Letter No.
274
Dear all,
Katie went to China on 25th November to meet Matt for two weeks visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an. Here is her trip report:
SHANGHAI Matt and I met at the airport on Sunday. It was so great to see him there waiting for me. We took the fast Maglev train to town and a taxi to our hotel, the very luxe 5-star Shanghai EDITION, a contemporary designer hotel with a New-York-meets-Milan vibe. The view of the Shanghai Bund from the 29th floor Roof Bar was astonishing; we had drinks there and then dinner at the hotel’s refined Chinese restaurant Canton Disco.
On Monday we strolled along the Bund admiring the heritage buildings, then on to the Yuyuan Gardens Bazaar with its cute and charming shops and restored historic buildings. Ye Olde Shanghai for tourists but lovely nevertheless. We visited a tea house for tea tasting and sweet treats, with a huge selection from which we chose jasmine tea and white rose tea with jellied cumquats and crystallised sugar pandas. We ate fried shallot cakes from a street vendor for lunch, which were so good. In the evening, we took a one-hour Night Cruise on the Huangpu River and then went on to a tiny local restaurant for dinner, which serves the most delicious Xiao Long Bao crab dumplings (steamed buns) -- so good that the restaurant has a Michelin star! We finished the night with a cocktail in the hotel’s elegant Lobby Bar.
Tuesday was a great day exploring the French Concession area in a full-day walking tour. The whole area was conceded to the French from 1849-1946 and so there are European style buildings and tree-lined streets not found anywhere else in Shanghai, with a distinct feel in each of the different areas. Our first stop was Xintiandi which has very high-end French restaurants and boutique stores selling French perfumery, Moet & Chandon and other luxury goods. Second stop was Tianzifang, with mostly arts & crafts type stores, hole in the wall places and stalls offering hands-on activities like massages and ear-cleaning.
We also did a somewhat accidental deep dive into propaganda, visiting four tiny museums, each no more than half an hour to explore. The first two were very current and thronged with Chinese people: the Museum and the Memorial Hall of the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Very interesting to see the way that the CPC presents history with multiple videos of happy smiling Chinese people enjoying prosperity in flourishing Chinese nation etc etc. We then visited the Former Home of Sun Yat-Sen, who is considered the prime revolutionary of the breakdown of Chinese dynastic rule and the initiator/father of a new China. Uniquely, he is revered in both China and Taiwan. Finally, the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, a tiny space packed with over 6000 propaganda posters from the 60s onwards, all collected by one man (who was there and who we talked to). Many of Chairman Mao’s posters were destroyed in the 80s, which is why he started his collection “to preserve history”. It would have been pretty subversive / revolutionary at the time. It was completely fascinating. Very few people there, no Chinese, only foreigners.
In the evening, we emerged in the hotel lobby just as a large “tree-lighting” event was starting. The hotel’s friendly concierge spotted us, ushered us straight into the VIP area and handed us champagne and canapés. Afterwards we were photographed with all the presenters as VIP guests. We had a nice Shanghainese dinner with a 1950s style cabaret singer and then a final drink in lobby before bed.
HANGZHOU On Wednesday we had a 1.5 hr train trip to Hangzhou. Chinese train stations are huge, as big as airports, and the trains are fast, clean and efficient. We stayed in Westlake enclave, a country village almost in the forest and close to the lake. Dan’s Sea Country Guesthouse couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the Edition. It was small, cute and traditional, with only five guest rooms and very quaint and quirky. There were cats everywhere.
In the afternoon we walked to the Lingyin Temple complex. It was a pretty forest area and vast temple complex. One temple had 500 bronze Buddhas and another housed the largest wooden Buddha in the world, apparently. We used our incense sticks to wish for family health and prosperity. On our walk back we stumbled upon the most amazing Chinese restaurant. It was tucked away but was heaving and seemed very elegant. We had a cute, curtained cubby inside the restaurant. Only after we sat down we realised that it was a vegetarian, organic, alcohol-free, and fusion restaurant bringing in flavours of Thailand, Japan, India and Italy. It also turned out to be Michelin-star recommended! The food was unusual but absolutely delicious. We had vegetable wontons with chilli oil, Westlake sweet and sour lotus root, mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and truffle-infused rice, which was divine.
Thursday started with a very traditional breakfast at the guesthouse of Chinese rice pudding, boiled eggs, dumplings and a few cooked vegetables. We then set off to explore the beautiful Westlake area from all angles. We walked around it on very pretty paths, cycled around it on rented bicycles, and took a lovely boat cruise across it. We also visited the famous Leifang Pagoda for fantastic views across the whole lake. There was also a tea plantation and museum. There was a LOT of walking (my iphone Health app was in shock) so we had to stop for restorative coffee breaks at the ever-present Starbucks.
Friday was a slower-paced day exploring old Hangzhou old town – the tourist shops, the market, the Drum Tower, the very beautiful home of a wealthy businessman built in the 1870s, and the museum of Chinese medicine (this area is quite well known as a centre for pharmaceutical knowledge). We did some shopping, ate more delicious dumplings and then in the evening we found an Italian wine bar and had pizza and red wine for a change.
XI’AN Saturday was a travel day as we flew from Hangzhou to Xi’an. There was a stuff up with taxis in the morning, as we hadn’t realised that taxis couldn’t enter the gated village we were staying in at the weekend. It was a bit of a mad rush, but we made the plane and then arrived at the Han Tang Inn in Xi’an around 4pm. It was a very different vibe again, a small hotel, but very elegant in a minimalist but homely style. We had a delicious Chinese dinner that night at a nearby restaurant, with a new favourite -- sweet and sour eggplant.
