After exiting the station, I found myself standing in a big, dirty, open area filled with hundreds of Chinese people sitting around waiting for something. Some might have been waiting for trains, others for friends, but most looked like they had been there a while and would be there for quite a while longer. The sky was smoggy and it was cold. There were no maps and very few signs, so it was hard to get my bearings at first. Overall, Shanghai station is not the most welcoming place for a new visitor.

I decided to go for a wander to stretch my legs. I had two things to do before I did anything else. First, I had to find an ATM because I had no money, and then I had to find a travel agency and make a hotel booking. One interesting thing I noticed while wandering round Hong Kong was that there were official China Travel Service (CTS) Offices everywhere. Anytime you needed travel related help you could be sure to find an office close by. I decided to take the more adventurous route and come to Shanghai without a hotel booking, figuring that there would be CTS offices in Shanghai as well. I was surprised to find that Shanghai was nothing like HK, and that there were no CTS offices anywhere. In fact, during my time in China I only saw a couple of travel agencies and they all looked pretty dodgey (and not particularly foreigner friendly).

So I set off in search of an ATM. Around the station square there were a number of shopping centres, but most of them were nothing more than concrete buildings filled with small stalls. None of them had a bank, so I wandered further from the station. As I was wandering I started to soak in the Shanghai atmosphere (and the polluted air). The first thing I noticed was that I could understand a lot more than I expected. Before coming to China I hadn't really studied any Chinese. In fact, the only words I knew were 'Hello', 'thank you', 'yes' and 'no'. However, I found that I could read a lot of Chinese because it was similar to the Japanese kanji characters that I see everyday. When Japan was designing their writing system they incorporated a lot of Chinese characters. Since then, some of the characters have been altered and some have been replaced. China has also simplified a lot of their characters making them different from the characters used in Japan. However, most of the characters were similar enough that I could understand the meaning. For example, the two characters for 'bank' were the same in Japanese and Chinese. This was helpful because it helped me find an ATM much faster than I could have if I hadn't been able to speak Japanese. I got some cash and headed back to the station to plan my next move.

I pulled out my travel guide, a small and not particularly informative book that I'd picked up in HK, and looked through it for information about travel agencies. Towards the back I found a passage mentioning the fact that there are very few agencies in mainland China (oops, perhaps I should have read that sooner...), but it also mentioned one that could be helpful. It was located at 1440 Beijing Road (in Shanghai, not Beijing). I checked my map and found that Beijing Road was a very long main road in central Shanghai. In fact, it was so long that it was split into West and East Beijing Rd (many of the roads in Shanghai are split into East/West, North/South and Central). Unfortunately, the guide didn't specify whether it was 1440 East or West. I decided to catch the subway to a station near the point that East meets West, so I went down to the subway station under Shanghai station. I found my destination on a subway map, which also showed the value of the ticket I had to buy, and went to the ticket booth.

As I'd just come from the ATM, I only had large denomination bills. In typical Chinese service industry style, the guy in the ticket booth looked annoyed that he had to stop his daydreaming to sell me a ticket, annoyed that he had to deal with someone who couldn't speak Chinese, and particularly annoyed that I was buying a 3 yuan (about 45c) ticket with a 100 yuan note (about A$15). This meant he would not only have to go through the process of checking the note to see if it was counterfeit, but then he would have to pull out his calculator and do some arithmetic to work out how much change I needed. Two important points here: first, every single time I payed with a 100 yuan note it was checked. They rub the note, put it up to the light, check the holographic strip and, in the more modern shops, put it through an electronic scanner. It wasn't just me that got checked, it was everyone. Counterfeiting is such a problem that the shop people take the checking very, very seriously. Although none of my notes were rejected, I did see other people get their notes rejected on a few different occasions. This is one of the reasons that I only got money from ATMs (after it had been checked by the bank), and not through money changers. Second point, just about every who handles money uses a calculator. In shops that deal with foreigners, it is helpful because it makes communication easier. You can use the calculator for bargaining and not have to worry about language problems. But in other shop, like convenience stores, the staff will use the calculator because they obviously have trouble doing simple arithmetic (like the ticket guy who had trouble working out 100-3=?). For me it was a little strange, but I guess it's normal for a country that has many people with limited education.

So, I got my ticket and headed off to the train.

I'm going to skip a little and come back to my feelings about the Shanghai underground later. It's a story that deserves a post of its own.

I arrived at the People's Square station which is right in the middle of Shanghai, and sat down to eat a sandwich and plan my next move. Looking around I could see lots of tall and uniquely designed buildings, big shopping centres, a park, a museum, a big art gallery, cars, taxis and people, people and more people. Shanghai is definitely a vibrant city, and People's Square is centre of all the commotion. One thing that Shanghai has going for it is that even though it's a big city with a big population, a lot of the attractions are either centrally located or are accessed easily from the subway. Sitting in People's Square, I was within 10 minutes walk of the popular Nanjing Road shopping area, numerous museums, galleries, restaurants and gardens and a countless number of other tourist attractions.




