Hong Kong and Shanghai

[harvyk]

Day 1 – Canberra to Hong Kong


QF560 – CBR – SYD – B737-400 - :-|
QF127 – SYD – HKG – B747-400 -

The morning started early, after being given a lift to CBR airport at 5:00am, after checking in, just after I’d taken my laptop out of my bag, there was a mate of mine also standing in the queue. I kind of wished I’d know, as he could have given me a lift in (as he lives almost right next to me), rather than getting Dad out of bed at stupid O’Clock to drive me in.
Guested my mate into the QP, and found out he was doing CBR-MEL-ADL-MEL-CBR that day.

We both got calls to start boarding at almost the same time, and I went to board my CBR-SYD flight. The flight itself was nothing special, just the standard “positioning” flight to deal with the fact CBR is not an international airport, no matter how many times CBR Airport CEO says it is.

Arrive in SYD, and decide I’ll catch the train across to T1. After arriving at T1, I found the travelex store, to find out there are two of them landside, and I’d went to the wrong one. After finding the right one, I picked up my cash (pre-ordering gives very similar rates to the CommBank in CBR).
I then cleared security and went to pre-order my duty free (100 Proof Southern Comfort, can’t find it in Australia outside of DF stores) so I can pick up on the way back.

I decided to wonder over to the “other” (read non QF side) of T1, given I’d never been there. After going for a good walk around I went and found the J lounge, where they had a barista who knew how to make good coffee.


After about an hour, walked over to the gate and then joined the queue to board.
The flight itself was fairly uneventful. A bit of turbulence over north QLD \ NT, but nothing too eventful (didn’t warrant seatbelt sign), although we were battling serious headwinds all the way there which meant we were about an hour late to arrive.

After arriving I walked over to the immigration, standard practises there, then over to baggage claim. For some reason they decided three different flights should use the one baggage carousel, even though there was empty ones behind us. (It was working as another flight had just finished using it) Out came QF F, then nothing, then a whole plane load of DL, then some QF J’s, then the normal QF bags. In fact priority tagged was the absolute last to come out. (I would not pay a cent for that “service”).


Went through the “green channel”, and went landside to see a guy standing there with a trolley and a sign with my name on it. I followed him and he took me to my bus which took me to my hotel. After going past every other hotel in Kowloon, I finally arrived at my hotel. Next time I’ll use a combination of Train \ Taxi, as it’ll be cheaper and quicker.


After arriving at my hotel I was told that I had been given a room upgrade and was now going to be staying in an apartment room, which was very nice.


Went down to the bar and decided to try a Singapore Sling. (I think the restaurant was sponsored by SQ, as there was a lot of SQ \ Singapore stuff around, inc models of the SQ planes), and then called it a night.

 

[harvyk]

Day 2 – Hong Kong to Shanghai


CX364 – HKG – PVG – B777 -

I woke up that morning at about 8am, I pulled back the curtains over the window to be greeted with a view right across Victoria harbour to Hong Kong island.
I then wandered downstairs and caught a taxi into Kowloon proper. I started wandering around but everywhere was shut. I finally found a café which was open, so I decided to have breakfast there. I ended up having a pastry and an iced coffee, which was very nice given it was very warm outside.

I then caught a taxi and went a little further up and started wandering around, soaking in the atmosphere. As I was walking down the street I had about 100 different vendors offering me “rolex’s” and tailored suits, and sunglasses. I found a tailor and got myself measured for a new suit knowing that I would be back on Friday to pick it up.

After all this, I returned to my hotel to check out. As it was lunch time I decided to have lunch there. For around HK$250 (about AU$40) I had the nicest meal of my life. It was a buffet, but everything was fresh, and cooked perfectly. For me some of the standout dishes included the beef medallions, the smoked salmon, the orange duck, and the mango mousse. I also tried Crème brûlée (had never had it before, so wanted to see what the fuss was about), which was nice, but didn’t stand a chance against the mousse.

