Tasting the new, ancient and typical China—through Shanghai and Hangzhou (Part 1)

To be frank, I seldom travel to Mainland China except visiting my relatives there occasionally. This is my first trip to explore the place with my friend by ourselves and it turns out to be an eye-opener for us.

To me, traveling is more than sight-seeing and cuisine-eating. It is also about exploring history and experiencing local life. The best way to do so is to take the public transport and take a stroll in local stores or supermarkets.

Chapter 1: public transport

Metro—my first cultural shock
My first metro experience in Shanghai has actually freaked me out.

Just a few days before I landed in Shanghai, a man was crushed to death in Shanghai metro after being sandwiched in between the train door and the glass shield alongside the platform. How the gap between the two doors could accommodate an adult and why the driver couldn't sense anything unusual are beyond normal human intelligence to understand. But somehow I was under the impression that accidents like this happened quite often as it re-ran itself in front of me on my very first metro ride.

I was surveying the train compartment when I heard a sharp beeping sound, indicating that the train door was about to shut. Suddenly a man holding a little boy sprinted to the train and was caught by the train door (it won't swing open automatically when it fails to shut). My tripmate and I gawped in mute horror while others roared for help and tried to widen the door to rescue the man. Luckily, the man was safe in the end.

Every time I stepped in the metro station, I felt like entering the war zone and got myself into the fight-and-flight mode. It is common to find people emit a loud sneeze just next to you without covering their mouths and to spot patches of fresh spit in concourse area.

Despite repeated announcements reminding people to queue to board and to let passengers alight first, swarms of people just hurtled in and out—at the same time. So whenever the train pulled into the station, just before the moment the doors which separated the two camps on each side of the platform gap swung open, our eyes locked and both camps were ready to brave the crowds to get in or out of the train.

When the night falls, the metro would become a marketplace. Beggars, young and old, would wander in the compartment asking for money. I have actually witnessed a trio of sisters begging on train for two consecutive nights. People seemed to have got used to it and just give the beggars a cold shoulder. Sometimes people would sell newspapers and hurl leaflets at you whether you want it or not. And if you are lucky enough (or if you travel much enough), you may even catch some public musical performance on train.

What seemed to be a scary place to me at the beginning looked somehow freaky-funny toward the end of the trip as anything could happen there. Somehow, every metro ride is a surprise and you would never know what lies ahead.

Bus—something you shouldn't miss
Riding a bus in Hangzhou especially during rush hour is a kind of physical training. For one thing you have to act fast and be nimble as people will push forward once the bus arrived. Forget about queuing; it's dummy logic.

If you can board a bus successfully, you have to position and balance yourself well given very limited space while people keep squeezing in and struggling out of the bus.

Your physical training doesn't stop here because you still have to get off at the right stop. In fact, buses in big cities are quite modern and there's announcement telling you the next stop; so you don't have to worry about missing your stop. What's challenging is, you have to bustle through the crowds to get to the alighting door.

After studying at CUHK for several years (where I still find riding a school bus during rush hour adventurous), I could successfully accomplish this task.

Both my tripmate and I agree that it's an adventure (that's why we're happy taking photos) but when it comes to daily routine it would be a torture.



Cross-city Train—safe, efficient and clean
Contrary to my old impression, the train connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou was well-illuminated, sapcious, very clean and safe. There were police/ security officers patrolling from time to time reminding people to take care of their own belongings.

I remember that I was taking a nap on my way back to Shanghai when a security officer patrolled by, at the same time shouting: 'keep an eye on your personal belongings even when you're sleeping.' I was then awake and couldn't fall asleep again.

Taxi—economic and reliable
We have taken a few taxi rides and luckily all the drivers we met were honest and efficient.

Traffic lights
Sometimes I wondered if I was colour-blind (that the sparkling little green man on the traffic light was actually red) or I was looking at the wrong traffic light (that the sparkling little green man is not for pedestrians but for drivers; so where's the real traffic light for pedestrians?).

I actually risked my life to cross busy roads but miraclously I could always dash through the racing cars without getting hurt.

(to be continued)