Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Shanghai
Shanghai
Some of the most astonishing views in Shanghai is the-slap-in-the face and stark contrast of the old and new. The low buildings prior 1930s, the grand ones along the Bund of 1930s with the British trading companies established there and the 21st century glass and steel high-rises, and huge blocks of flats for accommodating the increasingly dense population. All of this makes Shanghai an amazing paradise for photographers and inquisitive minds of visitors, expats and verylikely locals alike.
update: just found this video about one of the towers being built when i was there in 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U
Shanghai, before the British arrived, was a small fishing village, surrounded by swamps in the now Pudong area. It had been a trading port but of no more relevance than that. Then in 1930s with Europe's hand in Asia and the opium trade, financial deals were made and corporations were formed there and it was not till 1990s that Shanghai flourished as a financial hub, time when new developments began being made.
Shanghai was bombed by the Japanese in 1932, who invaded China and the ensuing 1930s and 1940s war, badly affected the city, and after communism, in 1990s its econominy flourished.
My days in Shanghai
Arrived by air, found the hostel easily and it wasn't hard to get our bearings and know our surroundings. Shanghai metro goes to the airport, so cheap and easy.
Hostel: Mingtown Nanjing Road. three minute walk from East Nanjing Road metro station. Recommended, I would definetely stay there again.
Amenities, food, 10 minute walk to the Bund, off Nanjing Road, cool location.
I fell in love with the city within hours of being there so when planning how long to stay there, rather than a mere two or three-day stay, I’d say, let yourself get carried away, don’t plan a return trip if you can and see how you feel about it. Colleagues who'd been there had said a couple of days was enough but oh man how wrong I thought they were.
It’s easy enough to get away from it with no travel arrangements. I did not want to leave. I’d followed Maitane's, and others', advice about the length of stay but no no. Three days is just enough to get a rough idea of what the city is like, but stay longer and relish what it has to offer.
The food, the sights and neighbourhoods, the dancing ladies in the evening, the taichi and sword and fans ladies and elderly men flying kites against the blue, bathed-in-sunshine sky by the Huangpu river on the magestic Bund early in the morning when the sun rises behind the awe-inspiring high-rises, underestimating the height of the new Pudong skyscrapers. Just magic. The light at this time of the day is breathtaking in October. Something I like to do even though I don't always have the time to do it is visit the same place in different moments of the day, say morning and evening, the light, the crowds are totally different. This time, I did.
You won’t be hassled, people are nice and friendly despite their lack of English skills. And again, if you travel alone, opportunities to speak with locals abound. I was invited into one of the French Concessions houses, where a handlful of ladies in their late 70s were playing some go, the domino-like game. Smiles did all the job, no word spoken other than xiexie, now widely used in China.
As leonasam says, there are plenty, plenty of incredible shopping opportunities, in newly built shopping malls, and beautiful and charming little local shops in the French Conscession. The original houses have been stripped of their façades and turned into fancy shops. One can't help the change.
What stroke me the most is the size of the metro stations and the number of exits. Distances are undeniably big for someone from old Europe. And one more thing worth saying the contrasts. Streets, people, shops, affordable consumer paradise from rags and local to luxury are just one step away from each other. Shanghai is many Shanghais and locals don’t seem to mind the radical change the city has undergone these last 10 years, they seem to go with the flow although surely there must be some resenting it as whenever there's dramatic changes but we hardly met any who spoke out about this.
Shocking was also the huge amount of plastic in the streets: rubbish-pickers making their wages collecting the discarded plastic bottles, which is a sight everywhere in Asia but probably nothing compares to China.
Well, after three whole days there I’d say: I want to move to Shanghai and work for the British Council there for some time! It’s thriving, amazing, rich and poor, cheap and expensive, accommodating, exciting, cultural. It can be what you want it to be. Just amazing.
and I haven't even mentioned the temples.
shanghai metro photographer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25435392
Some of the most astonishing views in Shanghai is the-slap-in-the face and stark contrast of the old and new. The low buildings prior 1930s, the grand ones along the Bund of 1930s with the British trading companies established there and the 21st century glass and steel high-rises, and huge blocks of flats for accommodating the increasingly dense population. All of this makes Shanghai an amazing paradise for photographers and inquisitive minds of visitors, expats and verylikely locals alike.
 |
| Top of Shanghai World Financial Centre seen from the Pearl tower. Third tallest building in the world at the time, it is also known as the bottle opener. |
 |
| Old and new Shanghai from the Pearl tower, in Pudong |
 |
| New super high rise bulidings |
 |
| Shanghai, at the bottom of the Pearl tower, roundabout and elevated crossings, beautifully decorated with flower beds for the China National Day |
 |
| Shanghai, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. |
update: just found this video about one of the towers being built when i was there in 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U
Shanghai, before the British arrived, was a small fishing village, surrounded by swamps in the now Pudong area. It had been a trading port but of no more relevance than that. Then in 1930s with Europe's hand in Asia and the opium trade, financial deals were made and corporations were formed there and it was not till 1990s that Shanghai flourished as a financial hub, time when new developments began being made.
Shanghai was bombed by the Japanese in 1932, who invaded China and the ensuing 1930s and 1940s war, badly affected the city, and after communism, in 1990s its econominy flourished.
My days in Shanghai
Arrived by air, found the hostel easily and it wasn't hard to get our bearings and know our surroundings. Shanghai metro goes to the airport, so cheap and easy.
Hostel: Mingtown Nanjing Road. three minute walk from East Nanjing Road metro station. Recommended, I would definetely stay there again.
Amenities, food, 10 minute walk to the Bund, off Nanjing Road, cool location.
I fell in love with the city within hours of being there so when planning how long to stay there, rather than a mere two or three-day stay, I’d say, let yourself get carried away, don’t plan a return trip if you can and see how you feel about it. Colleagues who'd been there had said a couple of days was enough but oh man how wrong I thought they were.
It’s easy enough to get away from it with no travel arrangements. I did not want to leave. I’d followed Maitane's, and others', advice about the length of stay but no no. Three days is just enough to get a rough idea of what the city is like, but stay longer and relish what it has to offer.
The food, the sights and neighbourhoods, the dancing ladies in the evening, the taichi and sword and fans ladies and elderly men flying kites against the blue, bathed-in-sunshine sky by the Huangpu river on the magestic Bund early in the morning when the sun rises behind the awe-inspiring high-rises, underestimating the height of the new Pudong skyscrapers. Just magic. The light at this time of the day is breathtaking in October. Something I like to do even though I don't always have the time to do it is visit the same place in different moments of the day, say morning and evening, the light, the crowds are totally different. This time, I did.
You won’t be hassled, people are nice and friendly despite their lack of English skills. And again, if you travel alone, opportunities to speak with locals abound. I was invited into one of the French Concessions houses, where a handlful of ladies in their late 70s were playing some go, the domino-like game. Smiles did all the job, no word spoken other than xiexie, now widely used in China.
As leonasam says, there are plenty, plenty of incredible shopping opportunities, in newly built shopping malls, and beautiful and charming little local shops in the French Conscession. The original houses have been stripped of their façades and turned into fancy shops. One can't help the change.
What stroke me the most is the size of the metro stations and the number of exits. Distances are undeniably big for someone from old Europe. And one more thing worth saying the contrasts. Streets, people, shops, affordable consumer paradise from rags and local to luxury are just one step away from each other. Shanghai is many Shanghais and locals don’t seem to mind the radical change the city has undergone these last 10 years, they seem to go with the flow although surely there must be some resenting it as whenever there's dramatic changes but we hardly met any who spoke out about this.
Shocking was also the huge amount of plastic in the streets: rubbish-pickers making their wages collecting the discarded plastic bottles, which is a sight everywhere in Asia but probably nothing compares to China.
Well, after three whole days there I’d say: I want to move to Shanghai and work for the British Council there for some time! It’s thriving, amazing, rich and poor, cheap and expensive, accommodating, exciting, cultural. It can be what you want it to be. Just amazing.
and I haven't even mentioned the temples.
shanghai metro photographer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25435392
Monday, 2 March 2015
Beijing
BEIJING
The population as of 2013 was 21,150,000. The city proper is the 3rd largest in the world. Can you believe 21m people as one city? One reconsiders what we understand as a village, small town, big town or city. In Spain we say that Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Valencia are cities, when next to New York and London are big towns, which in turn, are big towns next to Asian cities!