While I was enjoying my sandwich and studying the map, I was approached by a young woman and her two companions. "Hi, where are you from?", she asked in English. "Uh... Australia", I answered. Bad move. I shouldn't have answered. This girl was part of a group of people that I came to know as the 'English Pests'. As soon as they have started a conversation with you it's very hard to get rid of them. Although some of them are involved in scams, most of them simply want to practice English with a real English speaker. They hang out in public places waiting for foreigners to walk by, then they follow you and try to talk with you. Now, there's nothing wrong with this in principle, but for me it's a real pain. My job involves speaking English with foreigners. When I'm on holiday I want to be free to do my own thing. I don't want to have people following me around trying to talk to me. And I certainly don't want to be doing my job while I'm on holiday.

After working my way out of the conversation with the English Pests, I walked for about ten minutes to the spot where East meets West (Beijing Road, that is). For no particular reason I decided to start walking along East, but I soon discovered that the numbers were descending from 1000, which meant I was going the wrong way. When I crossed over to West, I discovered that the numbers were ascending, but from 1. This meant I had to walk from 1 to 1400. Great. But, as I mentioned before, I felt like a walk after spending the night on the train.

As I walked I got to see a less touristy part of Shanghai. I saw shops, restaurants, hotels and various other businesses that cater to locals only. I walked past one long shopping strip that had small shops selling all kinds of hardware, but the interesting thing was that most shops only specialised in one thing. There was the 'hammer' shop, the 'saw blade' shop, the 'tap washer' shop etc.

The long walk also gave me a chance to get used to traffic in Shanghai. The traffic there is really terrible, but not just because of the amount of cars. China is one of those countries where the only real rule is that the bigger vehicle has right of way. This means that buses and trucks have right over way over cars, which have right of way over motorbikes, which have right of way of bicycles. Right at the bottom is the pedestrian. Even if you have a green light and the cars have a red light, you have to be very careful because cars will regularly ignore lights and expect pedestrians to get out of the way. China is also one of those countries that has the rule which allows cars turning right (the equivalent of an Australian left turn) to turn on a red light. I'm sure the actual rule states that they should 'turn right only if it's safe', but generally they will just plow through a group of pedestrians and expect them to get out of the way.

After a while I reached the address in the guide book. It was a big, normal looking office building. I went up to the 7th floor, as was written in the book, but there were just offices everywhere with cubicles. There certainly wasn't anything that looked like a travel agency. After randomly poking my head into a bunch of offices someone took pity on me and directed me to the right one. There was a lady there who spoke good English and organised a hotel for me. It was a little more expensive than it would have been had I booked it on the internet, but ag the time I didn't mind. While we waited for the hotel confirmation the lady tried to give me some Chinese lessons. By the time we had got to the fourth phrase I had already forgotten the first two, and by the time I left the building I had forgotten them all.

The hotel was only about 2kms from the office so I decided to walk. I wasn't really sure what to expect. All I had been told was that it was a decent 3-star hotel. The rating 3-star could mean anything depending on what country you're in. In Japan, you wouldn't want to go much lower than 3-star. In other countries, 3-star could be luxurious.

As I walked to the hotel I passed the exhibition building and some big 5-star hotels and shopping centres. One thing that you can be sure of in Shanghai is that 5-star means 5-star. In fact, in China in general, the rich live very opulent lives. All the expensive brands of clothes, cars, wine etc. that you could expect to get in cities like Paris or New York, you can find in Shanghai. While I was walking past a big, designer shopping centre a Chinese guy started walking beside me. He pulled out a watch case and opened it up. "You want Rolex? Nice Rolex! Cheap, cheap!". As I was walking I couldn't help looking down at the watch (it was a pretty fake looking Rolex), and although I wasn't in the least bit interested this guy though that maybe he had found a sucker. "Rolex, only 200. 200 is real cheap!". I politely declined, but he continued to walk with me. "OK, I give discount. 120! Cheap, cheap!"........ "OK, I give you 2 Rolex, man and woman... only 120. Cheap!"...... "OK, 2 Rolex, only 80! So cheap!"...... (pulling out a new case)..... "How about pen? Mont Blanc pen! Very nice! Only 50! Cheap!".... "OK, I give you 2 Rolex and Mont Blanc pen, only 50! So cheap! I lose money.... my family no eat because so cheap...". Unbelievably, this guy followed me for ten minutes as we walked along a fairly quiet (for Shanghai) boulevard. I couldn't help but chuckle at his persistence and the ease with which his price dropped. Finally, he gave up and wandered off (probably because we arrived at a busier area which meant more chance of police). It wasn't until a few days later that I realised two fake Rolex watches and a fake Mont Blanc pen for a total of about A$7.50 would have made some interesting souvenirs for someone. Oh well.

Things began looking good as I found my hotel. Having seen a lot of Shanghai so far I had pretty low expectations of what a 3-star hotel would be, but it turned out to be great. I checked in (the staff were typically cold and unwelcoming) and went to my room. It was bigger than I expected, with a big queen size bed, a sitting area, a nice bathroom (with water that was only a little brown - don't drink the water in China!) and 80 channels of weird Chinese TV.

But the best thing about the hotel wasn't the rooms, it was the location. It was right above a subway station only 2 stops from the main interchange, People's Square. Across the road was an old temple, one of the few remaining historical buildings in Shanghai. There was also a massive shopping centre, lots of smaller shops and restaurants and a decent park. All this was within a few minutes walk of the hotel. Perfect for a foreign traveller.

