Day twenty-eight: China Recap from Sydney, Australia

Before you assume-away that I'm enjoying myself too much to bother blogging, I'd like to inform you that my blog was a victim of Chinese censorship, and I could not access it to read your messages or post new ones of my own. So, on behalf of their government, I apologise for the inconvenience!

Its been a very intense few days jam-packed with physical hardships, culture shocks, sign language and surprises of all shapes and sizes.

Beijing turn

ed out to be flatter than expected, so at no moment did I feel as if I was in a metropolitan city. The newly built Olympic stadiums look stunning, although I'm afraid the city's preparation in terms of 'welcoming the world' still isn't up to par. This was apparent within minutes of my arrival, as apparently none of the tourist information staff on duty at the Beijing Int'l Airport (12 people in total) are capable of translating an address into chinese characters!

I walked on the Great Wall for over four hours, visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and some other major tourist attractions and also braved the streets by bicycle and explored the alleyways of one-story shanty towns (what is left of the old city) with newly made friends. 

I also managed to spend money in the many shopping markets in town and in western-feeling clubs that may as well be anywhere else in the world.

I roughed-it on an overnight train to Shanghai and stayed with the Bowker Family who were wonderful and introduced me to the city as well as gave me a home for a few days where I could sleep, eat, chat or simply 'chill' at my own leisure- I couldn't have asked for more fantastic hosts!

Shanghai struck me as a bustling, trendy Megacity, which apparently, in the year 2010, will be home to over one thousand skyscrapers! From Jinmao Tower (the fourth tallest building... until its neighbour is finished come 2009) I got just an impression of the extent of this building craze. Although smog covered the suburbs, what I saw was more than enough to be blown away by the sheer size and pace of the place. On my way out of town I caught the Maglev train, riding at a maximum speed of 431 km/h, it travelled over 30 kilometres in just over seven minutes! Beat that! 

If those four days in Shanghai where a taste of the future, the upcoming week could easily be one of paradise as I explore Sydney and it's surroundings at a sunny 19 degrees C. 

Kaja