We arrive in Beijing the days before their National Day, what they call the Golden Days as there's a 10 day holiday and most Chinese go and visit family. Travel becomes chaos, or so they say, as millions of them fly and take trains. And we know well enough that queueing is not one of their strengths.
Mooncakes and unbelieveably long queues to purchase them, people with up to 20 boxes chock-a-block with these round pastry delicacies only eaten on these days.
Huge and extremely elaborate flower displays all over the capital, in Tiananmenn Square, the main street between the square and the Forbidden City. Piles of boxes of coloured petals in Red lanterns hanging from street lamps, army patrolling streets, all getting ready for the big day, on 1st October this year. Dates vary from year to year, depending on full moons, etc.
Hotels are considerably more expensive, as are flights and domestic transportation. Throngs are expected to flood the streets and the sights.
We only get to see this bit of the preparations, and the fireworks in HongKong where the whole event is to a much smaller scale.
On our night in Beijing, we stayed at the Happy Dragon Hostel, run by an English bloke. It is in an alley under the Wahaha hotel near Dongsi metro station, 5 minute walk from Wanfungie shopping street, and not far from Tiananmen etc. Conveninent and not noisy. Judit and I had stayed there two years before.
Cool market in the morning. Local, cheap and fresh breakfast next door, early morning taichi round the corner.
I want to see more of the Hutongs, go to places I didn't go on my first time, I want to show S what I liked my first time, like the night food market and the other market off wanfungie, I want to go to temples, and to ghost street (which I didn't).I want to marvel at some of the most incredibly innovative architectural shapes I've ever seen.
Architecture-wise, Asia is indeed pioneer in all sorts of shapes and the dimensions are just unbelieveable. Lost for words when you see the shape of buildings strength- and gravity-defying modern buildings. Google for GALAXY SOHO and you'll know what I am talking about! and theYanki Kempinski hotel, and the TV building and the Egg- the opera house near Tiananmen - many many others you can't help but see on the drive into town from the airport.
At the same time, just consider these architectural monsters from the ground floor height of hutongs, thankfully, still standing and existing today? What do elders think of the new Beijing? it's the Beijing of the youth, of the expats, of capitalism and money and expansion and growth, it's the Beijing making an statement, putting itself on the map for what's going to be a very long time. I would love to go back a third time and spend days exploring new modern buildings, camera in hand.
After Changchun:
A Beijing ja fosc, arribem a l'estació on jo fa dos anys vaig agafar el Transsiberià per anar a Mongolia, un dels millors viatges de la meva vida. Tot i que no me n'adono fins que sóc a l'exterior. Taxi i a l'alberg 161 Lishi Hostel. Volta per sortir de la zona de l'estació i ens val menys de 2€! tot i que ens deixa a other end of the hutong i hem de caminar força. Són llargs aquests hutongs!
Check-in i sopar pel nostre mateix carrer. Dona en una barbaque vendor using ahair dryer to keep charcoal burning and get meat cooked quickly; suquets de colors.
No sabem quants dies ens quedarem a Beijing o en aquest mateix hostel. Vull anar a Pingyao, el que comporta una o dos nits fora. Reservem gairebé dia a dia! De bones a primeres, m'agobia la idea d'estar una setmana sencera en una mateixa ciutat però al final ho vam fer i ha estat genial. Hi ha tant a fer i tant a veure que no t'acabes mai la ciutat. M'hi hauria quedat més temps de bona gana.
...
Anem al
7, Lama Temple (Yonghegong metro station)
Metro, caminem una estona, hutongs a un cantó, una cafeteria a la europea pel camí, parades i parades d'encens i ofrenes a la vorera i l'entrada.
No el vam visitar fa dos anys. Aquest any m'he informat millor sobre el que he de visitar a Beijing, a més del que no et pots perdre si només estas dos o tres dies a la ciutat. El Lama temple, potser perquè encara era festa a xina i hi havia molta afluència de devots de totes les edats m'ha agradat. Es tenedor del rècord guiness per "house" el buda més alt mai fet. 18 metres de buda que no se't permet fotografia. Els monjos estan a totes les sales vigilant. Molts molts devots a tot arreu! Molt d'encens i molta ofrena. L'encens és com el portador dels teus desitjos. Sovint no es pot cremar dins els recintes dels temples pero sí el pots oferir. El complexe d'edificis és gran, tot simètric. Hi ha fum i cendra d'encèns per l'aire.
D'aquí anem direcció a... per una zona de hutongs, a l'altre cantó del carrer d'entrada al Lama temple, després d'ahver fet un cafè - molt cuco amb fotos emmarcades d'ampolles d'Absolut vodka a les parets, molt occidental -i haver consultat geocachings per la zona.
Entrem al confucius Temple. Visita ràpida. Una de les sales té una exposició d'instruments musicals i campanes funeràries.Monjo taoista fora a qui li faig fotos gràcies a que uns altres guiris li demanen, crec. Un iaio molt curios, i de ben segur molt savi.
Llits de flors, arbres centenàris de formes capritxoses, amb textures interessants.
Al sortir un monjo taoista, de roba blava i monyo y barret negre, es deixa fotografiar pacientment i amb un somriure.
Girem a la dreta , per un hutong i ens trobem una formatgeria, botiga delicatessen en un hutong! Pa, embotit, xocolata belga i una baguet, això serà el nostre dinar! Que xulo! Hutongs, nets, habitats i amb vida. Xulo passejar per aquí. Anem de camí al metro per anar a les Bell and Drum Towers, de les quals només visitem la de la campana. Un cop més estan en mig de zona de hutongs. M'encanta! Llocs amb encant en hutongs mig restaurats. Els hutongs no tenen banys privats i ni clavegueres ni calefacció pero tenen un encant especial per la forma i concepte. Escales empinades per la torre, campana enorme, vistes a hutong i la ciutat.
D'aquí cap a la zona Olimpica.
La cançoneta one world, one dream, playing ceaselessly on the very intrusive loudspeakers all along the walk and me stretching out my arms everytime they said "one world one dream" as if wanting to hold the world in my arms, laughing.
Llarg, no s'acaba mai, no és ni mig dia i ja tinc mal de peus. Beijing té aixó... cansa, les distancies són enormes.
Més geocaching, el s flipant dels edificis olimpics. A mi "el niu", l'estadi olímpic, em decepciona, el veure els materials perd encant tot i que realment és impressionant.
Cometes a la tarda. Busquem entrada de metro, caminem mooooolt, volta a la mansana i no la trobem. Increíble lo gran que és tot. Edifici de la ibm, parc temàtic de tot xina quan veiem edificis tibetans allà al mig de carrer. Molt sorpresos deduim que deu ser un "poble espanyol" de Xina.
Metro i al centre després de caminar mooolt buscant l'entrada al temple de la pagoda que es veu alta, prop del niu... i res, deduim que aquesta pagoda és una reproducció del parc temàtic! Una santa volta per trobar la pagoda i l'entrada de metro...quan la teniem al costat d'on vam començar a caminar, pel cantó contrari! grrr Edicifi de IBM
Sopem mcdonalds??
8, summer palace
Després de gairebé una hora de metro, dos canvis i tota una línia, arribem a la zona del summer palace. Perduts a la sortida. Cap indicació a la vista, només un mur que et podia fer pensar que era la delimitació del palau. Prèvia experiencia amb un mur de similars característiques que la J i jo ja ens vam topar a Beijing's Temple of Heaven fa un parell d'anys.
Entrada al recinte, nowhere to be seen. Ens indiquen recta i a la dreta, girem i més mur que no s'acaba mai. Entrada! Diversos tipus d'entrada segons què vulguis visitar. Esmorzem entrepà sandwich (europeu) i cafè i cap a dins! De postal, llàstima que el dia estigués entrenyinat. Una lleugera i homogènia boirina cobria la zona. No ho enlletgia, ans al contrari, li donava un aire misteriós com de dia de pluja, però no és el que vols trobar-te quan vas de vacances. La pregunta és: és boirina, contaminació o smog? El lloc es un turó verd, dins Beijing però lluny del centre.
El summer palace de la dinastia Qing, i capritx arquitectonic de la Sissí, emperadriu, per fugir de la humitat de Beijing a l'estiu.No m'estranya, a l'octubre hi fa xafogor però amics que hi han estat a l'agost, es veu que és mortal!
