Should have done this long time ago. This week marked the first time I used Taipei's Song Shan airport, right in the center of the city. No queues, 15 minutes from gate to taxi (some exaggeration, no doubt, but almost feels like it!) and same on the way out of Taipei.

No pictorial of Taipei is complete without Taipei 101. So here is the formality, now on to the next...

Playground. Should I say more?

Ah yes, the bastardization of the word "professional" is everywhere. I have no idea what a professional coffee is. I guess as opposed to homely coffee?

I've said before, Taipei is a cycling city, but only because it has this cycling path running along the Danshui river. In this photo, Taipei city council tries to implement something similar to Paris' Velib system where public bicycles are available for rent just about anywhere. Except for now it does not seem to be really anywhere yet in Taipei.

And this is the bicycle path on Danshui river...

Some parts of the pathway, cyclists share the path with motorcyclists.

... and they DO go fast...

When I took this picture, I did not notice what the light blue graffiti was saying. I guess I do now...

Along the length of Danshui river, big concrete walls protect the city from flash flood. These walls have heavy doors every xxx km, so looking for the entrance to the river from the city takes some patience.

And so for the last photo of this set, I leave you with a picture of a solitary, but deadly electric chair. I wonder if anyone bothers putting coins into the slot!

*end*

Gambling on the streets of Puyang

Guan Yu Shrine (aka Mr Black Face) just outside Luoyang

Luoyang People's Square

Song Shan: Shaolin Temple tourist demo captured in glorious Fujichrome Velvia

On the second part of this Henan trip, I will go up north to Anyang from Kaifeng and then swing to the east towards Puyang, a city that seems to be historically important. Right after that, it’s a long bus ride southwest to Luoyang where I plan to spend the longest stay of my Henan trip this time, a mere two nights. And on the way back to Zhengzhou, Song Shan lies on the way and this is where Shaolin Temple is.

2 October 2009:
The bus from Kaifeng took close to 4 hours to make the 200km to Anyang. Having a GPS at the bus window showed why it took that long. We took the small road, went through small towns where the main activity is to dry corn kernels on the road and just about any bitumen or concrete surface that is available. People should be poor. And the toilet is everywhere, and it seems to be quite obvious even from the bus. All transports here has 3 wheels, motorcycles, cars and tractors. Every active shop has in front of it, again corn drying. Petrol station, the same story. Everywhere corn, and more corn. If you’re not sick of corn, you will be after coming to Henan.

The bus arrived in Anyang at the long distance bus station next to the train station. Anyang looks much more modern and prosperous than Kaifeng by far. Less farm vehicles on the street, and things look a little more orderly. Not too much so, still a little messy as usual. Everything is so modern I don’t expect to see too many ancient relics here.

1908hrs: Walked the back streets of old Anyang after visiting People’s Square earlier on. Its a relatively long walk from the Train Station where I stay. Started off with a 2km walk to People’s Square on Jiefang Dadao passing modern shops on both sides. Switched the film on my Leica M2 to Neopan1600 in anticipation of night shooting. There is just this sliver of sunset light remaining, so the Leica M6 loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 comes along as well. There are not too much on the street that is particularly specific to Anyang. Rather similar to other large cities in China. People’s Square may also be called a park, perhaps it is called so. There are lakes, half moon bridges, etc.

Anyang People's Park: Kid's Colouring section, opened all night long it seems.

Anyang People's Park: Public performances

Anyang People's Park: Street Seller at night

Anyang: Transporting goods

Anyang: Night Food Market

On the way back, I spotted a parallel but smaller road back to the train station to Jiefang Dadao, so time to check out the hutong road while it starts to get dark. Time to check out the night life here. Dinner is by the roadside like the locals, having spotted a place that sells claypot stuffed with noodles, vegetables, tofu, oxtail, parsley, mushrooms. Its on the salty side but quite filling for 6RMB. My table neighbours are a bunch of loud labourers. They speak in a strange dialect and it sounds as though they’re complaining about something. Took out my Sony PCM-D50 and recorded the conversation before my dish arrived piping hot. I’m thinking this would be a perfect dish for winter.

Dinner!

3 October 2009:

0817hrs: Early day today. Will be covering plenty of distance. Don’t think there is a lot more to see in Anyang. There is a pagoda or two which I’ve seen from a distance, not willing to pay entrance fee to go everywhere. So the plan I decided in the morning is to catch a morning bus to Puyang and then in the evening to end my day in Luoyang.

While in the taxi to the East Bus Station to Puyang, negotiated 160RMB for a trip to Puyang in his taxi, but only if he drives fast. Road buses here stop along the way, plying the route like a public bus. So a 120km route, like my estimate from Anyang to Puyang may take up to 3 hours. Had some time to gain some information from the taxi driver along the way, including the wisdom: Anyang is small but densely populated, Puyang is big but sparsely populated. Sets the stage for my next town!

This taxi is grilled up to protect the passenger from the crazy driver. Not really unique to Anyang, but is the guy that brought me to Puyang.

The road to Puyang goes straight to the east before doing a right angle right towards the south. The road is relatively modern and wide, enough for 4 total lanes, but the drivers here are crazy. Middle two lanes are for cars but not strictly so. Outer lanes are for electric bicycles, tractors and other farm vehicles and again, not strictly so. Thats because cars do swing to the far left, that would be pedestrian lane, at full speed when overtaking say a motorcycle, a lorry and a car at the same time. Among the strange wheeled contraption I saw along the way were 3 wheeled carts loaded to the brim with hay (I must say, I’ve seen them loaded to the brink of mechanical breakdown between Kaifeng and Anyang, so this is no longer surprising) and one special for geeks, its a tractor modified with a large rotating fan made with oversized twig-broom; yes for sweeping the road! Genius!

Holy yellow corn kernel!! WTF? Is that a....

... Street Sweeper!! Rural Henan stylee!

Among other vehicles spotted on the road... 3 wheeled tractor overloaded to the brim.

And of course... more corn drying...

0915hrs: Arrived in Puyang. First order of business is to go pick up a bus ticket out of here. Strangely, the girl at the counter told me there are no time set on the ticket, and I can get on any bus and they leave roughly every 50 mins. Later I found out that also means they leave when the bus is full enough. Above the buses, as with other bus stops in Henan, there are signboards displaying the destination of the bus, including a pinyin translation.

Puyang is bigger than I thought. There are highrise buildings, proper hotels, multilane city roads and lanes for motorcycles and cars. There is even a People’s Square which tells me that there has to be at least half a million people living here. I chart a path to take, around 6 km in total with my gps and get on going. I bet the photos taken here would look like it’s taken in any other place in China. Nothing super special about it. I don’t even know if I will remember much about this place a year from now. But somehow I had to pass by this place or else my trip wouldn’t be complete.

Puyang: Communist Party insignias adorn the city parks during the 60th Anniversary celebration across China.

Puyang: An overhead bridge in the middle of the city with plenty of makeshift stores selling... PDA styluses...

Puyang city taxi

After an uneventful lunch, its time to load up on the drinks and start moving towards the bus station. The ticket seller did mention it leaves at 1230hrs, and I got there around noon. By the time the bus left it was at least 1330hrs and I had dozed off a couple of times listening to podcasts on Anthropology.