On Sunday we went to the Museum of the Terracotta Army, which was an absolute highlight of the trip. It was a full day with a one-hour bus ride and there was so much to see. The scale of the site is just breathtaking. Emperor Qin had it built over 2200 years ago to protect himself in the afterlife; it took 720,000 workers nearly 40 years to complete the work. There were three pits to see. Pit 1 houses around 2000 warriors, mainly soldiers, with many more yet to be unearthed and possibly over 6000 in total. The museum was built around the site in 1976 when they were rediscovered, and the archaeological teams are purposely not excavating them yet because the original bright colours fade or peel very quickly when exposed to natural light, so for the time being they remain buried. Pit 2 has about 700 warriors and captains, and Pit 3 has just 72, these were the army leaders & generals. There were clay horses too, but the carriages (made of wood) have long since disintegrated. Some of the warriors were found almost whole, but some were in pieces, most likely due to fire, earthquakes and looting, and some have been painstakingly reconstructed. No two faces are the same, and the detail in the hairstyles, the armour, the body shapes, the faces, the shoes, is all just incredible. Sadly, all the original craftsmen met an unfortunate end when they were buried alive to keep the army’s location secret. Emperor Qin was quite the tyrant. We also went to see a smaller museum with a reconstruction of horses and two carriages, which was also astonishing. We took so many photos. It was an incredible sight.
That evening we decided to try out a bit of Xi’an nightlife. After some wandering, we found Sharky’s, a bit like a Hard Rock Cafe concept serving burgers, tacos, cocktails and with a live band. We had a great and random night. I ended up on the dance floor giggling with a group of local girls while Matt played pool with a couple of engineers from Kazakhstan who didn’t speak any English. We got back to our hostel well after 1pm. What fun.
Monday was another Xi’an highlight – cycling the imposing City Walls. They have been fully restored so you can cycle right around in about two hours. Each corner has a beautiful tower and there is a huge entrance gate on each side with an internal “trap” to keep out invaders. The city walls were so thick, it would have been almost impenetrable. Xi’an was one of the ancient imperial capital cities of China, long before Beijing was a capital, so it just oozes history and historical significance. Local couples love to dress up in ancient costume and go up there to have photos taken. That night we went to the Tang Dynasty Show. It was designed for tourists, but an impressive show nevertheless with dancing, costumes, music, staging, acrobatics and special effects, telling the story of Empress Qin.
Our final day was a full-day trip to Hua Shan, one of China’s five sacred mountains, known for its steep and precipitous geography. This is a huge granite rock formation, with the tallest summit being South Peak at 2154m above sea level. The cable car ride did most of the work but was the most extreme thing I have ever done. It was utterly terrifying and an astonishing feat of engineering as the cable spanned wide valleys and then went straight up the sheer rock. Derek would have loved it but I could barely look. Once at the top, there was still a fair bit of climbing to do, and eventually summitted the three highest peaks (South, West and East). It felt quite glorious being at the top of the South Peak, but not something I’ll repeat. What a special trip it was. I loved having this time to travel with Matt, with so many exciting experiences.
Back to Derek now. Perhaps too much food info from Katie there! I took the day off on Friday and picked Katie up from the airport. Unfortunately, she had picked up a bug (which had written off just the last day of her trip) and was quite unwell. I took her straight to the doctor from the airport and it turned out to be Influenza A and she then spent the next week in bed. It was Matthew’s birthday on 8th December. He was in Taiwan by himself; it was the first birthday he has not been with us. We did have a lovely Facetime catch up with him though. Katie recovered well enough for us to go and see the movie of Wicked on 14th December. We had dinner in the village afterwards at a new wine bar. The previous one on the same site went broke, and the food in the new one was much better, so hopefully it will stay in business. The movie was awesome if you haven’t seen it. The next day was the Mortlake Road Christmas Party. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and good to catch up with all our neighbours.
It was our last day of work for 2024 on 20th December. We had lunch at the Waterloo Hotel just down the road from the office and settled in for the afternoon. I wobbled home about 7:30pm and had a nap on the sofa. The next day was our annual Christmas Drinks party, so doing the setup was a bit of a struggle. We had a new Christmas Cocktail this year, an Apple Ginger Spritz – gin, sparkling apple juice, ginger beer, with mint and red currants. It was quite a hit. Katie did a lovely spread of canapes – cucumber dill circles, rare beef on crostini, smoked salmon with beetroot and horseradish, baked brie, devils on horseback and turkey cranberry pastry puffs. This was followed by the usual ham and coleslaw rolls, then mince pies and run balls. We had around 45 people but Katie vastly over catered as usual so we had all of the above for the next week. I also managed to stuff up the calculation for the cocktail quantities, so we’ll be enjoying the Apple Ginger Spritz for quite some time. Oh well. It was a great party.
We had an unusual Christmas this year. We were meant to go to my sister Lisa’s for lunch but their whole family got struck down with COVID. Lisa rang me on Christmas Eve, about 30 seconds after I had bought enough prawns and oysters for a party of 20. We invited Mum and Dad to come to us instead, so we could tackle the seafood feast, but on Christmas morning, Mum came down with the flu. So, in the end it was just Katie, Jess and I for the first time ever. We had a very quiet and relaxed morning, opened our presents slowly, had lunch, lots of champagne and a snooze and swim in the afternoon. I managed to struggle through the oysters, Katie had a few prawns and we froze the rest!
We hope you all had a healthy and happy Christmas, with hopefully some travel opportunities and great food in the new year.
Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie, Molly & Pippa
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