Tot molt bonic, molt xinès, els colors imperials de verd i vermell hi són omnipresents, obvi pero cal mencionar-ho. Tal belleas la culmina tot un racó preciós, ple de salzes i passadissos coberts i construccions típiques xineses ple d'estudiants d'art fent la seva interpretació del lloc amb pintura i paper. Preciós. Un lloc ensisador, típic de postal, dels que sembla que siguin extrets de contes de fades o sets de pel·licula, com si realment no existissin hahahaha. Equiparable al Yu gardens de Shanghai.No us perdeu cap dels dos llocs.
Comprem dinar al super i mengem a l'alberg de cansats que ja comencem a estar, porsche groc al carrer. Sortim de nou...a...?
Dia 9
Dia 10
Matí al llit, refredada. El s va la Ciutat Prohibida i jo em quedo al llit. A la tarda anem al parc Jingshan amb vistes a la ciutat prohibida i tot beijing. Que bonic, l'altre vegada no ho havia vist. Lotus, grans gerros amb aigua i nenúfars. Gent de minories ètniques amb vestimenta tradicional visitant la ciutat, guiris al seu propi país. Un dia preciós, i amb sol i sense massa boira ni smog. Des d'allà tens una perpectiva de tota la ciutat, la immensitat i el contrast en els seus edificis, la superficie de la Ciutat Prohibida en un oasi de tranquil·litat.
dia 11
muralla xina, jo encara refredada. Contractem excursió a través del hostel.
recollim altra gent de diferents hotels, ...
emoció al divisar-la desde la furgo. Ara sí que em fa certa il·lusió veure-ho. Fins ara, venia més pel S que per què jo la volgués veure, de fet el primer cop a Beijing, tant Jud com jo no ens interessava especialment.
Entrades, quedem amb el conductor per l'hora i lloc de tornada i ens enfilem.Vam tenir la gran sort de poder-hi anar entre setmana i amb prou feines hi havia gent. Als caps de setmana s'omple de gom a gom sempre.
telefèric, ... trams, el sergio flipa. Molta pendent. Quin tram? Mutiyanyu crec que era el tram que fem entre els tres més propers a la capital, però no el que més. Està dividida en trams, més o menys allunyats de la capital, en més o menys bon estat.
Quina bestiesa fer una construcción d'aquestes característiques. Res que no hàgim sentit tots abans però ser allà convida a la reflexió i verbalitzar-ho, expressar-ho. La llargada, l'amplada, les dimensions de les torres i el grau d'inclinació tot perfilant els cims de les muntanyes. A qui se li acut fer una desfensa així?!
El S queda flipat i enamorat. El millor del viatge per ell, tot i que Shanghai ens ha agradat moltíssim a tots dos. Flipa d'estar allà. Ell no volia marxar de Xina sense veure aquest monument.
No hi fa calor, s'està bé, jo porto una mocador de coll que llavors m'he de treure a mesura que va entrant el dia, i amb els passos sobre el terreny tant poc homogèni i escalons tant alts per accedir a les torres i anar fent cims!
El S puja un tram que es veia massa enfilat pel meu estat físic. Jo l'espero en un punt i em dedico a admirar vistes i fer fotos dels teulats i d'ell a mida que va ascendint. Segur que li agradarà! :-9
Baixem pel tobogan, jo no les tenia totes perquè em sento una mica patosa però la veritat és que és xulo tot i que el S em diu que anava molt a poc a poc i vaig provocar una mica de cua, cosa que no crec que sigui certa perquè van permeten el pas segons el nombre de gent descendent. En fi, ... que va estar xulo. Aquesta opció per baixar resulta més econòmica que el telefèric i sense dubte és més divertida. Puges en telefèric i per baixar tens la opció d'a peu, tobogan o telefèric.
Tinc coneguts que critiquen al fet d'anar a llocs turistics perquè han estat reconstruits. pel turisme però hi ha llocs que val la pena aquesta reconstrucció per entendre què representava aquest ara-monument en el seu moment: ja per les dimension, ubicació, simbolisme, etc i aquest n'és un.
tornem en furgoneta
Quan es fa fosc és típic que la gent, de totes les edats però especialment gent de 40 per amunt es reuneixi per ballar coreografies senzilles però que requeriexen coordinació en llocs públics, pel carrer, en una plaça, al costat de parades de metro amb lloc suficient per un grapat (un bon grapat?), desenes, gairebé un centenar de gent. És super divertit veure-ho, tothom hi té cabuda. Tots passen de tots. No es miren. Fan la seva, ballen, segueixen o no. Quan s'acaba, marxen. Perquè pagar gimnassos per no anar-hi quan pots quedar al carrer i gratuitament mantenir la forma i fer una mica d'exercici a l'aire lliure - per contaminat que estigui? Jo sincerament ho trobo fantàstic. M'hi passaria hores veient-los moure's, alguns amb més gràcia que altres, molts coordinats i menys, però sense dubte, és digne de veure.
The population as of 2013 was 21,150,000. The city proper is the 3rd largest in the world. Can you believe 21m people as one city? One reconsiders what we understand as a village, small town, big town or city. In Spain we say that Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Valencia are cities, when next to New York and London are big towns, which in turn, are big towns next to Asian cities!
We arrive in Beijing the days before their National Day, what they call the Golden Days as there's a 10 day holiday and most Chinese go and visit family. Travel becomes chaos, or so they say, as millions of them fly and take trains. And we know well enough that queueing is not one of their strengths.
Mooncakes and unbelieveably long queues to purchase them, people with up to 20 boxes chock-a-block with these round pastry delicacies only eaten on these days.
Huge and extremely elaborate flower displays all over the capital, in Tiananmenn Square, the main street between the square and the Forbidden City. Piles of boxes of coloured petals in Red lanterns hanging from street lamps, army patrolling streets, all getting ready for the big day, on 1st October this year. Dates vary from year to year, depending on full moons, etc.
Hotels are considerably more expensive, as are flights and domestic transportation. Throngs are expected to flood the streets and the sights.
We only get to see this bit of the preparations, and the fireworks in HongKong where the whole event is to a much smaller scale.
On our night in Beijing, we stayed at the Happy Dragon Hostel, run by an English bloke. It is in an alley under the Wahaha hotel near Dongsi metro station, 5 minute walk from Wanfungie shopping street, and not far from Tiananmen etc. Conveninent and not noisy. Judit and I had stayed there two years before.
Cool market in the morning. Local, cheap and fresh breakfast next door, early morning taichi round the corner.
I want to see more of the Hutongs, go to places I didn't go on my first time, I want to show S what I liked my first time, like the night food market and the other market off wanfungie, I want to go to temples, and to ghost street (which I didn't).I want to marvel at some of the most incredibly innovative architectural shapes I've ever seen.
Architecture-wise, Asia is indeed pioneer in all sorts of shapes and the dimensions are just unbelieveable. Lost for words when you see the shape of buildings strength- and gravity-defying modern buildings. Google for GALAXY SOHO and you'll know what I am talking about! and theYanki Kempinski hotel, and the TV building and the Egg- the opera house near Tiananmen - many many others you can't help but see on the drive into town from the airport.
At the same time, just consider these architectural monsters from the ground floor height of hutongs, thankfully, still standing and existing today? What do elders think of the new Beijing? it's the Beijing of the youth, of the expats, of capitalism and money and expansion and growth, it's the Beijing making an statement, putting itself on the map for what's going to be a very long time. I would love to go back a third time and spend days exploring new modern buildings, camera in hand.
After Changchun:
A Beijing ja fosc, arribem a l'estació on jo fa dos anys vaig agafar el Transsiberià per anar a Mongolia, un dels millors viatges de la meva vida. Tot i que no me n'adono fins que sóc a l'exterior. Taxi i a l'alberg 161 Lishi Hostel. Volta per sortir de la zona de l'estació i ens val menys de 2€! tot i que ens deixa a other end of the hutong i hem de caminar força. Són llargs aquests hutongs!
Check-in i sopar pel nostre mateix carrer. Dona en una barbaque vendor using ahair dryer to keep charcoal burning and get meat cooked quickly; suquets de colors.
