Day 32 - Wednesday 3rd May - Shanghai

The day broke cool and overcast. We were off to the MG factory and later to an MG Dealer to get the cars serviced. The factory was supposedly a 1.5 hour drive, so we left early to miss the traffic.

After 3 hours of non stop bumper to bumper crawling we found ourselvesat a modern factory surrounded by cabbage patches and solar panels, 70 miles from the hotel. Way out past the airport. The previous day’s experience of a trouble free drive in to town had faded into distant memory.

SAIC make 6.5m cars a year, mainly for the domestic market. They are the owner of the MG brand, and the 2nd biggest car manufacturer in China after VW, By contrast, the total Australian market is around 1.0m units a year.

After a quick presentation we toured the robotised assembly plant. SUV body shells enter at one end and completed cars exit the other. Off to a quick hour and a half lunch and we were on our way back to the dealer for the car service. You guessed it, it took 3 hours to get back, despite the fact that this was not peak hour traffic. The MG Car Club of Shanghai greeted us on arrival, although we were now running 2 hours late. None of them had seen old English MGs before, so there was lots of pawing over and peering under. Roof off and all they all wanted their photo’s taken in the drivers seat and the girls demanded that I sat in the passenger seat for their selfies. As the Navigator had jumped out on the way and headed back to the hotel (she did not feel she could add much to the car service), I had to deal with the admiring throngs by myself.

We thought that the MG Dealer was going let us use their hoists and work on the cars ourselves. They had kept the whole service team back to assist. The mechanics had never seen cars like these before. Most of them had never wielded a grease gun (modern cars use sealed units that do not have grease nipples). The wire wheels and the knock off system of retaining them was a fascination as were the oil filters. They were most surprised that when they undid these all the contained oil drained out the open bottom over the engine and the floor. Niggly problems were fixed on some of the cars. I found that the rear exhaust bracket had broken, so they rebuilt it for me.

A final presentation, speeches and thanks to all and we were on our way back to the hotel a little after 7.00pm.

Day 31 - Tuesday 2nd May - Huangshan to Shanghai

The day started out cloudy, cold and raining. Winding through the mountains until we emerged out on to the flat coastal plains. While tea was the dominant crop in the mountains, once we hit the plains wheat took over.

Intensive is the only way to describe the cropping. Small villages everywhere surrounded by small fields divided by rows of trees, which I presume were planted as wind breaks.

We skirted around the major industrial city of Hangzhou.

We had factored that our drive in to Shanghai would be slowed with traffic congestion, but the traffic behaved itself and we drove on an expressway to well with the city and arrived earlier than we had anticipated.

After check in to the hotel, which was located in the French Concession, Loris went off to get her hair cut, while I went shopping for a new watch as my cheap sailing watch that I had set out with had broken. Wandering the streets of Shanghai is always an experience. Clean sllck and modern, there is little left of old Shanghai.

The concierge had pointed me in the direction of a mall about 20 minutes walk. With 5 levels of designer label shops you got the impression this city has money. I found a cluster of watch shops in the basement. This was more to my price range. There are no bargains to be had here (unless you are after fake stuff), with prices similar to or higher than Australia.

It was John’s birthday, so the group went out for dinner to a western style restaurant in the heart of the French Concession, Mr Willis, serving Australian lamb shanks and steaks. Although they had a great selection of wines, theprices were eye watering. A bottle of Shaw & Smith M3 Chardonnay, AU$35 at Dan Murphy’s was on the menu of AU$200.    

Day 30 - 1st May - Hongcun to Huangshan

Plans were carefully laid to try and avoid the crowds. Green, our guide was particularly nervous of what lay install for us, so suggested we get up and on the road by 6.00am. The guest house did not provide  breakfast so we could scavenge on the way, a 40k drive to Huangshan.

All went smoothly. We beat the crowds. When we went to purchase the tickets 230RMB ($46) each plus  90RMB for the buss, the Chinese had a special May Day present for the group: anyone over 65 (or in fact near 65 years old) could get in free. We had seen this previously as Tony had been getting in free to places because he is over 70.

We thought we were up the mountain before the crowds materialised. In fact I think the reason why there were no queues was because we were at the tail end, they were all on the mountain. And the couple who had been missing from yesterday’s crowd of 1.3 billion had also found their way to celebrate May Day walking around the Yellow Mountain.

The tracks are all paved. But there are lots of steep climbs. Our group was properly prepared for the walk given the warnings we received on our not to scale map:

2.           The Yellow Mountain climate change is very big; sometimes sunny it rains sometimes, climbing to take a raincoat, rain windy, unfavourable to open an umbrella. Thunder when it rains don’t climb don’t use hand chain, also unfavourable shelter under the tree. In case the lightning.

