Hong Kong, the final adventure.

All neon like

In another 4 days I'm going home. It is about 9am and I've just getting into Shenzhen off a terrible over night bus trip, even though all over night bus rides are. I'm dropped off at a random bus stop on a highway and told to get on a the number seven. I do, but I don't have a clue where to get off. With my keen travellers eye I eventually see a sign out on the side of the road for a subway station, bingo! I jump off and go to my hostel I'm staying at for the night, a lovely new place out in the suburbs somewhere.

The sad Orangutan at the zoo, so lonely

Shenzhen is right on the border to Hong Kong, and is a special economic zone set up purposefully on the border of China to stimulate economic growth. One of the major benefits of this is it is a great place for shopping. Being on the border of Hong Kong means it is very accessible, and being in China proper means things are awesomely cheap. Having only to travel another 50 odd kilometres with a backpack to the Hong Kong airport meant I was willing to fill that backpack to the brim with the latest fashions. I spent the day exploring dodgy shopping malls, getting some of the best deals in the world. Floors of fakes for basically any price you can be confident enough in asking for. Using the 'take my price or I'll walk out the door' method I achieved some pretty descent deals.

Merry Christmas everyone

In the morning I headed across the border to Hong Kong. It was bizarre how different the place is, only being 30 odd km from Shenzhen. Instantly you notice the large mix of cultures, the english speaking people, and the much higher prices. I picked one of the cheapest places in town to stay at, the travellers friendship hostel. It was very different to Chinese hostels, there were basically only a few tiny rooms in some large cheap apartment block. Not really a great place to hang out, it made up for it by being right down on tip of the Kowloon Peninsula so is super convenient to everything.

All the new gears in the smallest hostel room ever

View out of the hostel window, spectacular....

I had three nights to kill before the big departure home. In this time I did lots, but some of the highlights were....

Gold fish for sale!

Probably the first thing everyone does in Hong Kong is go and view the city from the top of Victoria Hill. I went with a young German man from the hostel, and being both on the cheap we skipped the logical option of taking the cable car up and instead walked. This was a pretty good option as meant we would go past the Hong Kong Zoo, and go through a bit of back door nature before getting to the top. Once up there we went for a walk on the circular route around the top of the hill, giving one of the most magnificent city views available. The high rises of Hong Kong are incredible, all 6,439 of them, and viewing them from up here was spectacular, the only issue being the grey haze over the city, but I'm sure one day they'll sort that out.

View from Victoria Peak, really sweet, although a little grey

Where all the jerks shop

The next awesome activity was seeing the same cityscape from back across the harbour at 8pm every night for the big light show that goes on. This is kinda over the top, but I enjoyed it enough to come back three times to see it. After showing some people back in New Zealand a video of the light show, they suggested that it was an incredible waste of energy. This is probably true, and seeing Hong Kong is mainly powered by gas and coal and a little wind power reducing this spectacular event would probably be a step in reducing the grey shroud covering the 6,439 high rises.

Best view in the city at 8pm every night

There were a few other important things I needed to do before going home, firstly I had to fill the remainder of my bag with souvenirs and then had to get rid of the remaining hong kong money I had on me. Along with my German friend while he was still in town, soon to be screwed over by the protests at the Bangkok International Airport, we went to the night market in Kowloon for a feed and some shopping. This was a great way to spend my last night in town, and was topped off by drinking a beer in the streets which must have been illegal but the German didn't know any better. Plus it was much cheaper than the bar the night before, even with a free beer from a man claiming that the hottest women on the planet are from Colombia.

The tram ride out to the 'burbs

Now my last day away, tomorrow I will be back in New Zealand. Having travelled over a quarter of the way around the world over land and going through three huge nations that have only become accessible to westerners in the last two decades, and not to forget the handful of smaller European countries. But today I just wanted to get it over and done with. Unfortunately my flight wasn't until 10pm so spent the day riding the tram over on Hong Kong Island on a mission to get to a beach, in the hope to possibly go for a swim. Feeling like I was on The Amazing Race, I took the tram right to the end of the line then ran as far as I could to get to the ocean. Unfortunately I was still a while from where I had planned on going, but did make it to the sea. And that there was the last adventure I was to have. From there I turned around and headed back to the hostel to collect my bags and go to the airport, wait around for my flight, then go home.

One of the star ferries make a voyage before sun set

The joy of Hong Kong airport is that you get to go over the world longest bridge on the way there

Soon enough I was back in New Zealand, unfortunately without my bag which got lost in Australia, but luckily it did eventually make it and I was safe at home and all adventure over.

Ah... home time!