No sabem quants dies ens quedarem a Beijing o en aquest mateix hostel. Vull anar a Pingyao, el que comporta una o dos nits fora. Reservem gairebé dia a dia! De bones a primeres, m'agobia la idea d'estar una setmana sencera en una mateixa ciutat però al final ho vam fer i ha estat genial. Hi ha tant a fer i tant a veure que no t'acabes mai la ciutat. M'hi hauria quedat més temps de bona gana.
...
Anem al
7, Lama Temple (Yonghegong metro station)
Metro, caminem una estona, hutongs a un cantó, una cafeteria a la europea pel camí, parades i parades d'encens i ofrenes a la vorera i l'entrada.
No el vam visitar fa dos anys. Aquest any m'he informat millor sobre el que he de visitar a Beijing, a més del que no et pots perdre si només estas dos o tres dies a la ciutat. El Lama temple, potser perquè encara era festa a xina i hi havia molta afluència de devots de totes les edats m'ha agradat. Es tenedor del rècord guiness per "house" el buda més alt mai fet. 18 metres de buda que no se't permet fotografia. Els monjos estan a totes les sales vigilant. Molts molts devots a tot arreu! Molt d'encens i molta ofrena. L'encens és com el portador dels teus desitjos. Sovint no es pot cremar dins els recintes dels temples pero sí el pots oferir. El complexe d'edificis és gran, tot simètric. Hi ha fum i cendra d'encèns per l'aire.
D'aquí anem direcció a... per una zona de hutongs, a l'altre cantó del carrer d'entrada al Lama temple, després d'ahver fet un cafè - molt cuco amb fotos emmarcades d'ampolles d'Absolut vodka a les parets, molt occidental -i haver consultat geocachings per la zona.
Entrem al confucius Temple. Visita ràpida. Una de les sales té una exposició d'instruments musicals i campanes funeràries.Monjo taoista fora a qui li faig fotos gràcies a que uns altres guiris li demanen, crec. Un iaio molt curios, i de ben segur molt savi.
Llits de flors, arbres centenàris de formes capritxoses, amb textures interessants.
Al sortir un monjo taoista, de roba blava i monyo y barret negre, es deixa fotografiar pacientment i amb un somriure.
Girem a la dreta , per un hutong i ens trobem una formatgeria, botiga delicatessen en un hutong! Pa, embotit, xocolata belga i una baguet, això serà el nostre dinar! Que xulo! Hutongs, nets, habitats i amb vida. Xulo passejar per aquí. Anem de camí al metro per anar a les Bell and Drum Towers, de les quals només visitem la de la campana. Un cop més estan en mig de zona de hutongs. M'encanta! Llocs amb encant en hutongs mig restaurats. Els hutongs no tenen banys privats i ni clavegueres ni calefacció pero tenen un encant especial per la forma i concepte. Escales empinades per la torre, campana enorme, vistes a hutong i la ciutat.
D'aquí cap a la zona Olimpica.
La cançoneta one world, one dream, playing ceaselessly on the very intrusive loudspeakers all along the walk and me stretching out my arms everytime they said "one world one dream" as if wanting to hold the world in my arms, laughing.
Llarg, no s'acaba mai, no és ni mig dia i ja tinc mal de peus. Beijing té aixó... cansa, les distancies són enormes.
Més geocaching, el s flipant dels edificis olimpics. A mi "el niu", l'estadi olímpic, em decepciona, el veure els materials perd encant tot i que realment és impressionant.
Cometes a la tarda. Busquem entrada de metro, caminem mooooolt, volta a la mansana i no la trobem. Increíble lo gran que és tot. Edifici de la ibm, parc temàtic de tot xina quan veiem edificis tibetans allà al mig de carrer. Molt sorpresos deduim que deu ser un "poble espanyol" de Xina.
Metro i al centre després de caminar mooolt buscant l'entrada al temple de la pagoda que es veu alta, prop del niu... i res, deduim que aquesta pagoda és una reproducció del parc temàtic! Una santa volta per trobar la pagoda i l'entrada de metro...quan la teniem al costat d'on vam començar a caminar, pel cantó contrari! grrr Edicifi de IBM
Sopem mcdonalds??
8, summer palace
Després de gairebé una hora de metro, dos canvis i tota una línia, arribem a la zona del summer palace. Perduts a la sortida. Cap indicació a la vista, només un mur que et podia fer pensar que era la delimitació del palau. Prèvia experiencia amb un mur de similars característiques que la J i jo ja ens vam topar a Beijing's Temple of Heaven fa un parell d'anys.
Entrada al recinte, nowhere to be seen. Ens indiquen recta i a la dreta, girem i més mur que no s'acaba mai. Entrada! Diversos tipus d'entrada segons què vulguis visitar. Esmorzem entrepà sandwich (europeu) i cafè i cap a dins! De postal, llàstima que el dia estigués entrenyinat. Una lleugera i homogènia boirina cobria la zona. No ho enlletgia, ans al contrari, li donava un aire misteriós com de dia de pluja, però no és el que vols trobar-te quan vas de vacances. La pregunta és: és boirina, contaminació o smog? El lloc es un turó verd, dins Beijing però lluny del centre.
El summer palace de la dinastia Qing, i capritx arquitectonic de la Sissí, emperadriu, per fugir de la humitat de Beijing a l'estiu.No m'estranya, a l'octubre hi fa xafogor però amics que hi han estat a l'agost, es veu que és mortal!
Tot molt bonic, molt xinès, els colors imperials de verd i vermell hi són omnipresents, obvi pero cal mencionar-ho. Tal belleas la culmina tot un racó preciós, ple de salzes i passadissos coberts i construccions típiques xineses ple d'estudiants d'art fent la seva interpretació del lloc amb pintura i paper. Preciós. Un lloc ensisador, típic de postal, dels que sembla que siguin extrets de contes de fades o sets de pel·licula, com si realment no existissin hahahaha. Equiparable al Yu gardens de Shanghai.No us perdeu cap dels dos llocs.
Comprem dinar al super i mengem a l'alberg de cansats que ja comencem a estar, porsche groc al carrer. Sortim de nou...a...?
Dia 9
Dia 10
Matí al llit, refredada. El s va la Ciutat Prohibida i jo em quedo al llit. A la tarda anem al parc Jingshan amb vistes a la ciutat prohibida i tot beijing. Que bonic, l'altre vegada no ho havia vist. Lotus, grans gerros amb aigua i nenúfars. Gent de minories ètniques amb vestimenta tradicional visitant la ciutat, guiris al seu propi país. Un dia preciós, i amb sol i sense massa boira ni smog. Des d'allà tens una perpectiva de tota la ciutat, la immensitat i el contrast en els seus edificis, la superficie de la Ciutat Prohibida en un oasi de tranquil·litat.
dia 11
muralla xina, jo encara refredada. Contractem excursió a través del hostel.
recollim altra gent de diferents hotels, ...
emoció al divisar-la desde la furgo. Ara sí que em fa certa il·lusió veure-ho. Fins ara, venia més pel S que per què jo la volgués veure, de fet el primer cop a Beijing, tant Jud com jo no ens interessava especialment.
Entrades, quedem amb el conductor per l'hora i lloc de tornada i ens enfilem.Vam tenir la gran sort de poder-hi anar entre setmana i amb prou feines hi havia gent. Als caps de setmana s'omple de gom a gom sempre.
telefèric, ... trams, el sergio flipa. Molta pendent. Quin tram? Mutiyanyu crec que era el tram que fem entre els tres més propers a la capital, però no el que més. Està dividida en trams, més o menys allunyats de la capital, en més o menys bon estat.
Quina bestiesa fer una construcción d'aquestes característiques. Res que no hàgim sentit tots abans però ser allà convida a la reflexió i verbalitzar-ho, expressar-ho. La llargada, l'amplada, les dimensions de les torres i el grau d'inclinació tot perfilant els cims de les muntanyes. A qui se li acut fer una desfensa així?!
El S queda flipat i enamorat. El millor del viatge per ell, tot i que Shanghai ens ha agradat moltíssim a tots dos. Flipa d'estar allà. Ell no volia marxar de Xina sense veure aquest monument.
No hi fa calor, s'està bé, jo porto una mocador de coll que llavors m'he de treure a mesura que va entrant el dia, i amb els passos sobre el terreny tant poc homogèni i escalons tant alts per accedir a les torres i anar fent cims!
