A Week in the life of a comper in China

This holiday was a win from Twinings Tea, a very elusive entry form that was obtained for me by a friend (cheers Yvonne!) and I do remember that my tie breaker was nothing earth shattering, but the judges evidently thought it was a winner. So with this, hubby and I set off to climes that I never dreamed I would visit.

The holiday was booked with Virgin Holidays, I’ve flown with Virgin before and I thought they were very good, their standard hasn’t dropped and I would recommend them to anyone. The flight took 10 hours (no stops) so when we arrived in Shanghai PuDong airport we were tired and a little apprehensive as we weren’t totally sure we would be met by a tour rep, I know we should have been, but I’ve experienced these foreign reps before! However there was a lady standing by the gate with a big banner with our name on, we were actually the only people on this package tour, so we had the transfer bus all to ourselves, and the rep, Ellen, spoken immaculate English. We were taken through Shanghai to our hotel, The Holiday Inn, and then left to our own devices. The journey from the airport to the centre of Shanghai was about half an hour and I couldn’t get over the views, it was very flat, very rough farmland and there were people everywhere. This was something I found most surprising in China, if they were digging up the roads, or farming, there would be dozens (literally) of people doing it, a bit different to Britain where there would be one man and a digger and a man leaning on his shovel looking on. Here there would be twelve men (and women) wielding pickaxes and shovels.

The hotel was very nice, posh but in a slightly rough area, by rough I mean tatty as opposed to violent. In all the time we were in China, I never once felt nervous of being attacked or robbed, however I did have to get used to being continuously stared at, I think it was a combination of my husband being 6’ 2” and me being 5’ 8”, big and blonde!! On the first day we were in Shanghai we went to the Bund, a waterfront area that overlooks the river. It is a very well known tourist part of Shanghai, but why, goodness only knows, there is absolutely nothing there, except young children who dive on the taxi the second you appear and try to beg money from you. We walked miles around the shops, the variety of which is something I have never seen before. One minute you would be walking down the main street with all the big tourist shops and then if you were to nip down a side road you would be faced with ‘shops’ that bore more resemblance to a row of derelict sheds. These were the fascinating places! Did you know that in the back streets of Shanghai, in these ‘derelict sheds’ you can pick up Gucci watches for about a fiver? Well she said they were Gucci!!! Down one of these back streets you will find a fascinating place called The Yuan Garden (Strange name - Yuan is the Chinese for garden, so it’s the garden garden and it cost us 250 gardens to get in – Yuan is also the name of their currency!) It was a great big place and truly delightful, with lakes and pagodas, caves and bridges, and all for about £2.30. The rest of the day was taken up with shopping and the long walk back to the hotel – and when I say long I mean long, these tourist maps make everything look so close together, but the four inches on the map took us 1½ hours!!

The following day saw us taking a trip to the Jade Buddha Temple. This too was up a totally insignificant side road, very well hidden. I was very surprised when I saw it, I was expecting a great big statue of a bright green laughing fat man. Wrong! This Buddha is white jade and of a young person. I say person because although I suspect the Buddha is male, excuse my ignorance on this matter, the statue looked distinctly female. But regardless, it was quite beautiful. I learnt more about the fat green laughing man later on in the trip, so you will have to read further! After wandering around the temple for about half an hour, the smell of incense became rather overpowering (they don’t burn just the one stick, they have a great handful, about the size of a small broom and set fire to the whole lot – what a whiff!) we decided to take a trip across the river to the Pearl Drop Tower.

The taxi driver seemed a little unsure, and when the total bill came to about £5 I could understand why, this is a very high taxi fare for Shanghai, and it took us about 20 minutes. After being dropped at the tower, we discovered that we didn’t have enough cash on us to go in, it was 100 yuan each (about a tenner) and so we gave it a miss. The Pearl Drop tower is one of Shanghais landmarks, on ‘the other side’ of the river to main Shanghai. The authorities are building up this area but having a bit of trouble persuading people to move there. There are big skyscrapers filled with multi-national companies, but the average Shanghaian (if there is such a thing) isn’t interested. This was bought home to us when we walked around the area and the roads were absolutely deserted, I actually stood in the middle of a road and took a photograph to prove it. Now this might not be totally unheard of in Britain (but still not that common) but in Shanghai? Unbelievable! The road system is like nothing on earth, they make the Italians look like advanced drivers. They have no road markings, although they officially drive on the right, they just pick the shortest route. Because there are so many bicycles (and they use them for everything, more than once we saw a bike loaded so high at the back that you couldn’t see the rider) they have cycle/bus lanes that are as wide as the main traffic lanes, but if a driver wants to get down a road that is a one way street, he just drives the wrong way, in the cycle lane blaring his horn! When we were in a taxi in the ‘rush hour’ (why is it called the rush hour when nothing moves??) our driver got bored so just pulled into the cycle lane and moved up a few hundred yards then pulled back in! We did ask our guide when we met up again why they have policemen stood on boxes in the middle of road junction when there are traffic lights – the reason? Because no one would take any notice of the traffic lights if there wasn’t a policeman there to check! Pedestrians are a hardy breed in China, they have the green man crossings at junctions but of course these are only any good if the traffic does as it should. We learnt fairly early on that if the green man appears you may cross, but you still look all ways at all times and especially to your left because if the traffic light is red, you can still turn right without stopping! As for bikes, well they have absolutely no rules, so just dodge them as best you can. Having said all this, I can honestly say that I never saw any cars with dents in them, and I never saw one accident, they blare their horns a lot, but road rage is non-existent. They are so laid back they are almost horizontal, and I must admit, since coming back I have tended to be the same, better to be ten minutes late in this life than ten years early in the next!