Complete Trip Costs:
China/Hong Kong for a month, including transport, accomodation, food, expenses etc: NZ$1747
Total trip cost for 3 months of outrageous adventure: NZ$9677

Post Trip Analysis:
After travelling round the world for three months to some pretty exotic locations. I feel it necessary to express my view on the world and on travelling. In doing this adventure I found a purpose for life, having the goal of getting somewhere in which the journey would be a massive challenge meant I felt truly alive nearly every day. There were times when I'd have liked to been able to give up, but pressing through to achieve my goals made it very fulfilling. This is why I'd recommend to anyone with the choice of either selling out and buying a house and setting up a mundane life or to go on a wild adventure to definitely choose the later. And I guarantee you won't regret being able to reflect on that decision later in life.

The form of tourism I participated in was not your typical two week holiday to a tropical island, but was a real get down and dirty with very different cultures for a lengthy period. This was way more intellectually fulfilling, as gave myself a much broader view on the world and a deeper understanding of how others live. These are important things one must do to prevent ignorance and give you a good basis to stand on to make some claims such as that which follows in my world views.

There was a very different respect to how the normal person lives in Russia, Mongolia, China between each country and compared to New Zealand. There were aspects I thought fantastic, and others I feel need to change, and fast. Being concerned for the environment, (even though I did fly around the world), saw some major projects that need to be demolished as soon as possible. Large chimneys spilling out pollution throughout Russia and China can not continue. But this all comes at a cost to the people who are far poorer than we are in New Zealand, especially out in the countryside. Solutions must be thought up of soon to save the world from itself and without screwing over the poor. I think we can learn the most from Mongolia on this aspect, the nomads have chosen a simple way of life which doesn't require all the best homes, the fastest cars or whatever. They seem quite happy all living in the same styled Ger and getting around on their horses. Why can't we choose a more simple life in return for a better one?

Since coming back to New Zealand I've taken my thoughts to an action level, I now cycle every day to work, (in an office job I knew I'd have to return to). And am reducing my spending on unnecessary consumer products to hopefully use my money to do something more fulfilling in the future than watch tv every day.

I see the future to be very positive, with numerous opportunites to make the world a great place. Yet at the same time I don't stop living within this world because I'm waiting for it to get better. No I make sure I use all the great gifts nature has for us as much as possible. I think that getting out into the world makes you realise that protecting it is useless unless you are conserving so you can use it. So get out into life! I hope you enjoyed all my blogs, and wish that you'd read the entire lot. If you like it then make a comment or give me a job to be a travel writer....

Shanghai, Someone Should Inform Them It Isn't 2050 Just Yet

The classic Shanghai shot

According to that good old wikipedia, Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world behind Mumbai. That means it is big.

Tomorrow Square harnesses the power of the sun

In this mega city I found out the hard way that there are a few really annoying things. Things that aren't any reason to stop one coming here, but some thing you need to be warned of. First of all, if you are going to the south train station to buy a ticket make sure you have got money on you to buy it. I went there expecting an ATM, well there was one but it didn't like my card even though it has never let me down anywhere else in the world. Luckily there is another ATM a bit of a walk out of the station, but unfortunately it is, at the time of visiting, going through maintenance. Long story short, I wasted about four hours not buying a ticket out of Shanghai. Next really annoying thing is that the subway lines shut down around 10pm each night. So if you go to a movie in town late at night, you might only be able to catch one of the two trains you need to get home. This results in you walking a few kilometres through dark streets in an unknown district of a foreign city to get back to the hostel around midnight.

The reflective Tomorrow Square

But with those qualms out the way, Shanghai was really impressive. A pompous city with futuristic buildings, a real display of what China's cities could be if they continue to push the boundaries of the new age.

The best way of course to see all this is along the Bund waterfront. Here is one of the most impressive city scapes presented over the lovely Huangpu River dividing the main business district from the shopping district. The futuristic buildings were mind blowing, the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center are beyond nearly anything I've ever seen before. After seeing this, I turned around and walked back down one of the worlds busiest shopping streets, Nanjing Road. I looked around here, but all that was available was big retail brands. I wasn't into that, I wanted cheap knock offs, and I knew where to get them.

Nanjing Road means loads of annoying people trying to get your money

A subway ride out to Qipu Lu, an infamous knock off market aimed towards the locals, hence providing some of the cheapest big label clothes around. Standing out like a typical tourist in a sea of Chinese people I was instantly approached by all the nearby shop owners. They all can spot a sucker like myself to persuade to come in and spend lots of money on their low quality goods. I've turned rather market savvy and realise that you can probably get a better deal by walking around for a while making shops compete against each other, but instead I decided to go in for the 'follow me to my shop' approach. A man lead me a few blocks from the actual market to his shop that was in the back of some large unknown mall of other similar shops. Here he presented me with a fine selection of shirts and ties looking as though they were straight out of an Italian designers boutique. Expecting to make a good load of cash of me, he was fooled when the cheapest man in Shanghai to walk into his shop. So after experiences from Beijing such as getting a pair of jeans down to under 10 percent of the original asking price. I managed to achieve similar discounts after bargaining hard on a combo, which if real, would be worth well over a few hundred dollars.