El S puja un tram que es veia massa enfilat pel meu estat físic. Jo l'espero en un punt i em dedico a admirar vistes i fer fotos dels teulats i d'ell a mida que va ascendint. Segur que li agradarà! :-9
Baixem pel tobogan, jo no les tenia totes perquè em sento una mica patosa però la veritat és que és xulo tot i que el S em diu que anava molt a poc a poc i vaig provocar una mica de cua, cosa que no crec que sigui certa perquè van permeten el pas segons el nombre de gent descendent. En fi, ... que va estar xulo. Aquesta opció per baixar resulta més econòmica que el telefèric i sense dubte és més divertida. Puges en telefèric i per baixar tens la opció d'a peu, tobogan o telefèric.
Tinc coneguts que critiquen al fet d'anar a llocs turistics perquè han estat reconstruits. pel turisme però hi ha llocs que val la pena aquesta reconstrucció per entendre què representava aquest ara-monument en el seu moment: ja per les dimension, ubicació, simbolisme, etc i aquest n'és un.
tornem en furgoneta
Beijing i la gent ballant
Monday, 28 July 2014
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
TianTan, Lantau, Hong Kong
Just a short boat ride away, you have Lantau island, where the International Hong Kong airport is located, in the north. There lays a 26m tall buddha right in the middle of the island. Visitors of the TianTan budda and the Po Lin temple and buddha take any of the regular buses taking you to the site, once you get off the ferry. I can't remember costs nor times but popular as it is, they are frequent.
A lush winding road takes you there. Worth a visit indeed, and worth the steep climb to the Buddha.
Beautiful trees, unbelievable big incense sticks? what? poles!
Beaches and vegation and peace and quiet just a short distance away from the hustle and bustle of warren of streets of Hong Kong proper.
You can't get lost in there. Take a look at google maps satellite view. TianTan Buddha Lantau. The big car park on the right of the buddha is where buses depart from . There are shops, refreshments and touristy things to rid you of your money and meet your needs on hot summer days, etc.
Here is a map:
bus back, winding roads, etc and...once in Muy Wo, where the ferries arrive and depart from, on the ferry terminal to sail back to HK mainland, we decide to explore a bit further and take a stroll to one beach on sight. Silvermine Bay beach, a 10 minute walk. It's a nice and simple little bay with a resort as its main attraction, it would appear. I bathe my feet in the water, sharing space with a little crab.
It was dusk by the time we walked back to board the ferry and pitch dark when we arrived at the Hong Kong island pier. If only I had known how much there was to do and see I'd have stayed two full weeks in the HK territories!
A lush winding road takes you there. Worth a visit indeed, and worth the steep climb to the Buddha.
Beautiful trees, unbelievable big incense sticks? what? poles!
Beaches and vegation and peace and quiet just a short distance away from the hustle and bustle of warren of streets of Hong Kong proper.
You can't get lost in there. Take a look at google maps satellite view. TianTan Buddha Lantau. The big car park on the right of the buddha is where buses depart from . There are shops, refreshments and touristy things to rid you of your money and meet your needs on hot summer days, etc.
Here is a map:
 |
| Add caption |
It was dusk by the time we walked back to board the ferry and pitch dark when we arrived at the Hong Kong island pier. If only I had known how much there was to do and see I'd have stayed two full weeks in the HK territories!
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Hong Kong
Españoles en el mundo
cage dwellers in HK, do you want to live in a zoo? video in youtube
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/hong-kong-buildings-tong-lau-panoramas/index.html
April 2018
Buildings: old and shabby and crumbling it would appear from the outsider, well below the standards of Health and Safety in the UK at first sight. Iron bars, dodgy electricity cables, small windows blackened by dirt and pollution and passage of time. High and low, new and glass right next to old ones. No taste, need for vertical accommodation prevails to accommodate the 7 million inhabitants. Textile workshops on 10th floors, business inside what looks like a flat. Flats divided into smaller cubicles accommodating for whole families, in the size of a small double room. Honest. This, when the next door can be a textile sweathop or a storehouse or who knows what... (what I learned later, one room accommodating 4 or 6 strangers living in cages, literally for 300 dollars (HK or $?a month - learned this in feb 2015) Appearance of dodge right next door to an expensive-looking mall that connects to the underground station and it has live on its own, as big as an entire small village in England. Some are really dodgy looKing, the number of high-rises is probably higher than in in NY in an area half the size of Liechestein, in a whooping only 80.5 km2 of the HK island only. Seen from a 55th floor of the IFC (International Finance Centre) is an abherration to nature. The need for verticality to acommodate the “needs” in this tiny, hilly island has led to this lack of sense of aesthetics and incongruity. The past and present. Old and new. Modernity and tradition hand in hand in narrow streets full of contrast. This leads me to the beautiful Buddhist temples sometimos tucked away in lush squares like Tin hau in Kowloon or Man Mo in Central, near Cat street. Just cool. Looking back, i really liked the place (not that I didn’t then) but it’s just very me. Peace and quiet of temples and hassle and bustle of city life. The incense and the lamps and devoted prayers to chubby budas and dusty shelves and candle lit corners. Side streets with chinese medicine shops with lots of weird roots in crystal jars, the ready bowls of tea,
Apparently this Philippino female community, as well as Indonesia, all work as maids with no legal right to apply for HK citizenship. HKese only want them there as maids. There are movements so that this stays like this. Outrageous. Second (third class citizens). Despite this, you see them with such wonderful smiles that you just want to stay and spend time with them.
escalators
mid-levels
cat street and holywood road for art galleries and antiques
cage dwellers in HK, do you want to live in a zoo? video in youtube
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/hong-kong-buildings-tong-lau-panoramas/index.html
April 2018
Hong Kong
verticality from down below:
of the same
photographer:
more from
australia: http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/hong-kong-forest-of-skyscrapers/story-e6frfqb9-1226577724134
domestic help in hong kong - absolutely mind-blowing to see - it was our first full day day and it was unbelieveable!
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161109-a-sunday-ritual-for-300000-women
Hong Kong: According to the 2010 census, there are over 7m inhabitants on 1104km2 (Spain is 505,992,000 km2 and 47m inhabitants whereas Mongolia has fewer than 8m inhabitants on 1,564,115.75 km2.
Colony of the dismantled British Empire till 1999.
HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Coorporation.
domestic help in hong kong - absolutely mind-blowing to see - it was our first full day day and it was unbelieveable!
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161109-a-sunday-ritual-for-300000-women
Hong Kong: According to the 2010 census, there are over 7m inhabitants on 1104km2 (Spain is 505,992,000 km2 and 47m inhabitants whereas Mongolia has fewer than 8m inhabitants on 1,564,115.75 km2.
Colony of the dismantled British Empire till 1999.
HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Coorporation.
Background: I’d looked at Google maps tens of times to
familiarise myself with 1. how to get to our hotel and 2. what the whole place
was like. I also wanted to find out about the Border, Kowloon and the
island proper and the islands and parks and nature on offer in this densely
populated corner of the world. Years before even deciding to visit the
place I’d “walked the streets” on streetview.
We get to Shenzen from Shanghai, still kind of unclear how we were going
to get to Hong Kong territory proper, whether by train bus or what and how long
it'd take. I go up to a bunch of nice students, different nationalities, who
were in our same flight and ask them. They knew not either, and the 7 of us we
head to the info service by the baggage collection belt and ask, once landed.
They claim there's not train or metro and that we must take a bus but
fortunately, that bit of information I did know is a lie as there is most
certainly trains and metro connecting to HK. Again, it pays to have done a
bit of prior reading if you don't want to fall prey of their shenanigans.
So, do do a bit of reading beforehand ...
Metro at airport to border: We walk out and immediately
see the signs of trains, make a left on stepping out. the journey's dirt cheap,
because it's still China, but not as much as in China proper. Shenzen - border
9 yuans, which we got from a machine after patiently queueing for what was a
very long time, ages, in a very very slow moving queue. It shocked us their
ability to jump the queue and laugh at your face! bribe other queuers to get
them their tickets, etc. Very very hot and unpleasant there. Very very chaotic.
Only 4 machines. Over one hour to get to the border proper.