I had a quick shower and rest and then set off for a wander. As I did in HK, I didn't take a camera or map, I just focused on getting to know the city. Also, as I did in HK, I walked way too far. I must have walked for about 6 hours straight and I saw pretty much all the main attractions in central Shanghai. Over the next few days I visited most of them again, so I won't talk about them now.

I came back to the hotel hungry, exhausted and with muscle pains in both my legs. All I could think about was getting something to eat and sitting down for a while, so I dropped in at a 'French style' Chinese bakery to get some food, and the convenience store next door to get some drinks and snacks. The convenience store was a 'Lawsons', which is a common Japanese store, but it didn't really have the variety that the Japanese Lawsons has. However, you can't complain about the price. Things in China are so cheap it's hard to get used to. I got a 600ml Gatorade, a 600ml Pepsi and a big chocolate bar. In Japan, that would cost about A$5. In an Australian 7-11, that would cost about A$10. At the footy, that would cost about A$25. In China, it cost me about $A1.50. Of course, I'm not so sure that the ingredients are the same. Some of the common western foods and drinks I had during my trip definitely had a unique 'Chinese' taste.

At around 9:30 I got back to my room a settled down for a feast (I went a little over the top at the bakery) and some Chinese TV. The food was pretty good, although I'm not so sure about the 'Hairy Bun' (that's what it was called):
It really did taste hairy. But in a good kind of way.

It was lights out by about 11:00 as I had a big day planned for tomorrow.

My report on China hasn't been particularly interesting so far. I did this, I did that, a photo or two...
Things should get more interesting from now as I enter China proper. Hong Kong, while being a good city for getting a taste of China, isn't REAL China. I prefer to think of it as "China Lite". HK is fairly clean, lots of people speak English, people are generally friendly and it is a fairly easy place to visit. In other words, it is all the things that China isn't. Hopefully you'll get the idea as I talk about my trip through Shanghai, Beijing and then back to HK.

Oh, and another note before I start. I will hopefully talk about a lot of stuff, and mixed in with the good things there will be quite a few bad things. At certain points I will complain about this or that and probably criticize China or Chinese people. But this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my trip. In fact, I had a great time. The reason I chose China was because I wanted to see what China was really like. I wanted to see the beauty while also seeing the filth. I didn't want to have a glossed over holiday with tour guides taking me here and there and doing everything for me. If I'd wanted an easy and relaxing trip I would have gone to a beach resort somewhere. I wanted to experience life in China, and while I may be critical of certain aspects, I'm certainly not suggesting that China should change. China is China, Chinese people are Chinese, and they have every right to do whatever they want with their own country. So, if I say something is 'dirty' or 'stupid', I just mean it is dirty or stupid in relation to what I'm accustomed to. I'm not suggesting it is better or worse, just different. I felt I needed to say this because there is nothing I hate more while traveling than seeing people who are pissed off because something is different from the way it is in their own country. Yes, as you may have guessed, this comment is directed particularly at American travelers. No matter how loud you speak and how much arm waving you do, it's not going to help the Chinese guy understand what you are saying. Anyway, on with the story...

So, on the third day of my trip I woke up, checked out, caught a taxi to the station, checked in my bags, went for a wander back in town, had lunch, came back to the station, bought some food and drinks and a magazine for the train and sat down and had a rest for about half an hour or so until it was time to board the train. By now I'd been on the go for quite a while. It had been at least 10 days since I'd had a proper rest day, so I was pretty tired. I picked a quiet spot in the waiting area and sat down to relax.



While I was waiting in the station a lady came up to me. After being hassled by touts for the last few days I wasn't in a particularly friendly mood. Everyone who had approached me so far had been selling something or had wanted something from me. I was about to brush this lady off when she told me that she was from the HK travel bureau and wanted to do a quick survey. I had nothing better to do, so I agreed. The survey took about 5 minutes, and what surprised me most was that the state of my life at the moment makes it quite hard to answer some simple survey questions. Even simple questions like "Where are you from?" are difficult to answer. I answered "Australia", but then when I was asked when I arrived from Australia I had to explain that I didn't come from Australia, I came from Japan, where I'm working. I had to explain that I was going to China, but I'd be coming back to HK in a few days. I had to explain that my purpose for visiting HK was mainly sightseeing, but that I hadn't really visited any particular sights (like museums or theaters). I had to explain that I arrived by plane but was departing by train, only to return by train then depart by plane. None of these questions were easy to enter on the computerised survey program the lady was using. By the end of the survey I had given up and had started making up answers, but I don't think the lady really cared.

At about 3:00pm I went through the immigration and customs procedures and boarded the train. Now that I was on the train I had technically left HK, but until we arrived in Shanghai I hadn't technically entered China. This meant that once everyone was aboard the train was securely locked and nobody was allowed out. Too bad if you're claustrophobic.