The aesthetic French Concession

After a bit of super cheap shopping I headed over to the classy French Concession district. A nice contrast to the grey soul less streets elsewhere around town, I enjoyed a long walk along the tree lined avenues before getting some classic western food, donuts and coffee. Heading back into town I hoped to get into the Shanghai Museum before closing. Unfortunately the down to the letter rule abiding security guards wouldn't let me in only 3 mins after the last entrance time, even though it didn't fully shut for another hour. Rather angry at the world because it must have been the twentieth time I've missed a closing time by minutes in the last few months, I headed over across the city park to catch the subway back to the hostel.

The Oriental Pearl watches the sun go down

While going across the park the sun started to set, so as angry as I was, I stopped and took a photo. Then letting my anger subdue with the sunset I turned around and decided to try my luck on the MOCA (Museum of Comtempary Art) nearby. Being a much more open minded place, it didn't close till much later, and so I finally got to visit a decent art gallery overseas. It was small but of quite high quality. It had two really moving pieces, one a display of plastic dolls showing the amassing of rubbish toys being produced by China. The other a video showing people who make a living off saying a few words over and over. These were street vendors making a minuscule living repeating, “Shoes, watches, DVD's” or whatever every few seconds as a potential unsuspecting customer walked by. I found this moving because I have experienced hundreds of similar real life vendors every day in China.

Plastic dolls by the dozen

Afterwards I got back to the hostel and tried the local streets for some dinner. Not realising the hostel was in the middle of a illegal street market, I walked the busy streets, lined with peoples rubbish they were trying to sell, to a corner with a lady cooking up a storm. For 5 Yuan (~NZ$1.20) I got one of the most delicious street meals ever, full of MSG and all the other good stuff they put in their food in China. So feeling rather chuffed at my awesome dinner, I returned back to the hostel for the night after buying a hair brush off someone along the crazy street.

Mao is hanging out in Shanghai, as he does

All this might not have actually happened on one day, but actually over a few as I spent about three nights in Shanghai. After all that the best thing about Shanghai was the hostel. This was primarily because they put on a buffet breakfast every morning for no extra charge. The hostel was the Shanghai International Youth Hostel, for only $10 a night it was super awesome to wake up to an unlimited supply of really nice food. So if you are a hostel owner and reading this, heed my advice, put on a free breakfast. Seriously, a hostel with a free breakfast compared to one without is a definite deal seal. My last morning in town was an early one, but I risked the possibility of missing my train (I did have to go back another day to the train station with money to buy a ticket out) waiting around until the free breakfast started. Totally worth it.

The Yangtze River, Cruising Down The Chinese Water Highway

The Chinese flag flying over the great Yangtze River

Over the last decade the Yangtze River has been flooded for the purpose of the Three Gorges Dam, in turn taking out countless villages and towns, losing numerous cultural and historical sites. Some people say that the river cruise, which used to be one of Chinas tourism highlights has been ruined forever. The local people who have been evicted from their land are generally annoyed, and loads of officials have been stealing the poor peoples land compensation making it a rather large debacle. These were all great reasons why I wanted to go on the cruise. To be right there in a moment of great historical change.

The sun reflects on the Yangtze River

The cruise ship reflects the steep gorge walls

Being a backpacker with little money, I took the option of going on a Chinese tour rather than an expensive English one. The result was that I was one of about four English speaking people on the whole boat and basically didn't really see those other English people at all. Next I'd chosen to skip going to all the relocated temples because they basically are only a year or so old after being moved, so have lost their historical appeal. Finally I shelled out on a side cruise up the Lesser Three Gorges because they were supposedly more scenic than the main gorges. The total cost of this was around 700 Yuan (~NZ$180), which spread out over three days was a little more than my day to day budget, but was something a little different so totally worth it.