Follow the signs, and off we head to immigration and customs. It kind of looks like a semi run-down shopping mall. It's pitch dark. It's all almost empty. The signs are for chinese/Hk citizens and foreigners. We sort out the paperwork and we get to the train station.
Now it's time to change money, yuans into HK dollars, so that we can purchase the Hong Kong train token.
We briefly chat to a dodgy looking Englishman who asked us whether we'd sorted our accommodation as it was a holiday, it'd be hard to find, etc. We got rid of him in a flash. We leave the guys behind when getting tickets and rush to platforms as there's a train leaving in a couple of minutes, surprisingly from the ticket machines to platforms's just a very short walk! Bought ticket from a machin next to the end of the line, but not to our final stop..let’s see what happens. Quiet train. we change trains at the end of the line, to our destination aware that we hadn't purchased the ticket for that one.. we do it anyway, regardless of what may happen once there, we tried our luck. We tried our lack and have to pay the difference to get out, cool. It could have been a fine, and it’s just the difference. No going back, no fines, no reprimands. Tsim Tsha Sui. Darkish side-ish street, off Nathan road. Night time, but busy, and full of neon lights. Big canvas ad being propped down.
Walking up, or is it down?, before the busy street, and the lights of these shops glaring at full blast, and the big old neon signs as tall as a block of flats in Barcelona, bright, and colourful, with dodgy electricity and cabling here and there...it's just amazing to be here. Looks like the signs are going to fall off any time and kill the unfortunate passers-by underneath. Vertical, horizontal, big and smaller, most on, some off. Just like in the pics I'd seen. Incredible.
We walk until I see the big Rolex sign I’d seen on my streetview research. Odyssey as feared or preparation will pay off? It does! just like I'd seen it'd be. It does pay off to get informed, it certainly makes these things easier (might talk about this in some other entry).
Hotel? Worse room we’ll ever be/'ve ever been in. Ever.
I knew it'd be very small, I'd knew what to expect but still. It still comes a bit as a shock! but it's small and affordable or just too expensive. We've got a window, which is a very good deal in HK and a tiny private bath, of course! About the water tank... we’ve got to fill it with the shower thingy, not tank lid, very very small. The lady of the room asks for more money because it’s a holiday, hubbie gets pissed of because of the size of the room, ...now that I remember, I’d only booked it in case I didn’t find anything thing else better, but i fear that the moment I made the reservation, this felt like one thing off the list!
Hong Kong, like nothing we've ever seen in china, blows-your-mind, is mind-blowing, it’s unbelievable, astonishing. The one thing I remember is people queuing to go into the Prada shop well before opening time. People dragging wheelie cases which I am sure were going to be loaded with their expensive purchases. A lot of money being flaunted around there. Amazing, new and luxiriours-looking shopping centres, top-end shops and customers to satisfy their egos with expensive and luxury goods and cars up and down the streets and parked by pavements Lamborginis were the norm!
Follow the signs, and off we head to immigration and customs. It kind of looks like a semi run-down shopping mall. It's pitch dark. It's all almost empty. The signs are for chinese/Hk citizens and foreigners. We sort out the paperwork and we get to the train station.
Now it's time to change money, yuans into HK dollars, so that we can purchase the Hong Kong train token.
We briefly chat to a dodgy looking Englishman who asked us whether we'd sorted our accommodation as it was a holiday, it'd be hard to find, etc. We got rid of him in a flash. We leave the guys behind when getting tickets and rush to platforms as there's a train leaving in a couple of minutes, surprisingly from the ticket machines to platforms's just a very short walk! Bought ticket from a machin next to the end of the line, but not to our final stop..let’s see what happens. Quiet train. we change trains at the end of the line, to our destination aware that we hadn't purchased the ticket for that one.. we do it anyway, regardless of what may happen once there, we tried our luck. We tried our lack and have to pay the difference to get out, cool. It could have been a fine, and it’s just the difference. No going back, no fines, no reprimands. Tsim Tsha Sui. Darkish side-ish street, off Nathan road. Night time, but busy, and full of neon lights. Big canvas ad being propped down.
Walking up, or is it down?, before the busy street, and the lights of these shops glaring at full blast, and the big old neon signs as tall as a block of flats in Barcelona, bright, and colourful, with dodgy electricity and cabling here and there...it's just amazing to be here. Looks like the signs are going to fall off any time and kill the unfortunate passers-by underneath. Vertical, horizontal, big and smaller, most on, some off. Just like in the pics I'd seen. Incredible.
We walk until I see the big Rolex sign I’d seen on my streetview research. Odyssey as feared or preparation will pay off? It does! just like I'd seen it'd be. It does pay off to get informed, it certainly makes these things easier (might talk about this in some other entry).
Hotel? Worse room we’ll ever be/'ve ever been in. Ever.
I knew it'd be very small, I'd knew what to expect but still. It still comes a bit as a shock! but it's small and affordable or just too expensive. We've got a window, which is a very good deal in HK and a tiny private bath, of course! About the water tank... we’ve got to fill it with the shower thingy, not tank lid, very very small. The lady of the room asks for more money because it’s a holiday, hubbie gets pissed of because of the size of the room, ...now that I remember, I’d only booked it in case I didn’t find anything thing else better, but i fear that the moment I made the reservation, this felt like one thing off the list!
Hong Kong, like nothing we've ever seen in china, blows-your-mind, is mind-blowing, it’s unbelievable, astonishing. The one thing I remember is people queuing to go into the Prada shop well before opening time. People dragging wheelie cases which I am sure were going to be loaded with their expensive purchases. A lot of money being flaunted around there. Amazing, new and luxiriours-looking shopping centres, top-end shops and customers to satisfy their egos with expensive and luxury goods and cars up and down the streets and parked by pavements Lamborginis were the norm!
Morning: We have breakfast, coffee on Nathan road- across the Park, go
up to the quays, we walk down Canton road, Victoria, Salisbury road (avenue of
stars, take in the famous skyline), preparations for party, ... narrow streets,
lunch,... afternoon: TinHau temple-
really liked it, Jade market, ManLing Lane area, ..market, wet market and all
sorts of colourful food, temples, fire, snails, ...old people, fireworks in
Sheraton, throngs of people walking down, spanish family in Sheraton lift, ...
no card, stuck in there...dinner at posh restaurant (nice food, last minute
arrival. Spicy sauce that we buy after getting name – tastes like sobrasada).
Island, day 2: metro to Central. Cat street, antique shops, (toilet in a hotel just before) Man mo
temple..in the island,
Geocaching under the blazing heat.
Buildings: old and shabby and crumbling it would appear from the outsider, well below the standards of Health and Safety in the UK at first sight. Iron bars, dodgy electricity cables, small windows blackened by dirt and pollution and passage of time. High and low, new and glass right next to old ones. No taste, need for vertical accommodation prevails to accommodate the 7 million inhabitants. Textile workshops on 10th floors, business inside what looks like a flat. Flats divided into smaller cubicles accommodating for whole families, in the size of a small double room. Honest. This, when the next door can be a textile sweathop or a storehouse or who knows what... (what I learned later, one room accommodating 4 or 6 strangers living in cages, literally for 300 dollars (HK or $?a month - learned this in feb 2015) Appearance of dodge right next door to an expensive-looking mall that connects to the underground station and it has live on its own, as big as an entire small village in England. Some are really dodgy looKing, the number of high-rises is probably higher than in in NY in an area half the size of Liechestein, in a whooping only 80.5 km2 of the HK island only. Seen from a 55th floor of the IFC (International Finance Centre) is an abherration to nature. The need for verticality to acommodate the “needs” in this tiny, hilly island has led to this lack of sense of aesthetics and incongruity. The past and present. Old and new. Modernity and tradition hand in hand in narrow streets full of contrast. This leads me to the beautiful Buddhist temples sometimos tucked away in lush squares like Tin hau in Kowloon or Man Mo in Central, near Cat street. Just cool. Looking back, i really liked the place (not that I didn’t then) but it’s just very me. Peace and quiet of temples and hassle and bustle of city life. The incense and the lamps and devoted prayers to chubby budas and dusty shelves and candle lit corners. Side streets with chinese medicine shops with lots of weird roots in crystal jars, the ready bowls of tea,
The elevated roads to make double use of the space, airconditioned
shopping malls which connect to metro stations and take you to another street
level. It’s all a bit confusing, a tangle of lanes, streets, elevations and
escalators!
