Shanghai and Hangzhou

Last week I had a chance to leave Beijing and discover two the most beautiful cities in China – Shanghai and Hangzhou. Shanghai is 1500km south from Beijing (i.e. 12 hours by comfortable train) and it is the biggest city of P.L.China and the biggest port in the world. And I must admited that I was amazed by this city since very first moment… It is more interneational, so I didn’t feel so weird by having white face, it is easier to find somebody speaking English, having better subway system and it is simply nicer. I would highlit just biggest impressions and that are skyscrapers and shopping.


Skyscrapers – they are just everywhere, they are really beautiful, each of them is different and I was quite amazed. We had several company meetings in this buildings (e.g. meeting with Ford was on 43rd floor) and it is quite hard to focus on agenda, when you have really cool view in front of yourself. There is also highest building in China (and no. 5 in the world), Jin Mao tower, which has 88 floors. We tried to enter this building, but it was not possible to get to lift without special card (which might seem normal for us, but this is first building in China, where I saw this system, otherwise you can access buildings easily, without any control). And right next to it, there is another skyscraper, which suppose to be number 2 in the world. Just few days before our arrival there was fire in this construction area.


During this visit I also did my personal record – 66th floor. It was during one evening and we visited bar at the top of hotel in centre. It was really unforgetable to sit in such high, watch on night view of Shanghai and drink beer :-)



Nakupovani - nakupovani v Cine to je neco, coz uz jsem popisoval,ale Shangahi je jeste vyssi level :-) Posledni vecer jsme s Ninou vyrazili na mistni nakupni tridu plnou obchodu. Vsude plno svetel obchodu, ruzny znacky atd. No ale to clovek vidi vsude. Jak jsme se tak prochazeli, tak furt za nama nekdo chodil “shoes, bages, watches, DVD,… very cheap sir”, ale celkem jsme je ignorovali. (V jednu chvili sem cekal pred obchodem na Ninu a hnedka sem dostal nabidku na "lady massage" :-) ) Prosli sme ale pulku ulice a vsude samy hadry a nikde zadnej stanek s dvd, ktery sem si chtel nakoupit. No a kdyz nas potom nejaka slecna oslovila, tak jsme se nechali zlomit a vydali se do bocnich ulicek, kde nas zatahla do takyho malinkatyho obchodiku kde nic tu nic, ale jak ji videli prodavaci, tak se hnedka rozestoupili a otevreli zadni falesnou stenu, za niz bylo asi trikrat vic mista. Tam sem si prohrabal kopu filmu,ale bohuzel ani po smlouvani sme se nedohodli, nehoraznych 45 Kc (na mistni pomery) za jedno DVD sem nehodlal platit, tak sme se vydali na hlavni ulici a netrvalo dlouho a uz nas oslovoval dalsi nahanec. S nim sem si uz na hlavni ulici ujasnil cenu (20 Kc za kus) a vyrazili. Nas pruvodce se jmenoval Li a byl to docela dobrodruh, protoze hnedka prvni obchod byla takova uzounka odbocka z jiz tak dosti vedlejsi ulice, ale bylo tam svetlo a aji nejaky turista se tam mihl, tak sme se odhodlali. Nejaky DVD sem si vybral, ale prodavacce se nejak nelibilo mnozstvi penez co ji davam, ale Li jen udelal gesto rukou a bylo to ok. No ale dalsi obchod jsme teda odmitli, protoze to uz i tak byla docela temna ulicka, z niz Li odbocil do neosvetlenyho pruchodu a tam se zacal hnat po nejakych schodech nahoru, tak to jsme teda s Ninou rychle vycouvali… Ale pak nas ujistil, ze je to ok, ale i tak jsme radsi sli do jinyho obchodu. Nejdriv to byla galerie (sem se divil proc nas taha nakupovat obrazy), ale hned po nasem prichodu se za recepci otevrela dalsi falesna stena a navstivili jsme dalsi "shoes, bags, dvd..".
Tady uz to sice Li nemel cenove pod palcem, tak jsme znovu smlouval, ale v pohode sem to ucekal na moji cenu. Na zaver, nas jeste Li tahal do obhodu, kde uz jsme prvne byli se slecnou, ale tam uz jsme nechteli, sice tvdil, ze “ I am boss here, I make price for you”, ale DVD uz jsem mel dost tak jsme se vratili zpet a rozloucili.
No kdybyste nekdo chteli nakupovat na Nanjing East, tak ho najdete na konci ulice kolem posledni odbocky, to je jeho teritorium jak rikal (asi to tu maji nejaky rozdeleny na nejaky rajony), je to milej chlapik a umi i jakztakz anglicky. Jen se je potreba vybavit notnou davkou odvahy…







Hangzhou reunion

Then we spend two days in Hangzhou - close to Shanghai, we visited Moni, she is having 1 yeat internship there. HAngzhou supposed to be "the most beautiful city in China" - in my opinion, it is normal middle size city ("only" 6,5 milion people), it has one advantage - nice big lake close to the centre (round around lake is 14 km long) so we spend nice two days in it surroundings. During first evening we also bought some beers and were just enjoying nice atmosphere of the city.
I was suprised that there were a lot of beggers, which were really obtrusive and annoying (comparing to Beijing the situation was much worse). But one guy was asking only for empty cans anf bottles, I stopped by us three time during evening and each time we had new stuff for him, which made him really happy. So we had nice evening, drunk some beers and made some CSR :-) Next day we also rented bikes, so we could discover more places around lake. And there just 15 hours in the train and we were back in Beijing

Here you can find more pictures from Shanghai and Hangzhou