I found my bunk area and discovered I was sharing it with 3 other people, a Chinese mother and her 5 y.o. son who had been shopping in HK, and a Korean guy who spoke pretty good Chinese and some English. There was supposed to be another old guy, but he had been assigned the top bunk and wasn't able to climb up there, so he moved to another carriage. The sleeping area looked like this:
I was glad that I chose the top bunk, as I was able to climb up there for some peace and quiet anytime I wanted to. Also, what I had read about sticking your feet out the end was true. I was able to stretch out as much as I wanted and not worry about being bumped, unlike the people using the fold out seats in the narrow corridor. In front of each bunk area was a small table with two fold out seats. The seats were great for watching the passing scenery, but they were also my first introduction into the intricacies of Chinese 'personal space'. In Australia, and even more so in Japan, everyone has their own personal space. Invading someone's personal space by touching, bumping or pushing them is generally considered rude, unless you are close friends or relatives. However, in China everyone's personal space is only their personal space as long as no-one else is around. Once someone comes in close proximity to you, your personal space is no longer your personal space. It's everyone's space. What this means is that in crowded places, such as the train corridor, it is everyone's own responsibility to look after themselves. If you're in the way when someone else is coming, you're going to get bumped (or sometimes pushed) out of the way so that they can continue their journey unimpeded. On the train it's not too bad, you just have to get used to people bumping you as they pass, but in places like shopping malls and train stations it's terrible (but more on that later).

The train ride was actually not too bad, and I was able to sit and look out the window for a few hours before sunset. The first hour of the train ride was through the New Territories of Hong Kong. The scenery was quite hilly and green, with lots of high rise apartment buildings dotting the landscape. After an hour we entered China and the change in landscape was dramatic. Suddenly everything became dirtier and the colors became dull. After crossing the border the first place the you see is the city of Guangzhou, a typical Chinese city. The center of the city is full of tall buildings, shopping centres and housing compounds, and as you leave the city there are factories, warehouses and more compounds. Just about every building has a wall and a gate and is painted in a dull white, grey or black. The few buildings that have colors are painted with pastel colors, such as powder blue or lime green, which are generally dull and faded too. The only color which is bright is the color red, which is also the most prominent color in most places in China.

The train stopped at Guangzhou East station for over an hour as some workers were doing something under the train. During this time the toilets were locked, so that nobody dumped their business on the workers heads, and the doors were locked, so that nobody would escape illegally into China. There was no announcement that the toilets would be locked, it was just expected that everyone would know. Unfortunately, quite a few people who were busting were pretty angry that they had to hold it in for over an hour. In typical Chinese fashion the conductors weren't very sympathetic, they just told everyone that they had to wait and that was that.

Finally, as the sun was beginning to set, the train departed Guangzhou. Over the next hour or so I watched the train pass farms and small towns. Everytime the train passed civilization there were more dirty housing compounds and dusty roads. Everything seemed to be built to the point where it functioned, but was neither pretty nor comfortable. If the building didn't NEED a door, there was no door. If it didn't NEED color, there was no color. There were also random piles of trash and rubble all over the place that might have been there for years (and might be there forever). One fairly large town we passed must have had factories that manufactured pool tables, because just about every house had a pool table in front of it. Some of the tables were being used for billiards (billiards seems to be a popular past time in China), others for eating or storage, but nearly every house had one and was using it. There hust have been hundreds of them, and that was only the houses I could see from the train.

We passed many more factories and compounds, some barren and desolate farms, but also some nice green farms and the occasional park, which really stood out among the bleak landscape. By the time the sun had set I'd seen plenty of China, and what was most surprising was that it was actually a lot like what I'd expected China to look like.

Inside the train was interesting too, particularly the conductors. The conductors were all good-looking young women, kind of like you'd expect airline stewardesses to be (but younger). They were smartly dressed and each had a number for identification (no name, only a number). As soon as the train departed they set about doing their job. They went up and down the carriage checking passports and checking tickets. They collect everyone's ticket and exchange it for a card (because the passengers are obviously to stupid to look after their own ticket during the journey). Just before arriving in Shanghai the card is re-exchanged for your ticket. I'm not really sure what the point of this is. Anyway, as soon as they've done their job it's party time. They grab their dinner and drinks and everyone goes to hang out in one of the conductor's cabins at the end of each carriage. Sometimes someone will pop their head out to check something or to go to the toilet, but for most of the trip the conductors will ignore all the passengers. If the passengers need something, it's up to them to sort it out themselves. Overall, the conductors seemed to have a great time on the trip, much more than most of the passengers.

In the evening someone made a nice mess in front of the hot water tanks that are located at the end of each carriage. During the trip people are constantly using the boiling water to make tea or cup noodles. A guy was filling up a bowl when the train lurched suddenly. He dropped his bowl, sending boiling water and rice all over the floor of the train. The mess on the floor stayed there all night. People stepped over it, while the conductors took a look, turned up their noses and ignored it. It wasn't until about 10 minutes before arrival that one of the conductors finally cleaned it up, and by the look on her face you could tell she wasn't happy. This is a pretty good example of the service industry in China. Most people in this industry will do as little as possible and will generally make a fuss when forced to do simple things that are clearly part of their job.

