It's been a long time since I last wrote here but the past few days events definitely qualify for something to write about. Actually I think it qualifies so much that I will have to be cutting stuff out for anyone to bear reading it.
Last friday me and my American friend Paul caught a flight from Shenzhen BaoAn international due for Chengdu, actually the "fun" started already before the flight when Paul in his eager to bring gifts for his friend Tiffany in Chengdu neglected the fact that you are not allowed to bring wine on the flight. We swiftly took care of that mistake in the taxi ride from Shenzhen bay port to the airport though. But this was of course not enough as he also considered it a swell idea to bring a couple of small bottles of wine on the flight, which of course was not allowed and the contents of those ended up in our bellies in about 30 seconds per bottle (there were two for us each) while trying to pass the security check. We then managed to, my fault admittedly, walk to the wrong gate and had to run for the last call, which for me meant a sprint like I haven't done in years (not saying too much as I never actually run).
In Chengdu we met up with Tiff herself and appologized for the missing wine. We had chaokao (bbq) and a couple of beer then headed to a nearby bar called Paname (I think I might have mentioned that place among my Chengdu blogs). The place has turend quite shady recently but it was cheap drinks and we had a good time. We were all sitting together talking to some people when I headed off to talk a bit from the bar, leaving my backpack with Paul and Tiffany. After a while they joined us and told me my bag was still over at the tables we were sitting at and we joked about how no one would steal a Swedish passport. Fittingly to the just past fools day I found the bag missing when I walked over there a moment later.
And that was of course when everything became a proper mess...
Showing posts with label Shenzhen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shenzhen. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The China probrem!
Quoting Southpark is fun but I really don't have the same problem with China as Cartman, my problem is more in the sense of my own planning this time; I arrived in Shenzhen in the afternoon and met my friend at the border we went to the train station together and she helped me buying tickets to Shanghai for Saturday. But oh see there are no tickets to Shanghai for Saturday, neither is there any for Sunday nor Tomorrow. SHIT!! Going on Monday would be too late since it takes a night and half a day to get there and I should leave on Wednesday anyway. DAMMIT!!!
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Friday, October 24, 2008
China
So I have to wait for three to eight weeks to get my working permit and two birds with one stone I will save money and visit friends in China I have made a travel plan; for about 23 days I will travel around, mostly by train, and stay with friends, at least most of the time, in China.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Visa issues resolved
I did get the visa I wanted, double entry and expires on July 7Th, two days after I leave. After I got my visa I started my journey towards Shenzhen and thereafter Shanghai, I did a brief stop at Festivalwalk, a big shopping mall near the train station, to check out H&M and buy a pair of pants, which turned out to be a great idea because the weather in Shanghai is really bad and I only had shorts with me.
The mountains between Kowloon and the New Territories
taken from Kowloon Tong train station.
I was supposed to meet an online friend when I got to Shenzhen and since I only had around an hour before I had to take the airport bus she should have met me at the border, but of course her English is not the best and she had for some reason insisted that I should call her before she headed out, which resulted in the following things.
I had my second lunch at the border while waiting for her and then headed out to meet her where the airport buses are, she insisted that she would be there soon all the time so I didn't take the first bus I could have taken to get to meet her, that was a really bad idea since it turned out that the buses only left once per hour, not like every 15Th or at least 30Th minute that I had thought. There was also some kind of huge demonstration, people running around with Chinese flags and the love China logo and stuff all around the place so the bus was delayed even more because of that. So of course I arrived at the airport about 15 minutes before departure and I basically ran through all the check-in and security checks, only to find out that the flight wasn't even boarding yet.
I actually wanted to take the maglev train in to Shanghai after we landed but of course as it was already 11.30pm the train had stopped running and so had all the subways too, so I had to take a bus instead and then a taxi, with some good fortune I got to the hostel safely though and everything was fine.
The mountains between Kowloon and the New Territoriestaken from Kowloon Tong train station.
I was supposed to meet an online friend when I got to Shenzhen and since I only had around an hour before I had to take the airport bus she should have met me at the border, but of course her English is not the best and she had for some reason insisted that I should call her before she headed out, which resulted in the following things.