Buses lined up at Puyang Long Distance Bus Station

Destination: Luoyang

Bus central console, I wonder what the screwdriver is there for...

1831hrs: Now this is a long bus ride. 5 hours into it and GPS says 9 more km into Luoyang. Just crossed the Yellow river at a narrow point where it doesn’t look as scary as I expected. No massive dikes or barriers here. The bridge does span a log longer distance than the width of the river itself, perhaps to accomodate future change in river path. Only annoyance is that we are using a small van today, a 20 seater with higher window than a full sized bus so I had to place my Garmin eTrex a little higher than usual. Had to reconfigure my Kinesis travel pack to increase the height which is necessary especially when I doze off once in a while.

This is how they they mechanically extract the corn kernel from the core. There's a machine for that!

Crossing the Yellow River

Arrived in Luoyang after dark. The GPS coordinates of the hotel I booked in advanced was out by a km. But I’m starting to trust google maps more and more. Even in Luoyang, you can look up the hotel and get it to compute walking path from where you are to the hotel. The other two options are driving and public transit, which I tested in Kaifeng and is working as advertised. Makes life easier at the expense of paying for data.

And soon it is time to plan my next day. Had two possibilities. Could either do Longmen caves tomorrow and some Luoyang sights and Shaolin temple on Monday, or vice versa. Eventually I will decide tomorrow, but for now I feel that going to Longmen caves first may be a good idea as I don’t expect to spend too much time at the commercialised Shaolin temple.

0700hrs: So it is decided. Longmen caves and Luoyang city first today. Packed 7 rolls of different film, not knowing what to expect along the way. Maybe colour film, maybe slide film, maybe black and white only: lucky film canisters are small so it is easy to pack them all.

Taking the public bus to Longmen Caves

On the way to the train station, started doing a little survey of the facilities available. 16RMB for a quick bus to Shaolin temple, which is for tomorrow and I got to be here at 730hrs. There are plenty of transport options at the train station for sure. Just have to ask and agree on the price. And never join the tours, unless you don’t mind spending hours at a tourist shop at the end of the trip.

0847hrs: Arrived at the Longmen caves. This place has the aura of a tourist trap extraordinaire. Infrastructures are excellent, big carparks, its own bus station, new shops lined the avenue you are forced to walk towards the entrance to the grottoes. And yes, the word I’m looking for is a tourist enterprise. And I forgot today is a Sunday, which explains the hoard of local Chinese tourists descending on Longmen Caves. Entrance ticket cost 120 RMB, perhaps 90% of it is a UNESCO heritage site permium, or to put it more crudely, freaking tax.

Longmen Caves: Queuing up for tickets

Longmen Caves: The bridge that spans both banks where the caves are found

0938hrs: At the first carving in the mountain side. Looks like the base is limestone. The Three Binyang cave is a domed cutting 30m into the rock, with 5 statues in a semi circle fashion. 10 deep in local tourists here. Still possible to find a deadspot with no tourist where I could blog. My ERA100 M2 managed to capture the statue at f2.8 and 1/8s with an Abrahamsson softie. Before long I would run out of film, next up Kodak Tri-X. I think the jagged rocks require a little grittiness in the film. Loaded the film while avoiding knocks from a flood of tourists.

Longmen Caves: Grottoes and small compartments chiseled into the rock used to house statues, but most are missing by now.

Longmen Caves: If you forgot your camera, there's a photo taking service here...

1048hrs: At Wanfo Cave, loosely translated by on site to be ten thousand buddha cave. Heres a spoiler, there ten thousand because they are all size of peanuts. It is also ten thousand because there are so many it is almost impossible to count. In effect, perhaps ancient chinese numerals end at ten thousand so it means too many to count. What is for sure is that there are definitely ten thousand local tourists here jostling for position. Even them small girls trying to push me aside. Gave them a lesson in Newton’s third law of motion.

Longmen Caves: This is China. There are no queues here.

Longmen Caves: Some prefer to take pictures away from the crowd

1112hrs: Fengxiansi Cave which is not really a cave, just a notch cut out of the cliff with 9 (Which I was able to count) 20m high statues arranged in a semi circle. Sure is noisy here, there is no way any devout buddhists could meditate here unless they put on a pair of noise cancelling headphones.

Longmen Caves: Path up to Fengxian Cave

Longmen Caves: Fengxian Cave

Longmen Caves: Fengxian Cave (Fogged up Tri-X Film)

1129hrs: Guyang cave, according to the signboards, the oldest cave in the valley. It sure looks older. More noticeable, the crowds are thinning out here. Two hypotheses. Either its close to lunch and the morning group is finishing their trip, or they start to realize that once you have seen a buddha carving, the other ten thousand will look the same.

Take a picture - like a chinese...

1217hrs: Done with the east hill complex after crossing Li River earlier. The number of caves are significantly less here, so are the tourists. Most of the sights are on the far side from the car park and this is where the commercialism kicks in. If you are too lazy to walk the half kilometer back to the main entrance, the authorities can recommend the 2RMB electric car ride. It is not expensive enough to be called a con but for measure, the public bus cost less than that for the 13km trip here from central Luoyang.

Longmen Caves: Signboard on the Eastern bank of the Li River

Longmen Caves: Here is a statue I fine a little more unique out of all the others I have seen in this complex for the whole trip... Most statues and carvings here are defaced, except for the larger statues, and one can only conclude the culprits are too lazy to bring stairs, which is a good thing.

After a long walk to the carpark and bus stop, time to hop onto bus 60. I believe all buses here go on Longmen highway back to Luoyang. Buses here don’t stop for too long even though it is the terminus. Next stop is Guangyin Miao, a temple a few km away. The bus will not stop in front of the temple, so a little hiking and GPS positioning will be required to make sure I stop at the right place.

Tickets to get in is 40 RMB, which is a bit steep me thinks. It doesn’t have a UNESCO seal of approval, else it would have been more than 100RMB for sure. Perhaps the popularity of Guan Yu will get people in no matter the price.  Inside the ticket booth is a large square before entering the the temple itself. Inside it is a series of prayer halls, most with giant sized statues of the man/deity himself. At the end is a large burial mound like the ones emperors get. Along the way there will be attendants trying to get visitors to pray, and of course pay for the honour of doing so or to buy red ribbons with your name on it to tie onto some trees or stone carving.

Main Entrance to the shrine

Shrine inner entrance

Inside of the shrine, lined with ornaments covered in red strips of cloth from devotees

Along with a large spread of food offerings...

And of course, an image of the General himself

Front of the burial mound in the shrine, yes you can get your photo taken if you forgot your camera, and better still, there is a small slit in the tombstone to slip in a little bit of money for good luck (hidden from view)!

As is common with burial mounds of important people in ancient times, Guan Yu's mound is also a large hill.

Nothing much to report about, just another plot on my GPS as far as I’m concerned. And the ability to say I’ve been here. There are other burial temple complexs I’ve been to so this is not new.

After a little misadventure with the wrong bus, finally got onto bus number 58, which incidentally also passes by Guanlin temple but I seemed to have taken 15 instead when I left the place. Thats punishment for not checking Googlemaps before the trip. Next destination: Old Luoyang town.

