This farming island is not too far away from Shanghai. A fast ferry from Wusong Port in Baoshan will get you there in 1 hour and a bit. A full circumnavigation of the whole island will take more than a day along the coast, but highlights of it can be done in a day. I’ve about had it with long blog posts, so this time for once, only pictures, no words. Enjoy…

Please do not reproduce these pictures without permission. Thanks.

*end*

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*