Shenzhen, the city directly on the other side of Hong Kong that's part of the People's Republic of China, has become an economic powerhouse since the 80s. In just thirty years, Shenzhen grew from just a tiny village to a world-class industrial city which plays an integral role in international trade. It is the epitome of rapid development in China. And it's completely different from Hong Kong.
Going to Hong Kong to Shenzhen was almost like crossing into a different country, probably because that was precisely what was happening (sort of). Like I said earlier, Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Zone of China meaning that it has its own rules and regulations separate than those of the rest of the People's Republic, and for all intents and purposes, is a separate territory. For this reason, flying out of Hong Kong into Beijing is regarded as an international flight. To save some cash, I travelled by subway through Hong Kong to the Chinese border into neighboring Shenzhen for a domestic flight to Beijing.
Upon clearing immigration and customs, my travel partner Tommie and I hitched a ride in a taxi over to the airport. Little did we realize, we had no idea how to say airport in Chinese and our taxi driver has no idea what the word airport meant in English. At this point, we realized that this was going to be an interesting few days.
In all of our previous ports, English was spoken (even in minimal amounts). Even if there was a lot of guessing and gestures involved, the overall gist was communicated. In this case, even stretching out our arms and making engine noises wasn't even cutting it. Eventually, with trust in the gods and a handy guidebook, we ended up at the airport right in the nick of time.
I never imagined that I'd be watching the movie 50/50 on a flight to Beijing, but there I was in Chinese airspace bawling at bald Joseph Gordon Levitt while eating my unidentified plane food (P.S. I recommend the movie very much). Upon finally arriving in Beijing, we booked it straight to the hostel which was a hip, bustling gem full of fellow travelers in the middle of a dark and creepy alley a few minutes away from Tiananmen Square. I grew a greater affinity and respect for hostels during my time in China, and I have no idea why I haven't been trolling HostelWorld.com this whole time.
We had a very brief stay in Beijing; we only had one day to explore the area. Of course, we had to go to the Great Wall of China, and for time and ease sake, we went to Badaling, the closest but most tourist-ridden section of the Wall. While waiting for the bus on a line that winded around for what seemed like a mile (which is not an exaggeration, this is China, after all), we met a duo of students who took us under their wing for the day. With their decent English skills, we were able to communicate, and they helped us to understand and navigate. The Great Wall was stunning, but the experience was diminished by the sheer amount of other visitors on the wall. Of course, we conveniently chose to go on a holiday, so flocks of Chinese tourists were also sight-seeing. There was one point where we were stuck at a portion of the Wall where we were in a traffic jam for about half an hour. Nonetheless, despite the crowds, the awkward slips and falls, and the sad demise of my camera, being on the Great Wall of China is one of those bucket list items that I'm glad to say that I did.
Upon returning to Beijing, I got to walk around the grounds of Tiananmen Square, and other than acknowledging the history of the place, I took some pretty comical photos with the iconic Mao Zedong portrait at the entrance to the Forbidden City. After the struggle of getting to our new hostel, we realized that we had booked our stay for the wrong night, but there was fortunately still vacancy in a room where we met three young Americans teaching English in nearby Baoding.
After a night of good conversation and a fair amount of sleep, we headed straight for the airport for our next flight to Shanghai. The reason for our rushed travel was that we wanted to reach Shanghai as early as possible because we had plans to stay in a Buddhist temple in a rural town a few hours away from the city. Upon arriving to Shanghai, we darted to the bus station only to find out that the earliest we could arrive to the monastery was the next morning. Unfortunately, we couldn’t contact the temple, and sadly decided that it wouldn’t be smart to go make the trek over there. I guess something I’ve learned is to be flexible and allow for wiggle room. You never know what you might encounter.
With more time in Shanghai, I was able to explore another incredibly modern, global city and relax a slight bit from the sporadic traveling of the previous few days. At this point, all of these cities sort of meld together (and it doesn’t help that the subways look nearly identical). What struck me most about Shanghai were the skyscrapers and the smog. The Pearl Tower dominated the skyline which has a small layer of haze which fogged up your view of it. I guess that’s what happens in one of the most heavily populated places in the world.
To make up for all of the fast-paced city life, I spent my last day trying to seek out some peace and tranquility. One of those places I visited was the Jade Buddha Temple, a beautiful patch of serenity wedged in between the gigantic buildings. Just walking the grounds was calming. I can’t say that I didn’t feel refreshed. I ended up forking over a few yuan for a bundle of incense sticks used as an offering. Though I had no idea what exactly should have been doing, I knew that I was supposed to bow three times facing each of the four cardinal directions. As I did, I meditated briefly and realized how thankful I was to be safe and sound half-way across the world after seeing so much beauty along the way. It was a pretty uplifting moment.
In all, I was content with my stay in China. It had its ups and downs, but that’s the case with every port I’ve visited. In short, I felt a great deal of gratitude. My trip is coming to an end soon, I know I have to savor every last second of it.
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