I’m sure you get the drift. Walking shoes, some warm gear and a rain jacket seemed prudent. Not high heeled shoes and your Sunday best. We felt somewhat under dressed as the crowds basked in the morning sun.

As we climbed and descended the stairs from mountain top to valley, we felt as though we were in a giant outdoor queue. Everyone was shuffling along the pathway shoulder to shoulder, other than those who had rented a chair carried by coolies. I would have found it embarrassing to be carried along amongst the crowds by a couple of struggling porters while everyone else was on foot. But the couple saw were too engrossed playing on their phones to notice. At first I thought the chairs were to evacuate those who had expired, until I realised you could hire them by the track section.

The crowding lasted until morning tea when it started to sprinkle (see warning above). As no one was carrying a rain jacket, the local vendors made a killing selling yellow ponchos. The standout Sunday best disappeared and the paths became a winding sea of yellow.

The jagged pine covered granite peaks were stunning, but no longer held attraction to the milling masses who headed back down by lunch when the rain increased, the temperature dropped and the wind came up.

Tomorrow we head into Shanghai. Its 450k and while its supposed to be a public holiday for continued May Day celebrations, we aren’t sure whether the toll collectors will be back at work and what the traffic will be like. If the car park ay our hotel is any indication, it would appear everyone will be back at work tomorrow as the place is now deserted.

Day 29 - 30th April - Jingdezhen to Hongcun

We started the day with a tour of The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen. The facility was set up in the 1960’s under Mao as a studio and facility for budding artists and continued under the control of the national government until the 90’s. Since then, according to Tony’s friends its ownership and control is a bit ambiguous, but still operates as a centre for those involved in ceramics, especially students.

We started off with a wander around the antique market. The challenge was to try to work out what was antique and what was fake. It was beyond our scope. Probably the most interesting genre for me, was not the Ming pots, but rather the Mao Kitsch. Plates with  figures in stern dance like poses, all very well fed and celebrating the Revolution. Onwards and ever upwards. Apparently there is quite a market in this stuff, especially if it is real, not a recent reproduction.

The Workshop also ran a market on Saturdays and Sundays. Students and recent arts graduates selling their work. Some pretty interesting and well made individual pieces at goo prices.

The whole facility is spread over a couple of acres and consists of every conceivable element of the pottery chain. Artists studios where that work on their pieces. Suppliers of clay, pigments and glazes. A couple of commercial kilns. These are large affairs that fire all the pottery for the Workshop. Then there are the guys making and selling packing materials for the pieces, commercial packers, freight forwarders, shops representing various artists, and of course the ever conspicuous and never absent food and drink vendors.

It was crowded. Full of locals haggling for a bargain.

We then set out late morning for a 24k run to Hongcun. Described on our map as an Ancient Anjou Village it is in fact a World Heritage site and protected.

Situated in the mountains about 500k west of Shanghai, it’s a walled town that is totally intact. Locals still live in many of the houses and most are engaged in tourism one way or another, running a guest house, restaurant or selling tea or other artifacts. The town sits in the middle of the Anjou tea producing area, the largest in China.

The day was cloudless and warm. The mountain air was dry and refreshing. Being a May Day long weekend I think most of the population of China was visiting. There may have been a couple missing, but I think most were accounted for.

Many of the Chinese tourists travel in groups with a guide. The guides, usually in their 20s are very identifiable with a flag, to keep the group together and a headset and amplifier to make sure that the group can hear what they are saying. The volume of their amplification would put Led Zepplin to shame. They are unbearable to be near, but the local tourists don’t seem to mind.

The other identifier of the group is the necessity to be in front of what the guide is talking about. No matter that the room may be tiny and 100 in the group. They will all try and barge their way in. We got caught on the inside at one place and quickly realized we needed to get out as the Chinese tried to cram 5 abreast through the doorway. Its lucky they don’t understand Rugby in this country as we made it out with Loris packing down behind me as I dropped a shoulder and went straight through the middle.

I am also not sure if industrial deafness is a problem in this country, or just domestic. If someone wants to have a few words with a partner, it’s not a matter of a quiet, private chat. They tend to go at it at full volume, just so everyone can hear. Maybe they get a few cues from the guides.    

Tomorrow, Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain, one of Chinas top 5 domestic tourist attractions and its May Day.

Day 28 - 29th April - Yichang to Jingdezhen

We were hoping there would be no repeat of the night before and managed to get onto the expressway pretty quickly. And the toll gates were unmanned.