Hooray for Chinese tours

Inside The Lesser Three Gorges, with its vertical walls

The first night was spent riding a bus to the cruise ship four hours out of Chongqing, hoping on the boat and finding my bed. When I found my room, I walked in and placed my gear on my bed, then feeling rather hungry went to open up some food for dinner. In my third class room was another 5 Chinese people, one then took the liberty of yelling at me in Chinese and tieing up my bag of food so I couldn't have any. Rather confused and unable to communicate at all with him, I pointed to the food, rubbed my belly and rose an eyebrow. Not really sure what was going on, I didn't want to cause some big scene so went outside and stood on the deck looking out over the river. But soon enough hunger over took me so I went back in to try getting something to eat again. Same result! I was thinking that maybe there was going to be dinner served soon or something so I shouldn't be eating now, or maybe it was against usual customs to eat before the boat had got going? Confused I went and stood back at my viewing spot outside my room. It wasn't for another hour or so until the ships tour guide, who spoke a little English, came along to tell us about the nights itinerary. She quickly settled the dispute. Supposedly the old man hadn't seen me come in and place my bags on the bed, and being the racist person he was didn't expect to be sleeping with any foreigners down in third class. So when I had opened up my food bag he had assumed I had just walked into the room and tried to eat some poor mans loot. Rather hungry and angry by now I reluctantly smiled as he profusely apologised after finding out I was legitimately meant to be eating my food which was placed on my bed. Wanting to punch him in the face I made myself some noodles and calmed down after filling my stomach.

My third class room, with bathroom through back door. Go number 2310!

Layers of mountain ridges glow under a low sun

Soon fireworks were lit to send us on our way and the rest of the night was spent watching Chinese TV and making friends with the rest of my cabin friends through the two or three words one of them could write in English.

The new temples have lots of neon, just like an old traditional one

Old meets new, with a swallowed bridge being replaced by a new super bridge

The next morning at the crack of a 5am dawn we were woken to be introduced to the first of the three gorges. A spectacular sight even after flooding it. I enjoyed it for a short time before I fell asleep again to wake up at a normal rising time. Later that day the lesser three gorges tour took place. This was an exciting little trip up a smaller river through a narrow set of gorges with vertical walls running right down to the water, monkeys running about in the surrounding jungle, and a forced ride on some little raft which was enjoyed until I was made to pay 10 yuan for it.

Going through The Lesser Three Gorges

The Wuxia Gorge dwarfs a distant cargo ship

Later that night, we cruised through the next gorge, the Wuxia Gorge, another stunning natural wonder where the water has cut through the mountains over millions of years giving life to one of the most populous places on earth. Another night was spent in the third class cramped cabin, waking up in the morning we were getting ever closer to the dam. From here, just above the dam in the Xililng Gorge, the evidence for the destruction of the environment was getting clearer; signs pointing out the change in river depth were showing a 175m rise in the river level. The murky water could not stop my imagination from thinking about what had been buried underneath, but at the same time brought marvel at the capabilities of man to harness nature's power.

The river is only metres from being at its full 175m rise

The hazy sun sets over Wuxia Gorge

Sediment build up above the dam, environmental concern?

The cruise concluded with a tour of the three gorges dam. Disappointingly, the mist was so thick that I could only see halfway across the dam, therefore I had to make sure I got round to the other side of the river to see the other half. This viewing did not justify the additional cost of the tour of the dam, but was something that had to be done and would be good on a fine day. As annoying as the mist was, I was still well impressed by the grandeur of this monumental construction project and could almost believe the myth that the development has created a lake so large that it has shifted the earth from its rotational axis.

My viewing point from on the cruise ship

The Three Gorges Dam, in all its misty glory

The whole cruise ended with being dropped off at a bus stop in a random town. Not knowing where I was, I asked my new Chinese friends, ex-cabin mates, where the bus to Wuhan was. My hesitation meant I hoped on an all-ready full bus and was forced to wait for the next bus. Unfortunately, this did not leave for another hour and a half, which was about 6pm, and proceeded a five hour bus ride. Arriving in Wuhan, I only had a small hostel brochure that had a map of the surrounding three blocks of the hostel and that was all the information I had on the entire city. Rather worried that I may end up getting lost in a huge unknown city in the middle of the night I was fortunate enough to be going to the same hostel as a Spanish man on the bus. Together we asked, through a difficult language barrier, the Chinese bus driver where the hostel was. He was kind enough to take us off the main highway and on to a street on the corner of the little map on the hostel brochure. Arriving at a hostel at midnight is never fun, especially with no booking, but resting in bed, I was thankful it all worked out.

The locks running alongside the dam

A paradox: the widened river is meant to reduce carbon emissions from trucks winding round highways, but the boats cargo is coal...

In reflection of seeing the Three Gorges Dam I am left to ask myself was this right to build such a project, especially seeing I studied electrical engineering at university. There is a range of possible solutions to the problem, the alternatives that were available at the time of projects beginning were to build fossil fuel power stations or a nuclear plant. Neither of these are any good for the planet, so the dam is probably the best option as is using renewable energy. But the real problem is much larger than what kind of power plant to build. Fundamentally over population mixed with modernisation is causing the need for such projects. At this point in China's history, population growth has saturated the land available, and people are only now beginning to see the plight of modernising without caring for the environment. So the real question is how to solve the issues at the root?