Shortly after finishing lunch I was picked up and taken out to the airport. Being QP + PS on CX, I didn’t get access to the lounges, but I did get to use J check in. Given the Y check in line was snaking half way around the check in area, being able to use J check in which was virtually abandoned was quite nice, as there was absolutely no waiting.
Afterwards I went and did the customs formalities and walked down to my gate. Due to the sheer size of the airport the walk itself took about 10 minutes.


This then gave me about 50 minutes to experience life in an airport for those who do not have lounge access, something that I don’t really want to experience again and thus has made my resolve for getting SG (or WP) even more strong. (Although I do think us lounge people need to experience from time to time, kinda like slumming it...)



The flight itself was in my opinion a really good length flight. It was my first CX flight. I found the FA’s quite friendly. It was a nice amount of time to have dinner in and watch an episode of top gear in, and just as the flight was getting to the point where I was thinking “it’ll be really nice to land about now” we arrived in PVG.

Now whilst some may say Hong Kong is part of China, I see it in the same way as Australia is part of the UK. On arrival in PVG, we were directed down the International arrivals corridor, where I had to fill in an arrival card, go through customs and immigration and show my passport. That said all I had to say to the lady at customs was the word “Expo” and she welcomed me in no further questions.

As I was walking out there was a whole heap of hotel reps saying “You want stay here” and pointing to photos of their hotel. I then had a couple of taxi drivers trying to convince me that the Maglev was stopped running for the night and I would need to take a taxi, and it may have well been theirs. Word of warning, these guys are A1 BS artists, ignore them, tell them firmly NO and keep walking.


With that I followed the signs down to the Maglev station, where I brought my 50rmb ticket (about AU$9) and boarded the train. They had space to place larger luggage which was useful.


The train then topped out at 300km/h. A little slower than I was expecting, however I found out they only run it at top speed at certain times of the day. In any case it was very cool watching the world go by out the window at 300km/h, even if it was dark and thus couldn't see too much.

A few minutes later we pulled up to the station and hopped off the train to be greeted by my sister who is living in Shanghai.

We had several taxi drivers ask if we needed a taxi, and she said no to them (in mandarin), and we went and found one ourselves. As we started driving along it turned out the taxi driver didn’t know the way to the expo village, and with that we got out of the taxi and went to find another one.

When we arrived at the village I went to get signed in, this is so I could stay at her place within the village itself. There were lots of documents to sign, we had to go through security and have our bags x-rayed. However we were soon enough through where we dumped my luggage and we then went to get a drink from the nearby bar (an American Bar) within the village itself. It was where I found out that coughtails cost about the same as a beer, and was cheaper than a glass of wine, so we drank coughtails until 3am.

 

[harvyk]

Day 3 – Explore Shanghai




The morning started at about 10:30, were we first grabbed a cup of coffee, and then went over the road to order some breakfast. There we had a cold soup which wasn’t overly nice, and some dumplings which had soup inside, they were ok, but I don’t think I’d seek them out again.


We then caught the bus into Pudong where we wandered around the “Super Brand Mall” for about half an hour, we then went to the Oriental Pearl Tower. We got the 150RMB tickets which allowed us to go right to the top. Whilst I think there are better ways to get eagle eye views of the city, the 150RMB tickets skipped past the queues on the ground (with the 135RMB or less ticket holders, Total price difference to save 3 hours of time = AU $3), and it took you to the height accessible point in the tower – the “space module”. With that we then went up the tower and had good views across the city at 350meters above the ground. We then went down stairs to 270meters where the observation deck had an outside glass platform, which looked view cool looking down. We of course got the obligatory photos of us making funny faces, looking like we were falling etc (all the locals where doing the exact same thing)…
We then went to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel to get from one side of the river to the other. You first go down a set of stairs where you buy your tickets (about 65RMB one way, 70RMB return) we then went down a further set of stairs we I saw a set of driverless “pods”. Looking down into the tunnel itself it was covered in flashing lights which looked really very cool (unless you’re epileptic). We hopped into one of the pods and just after the pod started moving they turned the lights inside the pod off and all you could see was the lights of the tunnel. They then play some very “futuristic” style music as you went through the tunnel. It was very cool.
After arriving on the other side of the Bund we walked over to a restaurant to book a table for dinner. We then caught a taxi out to the Jade Buddha. Just prior to seeing the temple itself we went and got something to eat \ drink. Here I got a “green tea smoothie”. Let’s just say I’m glad I had that experience as I can now say that I have done it, however I will never drink one again in my life. It was not good.