The following day we were picked up from our hotel by Ellen, and informed that although the tickets said we were flying to Beijing from PuDong airport, she had been told that we were in fact going from HongQuia, the old airport. Now this was ok, as long as the information was correct, because to get from one to the other was a 1½ hour drive, so we prayed this was right. It was. We took the two hour flight and arrived at Beijing airport and were collected by a guy called Mr Qi, his English wasn’t a patch on Ellens, but still vastly better than my Chinese (this is limited to Knee How and She She – which is hello and thank you!). We were taken to our final hotel, The Palace Hotel, and boy were we impressed. Well actually I was half expecting the doorman to turn us away, it is seriously flash, the foyer was so large it had a 3 storey waterfall and fountain in the middle, surrounded by an enormous marble staircase. Having checked in we went on a recce to check out the area. This is was vastly better than Shanghai and we walked to the Forbidden City (which was closed – all tourist attractions close at 5pm or 5.30pm) which was a short stroll from the hotel.

The following day we decided to walk to the Temple of Heaven. It was another ‘well it’s only four inches on the map’ walk, but we were in no hurry so it was a pleasant walk, seeing the normal way of life of Beijing. When we got to the Temple we discovered it was a truly enormous garden with temples dotted around throughout. Some were very striking, others less impressive, but definitely worth visiting. One thing I must mention, as my mind recalls, is that on the way out I decided to visit the ladies toilet. I was prepared this time, however, the first time I encountered one I walked past every cubicle trying to find one that wasn’t the cleaners mop wash. The toilets in China are basically a hole in the ground that you crouch over, which is easier said than done when wearing tight jeans! I finally got the art, but if ever you are on a trip to China, be prepared!! We then returned to the hotel and went and did some shopping. One bargain I picked up was 20 metres of silk, this is so cheap that to return home without any would be a sin! – apart from that my sister is a seamstress so guess who’s going to be making them up! Other items that can be picked up very cheaply is jade (more about that later) and chopsticks, which, unsurprisingly you can pick up everywhere. Even the ornate enameled ones are cheap. The following day Kevin and I decided to take up the hotels trip to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. This was a brilliant trip. There were only four of us, my husband and I and two gentlemen, one American and one Taiwanese, I think they were related but I’m not sure how exactly. We had the Dodge (she pronounced it ‘Dodgy’ which worried me slightly!) people mover to ourselves, along with a tour guide who had very good English and a chauffeur, who was dressed in Hotel livery. The trip to the great wall took about one and a half hours, but when we got there it was quite amazing. For a start it was almost deserted, it was still winter and tourists are thin on the ground, there was even the odd bit of snow on the top of the wall. The wall is very tall and literally perches on the top of the mountains. I can understand how it kept out the Mongols, climbing it would be almost impossible. On the way down we were continually accosted by people selling stuff, on this occasion it was t shirts and tableclothes. What really annoyed us was they kept offering us two t-shirts for one dollar, not that they would have actually sold them for that, but obviously just to catch our attention, they assume if you’re white you’re American and it becomes very wearing after a while. However we managed to get almost to the bottom when the last lady jumped out in front of us waving a t shirt at me, much to my surprise she wasn’t shouting ‘only one dollar’ but ‘look, look’ and thrust the label at me. XXL. OK so I’m no Kate Moss, but really! We climbed back into the car and headed off to the next stop, a Jade factory. This was quite interesting, I learnt a bit about Jade and how you can tell the real stuff from the fake. We were then escorted around the shop, presumably in the hope that we might buy something, but neither us nor the two chaps were of a mind to and we went off to the next stop, the Friendship Store, for lunch. This had an enamelling factory attached to it which we were shown around, the results were quite beautiful, but somewhat out of our price range! We had a delightful packed lunch, compliments of the hotel and then set off to the Summer Palace. This was quite a disappointment, more due to the fact that the hotel intimated that this was a trip to the palace itself, not just the gardens, but it was quite spectacular. The lake was truly enormous, and still frozen from the winter, it normally starts thawing at the end of March.

Our last day was spent at the Forbidden Palace, we walked there from the hotel, via Tiannanmen Square, this is absolutely huge, and the entrance to the Forbidden City is very imposing with a huge picture of Chairman Mao over the entrance and stunning fountains along the front. The Forbidden City is unbelievably big. The fact that it is called a city still didn’t prepare us for the sheer scale of the place. We spent the whole day walking around it, and still didn’t see all of it. There are so many temples and rooms to see, all very ornately decorated, that we did eventually become slightly immune to the beauty of it. We ended the day with a lovely chinese meal, which I would like to mention was exactly like the stuff we get in Britain, so when someone now says to me ‘British Chinese is not authentic’ I can assure them it is!

The whole trip to China was an absolutely incredible experience, and I would like to thank Twinings Tea for giving us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.