I wasn't sure what the food situation would be like on the train, so I'd bought some sandwiches and drinks before boarding. However, just before I was about to dig in an old guy came through the carriage wheeling a container filled with dinner boxes. My other bunk companions were going to get one so I got one too. For about HK$15 or 15 yuan (about A$2) I got a hot and filling dinner of rice, pickles, some other slimy stuff (I have no idea what it was), a piece of fried meat that might have been pork, and a boiled egg. The meal was pretty dodgey looking, but it tasted good and hit the spot. The boiled egg was amazing, but not in a good way. It was the saltiest egg I have ever eaten. It was literally like sucking on a block of salt. I can't imagine how much salt it must have been boiled in for the salt to have penetrated the shell and still be as strong as it was.

During dinner I got to chat with my companions a little. The young boy was very much like any other young boy. He spent the whole trip climbing up and down the bunks, playing with the toy cars he'd bought in HK, playing games on his mum's phone and basically annoying his mum. He was fun to watch, especially as everyone knew it was just a matter of time before he fell of the bunks and hurt himself (it did happen during the evening, but it was a bit of an anti-climax). What was funnier was when he was running through the corridor. The train suddenly lurched to the side and he ran head first into a wall. Everyone (including his mum) pissed themselves laughing.

Sometime during the evening I decided to turn in. I actually had a surprisingly good sleep, even though the train was continually lurching and there were some noisy passengers (and noisy conductors). I woke up the next morning hungry and with a full bladder. I climbed down from my bunk and stumbled off to the bathroom. In the bathroom I was greeted with a lovely pile of stinking turds. Great... this is not the way you want to start the morning. The toilets on the train were very simple. They were just a tiny hole in the floor surrounded by a little metal area to collect spillage. There was no plumbing. You do your business, press the foot button, the hole opens and the contents drop onto the track. If you have 'big business', you can wash it away using the tap and a cup. Unfortunately, the water supply that was connected to the tap was empty, so there was nothing to wash the big business away with. In the same way that people ignored the rice mess in front of the water tank, everyone simpled ignored the fact that the toilet wasn't working and did their business on top of everyone else's business. By the time I arrived there was a big stinky pile of at least half a dozen people's poo waiting to say "Good morning, welcome to Shanghai!". I wasn't happy, but I figured "when in Rome..." and added my number 1 contribution to the collection of number 2s.

Sometime around midday the train arrived in Shanghai. After re-exchanging tickets I left the train, went through immigration, exited the station and found myself in REAL China...

Before I continue on with my winter vacation blog, I have to tell you about this morning. As much as I like winter and snowboarding, this morning I was envying everyone enjoying a nice warm Australian summer. I woke up this morning and at first I didn't notice anything unusual. I had breakfast, had a shower, got dressed etc. It was only when I went down to my garage that I noticed it was a little colder than usual. The reason I noticed was because the hairs in my nose froze as soon as I entered the garage. Then I tried to start my car. I've never heard such a pitiful noise come from a car before. It chugged and chugged and finally turned over. Then I tried to put it into gear and it took most of the strength I had (the gears were frozen). Then I drove out of my garage and my car let out the weirdest sound I have ever heard it make. I still don't know what it was, but it wasn't good. It continued until I reached school which, fortunately, was only a few minutes away. When I got to school I checked the temperature on the town's official clock/temperature gauge which is out the front of the school. -31 degrees. Very cold.

Anyway, back to the winter vacation. On day 2 in HK, I woke up early and headed off to Hung Hom station in Kowloon to get a Shanghai train ticket for the next day and a Chinese visa. I was a little worried about the train being fully booked, but there were plenty of seats available. I was given a choice of a hard sleeper or a soft sleeper, and I chose the hard sleeper. I figured that while I still ahd money and energy I could rough it for a night. The hard sleeper wasn'T really roughing it that much anyway. 'Hard' simply means a less private room than the 'soft' sleeper. The bunks have mattresses and pillows, so it's not exactly hard. I was then given a choice of the bottom, middle or top bunk. From the research I'd done the top sounded best for me. If you get a bottom bunk, people will sit on it when it's not sleeping time. If you have a top bunk, which is well above head height, then tall people (like me) can stick their feet out of the end of the bed while they are sleeping and not have to worry about people bumping you as they walk down the train corridor. Besides, the top bunk was the cheapest, and I was trying to watch my spending for the first part of the trip. I think it cost about A$60 for a top hard sleeper, which is pretty cheap for an overnight train.

Next, I went to the China Travel Service desk in the station to organise a visa. Everyone visiting China (except for people visiting the Shenzen or Guangzhou Special Economic Zones which border Hong Kong) is required to get a visa. Fortunately it is a quick and easy service. It's not particularly cheap, and even more expensive if you need same-day service, but it was much less of a hassle than getting a Japanese visa. I filled in the forms, payed the cash and left my passport with them.

After all this work I was pretty hungry (I hadn't eaten yet), so I left the station in search of breakfast. About ten minutes later I found a nice bakery in East Tsim Sha Tsui and got a few different pastries to try, then sat down by a fountain and had a mini picnic. I have to say that I was really looking forward to some Chinese bakery food and it didn't disappoint. Japanese bakery food is ok, but generally it is too sweet. Chinese bakery food has a large selection of savory foods which I had been missing in Japan. I ended up getting a selection of chicken pies, char sui pies and a pork bun, and washed it down with a sickeningly sweet lemon iced tea. Oh man, it was good....



