The last two days in Shanghai were spent enjoying some walking and shopping around Nanjing Road. We also did a caricature drawing, but I didn’t like how one of the girls there drew us; it didn’t look at all like us :)) However, I had a good laugh in a clothes shop, where, while waiting for Dipty to try out some clothes, I was chatting with 3 workers there, two girls and a boy. At some point, after some laughs, one of the girls said to me: – You see this guy’s face? It’s a bit swollen. I replied: Oh yeah, a little bit on the right side, I see it now. I think you got a tooth pain or something? Yes, he replied. Then the girl also said: – His tooth got stung by a little bee! That’s why his face is swollen. We all laughed so loud. I like the way it was translated by the app :)) maybe that’s what she really also said in Chinese.
Yesterday, we took a taxi and went to Pudong Airport Terminal 2, from where we took the plane (Sichuan Airlines) to Lijiang, a beautiful small city in Yunnan province. During the 4-hour flight, I was enjoying chatting with a young flight attendant who had his seat near ours. He was a 20-year-old man, working since 1 year as a flight attendant, and told me he has never been to Europe, and that in this 1 year he mainly flew only in China, but once he had also been to Japan and Thailand. Among other things, he was telling me that he smokes, but not at work, only in his private time, that he plays CSGO and GTA 5 on Steam, that he owns a Xiaomi SU7 car (costs under 30,000 Euros here in China), and that he is from Shanghai. I replied: – How come that you smoke?! First, it’s not healthy, but on the other side, it must also be expensive. I also saw many people smoking in Beijing and Shanghai, not only old ones, but also young ones. Why is that? He replied: – Probably because cigarettes in China are cheap; a pack costs here only 20 CNY. I replied: – What?! That’s less than 3 Euros a pack of cigarettes! In Germany, people pay around 12 Euros for a pack of cigarettes, as far as I know. When he heard this, he replied: – That is so expensive! If that will be so expensive here in China, many might quit smoking.
He asked me if I like China, to which I replied: – Yes, it’s an amazing country. Is there anything you didn’t like, he asked. I replied: – Yes, I didn’t like seeing people spitting. I saw them especially in Shanghai, not only old people, but also younger ones, my age or younger; you just hear a big noise coming from their throat, and after 1-2 seconds, a bit of spit is thrown directly on the walking area, or wherever they feel like doing it. This is the only thing I found disgusting to see, but I saw people doing this also in Romania and Germany, but to a lesser extent in cities, and more common in rural areas. He agreed and said he didn’t like that as well. If I would have to add another thing I didn’t like, I continued, it would be the people who approach you in the touristic/shopping areas of Shanghai with a flyer in their hand saying: „- Do you want watches, bags, anything you want to buy, come with me!“ Some go away after you say no once, but most of them don’t go away even if you say no 3-5 times (Dipty told me to be more patient and to not get disturbed by this, because this is how it is in all of Asia; in India it’s the same, people just try to make you buy something from one of the shops from where they get a percentage on every sale. I replied that I will need more time to work on this, because I’m like a German: if I say no once, it means no; there is no point in wasting my time and energy on someone who didn’t get it from the first reply). Here in Lijiang for example, people don’t run after you. The only people asking us if we want to buy something 2-3 times in a row were two older ladies walking around the old town of Lijiang with a basket in their hands selling blueberries (one small plastic box full of blueberries costs 10 CNY, which is a bit more than 1 Euro).
I also asked the flight attendant how many days he works, to which he replied that he works 4 days, and then he has 3 days free. He said that he is not staying in Lijiang now, for example, and that he will return back to Shanghai with the same airplane after around 40 minutes of pause, and that he will reach home around 23:00 in the evening.
When we reached Lijiang, we saw how green and surrounded by mountains the area is. All the taxis at the Lijiang airport were painted in green colour. They look so good in this color! We were picked up for free by a taxi driver sent by the hotel we booked in Lijiang, namely the Fog Gallery Hotel, which is situated in the old town of Lijiang. After Beijing and Shanghai, Lijiang suddenly felt so quiet. We needed to exit the taxi around 700m before the hotel, the reason being that in the old town area of Lijiang, cars are not allowed to enter. However, we didn’t have to worry about our luggage, because when the taxi left us, a worker from the hotel was already there waiting to take our luggage and bring it to the hotel on his special bike, built specifically for this task. After checking in, we were shown where our room is, after which we took a shower and went to the hotel restaurant to have two drinks and some snacks offered for free as a welcome gift by the hotel. We wanted to eat something there as well, but it was already almost 9pm, the time they closed the restaurant. That was not a problem for us, because we planned anyway to have a small walk around the hotel to see how the area looks. It was already late, so some shops started closing, but many were still open, so we stopped in front of a small restaurant where an old lady served us some freshly cooked vegetarian food. She didn’t speak English, but used a translation app, and finally one nice guy also came to translate for us to speed things up. We didn’t like the food that much, and after seeing that it was also a bit more pricey, we started to miss the delicious food in Shanghai already. We agreed that it will probably be harder to find great food in a small touristic city that feels like a village compared to a big city like Shanghai, with narrow streets and packed with tourists, mainly Chinese, but also international. We kind of expected that the food would be a bit pricier, and also not of great quality compared to the food in big cities where many restaurants need to step up their game in order to survive in the business. One product I noticed being sold actively here are the oxygen cylinders; you can buy one for 10 CNY (a little bit more than 1 Euro) if you feel like you need it (and probably you will need it at some point, especially if you go and visit the mountains in the area, due to the high altitude).
Today in the morning, we went to have our breakfast, and to our surprise, in this hotel there is no buffet. Instead, we were asked by an older lady from the kitchen, with the help of a translation app, if it is ok to bring us food from the kitchen instead. We replied yes, but said that we don’t eat meat. She replied: ok, then I will bring you some rice noodles if that’s ok? We said: sure, thank you. Guess what?! After 5 minutes, someone from the kitchen came and brought us a nice serving plate with our food: a nice porridge, a boiled egg, a simple steamed bun, and a very delicious-looking rice noodle soup. After giving it a better look, I realized that this rice noodle soup had a few shredded pieces of chicken breast meat sprinkled on top of it. OMG, I felt so bad. I mean, come on, I already mentioned in the translation app that we don’t eat meat. In China, one needs to be very careful with this kind of thing, because many people here don’t understand, especially older ones, what vegetarian means. You have to specifically write a text like: „I want to order only food without meat.“, and translate that to Chinese.
After that, I used the washing and drying machines for free in this hotel. In Beijing we also used them for free, but in the Shanghai hotel, we didn’t have this option. In the future, I will need to pay more attention to these small details before booking a hotel: that they have free washing and drying machines, always having a buffet, etc.
After that, we went walking in the old town of Lijiang, and discovered a restaurant where we enjoyed a very delicious wild mushroom hot pot. The wild mushroom hot pot was super delicious, and we paid only 110 CNY in total for both of us (14 Euros). Later, we also discovered many other beautiful streets in this old town of Lijiang (my favorite: I entered a small alley by mistake where I saw a hotel that had in front of it its own vegetable garden where I saw a lady working in it), entered several shops, and bought some souvenirs, nice watermelon, and other sweets (Lijiang rose flower pastry), and dried fruits (fresh roasted pine nuts, and dried blueberries).
China is a very beautiful country and we are very happy that we chose it for our vacation. I would like to introduce myself to their culture more in depth, but for that I think I will need to either live here for a few years (doing a job maybe) or at least learn Chinese; preferably in-person here in China.
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