Sinogas team pep talk

It’s the May Day long weekend, so all the toll collectors have been given the time off, so no one collects them. Interesting concept. As we had 700k on toll roads we were particularly pleased for this little gift from the Chinese People.

Plus, the mountains had evaporated. The landscape was as flat as Flanders. Rice paddies were all full of water and crops sprouting across the horizon.

As the morning wore on, the traffic built up and became more problematic. If you move to overtake a slow truck someone will be coming from behind faster, pull into the kerbside lane and try to beat you around the truck. You drive with one hand on the horn to blast those that continually try to make incursions into your lane and safe space, and always ready to hit the brakes. Unfortunately with the distance we had to travel we were always pushing the speed limit and on alert for the local mavericks. Luckily we all came through unscathed, but all had near missed. I am not sure what we have install for the next few days as we head towards Shanghai and the remainder of the long weekend.

Yangtze suspension bridge

Jingdezhen is the centre of pottery and ceramics in China, and probably the world for that matter. They have been using the local clay for hundreds, if not thousands of years and I understand that the original name of the town was corrupted many centuries ago to China to mean porcelain for this town.

It takes 2 to fill an MG with petrol in China. One to pour and one to collect the money.

It’s a pretty, thriving town, with wide streets and promenades, especially down near the river. Fireworks are being let off spasmodically and I expect we will hear more of that in the days to come.

As we wander the streets after dinner, the locals pay no attention to us. They have clearly seen Europeans before and some even speak English.

The other noticeable factor is that as we march east the sun is rising earlier. When we crossed the border from Laos we were lucky to see it before 0700, but now its bright at 0530. As China is on one time zone from east to west. So in Shanghai and Beijing, we will be up even earlier, but not sure what it will be like when we get to Horgas on the western border.

Jingdezhen by night

Tomorrow we visit one of the porcelain studios with some potter friends of Tony who live and work here for part of the year.

I understand there were a couple of articles in today’s Financial Review about our group. I have not seen them yet as internet access it up to its normal standards.

Day 27 - 28th April - Wushan to Yichang

Chinese petrol stations are ready for electric cars.

A 230k drive to look at the 3 Gorges Dam.

The day was bright and cloudless. The sky as blues as it gets for this part of China and the air dry. A cool start but it quickly warmed up.

We could have sworn we were driving through the alpine areas of Europe. Flowing expressways and towering mountains. We were wondering whether China should be renamed the Mountain Kingdom. Tea grew on more impossibly steep slopes, some give away that we were not in Europe.

This all came to an end when we pulled off the expressway turnoff to the 3 Gorges Dam. The road became a construction site and we crawled from one pothole to the next with large dump truck providing navigation markers. Other cars whizzed down between the 2 lanes of opposing traffic, oblivious of the potholes and that they were headed for other on coming traffic. A blast of the horn usually fixed the problem.

The road deteriorated some what

Security at the dam is controlled by the military and you need to get a special permit to visit. After escalating our request to the President (or so it seemed) we were allowed in. Along with a few bus loads of other paying tourists.

The dam was until recently the largest hydo-electricity dam in the world. It displaced 1.5m people, covered historic sites and a lot of farm land. The displaced were resettled in new cities and towns. The historic sites still sit at the bottom of the dam and I am still unsure what the displaced farmers are now doing, as farming the banks of the Yangtze was prime land.

View below the dam

The dam is big, but for some reason it does not do much for me. Maybe its because it stretches back for hundreds of kilometres. In reality its somewhat like a weir rather than a dam as the amount of water below the dam is huge. The Yangtze does not seem to be in any way diminished by its damming. Container ships still ply its waters up and down stream and use locks to get up and over the dam wall.

View upstream on the dam

The visit to the dam also ends our isolation. There are other Europeans (and Africans) sightseeing. Unlike us they are fat, old and crotchety, looking for the escalators to take them to the viewing platform rather than take on the challenge of the 288 steps. And there is also an electric cart to take them from one location to another (about 500 metres). The electric cart is another example of the Chinese value add. Your entrance ticket does not cover it. Another RMB20 thanks.

Chinese fish and chips

In town we are no longer the centre of attention, that is reverting back to the cars. Clearly the locals are more accustomed to seeing Europeans in their midst. Although the tourists we saw at the dam, were not evident wandering the streets of Yichang.

Sharing the road

Yichang, whose only claim to fame is the dam, houses 4m people who all seemed to be on the way home in their cars in the evening when we were trying to make our way to the hotel which we reached after 90 minutes of stress to cover 10k. In the process one of the MGs was run into by a Porsche whose driver was too busy taking photos of the MG to worry where his car was headed down the road. Luckily the damage was superficial (to the MG anyway).