After breakfast I wandered down to the harbour and decided to catch a ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong island. The Star Ferry is one of those tourist things that people say 'you have to try' while you're in Hong Kong. It's actually a very cheap and fairly fast way of getting to Hong Kong island, but if you're really in hurry the subway is much faster and the stations are more conveniently located. The ferry ride was much shorter than I expected as Hong Kong island was closer to the mainland than I thought it would be. I'm not sure exactly how long it takes but from Kowloon to Central it's definitely under ten minutes. The views of Hong Kong island and Kowloon from the ferry are pretty good too.






I suppose this is a good time to mention that during my whole trip my camera had some smudges or dust or something inside the lens that I couldn't see on the camera's viewscreen, so all my photos have a couple of smudge marks on the top of each picture. They're only noticeable on the sky shots and I could photoshop them out, but I really couldn't be bothered. Sorry.

So, I arrived on Hong Kong island and with no real plan in mind spent the next few hours wandering. I caught one of the famous HK double decker trams, which was good for sightseeing but not so good when I was standing. The roof of the tram is very, very low, so I kept hitting my head every time the tram jolted.

This is also a good time to mention one other great aspect of HK transport, the Octopus Card. The Octopus Card is simply a rechargeable card that costs HK$150 ($50 deposit, $100 credit). You can us it on all public transport in HK, as well as for shopping at various places such as 7-11. The card is easy to use (you just scan it at the gate or on a box near the tram/bus driver) and you also get a slight discount over regular ticket users. It makes sightseeing easy as you don't have to worry about buying the right ticket for your trip. You just scan your card and get off when you want. Easy.

Back to HK. Hong Kong island is definitely more western than Kowloon. All the traditional western buildings and most of the new commercial buildings are on HK island, while Kowloon is much more Chinese. This is not to say that HK island isn't Chinese, it's just less Chinese than the rest of HK. It's also very hilly compared to Kowloon, which is totally flat. There are lots of sights and attractions on HK island, but I spent the afternoon just wandering along streets and looking through shops.





After a few hours I caught the subway back to Kowloon and did some more window shopping and people watching. One slightly frustrating thing about wandering through Kowloon is that there are quite a few annoying touts who are certain to approach any foreign traveller that passes by. Being a foreign, white, single traveller was like having a neon sign over my head saying 'Hey, I'm a sucker looking for some cheap stuff - come and talk to me!'. During my time in HK I noticed that there were three particular types of HK touts. The first, and most common, was the 'Indian guy' who touts custom made suits. They stand on street corners and approach people with friendly greetings such as 'Good afternoon young sir! How are you this fine day? How about a custom made suit? Very cheap and fabulous quality!'. These guys are annoying, and are a little hard to ignore because they come off so friendly, but if you do ignore them they'll go away. The second was the 'Rolex man'. There are two types of 'Rolex man'. The first comes right up to your face and suggests a 'cheap Rolex' or maybe some 'Vuitton'. They'll quickly dissappear if you ignore them. The other type is the 'Rolex Ghost', who spies you from a distance, works their way through the crowd, and as they pass you by they whisper 'Rolex...' in your ear. They continue on as if you were a complete stranger, and it's up to you to follow them if you want their goods. These guys were obviously pretty afraid of getting busted by the cops, so their merchandise is probably the most dodgey (or most stolen). The other type of tout is the 'Hashish Tout'. I only met a couple of these guys, but they were definitely the most laid back. Surprisingly, they were also pretty open about their dealings. A couple of times a guy came up to me and said 'want some hashish man... it's good stuff...' and followed me round for a little why. Even when they realised I wasn't interested they were still happy to have a little chat about this or that. They were pretty cool, but probably not the best guys to be seen hanging with.

In the evening I wandered through the Temple Street Night Market, a typical Asian night market selling fakes watches and polo shirts. There was nothing there I wanted (I really don't need any of that fake stuff), but it was still interesting to see both the shoppers and the salespeople going about their business. Having worked up an appetite I stopped off an street restaurant for a Chinese meal. I had a great chicken and cashew nut dish and some very cheap beer. If I remember correctly, it was less than A$3 for a 750ml bottle. After dinner I made my way back to my hotel, stopping off on the way for a brief wander through Kowloon City and a quick trip to 7-11 for supplies.

Actually, having written this, I think I made a mistake. I think I did this on the previous night. On the second night I had dinner and some drinks in my hotel's Irish Pub. Hmm... I think that's right. Oh well...

I'm back at work now after a nice long winter vacation. Last winter I spent a lot of time hanging around here in Hokkaido, which turned out to be quite boring actually. So, this year I decided to go somewhere, and that somewhere turned out to be China. Originally I had planned to spend about 5 days in Hong Kong. But then I realised that if I was going to take a vacation, I may as well make it a good one, so I added another ten days or so to my trip and included Shanghai and Beijing. Here's what happened.