Bus passes by a reconstructed west entrance. I saw Xi Men somewhere and Lijing Gate in other places. But it is new for sure. One of the pavillion just outside the gate played host to a group of at least 10 musicians with classical instruments and a lady was singing. For the next piece a whole gang of women and men came in to provide backup while one of the musician, clearly the ring leader of the lot comes up to conduct the mish-mash orchestra.

Luoyang Old City western entrance

Entering the city gates

The old street is something I’ve seen before. On the main street shops with old style banner with signs in chinese and english tells what they are peddling. But this is not the interesting bit, turn right and you quickly get to the real old Luoyang, and with old people hanging out, some in solitude, others playing card games or mahjong. A little more than a kilometer eastwards, the old Drum tower stands in the middle of the road. A few meters after, in a small lane to the right, a map with a little English shows the map of the quarter. Not too far down is General Cao Cao’s calvary command something. Then a few other significant something. And best of all, after a few right and left turns, Weng Feng pagoda. Now this is a strange one. I normally expect pagodas here to have elaborate sublevel roofs and coloured primarily in red and green and octogonal in shapem but this one is black, square and 9 sublevels tall with a pyramid at the top. Looks like a tower from the western world rather than Chinese.

Life in the old city

Old men gambling on the streets

Along the main streets, shops are pretty well maintained. The ones in the side lanes look like they were left in their natural state.

This is a first for me, Self-service garbage collection in China! I really hope the lady on the left is not trying to dispose of her baby!

Luoyang Drum Tower, hidden in the eastern end of the old city

Weng Feng Pagoda

Old City map, and as it looks, this is incredibly difficult to navigate with. Like the cartographer deliberately oversimplified the layouts to make it difficult to find the treasure cache.

Balloon seller on the streets of Luoyang

Construction sites are messy in most cities in China

These headless guys were also hanging around waiting for the rain to stop

Luoyang also has a bustling night market located in the heart of the old city

On the way back, I encountered my first major rain. Thunder signalled the impending downpour and in less than a few minutes it did. Sought shelter in a shopping complex. I think it should be time for dinner once the rain dies down. Now it is 1656hrs.

While waiting for my dinner, can't help wonder who would be eating so much chilli...

5 October 2009:
0754hrs: Now this is confusing. The trip to Shaolin Temple is not as easy as I thought. There is a group of buses across the road from the train station but it includes a tour which I don’t want. And they visit more than just the popular big temple, which I don’t want. And they take a whole day to stop by many different places. And I guess the trip ends with a few hours at a shopping center for tourists. I was then told to take the straight bus from the bus station. Bought the tickets and was ushered across the road away from the bus station to take the bus. And it looks like the type of bus that will only move when full. And realising I’m back to square 1 with the tour buses. Plenty of these type of buses to tourist destinations in many cities. Now I just hope they go fast. Must be impossible for someone who don’t speak chinese to get around.

Good Morning Henan countryside!

1026hrs: Ok, nothing to be proud of. Got suckered into going for a chinese tour, but at least managed to break away and negotiate for ticket fee only. No pesky tour guide for me, I never follow them anyway. Most of the chinese tours come in regular waves. If you miss your tour group you can always tag along the next to come.

At Songyang Temple now. Not on my itinerary, so will do my own research later. This temple, not knowing the history of its raison d’etre, is swarmed with tourists. Other than the main halls of worship, there are shops and handicraft workshops whose aim seems to be to lure local tourists to buy items that will collect dust at home. I call this the dust collector. I’m sure the money goes somewhat into maintaining the temple, but there is no way one could medidate with the loud camera toting tourists in all nook and cranies. The only plus point is that this temple is situated on the foot of Song Shan. So in the old days, must be rather peaceful. Something that is lost in this modern age. Especially when it becomes a tourist attraction. Loaded with my first roll of Kodachrome ever, I look out for bright colours to shoot.

Song Yang Temple

1150hrs: Fa Wang Temple. Another temple on Song Shan, further up the foot of the mountain. This time the temple is more or less a monastery as there are little monks walking about for their lunch. I think I saw a western monk as well. Other than the usual temple layout and architecture, right at the top, or the back of the temple is a pagoda made of bricks with a figure in a lotus position below it. I didn’t pay attention to the prayer halls along the way but they all seem to be a different form of buddha. Just before the pagoda is a small housing complex with bunk beds and a small school. This has to be where the little monks stay, and most look less than 10 years old.

Fa Wang Temple Pagoda

Ok so I’m still alive. Lets see what other temples they have in mind for me to tackle… I ran out of Kodachrome as it was a 24 roll here, so decided to switch to an old roll of Fuji Velvia. Looks like a fine velvia day and temples are rich in red and greens, two colours I think looks good in RVP50.

Rural Henan at the foot of Song Shan

1356hrs: After a quick lunch stop at a restaurant packed with tourists, we are at Shaolin Temple. Another sentence on the restaurant please; it looks like one of those place where the bus guy makes money dropping bus loads of people there. Seems to be full of these type of activitity in China when joining a local tour group.

The temple entrance looks familiar. A large ticketing square doubling as the temple entrance. Looks less of a temple and more of a big tourist venue.

This marks the entrance for Shaolin Temple, only tickets holders after this point. It is, of course, not yet the temple. Oh no. You will have to walk a kilometer or two to get to it!

Shaolin: Main Ticket Entrance. When you get this in China, it only means two things - UNESCO and tourists!!!

Shaolin: Kids here are especially hyperactive. I'd like to see them enroll for the punishing torture that's a proper Shaolin training!

On the way to see a Kungfu dance, as the guide says it. It has to be a performance at 2pm. It seems that chinese tourists cannot be trusted to be back on the bus on time. Whatever it is, this is where I wave a virtual goodbye to the bunch of sightseeing drones. Will take the bus to Zhengzhou tonight.

Two hundred meters walk downhill and we get to a 1 storey high platform. Just a little after two a bunch of brightly clothed monks (more like martial art students) comes out and do their thing with flimsy weapons. It wobbles so much I guess it must be for safety so that no one gets pierced by it. There are quite a number of pseudo fights and skill showoffs while everyone sits in the sun on wooden benches. I let go a barrage of Velvia slide shots, knowing I will probably get crappy shots from quite far away and a 50mm lens.

Shaolin: Martial Arts performance in progress

Then it is a long kilometer walk to Shaolin Temple proper. I think I know the trick now, built the entrance far away and charge 10 RMB per person to transport them 1km. I’ll walk thanks.

Shaolin temple is just that. Relatively indistinguishable from other temple monasteries except it is way richer, and because it is more, nay, a lot more famous, it gets plenty of stone stelaes with dedications from all over the world including a few in English. Next to the temple is a medicine building, where there are many drawers of medicines, but wondering if they are empty as the monks here are selling souvenirs instead. At the square, maybe my timing is good, there are a bunch of students learning their martial arts.

Shaolin Temple Entrance

Shaolin Temple: Architectural details

Shaolin Temple: Medical Dispensary medicine drawers

Shaolin Temple: Training in Progress in a quiet corner of the temple

1607hrs: Branched off to the right on the way to the stone pagoda forest towards Wuru peak and Dharma cave. I’m sure I will never get there as the sign boards says 4000m away and I’m close to 5pm already. After a km or two, got to a temple at the midway point. According to the sign board, Chuzu Temple was one of the two reasons for the founding of Shaolin Temple on the foot of the mountain. Of course the first reason is Bodhi Dharma meditating in a cave close to Wuru peak. Right past the temple, I saw the way up the mountain. It is steep and will take an hour at least into the shadow of the mountain. No strength, no photo opportunity, no motivation. Time to go back.

