Shanghai - Journey unforgettable
A trip to China
When we started our journey for Shanghai the economical capital of China we never thought that we should come back so much wiser and full of new information. Reading ten thousand of books is not as important as traveling ten thousand miles, which makes you more wiser is translation of Chinese Idiom- Du wan juan shu buru Uing wanly lu, is one of the most true statements for those who love to travel and gain experience in different fields. That proved true for us after we came back from the Chinese trip that we had during my service period. I along with my MD and chief software engineer started for Shanghai by a Chinese airliner for a fun trip that was promised by our MD for two of us after the successful launch of a new product.
I must add here that he agreed on one condition that we would not ask for any luxurious stay and high-end restaurants for dining. That was not much of a problem for both of us so we three were on our way to Shanghai from IG airport Delhi, as they say one fine morning if you consider 2.30 am as morning that it was. This was my first trip abroad ever where I had nothing to do despite being on an official trip so as soon the plane took off my mind too took off with it imagining the wonderful destination we were hading for, lots of different ideas flooded my mind.
After we got down at Pudong airport of Shanghai and came out of usual formalities we boarded a government bus in place of hiring a taxi and our travel to main city showed us the real picture of China. We could see the reason why China was the biggest consumer of cement, steel, aluminum etc in the world with its wide roads, flyovers, metro lines, big malls, big tunnels high-rise buildings and strong infrastructure in every field that we could see at that particular point of time. We could see battery operated bicycles and autos and that was our main concern to visit this country. We had a place booked in advance in Shanghai to stay a three-bedded room in a non star hotel although it was neat and clean with all modern amenities so that was not an issue. We left our room in an hour to have a feel of the city and visit nearby areas.
Our eating experience
We were feeling hungry so entered into a nearby restaurant to eat but that was another experience for me that I would like to forget as soon as possible, the menu was in Chinese and the serving staff was taking us aliens landed from Mars. Perhaps they were not used to see two Sardar with one clean-shaven man in their restaurant before. We ordered Momos and noodles showing them pictures of these items printed on menu. They had no spoons or forks but chopsticks, which were too complicated to handle for three of us. For me this was like one of the toughest of jobs but ultimately we finished whatever was there to eat. However that was the scene for next few days during our stay in China. For my companions it was not that big problem as they two were non-vegetarians who ate pork, duck, fish, lamb, snail, lobster etc but I was not that lucky so I mostly depended on fruits, milk and butter.
Bund
After we finish our meals we headed for Bund the first destination a tourist to Shanghai likes to visit. Huangpu River and buildings located across are like trademark of typical modern Shanghai city. We reached there at almost sunset time and orange rays of setting sun reflecting through water and glass made walls of buildings presented a wonderful view. The buildings there in traditional 19th century European style are parts of Pudong district of Shanghai area. The scene of shaking reflections of buildings was so fascinating and eye catching that none of us could ask to move from there for a long time.
Nanjing Road
The Nanjing road where we stayed in Shanghai is perhaps the busiest shopping street in the world. The next morning when we got up a little late, perhaps bit tired due to travel and not proper sleep the previous night but the road outside was wide awake despite being a Sunday. There were thousands maybe hundreds of thousands people on the road. I had never seen so many people at one place together with maybe exception of a cricket stadium in Kolkata. But as we were later told that there were always the same number of people on this road and this certainly was not a Sunday special crowd. The crowd very well reminded me of red fort area in Delhi where people gather to buy items sold on foot paths ranging from clothes to books and from shoes to fancy items. It was not the same here because the market was definitely different from our market with modern malls to old sophisticated stores and people selling different items on the road although most of those were fake items. They were selling right from Rolex and Cartier watches to diamond studded pens by a famous brand. You would be surprised to note that they were selling Dunhill suits and Burberry jackets right there on the road and all of these items were fake. You could see latest phone brands, goggles and what not. However, there was not the slightest of hint of boredom as people were having fun with different activities.
Zhujiajiaozhen - a water village
There are thousands of water villages in China but this was the one closes to us and considered Venice of East. The name looks long on paper but the 
pronunciation is not as tough as it looks Juaang as we could make it easily. The village is about 120km away from Shanghai. The specialty of the place the double story houses, had their foundation under water, stone built small bridges to cross canals with thousands of boats of all sizes, some of them having shops on them. I have never been to Venice but as I have seen it in movies and photos the village was a perfect replica of Venice. Yes, I missed the boatman who could sing like an Italian boatman as they do in movies ‘ O sole mio’ by Giovanni Capurro la Italian style or ‘Wo kashti wala kya ga raha tha..Lala..La’ in Indian style.
The unforgettable tour
I can safely rate the train journey from Shanghai to Beijing as one of the best train journeys I ever did. A distance of 1318km in five and half hour reaching to 300km/hour at points was amazingly smooth. The high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing is supposed to be the fastest long distance train. The coaches have digital speedometers to display speed and when the train touched 300km/hour, every thing disappeared out side windows. At this point I was trying to recall the fastest train of our country, probably Shatabdi express at Delhi-Bhopal rout at 150km or near about that speed.
In Beijing finally
Like most capital cities and particularly the capitals in Asia are more crowded, a little more hectic and probably with a different mood then better organized cities of that particular country, same was the case with Beijing also. I did not find any difference as far taxi drivers were concerned, they were as good or bad as our auto drivers in Delhi. However the history of China makes it great and the Great Wall of China makes it greater. The Great Wall is almost 6400 km long and the only place/object located on earth visible from moon. This wall took almost 2000 years in its construction and many workers did nothing but construct it whole their life. The wall was made to protect to country from outside attacks and was strong enough to withstand weapons.
I could read the welcome message written on a board “the one who doesn’t climb the Great Wall is not a true man” so I had to prove that I was true man and so were my companions. This was like a challenge or invitation or maybe both but we accepted it and once we started to climb we stopped at the top although my MD who was younger than me was bit shaky when we reached up there. There were lots of people who were climbing and walking to the wall and a big number of aged people as we see in our religious places like Vaishno Devi or Amarnath etc although there is no religious importance of Great Wall of China whatsoever. Next day we went to see the oldest palace in the world known as Forbidden City now a museum and Tiananmen Square the place where thousands of people were killed in 1989.
Back to delhi
There was another surprise waiting for us on our return trip to Delhi and that was the journey by metro train Maglev that we started from Longyan road metro station to Pudong airport a distance of 30km in 7 minutes 20 seconds flat. No commercial service in the world can beat this train as far speed is concerned. I have so much to write but I would prefer to end this one at this point. I would like to share with you that Fa Hien took almost six years to reach to India but it took us just six hours to reach to Delhi and while Hwen Tsang stayed almost for 10 years in India we stayed only for 10 days to see the famous places of China.
Photos from wikipedia
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