My last day of work was Dec. 21st, which was a relief because I was physically and mentally exhausted, but I didn't have much time to rest as I had a very busy schedule that started the next morning. On Dec. 22nd, I went to an overnight end of year party with the junior-high school teachers at an onsen hotel about an hour and a half from my town. We had a great meal, drank, got in the onsen, drank some more, had something to eat, got in the onsen etc. At about 2:00am I decided to turn in for the night, but one of my roommates kept me (and the other 2 teachers in the room) up all night with possibly the loudest snoring I've ever heard. The only sleep I got was from about 8:00am to 9:00am, after the guy had gone to get breakfast. On Dec. 23rd, I drove straight from the hotel to the other side of the island to spend Christmas with my girlfriend. We had a nice couple of days together, then on Dec. 25th I drove all the way back across the island to Sapporo, where I caught an evening flight to Tokyo. I had to travel from the domestic airport at Haneda to the international airport at Narita (where I had booked a hotel for the night), which usually involves a 75 min bus ride, but as it was fairly late at night I had to take a train. The train was a partial express and went right through Tokyo (instead of skirting around it, as most airport trains do). The train was very slow and crowded, and somewhere along the way my drink started leaking in my backpack. Not happy Jan. It took about 2 and a half hours, and by the time I arrived in Narita (about 11:30pm) it was so late that there were no more shuttle buses, so I was forced to take a taxi from the station to the hotel. Ten minutes and about $40 later, I arrived, checked in, cleaned my bag and went to bed.

On the 26th, I woke up at about 7:00 am and took the morning shuttle bus to the airport. I was flying ANA, which has now automated pretty much every part of their check-in system, so check-in was a very quick and painless affair. You wait in line for a few minutes, walk up to the counter, scan the barcode on your ticket, scan your passport, choose a seat on the touch screen computer, hand over your bags and finished. At the security points in the airport and at the gates, all you have to do is scan your boarding pass, wait for a green light and you're through. Pretty easy.

The flight to Hong Kong was about four and a half hours and was a typical flight. Bad food and mostly bad in-flight movies. I think I slept for most of it. At about 1:00pm I arrived in HK, went through a particularly slow immigration, and exited to a nice warm airport. The first thing I saw as I exited the immigration hall - Burger King (or Hungry Jack's, as we know it). This may not excite most people, but for me it was pretty exciting. One of the goals of my trip was to eat a whole lot of food that I can't eat in Japan. In Australia, Hungry Jack's is not exactly high on the list of Australian gourmet restaurants. But when you live in Australia, where there are great restaurants all over the place that you can visit any time, you end up taking places like Hungry Jack's for granted. The nearest Hungry Jack's to me is about 1000km away in Tokyo where they recently reopened a few stores after a long absence in the Japanese market, so seeing and smelling their food was rather exciting. Unfortunately, I wasn't hungry, so I added it to my mental list of things to do.

I went to the ATM, got some cash, and then jumped on the Airport Express train. Fifteen minutes later I was getting off the train in Kowloon. No matter what anyone thinks about Hong Kong, it's very hard to criticise their public transportation system. Fifteen minutes from the airport to downtown in a cheap, clean, air-conditioned express train is something that most cities would love to have.

Exiting Kowloon station I found myself in a shopping centre. Over the next few days I discovered that a fair percentage of Hong Kong is simply shopping centres connected to more shopping centres. A typical shopping journey goes something like this: you get off the train at the station under the shopping centre, walk through the shopping centre to the next shopping centre, exit that shopping centre, cross the road to another shopping centre, walk through that shopping centre. and voila!, you've arrived at the shopping centre you wanted to visit. It's all a bit silly, especially for someone that doesn't particularly like shopping.

Anyway, I decided to wander through the shopping centre to stretch my legs. I was carrying all my luggage, but fortunately it wasn't too heavy. Actually, this is probably a good time to explain about my luggage. Every time I go somewhere, I always end up packing too much. So this time I decided to travel as light as possible. I had the clothes on my back, 2 extra pairs of socks, 2 extra pairs of underpants, one extra t-shirt, one extra jumper, a few odds an ends (ike my camera) and that was it. Usually when I'm travelling to or from Japan or Australia I'm carrying most of my belongings with me, so my baggage is way over the airline baggage limit. This time it was something like 5kgs, which (considering my bag weighs about 4kgs) was extremely light. The down side of this was that I spent the next fortnight in basically the same outfit, which meant I was pretty dirty by the end of the trip. Oh well, when you're travelling alone this is one of those things that is acceptable.

After wandering through the shopping centre, which was remarkably like a Hong Kong version of Chadstone, I decided to go find a taxi and go to my hotel. While trying to find my way through the shopping centre I made my first useful discovery about travel in Hong Kong and China. Chinese maps are, in general, not very well designed. In my opinion, when you are designing a map there are only two sensible ways to orient it. The first is to orient the map to the direction that you are standing. What I mean is this: you know how when you look at a map in most Australian shopping centers, if the shop you want to go to is up and to the right on the map, that means you walk ahead and then turn right. Easy. The other option, which is more useful for outside maps, is to orient a map to the north, ie. north is up. For some reason, many maps in China are drawn in a completely random way, so "up" is neither north nor the way you are facing. This makes navigation very, very annoying. You have to spend five minutes turning around in circles, looking for landmarks, moving the map around.. 'ok... this shop is here, and this exit is here, and this bathroom is here, so I have to go.... that way!... maybe....'.

