On our trip to Shanghai, we visited the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). There was only one (joint) exhibit open at the time, so we were glad we waited until seven pm for discounted admission. The exhibit (Will Things Ever Get Better? Artists Xiang Jing and Qu Guangci) was amazing and really surreal to walk around in.
Here are some photos from our trip to the Shanghai Museum.
You know, I really love museums. It may be dorky, but they are so much fun when you’re free to wander and gawk and you don’t have someone dragging you around telling you what’s important (exception: specialized museums like the Rubin in NYC because they’ve got FOCUS). In a general “this is culture” museum like this, it’s best just to gravitate to what’s interesting and while away your day among the old things. Chinese museums in particular seem to have a particular set of exhibits and the Shanghai Museum had everything I expected (also there was a lovely calligraphy exhibit and a lot of historical paper money I didn’t photograph).
So, Crystal and I went to the top of the tallest building in China, the Shanghai World Financial Building (上海环球金融中心), which was pretty neat. Not phone your momma amazing, but pretty. There was a small model of the city that lit up and was entertaining to watch while we waited in line and obnoxious push-and-shoving families and a possibly more annoying man who had apparently not been in China long enough to suck it up and not blame me for emerging ahead of him unintentionally. Don’t blame me that you fell behind, those folks up at the front were behind YOU before.
No anger, no.
I don’t like crowds all that much. But it was pretty!
SO, after a while fighting with my SD card and laziness, here are some pictures from the trip Crystal and I took to Shanghai before we booked it out of the country. Pictured here: Crazy crowded aquarium. It was a sea of people, not water.
Huangshan Day 4.5: MORE CAVES
So after Grotto 35, Crystal and I explored some other neat spots like a hidden shrine and took a LONG hike over to Grotto 24, where we planned to take a boat. Unluckily for us, we had taken the wrong way around and hadn’t reached the boat ticket office yet and there was no way to buy a ticket to tour the inside of the grotto. :/ We were disappointed, but the ticket seller assured us that 24 was small and not really worth it anyway (maybe to make us feel better) and we took a boat back over the lake to Grotto 2, a really pretty cave.
After exploring that cave (this was around 1 pm. Note: tour groups begin to show up around noonish) we were pretty beat, so we headed back toward the road. We stopped before we left to shoot some arrows and feel like Katniss Everdeen for 10元 (Crystal is awesome, I suck) but we skipped the horsie rides. We had a lot of fun!
We popped back out to the road and started walking in the direction we’d come from. A couple from Yangzhou kindly stopped by and offered us a ride to the next intersection where we caught a bus back to Tunxi! We really enjoyed this excursion a lot, we’d highly suggest it to anyone who visits Huangshan.
Huangshan Day 4: The Mysterious Caves of Flower Mountain
Okay, so Crystal found and picked this place out and, while I was unenthusiastic at first, I have to say she won the prize for most awesome idea ever. It’s really, REALLY hard not to have fun climbing around inside colorfully lit caves that were carved out BY HAND (and a chisel I guess) in the 17th century. So freaking cool! Getting here was a lot easier than getting to the Jade Valley. The Chinese name foe this locations is 花山谜窟 (Huāshān Míkū), or “Flower-mountain mysterious caves.” There’s a bus (屯溪-王村) that drops you off right at the parking lot to buy tickets for only 6元 each way. The tickets were 91元 per person (except me again of course with my awesome student ID) and worth every kuai!
After crossing over the bridge, we followed the signs to the first and biggest cave, Grotto 35. We got here around 10 am and very few folks were around. Imagine: no tour groups! The caves were nice and cool and met all expectations for mysteriousness and cave-ness. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! (More pictures and story next time on ANNA’S BLOG!)
Huangshan, Day 3: Jade Valley
After a relaxing day in the village of Huangshan, Crystal and I were ready to continue our touristy activities at 翡翠谷， The Jade (or Emerald) Valley. Getting there was not easy — we had an outdated map and an unhelpful man at the front desk of our hostel who refused to give good directions in English or respond to my Chinese at all (I know I’m not THAT bad). We ended up walking about and wandering to a long distance bus station (I think) and almost walking into a woman who offered to take us into 汤口 (tāngkǒu) for 20元, a town where I had read we could catch a bus to the Jade Valley. This was fine, we shared a cab with another couple from Jiangsu province and ended up in the right place. The lady found us another cabbie to overcharge us and take us up to the entrance of the park, but whatever, we got there around 10 am. 75元 to enter (35 for me and my student ID!), and enter we did!
I loved this park. It’s small, but beautiful. In terms of stair-climbing it’s not comparable in any way to Huangshan (many many many fewer stairs) and you don’t get the majestic mountain views, but it’s got a really nice atmosphere and it was very uncrowded. You essentially follow the river up the valley until you reach the 爱子 rock, a place with the character for love etched into the stone. Legend has it that a famous Song dynasty poet wrote it himself… surrrre. Anyway it was gorgeous and very relaxing.
We finished up by 1 or 2 pm. This is definitely not a full-day excursion; if we were to do it again we might have visited a nearby village or other sight-seeing location. As it was, we managed to find a cabbie to take us for half the price back to town. He found us a bus going to 屯溪 (Túnxī) and flagged it down for us. The bus was 16元 per person. I definitely suggest buses over cabs any time you can swing it - less of a chance you’ll get swindled.
When we got back to town (Friday), it was CRAWLING with the weekend tourist crowd staring at us and snapping pictures. We hid inside a cafe and ate sandwiches before heading back to the hotel for drinks and sleep. All said, quite a good day.
So, after climbing the mountain and being stressed, 水晶 (Crystaaaaaaal) and I decided to relax, explore Old Street (老街) and do some shopping. This was a wonderful day, even if some “we aren’t doing enough touristy stuff” feelings came in. There’s a really nice little cafe called Sweet Time on 二马路 that makes the best caramel macchiato I have ever tasted (though I expect that to change once we hit Europe)!
Huangshan, day one:
We got in yesterday night and booked a bus out to the mountain for 6:10 in the morning. We were told that if we didn’t start early, we’d get back super late. After about 5 hours of sleep (or none in Crystal’s case) we woke up and headed out in search of breakfast/food to take with us to the mountain.
Sadness smothered us as we realized KFC was the only thing open in walking distance at five forty in the morning in a Chinese tourist town. Sadness deepened further when they told us all they had were egg tarts…but three egg tarts later we climbed on the bus all the same.
The bus cost us 20 kuai each, then another bus that took us to the cable car cost us 19 kuai more, then the cable car was a further 80 kuai…none of this compared, however, to the 230 kuai admission per person to the park. We managed to get one of us in for half price with an old student ID card, though. Now just double everything but the admission for the return trip…
We wandered around oooing and aahing at the sights for a few hours until our legs decided to call it quits. We then commenced to get lost and eventually made it back down the mountain around two o’clock, this time with a cable car all to ourselves. We ate lunch at a place with delicious eggplant while waiting for our ride (a bit pricey-69 kuai for sweet and sour pork, eggplant and rice, but it was tasty and filling). We have now passed out in our rooms and are avoiding socialization with the outside world. Go us.
ENJOY PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF
Fall is coming to Nanjing, finally. What this means is a little less sweat and a little more cool breeziness, but not enough to make you quite comfortable yet. Went with the girls (alas Zuhra and Anna have now left us :( ) to XuanWu Lake and played pirate music as we sailed the treacherous waters in a rented boat, then walked around the trees a bit.
In other news, I have caught a cold and am still trying to move house unsuccessfully.