After the less than nice drink we went and started exploring the temple. A guide came and showed us inside one of the building and talked about how the four very evil looking statues are actually there to guard the Jade Buddha from evil spirits. We then went upstairs where we saw an amazing 1000 year old wooden carving. It was made from one giant piece of timber, and it took over 3 years to create. It was extremely detailed and it showed the many styles of Buddha effectively detailing his life. From there we were told about how “big fat smiling Buddha” is actually showing Buddha holding all the bad things in the world in his belly and radiating only good things.

We then saw a palm painter creating amazingly detailed artworks using nothing but black paint, some paper, and his hands. He would dip his hands or fingers into the paint and then place it onto the paper in a very precise way. So we decided to purchase one of his paintings for our parents back home.

From there we went to some markets where haggling was the name of the game. The basic strategy is as follows.




1. You go to a store and look for something you like, show real interest in the product in question
2. You make sure it’s the one you want.
3. You ask for price, they get out calculator and type in some very high price, eg most of the things I was purchasing the original price was between 300 and 500 RMB.
4. You then take the calculator and type in a very low price, eg 20RMB was my standard starting price.
5. They would say “your joking right, it’s below cost” which it probably is
6. They will then come back with a price of say between 150 and 300RMB.
7. I then offer 30.
8. They say too low
9. I say “That’s fine” and walk out of the store.
10. Most store owners will then say ok ok, 120 RMB. I then counter with 50RMB.
11. They then say “too low” I again walk out of the store, and in fact one store let me get 3 stores down until they yelled out 85rmb.
12. I walk back and say 80rmb and you have a deal
13. They take the 100rmb note, and give me 20 in return.
14. I leave store with product in question at 15% of original asking price and probably getting close to the actual asking price.
15. Find another store and repeat.




From here we went to the “Lost Heaven” restaurant for dinner, which was very nice.


After dinner we caught the fairy to the other side of the Bund river and we walked to the Jin Mao tower (where the Shanghai Grand Hyatt is) hopped into a lift to level 56 (where the Hyatt reception is), then transferred to another lift to get to level 85, and we then hopped into another lift to get to level 87, to a bar called cloud 9. This had amazing views across the city at night. There was a minimum spend of 120RMB per person plus service charge of %15, however we figured that it was a couple of coughtails back home, and for those who know Canberra, it was probably about the same price as Academy (average priced coughtails), however the view was a million times better.


There we had a couple of drink and then caught 2 taxis back home. The first taxi started yelling at us about 150 meters down the road (I don’t think he wanted to drive out to the expo site), with that we got out and started walking, we walked for about 5 minutes where an unlicensed taxi driver was trying to pick us up. We kept telling him no, before too long we found another taxi driver who took us back to the expo village, where because he not only drove us back home, but also through security and dropped us out the front of the apartments we gave him a small tip.

 

[harvyk]

Day 4 – More Explore Shanghai




Again up at the crack of dawn, which around here is about 10:30am. After getting the cup of coffee at the expo village we caught a taxi into the Shanghai Science and Technology museum. It was interesting enough, but it would not be a reason to visit Shanghai.
After that we caught the train to the Shanghai Museum where we decided that the lines to get in was too long, so we left and went to old Shanghai.


Old shanghai was basically the picture I had in my mind of what a Chinese city would look like. Apart from again having to endure the “you want buy rolex” by some less than honest looking men we stumbled across a tea shop, who invited us in for some free tea. (She said the word "free" a lot). She very proudly showed us all the different types of tea’s in the shop and then made us cups of tea for about an hour. We decided to buy some as we know my parents quite like Chinese tea, and given that she had simply offered us the cups of tea without any real attempt to sell, and given the price was actually very reasonable we decided to buy a few bags (AQIS even let me bring it back home with me).