The evening meal of yabbies (the locals called them prawns) was a treat, but I had forgotten how small the tails were in comparison to the bodies.

Off to bed for a 0700 start the next morning to Jingdezhen. A drive of 700k.    

Signs of the times

I thought I might also spend some time on some of the signage that we have encountered along the journey. It’s a constant revelation reading the translations.

The road signs constantly remind us that the following activities are prohibited on the tollways:

1. Driving tiredly is prohibited
2. Driving drunkenly is prohibited
3. Overexceeding the speedlimit is prohibited (I presume that there is a non-prohibition to underexceeding the speedlimit)

As we approached Wushan we were regularly reminded:

Bon voyage and hope you have a safe arrival

Tickets terms are also a revelation of what you can and can’t do as the following demonstrate:

You can clearly see where the Lao leaders have their focus in the New Year

The book sellers even get in on the act:

 Signs in parks can be perplexing

With the option of investigating your legal liabilities, you would have thought that they owuld obey the rules, but they are generallly ignored, possibly because they are only considered 'warm prompts, not mandatory:

But the hotels make it very clear about what you can and can’t bring into the room:

And the Lao ferry price list is interesting reading:

Day 26 - 27th April - Wushan

Today is warm (we are back to shorts and T shirts) and we can even see patches of blue sky.

Spent the day on the Yangtze visited the Lesser Gorges and the Least Less Gorges. At least I think that’s what they said. While relatively narrow and the sides climb up 400 to 500m, I would describe them as interesting, rather than spectacular. But then I am spoilt kayaking the upper reaches of Middle Harbour with its many moods and variety of life.

Following the cruise we went into town. A climb of 500 stairs and decided once we were there we would stay for dinner.

If there are not already 2 billion smart phones in China, there will be next week. Every second shop was selling them. In this relatively small town (300k residents) there must have been at least 50 shops selling phones and plans, just down the main street. Not sure what happens when they reach saturation point, which can’t be far away as everyone seems to have at least 1 phone. They use them incessantly. Maybe they need all the shops as the cameras get warn out quickly.

On our cruise one couple (well 2 girls and a bloke) must have taken 1000 shots. Even without the selfie stick they pose. Arms and legs pointing in all directions and they even had a change of clothes. And when they ran out of poses with each other, they roped us in.

Although this area has clearly seen Europeans before, we are still a rare breed and every chance they can get to take a phot with us, they will grab. Walking through town they were more restrained. They just smiled and waved, except for the young kids who seemed to be daring each other to come up and say ‘hello’, wait for a response, laugh and then scarper.

A wander through the markets was a revelation. There were every kind of poultry in cages, fish, crustaceans (all alive), turtles, and lots of pork. What I mean is that every piece of the pig was on display. From half a pigs snout, to trotters and smoke houses with racks of hind quarters and shoulders ready for dispatch. This was a real working market with lots of stuff boiling and simmering away.

We lucked out for dinner as the kid who ran it spoke enough English for us to be understood. Once again our expertise at running the BBQ was evident. Not only did the proprietor’s wife help out, but most of the other tables came around to give a hand. And the beer was cold.

In the evening the town is alive. The footpaths are crowded and music blares from speaker – amplifiers that are somehow tapped into power points at the base of the power poles. At each set up large groups gather for waltzing or are lined up doing traditional Chinese dances. If you weren’t dancing you were watching. Must keep them fit.

Surprisingly the babies and kids are still up wandering the streets (at 8.00pm) with their parents or in their parent’s arms. I am not sure whether it’s the relaxation of the one child policy, but there is no shortage of babies.

Tomorrow we drive to Yichang and visit the Three Gorges Dam. I was going to say the controversial Three Gorges Dam, but its not controversial in China, just in the west it appears.

Day 25 - 26th April - Chongqing to Wushan

An 0800 start in one of the most densely populated cities on earth generally means we will hit peak hour traffic. Chongqing was no exception. Given our Garmins are pretty useless, we rely heavily on Green and her combination of Garmin (Chinese version) and the Chinese equivalent of Google Maps. It means that the following cars must stick together and rely on radio contact. We call this ‘sticky rice’ driving.

The locals are pretty aggressive. They change lanes without blinkers, they don’t worry about lanes, traffic lights or the road rules in generally which means we play this game of bluff. They try to barge into our convoy, we try to stop them. Lots of revving, ducking, weaving and blasting of horns. That said road rage does not seem to exist, it’s all part of the game.