View of Wuru Peak from Chuzu Temple. The cave is not visible in this small picture, but it is somewhere on the peak of that mountain.

On the way down from Chuzu Temple to Shaolin Temple and the Pagoda Forest

Shaolin Temple Pagoda

The Pagoda Forest is a few hundred meters more from the branch off to Wuru peak. This is an interesting sight. Apparently this is where they interr the ashes of prominent abbots etc. So in a way it is a graveyard of sorts. Or whatever you call ash depositories. But no peace here with touts, souvenir sellers, tourists and beggars mingling among the pagodas. Towards the middle the pagodas are rather dense and they are all in Chinese, obviously. So it is not possible to make out what it says.

Pagoda Forest

Pagoda Forest

Pagoda Forest

Just after the Pagoda Forest is the aforementioned 10 RMB bus ride back to the entrance. I’d rather get an exercise like any textbook scrooge would.

1731hrs: Onboard bus to Zhengzhou. Ticker price is 30RMB, I guess includes all sort of commission for everyone down the chain, including the local greeter’ looking for passengers at the main exit of the temple, down to the ticket lady who scribbles some bean sprouts on the back of a book of receipts and gives you a stub. Just walk to the entrance and if anyone asks if you wanted to go to Luoyang, ask them about Zhengzhou.

Leaving Song Shan

The bus stops at the train station, taking close to 2 hours for the whole trip, and I estimate we spent more than 30 minutes for the last 8 km into the city due to traffic. Just after the drop, I noticed at the Zhengzhou Hotel a booth selling tickets to the airport. I checked, first bus at 0630hrs, which is what I need.

There are many hotels around the train station and most of the 3 Starred ones wanted 400RMB a night. Not willing to spend so much for a short sleep. I will need to get up early tomorrow morning. I downgrade to a binguan, loosely translated by me to be an inn. Now this is strange, they asked if I wanted a room with a bed or sleeping on a wooden platform? First time I had the reception ask if I wanted a room with a bed or without. Wanted to try out the bedless room, but logic got the best of me finally. Settled on the bedded room for double the price, but still cheaper than the other proper hotels. But of course in an inn, your phone will ring all night long asking if you wanted massage or girls.

Zhengzhou Train Station at night

Buses congregate outside my hotel, close to the Train Station

6 October 2009:
0545hrs: Taking the 0630hrs bus to the airport from the train station, so naturally I stayed around the station. Even at 5am the square in front of the station is full of people walking around, the underpasses full of people sleeping in the streets. The hotels are relatively fully booked, but this is not a matter of hotels being available, but that hotels are normally a few hundred reminbi and above. Some brave souls sleep on the street where temperature hovers around 15C this morning. Touts and scalpers are hardy creatures. They are already out at work now. The chain restaurants around the central square are opened 24 hours, so an early morning noodles and soup is a perfect way to start the morning before getting on the flight back to Shanghai. Ticket cost around 16RMB. Not too sure as the change includes big notes, small notes and some cents in paper form, which you don’t get to see too often in bigger cities.

As the sun rises, I start to think about my 5 day express through the 4 remaining ancient Chinese capitals. Thus on top of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xian… Adding Kaifeng, Anyang, Luoyang and finally Zhengzhou, completing one of my check lists. There is not too much left of the old history of these cities, unlike Beijing and perhaps Xian as well. I blame it on the shifting path of the Yellow river as it is known to switch its course through the centuries. Of course human destruction is surely partly to be blamed. Progress sometimes take centerstage compared to preserving history. Unfortunately, apart from being in the same physical location as the ancient capital itself, the cities as they exist today, it is very difficult to feel the aura that it should have. Is there a solution? Kaifeng comes close, with its remaining Drum Tower and backlanes with caches. The other cities are hewn out of the same chinese city planning template as 500 other cities. I will see later but I am sure I will not be able to tell the picture apart from one taken from a city in Zhejiang province.

Zhengzhou - Shanghai

The other two satellite cities I made the effort to stop by, Puyang and Zhoukou falls victim to the same urban sameness as their bigger and more important cities. But the purpose of visiting those cities are a little different for me. They are GPS waypoints required as I look for the birthplace of chinese surnames. One could argue, based on what was seen, that these two towns are farming towns. Roads are choked with a corn drying industry. Lets hope I still remember all these places in the years to come.

Henan Province 2009...

Some interesting numbers on this trip…
GPS Moving time: 32hrs 30 mins
GPS Odometer: 1241.38km
GPS Moving Average: 38.2kmph
GPS Maximum Speed: 119kmph
B&W film used: 4 rolls Tri-X, 4 rolls ERA100, 2 rolls Neopan 1600
Colour film used: 1 roll Portra 160NC, 1 roll Kodak Ektar 100, 1 roll Kodachrome, 1 roll Fuji Velvia RVP50.
96kHz/24bit Audio Recording: 1hr 29mins

*the end*

Read the previous Part 1 post on Henan…

Majiagang Pier, Changxing Island

The term “non-linear” applies especially to this post. I have made 2 trips to Changxing island over a few weeks, both times armed only with black & white film. As usual, I would type out this blog post on my Nokia E71 and then combine and edit them on a Macbook when I’m back in the comforts of my living room. However, somehow I got the post on Hengsha up and I forgot about this one till March 2010. So here I am, working on getting it out of my clogged up draft box.

As I originally wrote: after Hengsha, it is only natural the next island on the Yangzi River Delta to visit would be Changxing island, a lot bigger than Hengsha and slightly to the west. Not the biggest of course, that honour would go to Chongming island, subject of a future trip which I planned but never got to carry out before this post went online. It is not too difficult to get to Changxing. Same bus or metro to Wusong port and a boat to Majiagang, which is the only pier on the island, I was told. There are a lot more boats to Majiagang than to Hengsha, and the same for the return trip, so it shouldn’t be any issue to get there and back and advanced ticket is not necessary.

There are not too much information about Changxing Island on the internet, at least not the English internet that I can search for. I was told that this island contains many orange farms, of the green skinned type. Lokam, some call it. Shanghainese would go there in their car in autumn and pick them, like a novelty item as if reminding them of the agricultural origins of Pudong. As the ferry passes by Changxing Island on the way to Hengsha, all I saw on Changxing was a lot of shipyards, so I have expectations of orchards, four-stroke tractors and shipyards.

Eventually I would spend a total of two weekends to survey two sections of the island, the middle  and the far western end. It would be total nuts to walk the whole island. Changxing is at least 30km long from one end to the other.

First Survey: 15 August 2009

Central Changxing Island hike

Tried to wake up early, as I expect a long long walk on Changxing. Left home at 0700hrs after packing my own lunch, as I don’t expect to waste time to look for a restaurant when on the island. After a quick breakfast, it was the usual bus 952 from People’s Square to Wusong port. At the Baoshan ticketing office, the next fast boat I could find was at 1000hrs. This means I have at least one and a half hours to waste at the waiting room. I plug in my iPod and Fring on my Nokia E71 and tried to get productive going through some podcasts.