After wandering up and down old Shanghai (and me getting quite good at saying “no thank you” in mandarin) we then found a bar where we ordered some pre-dinner drinks.
After we’d had a drink (me a long island iced tea, so I was feeling very happy) we caught a taxi to a restaurant called "peoples seven", which had to be the most unusual restaurant I have ever been to.


1. There is absolutely no signage to show there is a restaurant there,
2. In fact the restaurant is hidden down a back alley, and up a set of stairs
3. You need to enter in a secret code to make the door open. The code is entered by pressing a set of lights down a small set of pipes in the wall.
4. Go to the toilets, you know you want to.




Now I’m normally a very big meat eater (I’m in no danger of becoming a vegetarian any time soon), so the fact that the dish which I thought was the standout of the night was actually a vegetarian dish says something as far as I’m concerned, and no it’s not because they can’t cook meat [FONT=&quot]. The other unusual dish was the iced broccoli. it was a bowl of Chinese broccoli served in a bowl made out of ice.[/FONT] After stuffing ourselves we caught a taxi back home.

 

[harvyk]

Day 5 – Expo Day




Today we got up a little earlier, we were out the door by about 10:00am. We grabbed the obligatory cup of coffee and caught a taxi into the expo.


When we arrived we went to the Australia Pavilion where I was shown the performers “green room”.


Now my first impression of the Australia pavilion was that they did the stock standard thing of taking photos to make the pavilion look far more impressive than it really is. I went through the pavilion which was interesting, once I got out I sat down for some lunch and watched the first performance of the acrobatic show above. Now I know I’m biased as my sister is one of the performers, but it is a very impressive show. It basically looks like two scuba divers swimming above complete with fish.

I then went across to the pacific pavilion where the pacific nations had a collection of stands, again interesting but I only really went to the cook island stand.

Afterwards I walked towards the China pavilion, however I got side tracked by a pavilion I’m pretty sure was an environmental pavilion. I’ll be honest, its appeal was a combination of no queues and very good air-conditioning.

After cooling off at that pavilion I continued towards the China Pavilion, unlike the Australia Pavilion there was no photo’s taken from cleaver angles, that thing is probably the most impressive building I have ever seen. Think of a 12 story high pyramid, and then build it upside down. As you’re walking towards the entrance and you start to go underneath the pavilion it gives you a real sense of awe and amazement.

After that I walked back to the Australia Pavilion where I hung out in the green room and saw the performance two more times, taking loads of photos for the family back home. I did have trouble getting past the security guards once, and that was right after a change of shift, luckily as I was trying (with somewhat limited success) to explain that my sister was one of the performers one of the other performers walked past and recognised me and told the security guard to let me in, which the guard did.

After they had finished the performances I went with my sister and one of her co-workers and we went and got a drink at the bar in the Czech Republic pavilion.


After that we went across to the UK pavilion where as we got there it started raining down. The attendant said to us in the most beautiful British accent “Welcome to the UK weather experience”.
Given my sister and her friend both had VIP tickets they were able to by-pass the queues and they snuck me in with them. Inside it was almost like a “Crystal Castle” as there were thousands of seeds sitting inside “crystal” like glass all with backlighting.


After that we braved the weather and made a run for the bus, where we jumped on a bus back to the expo village. We decided to go to the Indian restaurant in the village itself as all three of us felt like Indian food.

 

[harvyk]

Day 6 – PVG – HKG (and technically onward to SYD \ CBR)




CX365 – PVG – HKG – B777-300 -

QF128 – HKG – SYD – B747-400 -
QF1471 – SYD – CBR – Dash 8 -



After getting up nice and early we caught a taxi to the maglev station. Stating that the driver only did 3 sides of a square to get there would be a complement. Both my sister and I got suss as for me it was taking longer than expected and for her she didn’t recognise the area. She pulled out a map and asked “where are we”. The driver pointed to a place which was no were near the road between the expo village and the maglev station. I was at that point in time turning on my GPS. The driver realised he had been caught out and drove directly to the maglev station, charged us 50rmb, for what should have been a 15rmb trip.

