Shanghai, the Hamburg China

January 13 to 20, 2018

Now it's already January 28th and I'm sitting in my bed in Xi'an. A bunk bed with a comfortable mattress. Also a large wardrobe for my backpack, lockable. And they can speak English at the reception. While I was about to describe what I can now look forward to (the toilet seat is just placed, without screws), a dose of 'fresh air' comes in. This fresh air has an air quality index of 278, which means 'very harmful to health'. After spending a day in this city, I feel like I've smoked a pack of cigarettes and need to cough.

But back to the actual topic, report about Shanghai. It took me two weeks to write about it. Why?

On the one hand, I arrived in the phase of 'traveling or backpacking'. At the beginning, I just wanted to see as many cool things as possible and searched for sightseeing spots, bought travel books. But now, I don't feel like doing that anymore. It's exhausting and after two great skylines (Bangkok and Hong Kong), the one in Shanghai is also great. The typical tourist spots are also great, but that's not what makes traveling. I've figured that out for myself and I'm happy to describe what I mean by that.

At the beginning, I stayed in cheap hotels for 15 euros for a single room, but now I'm staying in 6 or 8-bed rooms and overnighting in very cheap youth hostels for 3 to 5 euros per night. I avoid McDonald's and well-known restaurants, and I'm happy about fried noodles with beef for 1.10 euros per plate. In Germany, I wouldn't even have gone into a restaurant like this, it's so dirty and run-down. But what does run-down mean, it has never been 'up' here. China is still a developing country.

At the beginning, I was happy when I met Germans, because I was too afraid to speak English. Now I try to avoid them and prefer to speak to people of other nationalities like Chinese, Mexicans, Danes, Poles, and so on. If I can't remember the right word, it is described or translated with Google Translate into any language of the world. Even visiting tourist hotspots is nice, but it's not as much fun as playing five rounds of billiards with Jun in the hostel in Shanghai. Or celebrating happy hour with 12 people and getting a massive hangover from local rice beer. All of this makes my trip more exciting and, honestly, makes me curious about what else there is to explore. By the way, North Korea is too expensive. I checked, 1,500 euros for 8 days. 😉

But now to Shanghai. I arrived on Saturday after Guilin and stayed in a youth hostel with 4 people. The air conditioning was set to 'hot' for sleeping. The Sunday was not full of smog as expected, but sunny. I walked through the French Quarter, another area full of small restaurants and shops, and then saw the huge, very beautiful Shanghai Tower from a distance for the first time. Through the old town and the many tourists to 'The Bund', the Shanghai skyline at the port. Very nice! On Monday, I coincidentally met an Indian American who was walking through the city just as aimlessly as I was. She had to wait 5 hours for her flight back to the USA and came from South India. I wanted to go to the Shanghai Museum and she came with me. I was looking forward to an English afternoon and someone to chat with. The museum was boring and we preferred to have coffee and talk about politics and, of course, Trump.es. By the way, it was also the first day with smog. It looks like fog and smells like burned coal.

On Wednesday, I played billiards with Jun and then went to the M50 Art District. Pretty cool exhibits and a great day. On Thursday, I tried to get to the industrial port, but I was too late and only saw fog. The bus had already left too.

By the way, the day before, I took the maglev train. The Meglev. Amazing, to drive at 430 km/h in 7 minutes to the airport and feel the speed. Usually, the train takes an hour.

I really wanted to go to the industrial port on Friday. Why? Because 50 container ships can be handled there, lined up in a row. In Hamburg, we already celebrate when a giant tanker arrives. Here, there can be 50!

After 90 minutes of train ride to the bus station, I had to wait another hour for the bus. It was difficult because no one spoke English and the port is still an insider tip and not signposted. Chinese business people or teenagers who speak English explained to me which bus to take, just like so many times before. After another hour of travel, I finally arrived and it was as foggy as the day before. Shit, but so be it. At least 100 meters more visibility. To get to the platform, I had to pay 30 RMB and climb a mountain completely for 90 minutes. Sweaty and overjoyed to finally be there, I took my selfies.

So it was in Shanghai. From package tourist to backpacker. Cheers to that and off to Beijing.

P.S. In Shanghai, there were already heavy police presence and security checks, but Beijing can do even more. The warning sign in the metro was funny. A guy with a beard and a hat had a dynamite stick in his hand. It was supposed to warn against terrorists. And I was wondering why no one greeted me 😉😄