The picnics of the Philippino
female community were absolutely everywhere, ubiquitous across the city, always
in the shadow, away from the blazing heat. For the purpose of propecting their
stuff and setting limits to their groups, cartoon boxes unfolded,
squared-shaped crèche-like things were set up, plastic sheets and food and
their mobile phones to snap themselves on pics and a big smile on their faces.
No men, only women! When I asked about their men, they said they were at
sporting events, they thought. There is a big populations of Philippinoes in HK
and the ladies work as housemaids and cleaning ladies there. They are all the
time, all, taking pictures of themselves, whether alone or with friends I’d
never seen this degree of vanity in public, and giggling and smiling, what
happy people they seem to be. Waving at me if I looked at them in awe, surprise
and somehow, envy. I asked them why there were so many women around and they said
it’s a bank holiday and that men were had gone to sports matches or something.
It was a pleasure to see them having such fun with such simple thing as a
picnic with friends and a nap after tugging into food in the shadow of tree,
tunnels, etc.Apparently this Philippino female community, as well as Indonesia, all work as maids with no legal right to apply for HK citizenship. HKese only want them there as maids. There are movements so that this stays like this. Outrageous. Second (third class citizens). Despite this, you see them with such wonderful smiles that you just want to stay and spend time with them.
escalators
mid-levels
cat street and holywood road for art galleries and antiques
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Hong Kong
He estat mirant fotos de Hong Kong. Realment és un lloc al·lucinant.
Segons el cens del 2010, més de 7m d'habitants en una superficie de 1104km2 (Espanya en te 505,992,000 km2 i 47m d'habitants i Mongolia menys de 8m d'habitants en 1,564,115.75 km2
Arrivada i primeres hores a Hong Kong
Primera introducció fou de nit. Arribem a Shenzhen al que jo crec una hora decent però ja és gairebé fosc. Al vol hi ha uns nanus americans que més tard ens assabentem que están estudiant a Shanghai, que em criden l'atenció. La presència de Westerners és baixa, som molt pocs els occidentals en vols interns xinesos.
Arribem, esperem les maletes i jo continuo preocupada per quan tardarem en arribar a Hong Kong. Si realment son 4 hores seran les 10 de la nit. Pregunto als nois americans i no en tenen ni idea. Pregunto a un parell de persones i em diuen que una hora fins la fronter en metro (9 yuans) i una mica menys d'una hora de la frontera a hong kong (30 hgd) . Els nois s'enganxen a nosaltres. També hi ha servei de bus. La dona que ven tickets de bus menteix i diu que no hi ha metro davant mateix del rètol que n' indicava la direcció. Tindrà penques.
Això vol dir 2 hores + l'estona a immigració. Immigració vol dir immigració xinesa perquè surts de Xina i immigració Hong kong perquè hi entres. Dos tràmits,dos formularis i dues cues diferents. Ho fem tot junts, amb els americans. A veure si és cert! Bé...Sortim, camimem cap la l'esquerra a buscar el metro. Ben indicat. Tots al metro, cues llarguissimes per comprar el tiquet. Gent que es vol colar o desconeguts que demanen al de davant per comprar-li per estalviar-se la cua, i li faig un gest conforme jo ho he entès. 20 minuts de cua??
Metro, tota la línia verda fins la ultima parada. Per comprar la fitxa del metro, selecciones la parada que vols sobre la pantalla. Frontera. Indicacións més o menys clares. Seguir per immigració, foreigners (estrangers). Es una bona passejada. Targeta de sortida del país.
Caminem més i arribem a la Part de Hong Kong, entrada al país. Colen a gent. Entre una cosa i l'altre portem una hora a immigració i sense haver trobar moltissima cua.
Canviem diners per tal de comprar el ticket de metro que ens porta a Kowloon. Per cert, A Xina la primera/última parada (frontera) s'anomena Luohu però a Hong Kong Lo Wu.
Hi ha una gran plaça, el lloc confon una mica però no ens vam perdre, regne alguna mena de ordre i intuició per sobre el que és "overwhelming" de gran i de barreja.
Bé, un cop tenim els nostres tickets deixem els nanus allà i ens afanyem a agafar el tren que surt en tres minuts i que per sort, de les màquines a l'andana, és un moment! Per cert, hi ha un "quiet carriage", i es origen i final per tant no us podeu equivocar.
Acabo de llegir a algun lloc que hi ha un‘Tourist Cross-boundary Travel Pass’ més barat encara (see the MTR website).
Podem seure, una horeta més de camí. Ara el que no sabem és si amb el mateix tiquet de tren podem fer canvi a un altre metro. Ho fem però conscients que potser haurem de recular. Evidentment no podem sortir, ho demano, ens fa pagar 3HKD i sortim a East TsimTsha Sui station, gràcies als dots orientatius i de lectura de mapes del meu home i al fet que jo sabia quina aparença tenia el lloc on anavem, ho trobem de seguit. Bé ara entrar... el hong kong guest es troba en un edifici enorme, que segons on visquis dins ell, agafes un o un altre ascensor. Val, ho tinc tot apuntat gràcies als comentaris d'altres usuaris.
El lloc no té bona pinta però era de lo baratet... Ens trobem amb la situació descrita al booking.com, no hi ha ningu, hem d'anar a buscar als propietaris. Són 23h de la nit. Per ells i per nosaltres tardissim. Ens diu que es pensava que no ens hi presentariem!...
Beé resumint, una habitació tant petita com jo m'havia imaginat i més del que s'havia imaginat el meu home.
Ens vol cobrar més perquè és festa però això no és responsabilitat meva. Jo vaig reservar a un preu i ho vaig acceptar pel preu. "you are nice people". Excuses que la gent no s'hi presenta, hostelbookers, etc. Good English.No és culpa meva però a mi sempre em fan dubtar per si entren i ens roben mentre no hi som. (Més endavant, m'he assabentat que aquestes habitacions tan petites són pisos subdividits, i tal com vam poder veure a l'anar a buscar la propietaris, hi viuen families senceres dins 7 o 8 m2 o menys! Horroròs. Pq vaig agafar això? Pq s'ajustava a pressupost que volia per una habitació però amb vistes a tenir alguna cosa per si no trobava res més, la meva idea era continuar buscant pero un cop fet, me'n vaig oblidar, ho faig taxar de la meva llista mental de coses a "arrange". Grrr
A dormir, estem reventats. Ens porta una tetera.
1 octubre - primer dia a HK- ens llevem en aquesta habitació poc més gran que un llit de matrimoni + un minuscul bany. La pitjor habitació ensuite que he estat mai, 42€. On caram m'he ficat?! Marxem pitant. Flipem en del warren de passadissons de l'interior d'aquest edifici típic. Sortim direcció Kowloon park en busca d'una cafeteria per esmorzar. Tot està tancat, molt quiet. O és molt aviat o és perquè és festa?
Avui si haguessim estat a Beijing, hauríem vist tot el desplegament militar com un 12 Octubre a Madrid, però a "lo xino", molta més gent, molta més decoració, etc. És el dia de la festa nacional xinesa, que aquí també celebren amb uns focs artificials pel que ens diuen...ara no sé qui ni com, o sí, ho veiem a algun lloc però ens asasbentem ...ah sí al port ho posa, hi ha balles, gent preparada a primera fila arran de mar a punt amb els trípdes i camares ja a primera hora del matí per tal de tenir un lloc privilegiat per enregistrar aquest moment, quan els focs il·luminin el cel des de la illa de HK.
Val, on anem? Volem fer un cafè. Fa fresqueta al matí. Anem amunt, en direcció contraria al mar. Hem decidit explorar kowloon primer, i la illa demà.
Mosque la més gran de HK, Parc i passeig de comic amb estatues de comics tamany humà sinó més gran!, botigues i centre comercial que no s'acaba mai. Molta botiga de productes de salut i natural. A veure si compro per la iaia....però fa por que sigui una estafa o que no m'entenguin.
Ja endinsats al parc, veig una noia mooolt groga, amb ulls que semblen tnacats caminant molt raro. Gent fent taichi, meditant drets i molta noia musulmana fent picnic, homes jugant ja de bon matí amb uns somriures agradables. El s identifica a pullós anglès d'ahir davant les màquines de metro a immigracio HK que parlava d'on dormir etc i que no feia gens de gràcia.
