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| Happy New Year! |
Like no other week of the year, Spring Festival arrived in China with a bang. Followed by more bangs, another bang and then another bang. We couldn't sleep! Beijing, home of 23million people slowly began to shut down until the eve of the Chinese New Year when only an estimated 8million people remained in the capital. All those 8million then let off an array of fireworks, continually!
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| Life size, New Year Doll |
For us, New Year has been a time to sit back and watch it all happen. Truthfully, we had no real idea what was going on, but we had our dumplings and happily absorbed ourselves in munching through them.
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Strategically placed wish couplets
on our apartment door |
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| Firework aftermath outside |
Chinese culture, for thousands of years has developed hundreds of thousands of intricate rules and traditions as to how you should live. Even the more modern younger generation remain tolerant and observe these in fear of bad luck. This includes many that revolve around the New Year. You should not cut your hair- this will bring bad luck to your uncle. You are strictly forbidden to clean or sweep- by doing this you sweep away your good luck. You should not buy shoes, use knifes, wear white or black or eat anything too spicy (all bad luck). Dumplings are the go to food and you should open your windows to let in the good luck. The more sweets you eat the sweeter your New Year will be, but if you start the year in debt, you will finish it in debt.
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| Us and a thousand tourists on the bund, Shanghai |
So apprehensively we joined the largest human migration on Earth and jetted down to the more temperate Shanghai for three nights and four days. Although Shanghai is only a stones throw south from Beijing, it's dramatically different and probably it's fair to say more westernised.
Shanghai with a population of 24million is the largest city in China. When we arrived it was very pleasant and a balmy 16 degrees, at nine in the evening! In fact there are trees and flowers and grass! However on our following exploration day the pollution was terrible, beyond hazardous, which is evident in our photos.
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| The smoggy main street (yes thats pollution!) |
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| Eating beef and lamb hot pot at Xiabu Xiabu |
We donned our face masks for the day- quickly whipping them off for a photo opportunity but we were the only people we saw wearing them. It's difficult to describe how bad the pollution was but you couldn't see the tops of buildings, you couldn't see more than 20 metres in front of you and it smells and tastes awful. Needless to say we both ended up quite sick with runny noses, sore throats and raspy voices. The warmth didn't stay either! By our second day the wind picked up and the pollution cleared but the temperature dropped and stayed at -1. FREEZING! By then we were both dead tired and fighting colds, so we had to make many a hot drink stop.
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| Char (Chwar) stop! Fatty smoked lamb on a stick! |
Shanghai itself, is a real mix of old and new. So what did we do there? We ate! When we stumbled upon the local delicacies, which were surprisingly hard to find, we gave everything a try. Dumplings so large you use a straw to suck out the broth before devouring their meaty goodness. We tried and fell in love with the local hotpot.
A hot pot is a pot of boiling stock which you individually cook an array of meats and vegetables. You often have up to six different stock options (spicy, non spicy etc) and a plentitude of garlicy peanuty sauces to dip your cooked things into. So yum and so entertaining!
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| Another contrast of old and new in Shanghai |
Here is local Char, although you can also find it in Beijing it's delicious! Fatty lamb skewered and cooked over coals. You can go for spicy or not spicy and either way it's divine!
We did a lot of walking. Shanghai is very flat and ideal to walk. We explored Shanghai old city built between 960-1279AD during the Song dynasty. The restored and well maintained old city was.... well... old. A labyrinth of temples turned tourist attraction kept us very busy and very confused.
We wandered along the city bund and waterfront admiring the multitude of large colonial European buildings and large clocktowers built in the 1930's by the British and French and explored the French colonial area (ok so technically its now a street of bars.. but we had fun!).
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| The contrast of old and new, Shanghai old town |
Then we visited the financial city center built from 1991 after the Chinese economic reforms. This part of Shanghai is across the Huangpu river which is accessible via boat or subway. The last picture below is the financial city skyline at night.
We enjoyed our few days in Shanghai but are glad to be back in Beijing, sleeping off our adventure and building up for the lantern festival next week!
Tot siens,
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