On our way out we passed through a new residential development. There were 20 or so new 20 story towers. But what was more interesting was when one set were complete the bulldozers we moving up the street knocking down old 3 to 4 story buildings to be replaced by the new towers with park like landscaping. We started to get a feel for why everything looks so new and modern.  

We made it out of town with the convoy intact. It was raining, cool and low clouds swirled around the mountains. Once on the tollway I could have sworn we were driving in Europe, such was the landscape and the road conditions, except we weren’t being passed by Porsche’s doing 200kph, rather buses doing 120kph.

The tollway was lined with trees, so it was harder to see what was happening on the land, but every now and again w would get a glimpse of a flooded rice paddy and a person planting out their crop, knee deep in water.

For a change we managed to find a park for lunch. Wanzhou is a city of around 500k people. It does not even get a mention in the Lonely Planet guide. On the banks of the Yangtze is was a very pretty town. Wide tree lined streets and footpaths. Not a skerrick of rubbish or dirt. Modern buildings, parks and a promenade running for miles along the banks of the river.

Wushan is a town a population of around 300k. It’s the end point of the 3 Gorges cruises. We have a day off tomorrow to go on a river cruise through the gorges.

It also has its own special cuisine. Although described as BBQ fish, the local catfish are wrapped in baking paper with a bunch of herbs and placed in a large baking dish on a hotplate at the table and cooked in front of you. No signage was in English and the locals knowledge of the language was as proficient as our Chinese (good day and thankyou). Plus our capacity to use Google Translate is limited as only a couple of people downloaded it before the trip (we cannot do this in China as Google is blocked here), and a lot of it relies on a non existent internet connection. So to order we have found the best method is to walk around the restaurant and point towards what others are eating. No one seems to mind us leaning over their table and examining its contents with the waiter.

Everything came and we had no idea of what to do, so one of the old ladies cooked everything for us and curtly told us when we got the order of things out of sequence. One 4kg catfish meal, numerous Coke, tea and beer. 7 very full people and a bill for $70 total.

We went for a walk along the riverside promenade and watched the locals doing their exercises in groups to loud music and though we should join in, but opted for bed instead.

Day 24 - 25th April - Jinsha to Chongqing

I like the word juxtaposition. It sets the contrast between Jinsha and Chongqing.

Green was my Navigator and we lead for the day. Loris was the Navigator for Burgundy (Tony). Rain prevailed for most of the 320k drive to Chongqing. Clouds swirled amongst the wooded mountains. A few cleared fields, but it was difficult to determine what they were growing.

We hit the outskirts of Chongqing 70k from our hotel. It is one of 4 autonomous city/ states in the country. Shanghai and Beijing being 2 of the others. They are all administered by the National Government rather than being part of a Provence.

The population of the Chongqing municipality is 30m, while the city itself has grown to 14m. Despite the spaghetti like structure of the freeways and ring roads we managed to navigate directly to the hotel with ease and little traffic.

Chongqing boasts an important part in the national history. In recent times it was the capital of the country during the Japanese WW2 occupation. It was also and important part of Mao’s Long March. It was where silk worm cultivation and production started. And today it is a dynamic and vibrant financial and manufacturing centre.

While Jinsha was a raw industrial town plagued with pollution. Chongqing was modern, clean and incredibly vibrant. It was full of domestic tourists, many of whom were starting their 3 day Three Gorges boat trip down the Yangtze River. The largest river in Asia and one we will follow for the next 7 days until we arrive in Shanghai.

Little remains of the historic old town of Chongqing, our hotel is one of the few remnants. Converted, renovated and repurposed it is also the tourist centre of the city on the banks of the Jia Ling River, a smaller river that merges with the Yangtze 500m downstream from the hotel.

They do property development on a grand scale here. One development at the merge of the 2 rivers, makes Barangaroo look like a kindergarten in comparison. I think there are 8, 50 story towers all being constructed simultaneously. When completed they will look like the splayed bow of a ship on the point with the top of each building leaning out towards the rivers.

It seems that the focus of urban planning in the cities at least, is ‘liveability’. The streets are clean and all tree lined. By night the sky line lights up into a kaleidoscope of lightshows like the Sydney Vivid, except in Chongqing they are on every night of the year.

Chongqing is noted for its hotpot cuisine. A vat of vegetable oil, Szechwan pepper and chilies is boiled at the table into which you dip your meat, offal and vegetables. I am not sure whether it’s the heat of the chillies or the flames that does the cooking, but even cold the food was burning my tongue. Much cold beer (yes, they have worked out that beer should be served cold here) was required to make it digestible.

Tomorrow we head down the Yangtze to Wushan.