Boarding time

Boarding the fast boat to Changxing Island

I have on me my old Lowepro Rover AW backpack, which I do not use too much anymore as I have found better alternatives. Inside is crammed with a Mamiya RZ67II medium format camera with 50mm and 127mm lenses. Originally I was thinking to bring 2 magazines and both black & white and colour film, but to cut down on the weight, it will be a black & white trip this time. Lunch went on the top of the bag, and the Sony PCM-D50 audio recorder in a pouch attached to the belt.  Navigation is provided by Garmin eTrex Vista, and backup with Nokia E71 running google maps in case I need to check if a path leads to dead-end or not.

Huangpu River traffic: Mainly barges

1043hrs: Arrived at Majiagang port. Took less than an hour to get here. This place is busier than google maps suggested. Leaving the port gates, we are all greeted by motorcycle taxies and minivan drivers, offering to have you anywhere on the island for a pittance. Too bad this trip is all walk for me, no cheating on any other type of transportation. Just about every car on this island is doubling as a makeshift bus or taxi. There are some roadside stalls selling dried salted fish (because you could smell it).

Everyone seems to live in houses here. Not small huts either, these are 2 storey bungalows. But it would not be fair to call these luxurious, but rather, standard houses you would find on a typical chinese rural community. Not really farm houses either. They all seem to have tiles on the outside, which brings the class down a notch or two in my opinion. But you are on an island, so maybe style is not the concern. The only minus about these houses is that the cars that travel on the 2 lane highway have their horns permanently set to honk all the time. To make things worse, they prepare to overtake half a kilometer a way.

One of the small township on the island. This is one of those 120 film rolls that got partly fogged because of user error. But came out quite artistic.

Came across this stockyard for bricks

So I set a course due north east and walked till I hit the coastline where I could see Chongming Island, cutting through villages and farms, and orange orchards. Its not east to be discrete when carrying a Mamiya RZ67 as it looks as though I’m there to hunt for wild boar. This camera is just too big! But I love the medium format negative that it produces.

1305hrs: Finally hit the coastline after having to cut through some plantation, helped by satellite maps from my mobile phone. Found a way to get to a bund, and now sitting on a ledge at N31.42274, E121.68030 having my packed sandwich while enjoying the view of the bridge that connects this island to the main Chongming Island. I have heard of a long bridge somewhere near Shanghai, and I didn’t know it was linking Changxing and Chongming Island. I don’t think the bridge is ready yet for traffic yet but it does look long as hell. There are plenty of wetlands plants here, swaying in the wind, with nice cooling wind blowing so that it is not too hot. Perfect peaceful time to spend half an hour on lunch and just relaxing before the trek back to Majiagang.

Walking along the dykes

... plenty of machinery left here, construction can be found everywhere. This one looks like a moon buggy.

Wide open plains, this is looking towards Chongming Island.

More construction workers

I think they're mixing cement here, found while walking through a village on the island

As expected, not all roads are paved on this island

It is quite common in China to see mobile phone numbers scribbled all over

A farm of some sort. For a while I thought it was grass, but I defer from making conclusions. Just makes a nice photo scenery.

1421hrs: Reached km0 of Fenghuang Highway, which should lead me straight back to Majiagang. The way back is just plenty of walking. Other than large breakwaters and dykes, majority of the island is mainly farmland. Not too many shops, so do stock up on tidbits and water before you venture out here. There are no restaurants that I have seen so far. They could be clustering around the Ferry Pier.

1530hrs: At Majiagang ferry terminal. No problem getting a ticket back to Wusong Port. The large waiting room at the terminal is noisy and full of locals. I don’t see any tourist today. Maybe this is a good sign.

Ferry waiting room

And there were plenty of seats in this waiting area...

1647hrs: Back in Wusong Port and hungry. Time to look for some dinner. It was a nice long walk today. Most of the trip was boring, but the northern shore of the island is perfect for a quiet picnic. What is better than a totally secluded place with only the occasional local and no tourists and best of all, quiet and has a great view of the Chongming Island bridge?

22 August 2009:

Western Changxing Island Hike

0800hrs: Back at wusong port queueing up for the day’s ferry ticket. Weather today is again forecasted rain but very very smoggy, but not worse than the typical smoggy Shanghai day. The ticket office seems emptier than normal which is strange. Bought a fast boat to Majiagang for 18 RMB, and like routine, went straight to waiting room 1&2. Boat number is 153, and I guess I will be at Majiagang before 1000 hrs.

Motorcycle taxies waiting for passengers to alight from an incoming ferry at Wusong Pier

Packed a Mamiya RZ67 and a Nikon S2 in my small 20L Arcteryx backpack so that I don’t look too much like I have heavy photographic equipment. Lunch today will be a few buns from last night. Should be enough to keep me going all day. Water will all be in a 2L Camelbak inside the backpack. Bringing a Goosen Luna Pro light meter and the Sony PCM D50 audio recorder with a 16GB memory stick, about the most modern thing I have currently. Navigation is via an old Garmin eTrex Vista backed up by google maps on the Nokia E71.

There are many boats going to Majiagang on Changxing Island, but for some reason when you purchase tickets there is only one time on the counter. Trying to fill up the next boat? The fast boats are always filled up it seems anyway. Not tried the slow boat on the way to Majiagang, with more seats it should be a lot more vacancies on those. However, time is something I do not have much of, so no slow boat going there.

Ah, just like a professional sailor...

On the way to Changxing

0937hrs: At Majiagang. With the smog, the view at the port is quite different from last week. The dry dock named Emei Shan seems to be sinking, at least by design so that the large ship being repaired there can leave the dry dock. Smoggy but sunny day, so guessing at least sunny f/16 minus 3 stops all day long.

1021hrs: Took a local illegal bus to a place to the west end of Changxing with a name I forgot but have the coordinates for. Stopped just in front of an army shophouse. Everyone inside are dressed in uniforms but wonder what they do here. There is a bus stop across the road and I noticed there is a bus that leads back to the pier every hour on the first quarter. Took note of it by snapping a picture with my mobile phone. Its time to take a walk… To the coastline!

Rural transporter

Farmhouses

This little bit of treeline cover helps sheltering me from the hot sun

... but it mostly looks like this.

New home in the middle of nowhere

But I prefer this one for "house in the middle of nowhere", but this one is anything but new. Notice the phone number scribbled on the wall.

There are giant breakwater dykes in this end of the island, and I’ll just follow it for a few kilometer. The big issue today is that it is very very hot. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it got close to 40C today in the hot sun. There are not too many trees out here for shelter, and the cemented path does not help either. I must have walked more than 10km by the time I got back to the place where I started. The scenery here is less of a wetland, as I originally thought from Google Earth, but more of large desolate landscape surrounded by concrete dykes. Good potential for simple landscape photography.

Landscape always looks better when shot in medium format

Road to nowhere. On the GPS it looks like a straight few km in the hot sun.

And finally, the elusive orange/lokum plantation

Time to walk back.

1354hrs: Back to the place I was left off. A public mini bus stands idle and the driver is sleeping inside. This has to be the 1415hrs bus back to Majiagang. Bus costs 3RMB. The one sitting here seems like the right one. Once the driver sees more than a person standing outside the bus he opens the door and turns on the aircon. The buses here do not seem to have number, they go by the destination displayed at the front, which is a bit of a problem for someone like me.