Finally I found the taxi stand, got a taxi, sorted out where I wanted to go with the Cantonese speaking driver, and sat back for a relaxing 15 minute taxi ride. What was relaxing about it was the fact that it was costing peanuts. I'd forgotten what it was like to be in a country that has cheap taxis. Taxis in Japan are so ridiculously expensive that most people can't use them. During my travels in Japan I usually don't even contemplate using a taxi. For comparison, my Hong Kong taxi ride was about the same distance as my Narita taxi ride the previous day, but instead of costing about $40 it cost less than $10. That's what taxis in Japan should be like.

I arrived at my hotel, the Regal Oriental, and was pleasantly surprised. The hotel was actually really nice, certainly the equivalent of other more expensive hotels in Hong Kong. The only real downside was the location. It was right opposite the old airport, which is off in the north eastern part of the city known as Kowloon City. Back when the airport was still being used it would have been the premier airport hotel. Unfortunately, its one of the few major hotels in the city that isn't near a subway or train line, which makes it much less desirable these days. The nearest subway was about 15 minutes walk (which really isn't that bad) compared with most other hotels which are located within 5 minutes walk of a station.

The room was nice and big, much bigger than what I'm used to in Japan, had a decent bathroom and a nice tv with lots of English cable channels.

After arriving, I had a quick shower, got changed and went for a walk. One of my habits when I go to a new city (possibly a bad habit) is that I like to walk around and get a feel for the town. No trains or buses, just walking. Oh yeah, no maps or cameras either. No touristing, no visting famous sights, just walking around getting used to the sights and smells of a new place. I checked the map before I left, so I had an idea of where I was and what was around, but from there it was all up to chance.

As usual, I ended up doing much more than I should have on the first afternoon. I ended up walking from Kowloon City (which is technically not part of Kowloon but part of the New Territories), through some residential areas, down Nathan Road (the main north-south thoroughfare an shopping road in Kowloon), down to the harbour, back up through Tsim Sha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok and back to my hotel. Basically, I saw pretty much all of Kowloon in the first afternoon and evening I was there. I walked for about five or six hours straight, until I couldn't walk any more. As I mentioned previously, this was probably a bad idea. I ended up having muscle pains and sprains that lasted my entire vacation, all because of the walking I did on the first day. At first my left foot hurt, then the next day my right foot hurt because I was compensating for my left foot, then one knee hurt, then the other one. It was never ending. Just as one body part healed, another was injured. Part of this was due to the fact that I had done very little exercise over the previous month or so. My job doesn't really involve much physical activity, and when its -10 and snowing outside it's hard to find the motivation to do anything except snowboard and loaf at home. The other reason was that I walked A LOT. Not just the first day, but every day (as I will explain later). Not just a leisurely stroll, but many, many miles of pavement pounding every day. Even though it was painful, it was definitely worth it as I got to see a lot of China that the average tourist wouldn't get to see.

There weren't any particular highlights from my first evening in Hong Kong, just a few observations (no photos as I didn't take my camera).

First, Hong Kong is a smelly city, both good and bad smells. Walking down the street you might smell a roasting duck, then an open sewer, then some baking pastries, then some stinky dried products, then some incense from a temple, then some rotting garbage. Hong Kong is certainly a unique nasal experience.

Second, Hong Kong must have the highest proportion of luxury cars I have ever seen. Without exaggeration, I estimated that about 80% of cars on the road (not counting taxis and delivery vans) could be considered luxury cars. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar... I saw them all and more on just the first afternoon. Furthermore, they were all really, really clean. I guess this is because the roads in Hong Kong are very clean, and most people wouldn't drive their cars outside the city. These cars are exactly the opposite of my car, which is always dirty. Five minutes after I've washed it it's filthy again. But, it's a rally car, so that's how it's supposed to be.

Third, the area that my hotel was in (Kowloon City) was a great area for seeing HK people going about their daily business without tourists around. Most tourists would have no reason to go there, except for the Thai restaurants (Kowloon City has a large Thai community, so it has all the best Thai restaurants). I could wander around without having to feel like a tourist, and without the locals having to perform for tourists, which is exactly how I like to travel. It's nice to visit the big attractions from time to time, but for me the best part of travelling is seeing how other people live and having a chance to interact with them in their real environments. Kowloon City was great for that.

Fourth, Hong Kong has an incredible number of convenience stores. I though Japan was bad, but HK was just over the top. You can't walk 100 metres without seeing a 7-11 or a Circle K. This is not a complaint, it's actually pretty good, especially considering the cost of things in HK. Using a can of Coke for comparison (not that I really drink Coke much anymore), a regular sized can costs about A$1.30 in Japan and about $0.70 in HK. I have no idea how much it costs in Australia these days.

So, after wandering around all afternoon and evening I got a big pack of delicious Thai satays from a vendor on the street and some drinks and snacks from the 7-11, and went back and watched a Premier League game on the telly. It was the first time I had seen my team play in well over a year. We won 5-1. Nice evening.

Continued tomorrow...