Over the River and up the Mountain, to Shanghai (China, part 2)

(Part 1 here.)

So, from Xi'an, we booked our Yangtze cruise with a "Mr. John". "Do not worry about quality," exclaimed the brochure, "for it is John." After another hilarious overnight train (in which we caused a lot of laughter in the dining car with our ordering of a full melon), John's wife met us at the station and took us back to John's apartment, where we rested up before boarding the cruise boat that night.

John is certainly one of the more legendary characters I have met in the travels, and he helped us plan out an itinerary post-cruise that enabled us to climb Huang Shen (Yellow Mountain), stay a night on the summit, and still get to Shanghai in time for Friday night by various bus connections. China proved a frightfully easy country for the independent backpacker thanks to fixers like John found along the way.

The cruise was enjoyable, if a bit bizarre. Very nice to relax after hectic wanderings, although it wasn't your typical luxury liner - we took the first class cabin (so as not to have to share the room with others), but it still gave off quite an odor at different times. The shower/squatter toilet in the room was also pretty ridiculous. Still, the scenery of the three gorges was suitably stunning at many points along the way, and just being on a boat for an extended time is always joyous. Having now cruised the Nile and the Yangtze, I find myself looking forward to the inevitable Amazon and Mississippi at some point. Yangtze pictures here.

After the Yangtze and a trip to see the Three Gorges Dam and its installed capacity of 22,500 MW (an incredibly shocking number - considering that's about 10 times Nova Scotia's peak electricity demand), we found our way to Mr. Hu's at the base of the Yellow Mountain in Tangkou. Another classic guy, he made sure everything was in order for our climb, and Mrs. Hu's food was divine. The mountain trekking brought out the Wimbledon headband used to great effect on the Great Wall once again and was pretty arduous going at times. The rewarding views at the Summit were certainly worth it, as can be seen in these pictures.

And then, finally, legendary Shanghai. Quite a disappointing start to our time here, as we had been excited to walk the famous "Bund" only to find it entirely under construction for Expo 2010. I am sure it will look nice next year, but surely there was a way to avoid shutting it all down. Our thoughts on the city improved as we hit the Old Town, and then lunch, a tea-house, a park in the French Concession, People's Square around sunset, and then the lovely chaos of Nanjing Road. So many ex-pats in Shanghai, and we found a few late-night places which resulted in a number of ridiculous Saturday night type stories not to be repeated here. Feeling a bit rough on Sunday, we crossed over to the financial district to go up the Jinmao Tower for the views, and then hit the airport via the 300km/hr Meglev train, where I bid farewell to Cooper and awaited the early flight to Seoul. Here are the photos that track those scenes.

And that's the abbrieviated version of 18 days or so in China. I am headed back to see the South after South Korea (my 27th country, it turns out) on Sunday - Guilin and Yangshao and the Li River, and then a flight to Malaysia to begin the SE Asia exploits. More after some time catching up with Bears here, of course. Always great seeing old friends, trading old reminiscences and new stories.