I had my second lunch at the border while waiting for her and then headed out to meet her where the airport buses are, she insisted that she would be there soon all the time so I didn't take the first bus I could have taken to get to meet her, that was a really bad idea since it turned out that the buses only left once per hour, not like every 15Th or at least 30Th minute that I had thought. There was also some kind of huge demonstration, people running around with Chinese flags and the love China logo and stuff all around the place so the bus was delayed even more because of that. So of course I arrived at the airport about 15 minutes before departure and I basically ran through all the check-in and security checks, only to find out that the flight wasn't even boarding yet.
I actually wanted to take the maglev train in to Shanghai after we landed but of course as it was already 11.30pm the train had stopped running and so had all the subways too, so I had to take a bus instead and then a taxi, with some good fortune I got to the hostel safely though and everything was fine.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
A brief stay
So the second and last night in Hong Kong I was out with Joyce (again of course), Man and Janice. We had HK style hot pot first and then we went to see Joyce's office, it was really messy. Joyce stayed with me in my extra bed in the hostel and we had dim sum breakfast this morning, you can't really go to Hong Kong without having dim sum so I just had to do that. Now I've spent most of the mid-day/afternoon waiting for my passport to get back so I've basically just been walking around shopping for souvenirs for my friends in Chengdu, I hope they will like what I found for them, it's really stupid though.
On Tuesday night I was out for dinner with Joyce and Almen, Joyce's sister, we had Chinese, HK style, food, like sweet and sour meatballs and some other Hong Kong-ish dishes, and after that we walked around the avenue of the stars and took some photos, it was actually the first time Almen had ever been there, which was kind of weird.Now if I do get the visa I'm expecting, there really is no other option than getting it actually since I have flight tickets and hostel reservations and stuff, I will meet an online friend in Shenzhen before I fly out to Shanghai, in about 10 minutes I should go out to the visa office again to see if they have it for me.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Back in Chengdu
Leaving Hong Kong was a lot simpler than getting there, mostly because I actually knew what was going on, because this time Joyce knew what was going to happen and had told me, and also because it was day time so I could easily take busses and KCR. It took about 45 minutes to get from Tin Shue Wai to the border, with just once change between bus and train and a price tag that ended at 28HKD, going through migration always takes time, actually I've been wondering why they call Hong Kong a part of China; they don't have the same laws, currency or even language and the border control is tighter than anything you would encounter anywhere in Europe.
It was pretty easy to get to the hostel in Shenzhen too; the direction where pretty good and even though I totally failed with the taxi it was easy enough to get around with the metro. The hostel was ok; it was pretty clean but the room was tiny and the building old so it was freezing cold at night and I could hardly sleep.
I had been considering travel some more, but I had pretty much ran out of money and was getting a bit "home" sick, mostly because of the hostel I think, so I booked a flight ticket back home for the next day. I actually could have skipped the whole hostel thing and just gotten a ticket back the same day but it was more expensive and it would have been weird since I just had checked in, and it gave me a chance to meet Erin, a friend from Chengdu, who was in Shenzhen too.
Getting to the airport was even easier as getting to Shenzhen, one metro stop from my hostels place to the airport bus and then 35 minutes and 20kuai for the bus and viola. I had an e-ticket so I machined it out and skipped the whole check in and then I had to wait for 2 hours before the boarding, basically because I just didn't want to carry around my bags and stuff in Shenzhen, they were kind of heavy.
Late as it was when I got back, 10.20ish, there was no bus so I had to take a taxi, but the driver didn't argue about the price and just did the meter as he should so I got home for about 50kuai, was dead tired but did some cleaning and didn't sleep until around 2am. In the morning I walked to McDonald's and walked around after that to find a new hat, I lost mine the last night in Hong Kong when I took a taxi home from TST. When I got back, with a big new stock of groceries I tried to play with my helicopter and ended up breaking a rotor after about 20 minutes, and of course I don't have any tools so I need to buy that too soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)