzhou, known for its West Lake, one of the most famous lakes in China. It is actually pictured on the 1 RMB money bill. There we sauntered around the lake, taking a boat out to one of the islands, explored tea fields and a tea museum, hiked around the mountains and temples, and enjoyed the scenery and fresh air.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

After Hangzhou, we took another bus to Huangshan, a place famous for its large mountains. I had heard this place was where many of the old artists went to paint traditional Chinese landscapes, but I was not prepared for how gigantic and stunning they were going to be. We took a cable car to the top and were instantly hit with large rock mountains and a view of the surrounding area for miles and miles. The images of the ancient scrolls I had seen at the Shanghai museum came rushing back to me as suddenly I was looking at the mountains in person. We hiked for most the morning and afternoon, trying to enjoy the natural scenery with hundreds of thousands Chinese tourists. I have never seen so many people on a mountain before. It was up on that mountain that I was reminded I am living in a country with a billion more people than the United States.

Overall the trip was really cool. It is always great to see different parts of the country you are living in, especially one as large as China. I was very happy to come home to Kunming and sleep in my own bed again. The best part was, I do feel like this is my current home, not just some place I am visiting.