I said my goodbyes to my sister at the maglev station and soon boarded the train out to PVG airport.

I was a little disappointed that I was only catching a 300km/h train, but that disappointment soon faded when we got underway and the outside world turned into a blur. One of the interesting things I noticed was my phone had trouble getting signal, it was consistently connecting to towers, and by the time it actually connected it appeared to be getting outside the range again. That said I did manage to get a status update to Facebook stating the exact point which we reached top speed.

I turned up at PVG to be told my flight was delayed (which I knew already as I logged into my QF profile last night) and was given a meal voucher, no prompting just here you go Mr Harvyk. The thing is that it wasn't a very big delay at all (less than an hour and a half extra waiting before boarding) I’ve had longer delays where they have given me nothing, so that was a nice surprise. When I got on board the captain apologised and explained that due to bad weather the night before, they were delayed leaving Hong Kong, and thus due to the delay it ate into their mandatory rest period hours.

After sitting around the tarmac of PVG for about half an hour, and then in a queue for another half an hour, we finally got underway about 2 and a half hours late. The pilot did manage to catch some of that time up in the air.


I watch a couple of episodes of The Simpsons, had some lunch. My only real complaint was they had the videos running on a loop, but they didn’t restart them until all the video loops had finished. I do wish they had enabled the full AVOD, but apparently they only enable it for longer flights. We landed in HKG only about 2 hours late.


We got off the plane and was instantly directed down stairs, then down some more stairs, and then onto a train. At this point I was thinking “This is a little weird, we haven’t been through passport control yet”.


The train took us from our gate, and dropped us off near the immigration hall. The train wasn’t going slowly either.


After clearing immi \ customs I then went and found the train to take me into Kowloon to pick up my new suit. After picking it up and ensuring it fitted I took a taxi over to Hong Kong island, where I wondered around for a little while, again mainly soaking up the atmosphere. I then decided that it was time to make my way back to the airport, and with that I caught a taxi back to Kowloon train station, where I used the city check-in to pick up my boarding pass for SYD - CBR (I was actually fishing for a J upgrade, but alas because of the delays with QF128 a couple of nights before it was going to be a very full plane), and then caught the train out to the airport.


After going through passport control again I quickly found the QF J lounge, where I had a much needed shower. I then went for a walk around the shops at the airport where I found some perfect soft toys for my very young kids (bottle feeding panda’s).


I then walked back to the QF J lounge where I then had some dinner, made use of the free internet to make some calls back home and before I knew it they were calling us to board.
Shortly after getting on board I had a bit of a yarn with the pax sitting next to me (an Italian couple, who were about to visit Australia for the first time), where I gave them some suggestions on things to see and do in Sydney, and warned them about the dangers of drinking VB.


Had a bit of dinner, watched a movie and was about 20 minutes into a second one when I decided to try and get some sleep, which strangely enough for me in Y I was able to get about 5 hours, in fact my timing couldn’t have been better as I woke up just as the breakfast cart pulled up at our row. (Where apparently according to the FA I was in quite a deep sleep).


After breakfast I watched a couple of TV shows and before I knew it we were coming in to land in SYD.


Considering the flight was a Y flight, it was really good. The pax next to me was just the right amount of chatty (aka she didn’t mind a bit of a yarn at the beginning of the flight prior to the IFE coming on), but didn’t want to tell me her life story. She was a fairly petite lady which meant she didn't overflow into my personal space, and she then cuddled up to her hubby for most of the flight, which meant that again, my personal space remained my personal space.



