R.O.A.R.: Shanghai - Westlake in Hangzhou

7th April 2009

Three weeks in Shanghai and I'm starting to learn about my surroundings e.g. I'm told that Shanghai is divided into 2 main areas: Pudong (pronounced Poodong) and Pushi (pronounced Pooshi). I live in the latter district and with the poo theme it is easy to remember, especially as one final consonant on 'Pooshi' and the theme continues... I just have to remember not to make a faux pas when spelling or saying it!

Monday 6th of April was a public holiday: Tomb Sweeping Day. I'm looking forward to more public holidays next month: May Day (May 1-3) which, like Australia, celebrates the 40-hour working week; also, Dragon Boat Festival (May 28-30): an extract from Google tells me

"Of all the major holidays celebrated in China, Dragon Boat Festival has the longest history. Occurring at the beginning of summer when insects thrive, the festival was distinguished from other occasions in earlier days as a time for reminding family members to take care of their health".

Last Saturday the students invited me to visit Chongming Island, a county of Shanghai.

"It is in the middle of the Yangtze as an alluvial island formed by silt carried along the river".

Unfortunately I had some business to attend to and could not go. However, on the Monday I did take up an invitation to go for a 50km round-trip bike ride to Century Park with a keen student rider. On my 558 yuan ($116) bike I was able to keep up with him on his 5000 yuan ($1,040) machine. He later dubbed me "The Energetic Man". The park, with its lake, was huge and very scenic.

The previous weekend I did take up the students invitation to visit the very popular and picturesque Westlake in Hangzhou (approx 2.5 hours from Shanghai, by bus) - refer photos. I'm told a very fast train is (or is about to be) in service which will only take 40 minutes! It may well be the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train which currently runs from Pudong to the airport: one report says

"Smiles abound inside the sleek train as, with a breathtaking whoosh, it rockets to 300 kilometers per hour in two minutes flat. Overhead, like a giant scoreboard, an LED blinks out our record-breaking progress till we top 430 kph"!