El que més ens impressiona és la quantitat de noies, només noies, que hi ha reunides, preparant picnics i fent-se fotos, vestides iguals, coquetejant davant les pantalles dels seus smartphones, preparant picnics i lluint sabates molt originals algunes d'elles.
La vegetació és d'un verd intens. Un llac amb flamencs preciosos que veiem a través d'un a valla (chicken wire verd) i rodejats de blocs de vidre i ciment, centenars de families visquent al limit de la verticalitat. No puc evitar pensar en el vent i la pluja, i passi el que passi allà dalt deu ser viscut de manera més exposada als elements, encara que estiguis protegit dins casa teva, dins els minusculs habitacles que deuen ser aquests pisos. Defien la verticalitat. Ni a NY he vist alguna cosa així. Bé encara dins el parc sortim per una
Sortim per nord oest (sobre mapa) del parc. Passos a nivell, Hotel Royal Pacific, de vidre daurat. Anem a una mena de port, Vicotria Harbour, on passegem pel que és el sostre d'un edifici. Des d'allà, quedem bocabadats al que veiem. Jo flipo de ser allà! la illa i els seus difuminats gratacels. coberts de boira, aquest famosíssim skyline és més llarg del que em pensava. Edificis alts i de vidre. Un cop més aquí a Àsia, veure en viu el que he vist cops en documentals i llibres em sobrepassa i sento agraïment de poder veure aquests racons de mons exòtics i meravellosos. He de treballar a Àsia una temporada, llàstima de la contaminació.
Pugem per un carrer de compres, Canton Road, el qual per accedir-hi hem d'entrar per un hotel, on anem a parar a un centre compercial, dins l'hotel que en porta a nivell de carrer (a baix) i compres!! A la farmacia aprofito per comprar coses per l'artrosis de la iaia amb gestos de mal a les articulacions! m'haurien donat un premi de mimica! hahaha. Farmacia Watsons, dins el centre comercial de Royal Pacific hotel imagino...
Gent fent cua a botigues cares: prada, gucci, etc. Gent fent cua per entrar, amb maletes de rodes. Centres comercials preciosos, super moderns i chic! Gent amb iphones i ipads amb roba cara o el que sembla car. Es com NY. La parella que es casa, sortint del cotxe amb la noia que els protegeix amb un paraigua, homes elegants com sortits de revistes de moda, aparadors cars. Crec que el de Luis Vuitton tenia peces d'art que vam veure a una expo a Shanghai uns dies abans.
kowloon public pier and watch tower, tot decorat per la festa d'avui nit, m'atrauen molt les noies musulmanes i les seves vestimentes, colors i sabates especialment.
d'aquí ens endinsem cap dins als carrers i carrerons de la part sud est (sobre mapa, a la dreta de Nathan road) del Kowloon, rètols, tota mena de botigues sense el glamour de Canton Road, un Hong Kong més típic, més d'anar tirant, comerciants, botiguetes atapaides, edificis vells i mal conservats, tots amb els aparells d'aire acondicionat, cablejat elèctric a la vista,
Dinem en un lloc on tallen callos a la finestra del restaurant. Té pinta de cadena local. Yuen Kee restaurant. Correcte, res destacable.
voltem pels carrers, observant i mirant. Em fixo amb el constrat del edificis, és inevitable no veure-ho, em fixo amb les bastides de bambú amb la punta del terra tallada en forma de punta, en diagonal, el qual fa que el contacte sigui només a través d'un sol punt. < pel que fa al bambú, a Asia es construeixen edificis de 50 o 60 plantes amb bastides de bambú. Pel que sembla és resistent i alhora flexible. Digne de veure. Cal dir que si ho fan així, serà perquè els funciona.>
Estem per Man Ming Lin o lane..street.
Vespre, pugem per temple street i voltants: mercat, menjar, temple, ....
El temple TinHau (yau mai tei ) en una placeta, es preciós amb els espirals d'incens, el vermell, ...molt bonic, temple street cantonada amb public street.
Jade market
food market, incendi
sabates de goma que m'hi compro en una parada
mercat i colors verds de la fruita ben posada
wet market i peix viu de tota mena en galledes
cargols a la tarda vespre, en les parades de menjar pel mercat del Temple street night market, on hi ha de tot i més, souvenirs, bols, fundes per mobils i tablets, tot el que et puguis imaginar i més!
Focs artificials des del Sheraton, probem de veure'ls des de la cafeteria encara que hàgim de pagar un preu "desorbitat" per una cervesa però malauradament, aquesta nit només està obert pels clients de l'hotel, aprofito per fer fotos des de la finestra lateral i hi ha multituds baixant per Nathan Road. Uns espanyols a l'ascensor que ens porta a baix i acabem mirant els focs des del garatge de l'hotel, sense multituds ni perills d'empentes ni robatoris i un pel més elevats que a peu de carrer. La gent ho mira a través del mobil, hi ha gent que ha filmat tot l'acte. Duren, són llargs i no escatimen en recursos. Bonic.
Estem flipant.
Dinner? after fireworks? in fancy classic restaurant?
argument in our "room", a foreigner complains about the size and the conditions of accommodation. we are a bit scared in case the thing scalates. We eavesdrop from the toilet window. It goes on for a good 20 minutes?
following morning, we head for Central area in HK island. Skyline now will be Kowloon.
We buy buns and pastries in a western looking, well-stocked bakery and eat there, together with a wee bunch of other women. It's Oct 2nd.
geocaching in the gardens near Cenothaph, couple taking loving photos of themselves, while he is desperately trying to get a kiss from her. Hot. Financial centre
and Lantau island in the afternoon.
Hong Kong in the guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/hongkong
El dia 6,
Changchun - Beijing en tren
a una mica més de la meitat del viatge, esmorzem amb calma i anem a agafar el tren cap a Beijing. És el dia abans del final de la festa - recordem que els xinesos han tingut uns 10 dies de festa aquest any perquè s'ha ajuntat la festa de la lluna plena i el "China National Day" (parlaré d'això més endavant). Per qualsevol desplaçament intern havíem previst arribar a aeroports i estacions amb temps perquè si Xina en condicions normals està plena de xinos, en dies de festa com aquests en que tota la població es desplaça a veure familiars i de vacances i volta, pot resultar complicat. Aparellem això al fet que no fan cues, que es colen a on on poden, que van carregats amb caixes, bosses i paquests i maletes de rodes i tenim un xina en ebulllició.
Bé, dues hores abans de l'hora de sortida ens encaminem cap a l'estació de Changchun en cotxe, acabem ficats en carrerons plens de gent i paradedetes dels quals no sabem com sortir-ne. Ulls clavats al conductor del cotxe carregat blancs. L'estació descobrim que és enorme. Com no? Tot aquí és fet a "lo grande". Entrem per l'entrada est, sense veure cap altra entrada. Ens fiquem en un mar de gent que tb vol anar al vestibul principal, per passadissos vells fins a arribar a una part amplia i nova que ja reparteix i distribueix a la gent a diferents parts de l'estació. No tenim ni idea on hem d'anar però ensenyant el tiquet ens van indicant.
Passem les maletes per scanner pel que representa l'entrada nord, just a l'altre cantó d'on havíem entrat nosaltres. En fi,una odissea
Allà ja ens despedim dels acompanyants i mig flipats per les dimensions de la gran sala d'espera central identifiquem el nostre "gate", ja ple de gent esperant que obrin les portes.
Ens colem cap al davant esperant que obrin portes per la zona on m'he ficat. Una baralla davant nostre. Obren i entrem! Es surrealista. Les andanes son noves, trobem el vagó, sembla primera classe, mantell de punta, floretes de plastique i roba de llit en una cabina de 4, som nosaltres dos i una noia que aviat marxa i ve un home. . A les 13.05 en punt surt el tren.
Dormim, escric, miro per la finestra, observem la gent. No tenim menjar. Per sort a la seva hora de sopar, entre 5 i 6, passa una dona venen menjar i ens salva! Que contents estem de menjar-nos uns noodles!
A quarts de 9 del vespre arribem a Beijing.
El tren de Changchun a Beijing ens ha costat uns 35 euros, i era dels cars. Hem hagut d'agafar un tren de dia i car perquè no hi havia més disponibilitat fins dimarts seguent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)