On landing I asked if the pilot minded if I checked out the flight deck (I love all things 747), which he didn’t, so after the rest of the pax had left I wandered up and said G’Day to the pilots. The first officer then invited me to take his seat, and they then asked if I had a camera on me, which I did, so he took a photos. The captain then said “well, we’ve got to finish sorting things out, would you mind turning those dials over there” (I hope I don’t get him in trouble for saying this), I knew what the dial did as I’ve played around with flight sims for years, but it was so cool flipping switches on an actual 747.
I then asked what did they think of the PMDG 747 simulator (it’s the simulator which I play, I was half expecting them to say it’s only a game), when one of the pilots turned around and said he actually uses it as a training aid. Needless to say, this made my day.


After picking up my DF, I got through customs in about 2 minutes, and found my bag sitting on the carousel ready to be picked up.


I then mentally prepared myself for the 3rd degree from AQIS as I had to tick yes to a few items on the incoming pax card. Instead an AQIS officer quickly asked what I had, and they directed me towards the X-Ray lane, and before I knew it I was back in the country.

I wondered over to the transfer desk to get the bus to T3. I noticed that my laptop was undamaged. After arriving at T3, I went up to the QP for about 5 minutes, and then wondered down to the gate to board the plane to CBR.

Given Dash 8 flights have limitations for the size of carry on, I decided to keep my camera and my DF with me. I used “premium hand luggage” for my main carry on bag which contained my laptop. I’ve used this service to carry my laptop many times. However this time there must have been a baggage handler with less than a caring attitude and I'm guessing it was thrown (not placed) into the aircraft, as when I got it back in CBR, there was a massive crack in it. (I’ve made a complaint to QF). The flight from SYD-CBR itself was the stock stand way I end such trips. Something to drink, something to eat, looking out the window for 30 minutes, and before I knew it I had landed in CBR, ready to spend a weekend at home before embarking on my next adventure.

 

[harvyk]

What have I learnt on this trip.

1. My sister actually speaks pretty good Mandarin, so I let her do most of the talking with locals.

2. Haggling is both fun and you can get very good prices

3. Don’t drink green tea smoothies at the Jade Buddha temple

4. CX are a pretty good airline, certainly better than some of the other OW offerings, AA I’m looking at you.

5. Never get into unlicensed taxi’s, although we didn’t a friend did and they took her for a ride, literarily. At least they are easy to spot as they are missing most of the equipment and lights.

6. Not all taxi drivers are friendly or know where they are going. Do not be afraid to get out of one and find another one which does know the way or is more friendly. Also if the journey was short, consider not paying the first one and instead keep the money as a tip for the second.

7. HKG is a huge airport.

 

[munitalP]

Great TR.

Shanghai is an awesome city, I do like Bejing better as they have retained their culture better in my opinion whereas Shanghai is quickly becoming a culture less unfriendly concrete society, a bit like Sydney

Super Brand mart, I tracked down a Din Tai Fung restaurant there and we sat eating dumpling watching the sun set over the bund, I hope you managed a quick walk along the river front there, impressive views.

I never went up the tv tower, went up the finance tower instead, a lot higher.

I hope you post some photos on here of your trip

munitalP

 

[wile_e]

Excellent TR, sounds like you had a great time!

After we’d had a drink (me a long island iced tea, so I was feeling very happy) we caught a taxi to a restaurant called "peoples seven", which had to be the most unusual restaurant I have ever been to.


1. There is absolutely no signage to show there is a restaurant there,
2. In fact the restaurant is hidden down a back alley, and up a set of stairs
3. You need to enter in a secret code to make the door open. The code is entered by pressing a set of lights down a small set of pipes in the wall.
4. Go to the toilets, you know you want to.

This sounds like an excellent restaurant - do you have any further details (like the "code" you have to enter??

 

[harvyk]

This sounds like an excellent restaurant - do you have any further details (like the "code" you have to enter??

You're told the "code" to enter when you call up and make a booking...

I believe these are the details for the place
People 7 Restaurant Profile - Where to Eat in Shanghai

 

[markh]

Great read !!

We are off to Shanghai next month to visit Expo and gleaning all the information I can !

Cheers
Markh