Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kunming

Our trip has been over for awhile now, but I want to make a few more posts before my memories get too hazy– and add some pictures.

Shanghai was a place I had always wanted to see. I had vague visions of a pre-war Western enclave, based partly on the reminiscences of an American woman I met years ago on Taiwan who had grown up there before the War. She described visits from royalty, lavish parties and glittering mansions. I must admit I was rather apalled at the time– when I remarked that she must be fluent in Chinese she snapped back, “No, of course not! That wasn’t at ALL necessary.” I thought about the possibilities that someone with a sympathetic eye and a knowledge of another culture can create and thought it sad that clearly had neither. Instead, all she had left from her childhood was the memory of evening gowns and afternoon calls.

In any case, the Shanghai I found had nothing in common with those long ago times. One small area of ‘old town’ remains.

Otherwise it is all modern skyscrapers.

From my time in Hong Kong I know that this is generally a source of great pride to Asians, but I must confess it leaves me cold.

Hong Kong itself was a disappointment of another kind: I remembered it well and fondly from my years in Asia, but that Hong Kong, like my acquaintance from Taiwan’s Shanghai, seems to have disappeared. The Star Ferry still runs, but the beautiful bay is constantly clouded with smog. The lively expat community is much diminished and what is left of the old parts of town, the back streets and crowded markets look smaller and sadder. All the action and bustle seems to have moved to Beijing.

Occasional renovated junks seem to be about all that’s left of the old Hong Kong.

After Shanghai and Hong Kong we were much looking forward to Yunnan Province. Several of our informants had told us this was the most interesting part of China, filled with rice terraces, Hill Tribes and natural beauty.

There were no direct trains from Hong Kong, so we caught one to Guang Zhou and then barely managed to catch the night train on to Kunming, the capital city.

The third class trains in China have 3 bunks on each side. Judging by ours, they are also filthy. We killed a number of cockroaches between us and, possibly a result of eating the tepid train food I bought from a vendor, I was sick to my stomach the next morning. I had gotten on the train with a cold and by the time we arrived in Kunming I was ready to take to bed. Unfortunately, a freak snowstorm had hit the city and in place of a warm room I had to settle for a large pile of blankets.

Kunming itself is not a particularly attractive city, and since below freezing days a rare, central heating is practically unknown. The places we had hoped to visit all promised to be yet colder.

Park in Kunming

So after a quick look around we decided to beat a hasty retreat to warmer climes.