In the bus back to the pier

1426hrs: Back at Majiagang pier. Bought a fast boat ticket back at 18RMB leaving at 1545hrs. Which is just nice as this leaves me time to roam the pier looking for more things to explore. First up would be a visit to the waterfront to try to recreate the picture I took last week but lost because of a roll of fogged up film. Left my 127mm Mamiya lens at home today so unlikely I will get the same exact shot but will try.

Feel thirsty enough to crave a bottle of ice cold beer. But figured a bottle of sugared water would be a better choice considering I’ve probably lost quite a bit of salt through sweating today. Then its time go go into the boat waiting room, which is a 2 storey building. As with any transport area, you are greeted by a guard and an xray machine. I see that here no one puts their bag into the machine.

This guy distributes gas canisters for cooking. At the pier.

Waiting Room

Waiting room

The waiting room seems to smell of urine. I was wondering if the floor is the toilet, but I guess its the unkept public toilet up on the second floor where most passengers wait and board the boat. Its fine to wait here except for the chain smoking men up here. They smoke all the time, never do you see them without a stick in their mouth.

1621hrs: Back in Wusong Port. Greeted by illegal motorcycle transporters, but this is quite normal outside the big urban centres in China.

And I leave you with this shot of a chinese easy-rider...

*end*

Flower fields blossom at Wusong Park, yes strange way to start a post, but thought starting with a little colour might be appropriate here...

Summer is finally here. While I’d like to think that I have compiled a list of places to go in China, I rarely adhere to such lists anyway, and most destinations are off the seat of my pants. Last winter was reserved mainly for discovering new interesting back streets in Shanghai. Because of the cold, and the fact that most of my trip requires hours outdoors, it is a lot more comfortable to be close to home.

The first one the list, which has been on my want-to-do-list for some time, is a survey trip to Hengsha island. It desn’t really have to be Hengsha, Changxing is fine as well. The former is one of the larger islands on the Yangzi river mouth, where the Yangzi and the smaller Huangpu rivers meet. I’m not a geologist, but it does seem to form part of the Yangzi river delta, the famous Yangzi River Delta! Trip there requires a public bus to one of the ports where the two rivers meet, as I wrote this, I had no idea which port the boats leave, but Google maps does suggest that I start with Wusong pier and so it shall. Taking a taxi there would be the easiest, but since when has adventure about taking the easiest path? Buses are not really that dodgy in Shanghai, but just for the fun of it, why not the bus? There are many places to board buses that goes to Wusong pier, and I settled on the closest one so that I can avoid taxis.

The Yangzi river from Wusong battery park

Port of Shanghai at Pudong

Over the course of weeks I made a few trips to Wusong port and it took till the third trip before I made it to Hengsha Island, but none of the trips were a waste at all.

30 May 2009

Unlike most other trips I have made, I woke up a little late at 10 am this morning. Has to be the latest waking up time for me on a Saturday! After lunch and a little gear tinkering and packing, and just utter time wasting on twitter, I started leaving my apartment at 1 pm, knowing full well I might have missed the last boat to be able to return on the same day. Let’s face it, staying the night on some island I’ve never been to before in China is not exactly part of the plan today.

So what is in the bag today? Plenty of water since it is a hot day today. Took with me a innocent looking tote bag bought in Tokyo, filled with a Nikon D300, 12-24mm DX, 10.5mm DX and of course a 105mm f4 Macro AI in case the opportunity of insects, details and flowers present itself. Since there will be people to shoot as well, packed in my Leica M3 as well, along with a new 5cm Summitar collapsible lens. I just got this one back from a little repair work by John van Stelten from Focal Point in Colorado about a month ago, and it is time to see if this lens is any good for the price you pay (one of the cheapest Leica lens you can buy!). Film is of course, ERA100, and like I always say – chinese film for chinese people. Packed a Garmin GPS as well, and I can already feel that this unit is getting a little creaky old!

The trip starts with a long walk to People’s Square in Shanghai city puxi side, and looking for the bus stop for number 952. There are no maps, so this involves asking people who look like workers for the bus company, but you can never be sure. Anyone that doesn’t look like a tourist qualifies as the right person to tell me where to take that bus!

Start of Bus 952 Route

952 starts at one of the bus stop next to the Shanghai Museum. There is also 952B but it seems to be stopping less and ends before reaching the pier. Baoshan to be exact. The bus ticket to the end of the route is 6 RMB. I don’t know how much it is to get to the pier, but 6 RMB is not too much of a price to pay! The pier is supposed to be stop number 25. And in the front of the bus, they do indicate the bus stop number out of a total of 30. At least that is what it looked like. I see a number that says 5-30, and somehow it didn’t seem right to me. So fine. Just sit back and relax, and before long I doze off due to the hot sun. The interior of the bus is supposed to be 18C according to the thermometer readout at the front of the bus but I doubt it. Probably so inside the airconditioner!

Motorcycle taxis (illegal or not) are all over the place at Wusong Port

1427 hrs: In the bus and just woke up from a short slumber. Darn old garmin GPS is not acquiring any more than 1 satelllite. Maybe it is time to get a new GPS standalone unit. Those new GPS units seems to be able to acquire 3 signals a lot quicker.

Asleep on the job at Wusong Port

1529 hrs: Arrived at Wusong pier. No, I can nor confirm that the number in the bus does not indicate the stop but the conductor does shout out the stop coming up. Just listen out for Wusong something. Just before getting to the pier, the bus will go on an elevated highway for some distance and a port would be visible with a lot of standard sized containers stacked up before the stop. In short, it is a proper port, unlike the tourist piers that dotted the Huangpu running through Shanghai. The junction where the bus stops is Mudanjiang Rd and Songbin Rd. I have no idea where the pier for the boat to the islands really is, so I decided to stop early and do a little survey of the place.

This place is a typical chinese suburb. No one seems to respect any traffic rules, cross the road at any time, walk on the road and not the pavement, and cars turn right at their convenience. It seems that traffic light here are just for aesthetic purposes. There are restaurants and sundry shops. Further up there are mostly repair shops, in case your hybrid bicycle/motorcycle breaks down. Dusty for sure, but somehow there’s a little nice breeze in this place. A little check on google maps on the Nokia E71 tells me I am indeed close to the river mouth, and hence the sea. Now, for the passenger terminal.

It seems that the passenger terminal is still a distance to walk. On Huacheng Rd now and walking following a road sign pointing towards the terminal. Can’t wait to have the GPS coordinate for future use. Along the way, there are some lookout points and I’m able to see how busy the Huangpu is, full of cargo ships and barges going out to the Yangzi. Along the way, I was able to see a large terminal that is being built, and some signs indicating that this will be the next mega ship terminal and somehow I think by next year I will be able to grab a boat over here.

Wusong Temporary Pier (2009)

Temporary pier ticketing booth

After a little walk, finally I’ve found the boat terminal, not too far away if you know where to walk. The terminal is placed about 200m away from the water front, which is a little strange. It doesn’t appear on Google Maps, so it has to be a new building, or rather, a temporary building waiting for the new terminal to be opened sometime in the future. There is a ticket booth outside, and a short walk away to the entrance to the waiting room. I had a little peek inside and it looks like a typical train station in small town China. An x-ray machine greets you followed by a chamber filled with chairs and ringed by government grocery sellers.

