China 2 - off to Shanghai

After a few days in Beijing I needed to head south to Shanghai. Rather than flying I decided to take a train so that I'd get to see something of the country. I love train travel anyway; the fact that you just turn up a few minutes before you're scheduled to leave and literally walk on and walk off is so much more appealing than waiting around for hours at airports. Plus trains are usually more reliable and comfortable. The high speed train to Shanghai travels at up to 300 km/hour and reaches it's destination in less than five hours. The adventure started with the taxi ride to the station...if you've never been to China just imagine you are in one of those Bumper Car rides at a fun fair, with the only rules being you've got to stop just before you actually smack into the car in front and it's compulsory to keep one hand firmly pressed on the horn at all times. I eventually made a conscious decision to just not watch where we were going any more because I was convinced we would never arrive in one piece.
Once at Beijing South train station however I was hugely impressed. It's as big as an airport, super modern and easy to navigate. Check in is similar to an airport with all luggage x-rayed, and only ticket holders can access the gates to the platforms (Europe could learn from this!), where we were greeted by chic hostesses and stewards. The high speed trains are super modern and stylish, a first class ticket is still cheaper than flying and if I lived there, I'd never get on a plane again!

It seemed to take forever just to get out of Beijing...that city is truly enormous. In fact it's one of the most populous cities in the world with close to 20 MILLION people living there. Makes you feel a little claustrophobic just thinking about that many people in one place, right?
Gradually the dry brown planes and windswept subsistence farms of the province gave way to signs of spring. Green grass shoots started to appear as we headed south and about two hours out of Shanghai we started passing through hills and even some low mountains. Then suddenly we were passing through the outskirts of a city...and arriving.
Now I know it seems obvious to say it, but Shanghai is really, really big. I hadn't realized beforehand that it's the largest city in China with...wait for it....23 MILLION residents. In fact I'd kind of been looking forward to a slightly larger Singapore, I suppose. Wrong. Shanghai may have a reasonable ex-pat population but there the similarity more or less ends. This is hard-core Asia whereas Singapore is Asia-lite. One of the biggest hassles? You can't just jump in a taxi and go anywhere unless you speak Mandarin. Almost no-one speaks English except for tourist places. If you go anywhere, you have to make sure you get a friendly local to write down in Chinese characters the name and address of any place you need to visit including your hotel so you can get back again. It felt weird to climb in a taxi, say hello, then point to a piece of paper and hope like hell you arrived where you were hoping to go. However it was all part of the fun and I was determined to squeeze in as much as I could during my time there.