The roadside economy on the way to the park seems to revolve around repairing tires

And a row of half completed and abandoned buildings...

Outdoor snooker tables: Life here is definitely slower than back in the city...

Unfortunately, the boat to Hengsha is at 1830hrs and there will be no more boat back to Wusong pier after that. Cost for the journey is 17 RMB, which I took note. So it is no go, I woke up too late for my own good. There is another boat to somewhere in 10 minutes time but no more boats back as well. I will then have to cancel the trip and walk around this area. Not too much of a failure though as this was supposed to be a scouting trip. The passenger terminal looks crappy with noisy chinese all over the place. Expect to sniff in plenty of low grade cigarette fumes.

Wusong Park Entrance

Here is an interesting find. This is the location of the entrance to a large park called Wusong Battery park perhaps. Perhaps, as I saw a couple of different names everywhere but this is the name on the ticket. Yes. All parks of a certain size in China requires an entrance fee. This one cost a negligible 5 RMB. And it closes at 7 pm this time of the year.

The first thing I noticed is the number of girls in wedding dress. looks like a haven for wedding photography. The paths are lined with plenty of flowers, this time of the year, and it looks like poppies if I’m not wrong. Thanking myself for bringing the 105mm f4 macro as I was having a field trip shooting the flowers.

Blimey, don't these look like poppies?

And some innocent daisies...

Viewing pier at the park overlooking the mighty Yangzi

This park is also located at the point where the Huangpu river meets the mighty Yangzi. I’ll use the new spelling as I don’t like the way Yangtse spells. A few minutes walk and I come to a walkway along the Yangzi. I believe this is my first time looking at the Yangzi but I might have seen it at Zhenjiang last year. There are plenty of ships for sure, and here at the mouth of the giant river, it looks like it is a sea. On a relatively clear day like today it’s impossible to see the north bank nor the islands I was hoping to go to earlier.

It seems that this park also has a wetlands area, did see some but with noisy people around, doubt any animals will want to make their presence known. There are for sure more flowers here than animals or birds. The sea breeze is actually quite enjoyable here. I think I will just sit here looking at the cargo ship and barges for a while.

Repairing CCTV outside Wusong park

1822 hrs: On the way back to People’s Square. Boarded a 952 after checking out the route on one of the bus stops. They all have this map with the buses and stops in the vicinity and it takes about a 20 minutes walk to get there. Whats interesting is that it seems the trip back to People’s Square is only 5 RMB so it looks like I have overpaid a little on the way here.

7 June 2009:

Taking the metro to Wusong Port

Will be testing out another way to get to Wusong Port today. Bus was not an issue, as my test last week revealed. Today I will try the Metro. On the map it looks as though Line 3 Metro will get me close to the place. Only one way to find out, people!

This metro I am taking stops at South Changjiang Road station. Everyone leaves the train so I do the same as well. There is a slight breeze here so I guess we are close to the river, but I seriously doubt there is a climatic difference between this place and central Shanghai. Nevertheless, the frequency of trains on this line is low. Guessing 10 minutes between subsequent trains.

In front of the metro station, an elevated highway, and a bunch of people just chillin, I'm guessing they are street sellers taking a break.

Quite obviously this thing has been here for ages. Shanghai dust accumulating on it.

Getting off at Song Bin Road station after passing a small river. There are some old feeder boats, making very good photographic subject. This time, armed with a Leica M6 and 35mm f2 Summicron ASPH and clearing stock on Fuji Neopan SS film. There is no real waterfront to walk on the way to the Huangpu river, there is a concrete dyke that, i suppose, protects the town from being flooded during a king tide or typhoon. There are areas where one could climb over to a small waterfront. The ships that you are more likely to see would be barges, the type of river transport that is very common along the Huangpu when viewing it from the Bund. What else would you expect, really! The port over at Pudong is clearly visible and its nice to think that I was just there during my 58km cycle ride.

Barge going under Yixian Elevated Road and the metro line

Along Songpu Road close to the Huangpu river, a promenade lined with seafood restaurants

Whatever their speciality is here

And there's no escape from - outdoor snooker!

Roadside restaurant at Wusong Port

Locals enjoying the overcast day

Funny thing this trip, I accidentally stumbled on yet another pier with boats that goes to one of the islands on the Yangzi river mouth. This one even has a big ticket booth, and a proper timetable, unlike the one I found last weekend. Looks like this is the official Wusong/Baoshan pier. This one is closer to the bus stop which I got off from bus 952. Will check it out one morning. First boat to Hengsha seems to be at 0635 am.

There are many names for this area. I see it as Wusong but there are also signs indicating this place is also called Baoshan. Baoshan or Wusong? Doesn’t matter anyway, I have the GPS coordinates stored away and that is what matters.

With a ferry just arriving, all the motorcycle taxis line up for business among the passengers

At another ferry exit gate, motorcycles line up...

There are a lot of illegal motorcycle taxis here, perhaps hoping to snatch the passengers arriving at the passenger pier. While loitering around the pier, a ship came in and I could see swarms of motorcycle taxis getting arrracted to the pier exit. Never took one before, but the alternative here would be local taxis (car) in dark green colour and with Baoshan in chinese characters stencilled on its front door.

14 June 2009

On the bus to Baoshan/Wusong for the third time

1210hrs Wusong Port: This time I might have the time to go to the islands. I am now at the ticket office which I scouted last weekend. The queue is relatively short and makes no difference as people here don’t queue so the strong has the right of way, which is how I like it, to be frank. It allows the general public to get rid of pent up anger.

Waiting for the boat

At the ticket booth the agent will ask whether you prefer the fast boat or the slow one. Its a no brainer. Although I’d like to try the slow boat, not this time as I need to find out the time of the last boat back, which I estimate to be around 1600 hrs or so. The ticket on the fast boat cost 23 RMB and it is possible to pay for it with the Shanghai Transportation Card, which is how I prefer to do it. Boat 923 leaves at 1310 hrs.

Then it’s time to stroll across the road to the waiting rooms. There are two sections, room 1&2 and 3&4. I dont quite know how they divide it but common sense seems to say it has to do with the speed of the ship. But this fast ship waiting room does not look better than room 3&4 for sure. To make things worse, there are no airconditioners here, just a medium sized room where an xray machine greets you and a complete lack of chairs for all waiting passengers are apparent.

Standing around the xray machine and watching passengers and what they are carrying with them. Hello Kitty large plastic sacks on balance beams, small packs the likes which are distributed when you join a local tour group, plastic bags of fruits, a man purse or two, the usual farmer plastic gunny sack seemingly filled with duvet and cotton blanket. No bootleg french luxury handbags so far. And not everyone gets to put their bags through the machine. Depends on the size of your bag. Bombs must be quite big this part of the world!

And as usual, I need to keep a record of the equipment that comes along with me so I can tell where the pictures on this post comes from. So today in the Artisan & Artist bag we have a Leica M6 Classic with a Summicron 35mm ASPH loaded initially with an expired roll of Ilford Pan F+ and later to use ERA 100 if I do run through a second roll. Also in the bag is a Nikon D300 DSLR with a prime 50mm f1.8 AIS which I just received last night. Call it a test trip if you will.

In the waiting room, standing room only as all the seats are all occupied. From here, the river traffic on the end of the Huangpu is clear, all barges with waterline almost to the top of the bow, which is probably not an issue for river navigation. What is interesting is that barges are separated less than 50m apart from each other and they are like a trail of ants almost continuous and bumper to bumper.

Boarding

1308 hrs: In the boat now, which looks a little like an enclosed escape pod they used on large ships or oil rigs. The large hello kitty packs go outside the boat on the decks while everyone else sits inside. The seats are all numbered and while there are matching numbers on the ticket, it looks as though no one ever takes their seat. It is a first come first serve logic. The announcement says the trip today will take 65 minutes! I was expecting Hengsha to be a lot closer than that.

Port at Hengsha

Arriving at Hengsha Island

1421 hrs Hengsha: Arrived at Hengsha. Will get a GPS plot of the port in a while. The port is quiet enough, and the first thing to do is to get a return ticket to see how much time I have to move around today. At the ticket booth I was told the only boat left is a 1630 hrs slow boat that will take 2 hours to get back. Looks like there is no choice. I will take boat number 910 and the price is 14 RMB, close to half the price of the fast boat.

Main street on Hengsha Island

Awwww. Don't be fooled, after taking this photo, the dog squeezed right through the grill and chased after me... Damn dog!

Barrier protecting the island from what I can only guess to be king tide water. The masts in the distance is a fleet of fishing boat

Waited 15 minutes for the ticket as the computer at the ticketing booth was not working properly. So I have about an hour and a half to walk around, which means I will not be able to move too far. There is not map at the port, so will have to bring up Google Maps. The saviour.

Small ship yard at Hengsha Island, there is a bigger one over at Chongming Island next to Hengsha

When there are humans, there has to be a toilet. I can only imagine how this one works.

Best way to get around on the island

Boats on the Yangzi from Hengsha Island

Farmhouse

The only logical hour long hike is the one that covers the north western coast of the island. There are fishing villages, small ship yards and farms. Both cameras come out to play and there are not too many colours out so black and white films were ideal for this shoot. Only the scenes of a visceral landscape this time. The 50mm on the D300 seems ideal for most use, and at f2 it seems to produce amazing pictures.

1610 hrs: Back at the port, and with 15 minutes to burn, next thing to do is to hang around a small colony of fishermen. Houses seems to be built on top of boats, since this was beyond the breakwater on muddy ground, I would assume this is to float in the case of king tides. Its dirty to say the least.

A house of doors...

Shopping on the street

View of the fishing village on Hengsha next to the ferry pier

1629 hrs: On the boat back to Shanghai. The slow boat can pack in a lot of people, but is also noticeably older and dirtier, not that it matters to me. The TVs are CRT and not LCD like on the earlier fast boat. It will also take 2 hours. This slow boat is almost like a typical ferry with inside seating.

Boarding the boat on the return to Shanghai

If there is something I really hate in China, it has to be the amount of cigarette these people smoke in a day. Non smoking signs seem to mean ”don’t smoke in the first 5 minutes”. And just after we left port, the cabin start to smell of smoke.

This boat seems to break every rule in the book of boating. Now, there are 3 levels, right on the 1st level is where the cattles sit, same for the second, and the top are full of plush chairs, but guessing this the gaming room since Chinese people love to play cards especially on a 2 hr long boat ride. The funny thing is that everyone seems to be locked inside. All the doors, emergency or not, are all locked and it’s not possible to go out for fresh air. So its either the nicotine tainted air or you can suffocate yourself thank you. The smokers are getting bolder after the first 30 minutes of skirting the rule. Since no one seems to be stopping them, they are smoking even in the passenger cabin now. Only thing left is to curse them. Can’t do much more than this. Next time I will pack an oxygen mask.

1823 hrs Wusong Port: Back at the mainland. Right on the dot, 2 hour trip. Too tired to tap out the rest of this blog on my E71. Time to log off, hope to spend more time here in the future and continue this quest.

Tree lined street on Hengsha

*end of post*

Chuzenji-no-taki: Chuzenji waterfall

You could say Tochigi is my playground. I just love the place. Take a long slow train over to Tobu-Nikko station and there are many options. Most tourists would spend the whole day at the temple complex, Toshogu, Rinnoji and of course, snap photos of the stable with 3 monkeys. But the hidden gem of Nikko is the many hiking opportunities like Chuzenji to the northwest and Kirifuri area to the northeast.I’ve been to Senjogahara and Kirifuri before, and the links are embedded in the two names in this sentence.

Senjogahara Plateau

Senjogahara is in the northwest just further up from Chuzenji. Chuzenji is, of course, synonymous with a waterfall, not just a normal waterfall, but one that drops hundreds of meters. The lake that feeds the waterfall, Chuzenji lake, is relatively large, and on a plateau in the highlands. On a summer day, there are anglers spaced evenly along its banks. I don’t have proof, but it does look like you need to have permit to fish there and you are probably assigned slots. They do look spaced out a little too evenly to be random!

Fly Fisherman on Yukawa River

... And more fly fishing...

According to all the information I have, after all, I ‘ve been here twice already, Chuzenji lake used to be a lot larger than what we have today. At one end, where the Yukawa river joins the lake, the dried lake bed makes up Senjogahara plateau. It is basically marshland today, with a habitat of its own and generally wet ground. The good thing about the place is that the air is fresh, and there is a long plank walkway for hikers.

Tobu-Nikko Station

From Yutaki waterfall, walk towards Akanuma

Going up towards Yumoto Hot Springs, you will enter a forest area before reaching Yutaki waterfall. Along the way, especially in the forested area, there will normally be fly fishermen (permits required again) along the Yukawa river. This is normally a nice area for plants and insect macros. People walk around with bells attached to their bag, and I was told that this was for scaring away bears. I have never seen one in the two times I have been here.

Station at Akanuma. Exit here and get your 150Y bottle of tea at the machine!

All in all, this is a nice place to spend the day out of Tokyo. Take the train from Asakusa early in the morning, the slow train takes about three hours to get there, and best thing to do is to take the second train out (first is an express that cost more) at 6:30 in the morning and sleep there. When arriving at Tobu-Nikko station, jump on a bus that goes to Yumoto Springs and get off almost an hour later at Yudaki-iriguchi station and walk down towards Akanuma. Walking slow to enjoy the sights and nature, it should take 4-5 hours to get there. Then take the bus back towards Chuzenji and stop at the midway station to enjoy sights of the waterfall. Then back to Tobu-Nikko station and back to Tokyo and you’ll be really tired, and end the day with a nice bowl of soba!

Enjoy the photos. I’m sure I will be back to Senjogahara again in the future. I have heard that the marshes are starting to dry up. Next trip will hopefully be during winter.

Izumiyado Pond

Marshland...

... more marshland...

.... and more, but this time a little more trees...

... and ending with plenty of trees. This is close to Yudaki waterfall.

And here's a little close up shot with the amazing Leica Summilux 50mm ASPH lens...

...

Tourists at Chuzenji Waterfall viewing station

And on the way back to Tokyo... at Tobu Nikko Station

Gears: All pictures in this post shot with a Leica M6 Classic with Leica’s excellent Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH and with Kodak’s new Ektar 100 film. Scans are a little cool, and I blame my lack of calibration with vuescan before really scanning it.

*end of post*