Greenland memories: Many ways to travel - updated

After the Greenland trip I could tick off a few more forms of transport to add to those from the journey down under to Australia returning via China.

Planes

Lots of time spent in jet planes (plus one propeller plane) to get me all the way to Australia. Added to that were four planes and a helicopter (below) for the Greenland trip:

Road transport

A couple of taxis, but also a hire car (below), a friend's car and a couple of buses in Australia. Alas I never got to go on the trams of Melbourne which was a shame.

Trains

A couple of good train journeys including the uber fast MagLev in Shanghai capable of 501 kmph. It's highest operational speed is 430 kmph but in the evening when I took it it slows to "just" 301 kmph:

The journey between Shanghai and Beijing was by by the high speed train that covers 1,318 km in 4 hours and 48 minutes, again topping out at 301 kmph:

To be honest the view wasn't that spectacular. It was spookily similar to going across France on the TGV with for most of the way an endless plain of fields in either direction.

In Beijing the traffic was absolutely awful so I tried out the subway and jolly good it was too. Signs and ticket machines were in Chinese and English and trains were frequent and no more packed than London.

Finally there were some trains on the trip down the gold mine in Ballarat.

Boats

There weren't many on the Oz / China trip. Not sure if can claim the Polly Woodside given it was firmly moored in Melbourne, so that just leaves the paddle steamers and the tourist boat in Shanghai

However in Greenland there was a Clipper 60 yacht (below), its Zodiac and a sea kayak.

Foot

A lot of that, and it probably was just as well I lugged my hiking boots around the world. Glacier in Greenland and the Great Wall of China - well done hiking boots!

Missing

Still no sign of that trip on a space ship, alas.

Many ways to travel

One final post on the last trip before the next one begins.

There were times on my travel when I did wonder why I made my life so complicated. It would have been simpler just to combine planes with taxis, but that would have meant I missed out on so much.

Planes

Pretty simple - jets and one propeller plane

Road transport

Yup a couple of taxis, but also a hire car (below), a friend's car and a couple of buses in Australia. Alas I never got to go on the trams of Melbourne which was a shame. One of the fun things to do there is to get the tram down to the seaside suburb of St. Kilda but alas too much work.

Trains

A couple of good train journeys including the uber fast MagLev in Shanghai capable of 501 kmph. It's highest operational speed is 430 kmph but in the evening when I took it it slows to "just" 301 kmph:

The journey between Shanghai and Beijing was by by the high speed train that covers 1,318 km in 4 hours and 48 minutes, again topping out at 301 kmph:

To be honest the view wasn't that spectacular. It was spookily similar to going across France on the TGV with for most of the way an endless plain of fields in either direction.

In Beijing the traffic was absolutely awful so I tried out the subway and jolly good it was too. Signs and ticket machines were in Chinese and English and trains were frequent and no more packed than London.

Finally there were some trains on the trip down the gold mine in Ballarat.

Boats

Not as many boats as would have liked. Not sure if can claim the Polly Woodside given it was firmly moored in Melbourne, so that just leaves the paddle steamers and the tourist boat in Shanghai

Foot

A lot of that, and it probably was just as well I lugged my hiking boots around the world

Missing

There were a couple of modes of transport not ticked off, but hopefully the next trip will do some of them. Except hot air balloon and space ship, alas.

The Great Wall of China

Along with the Forbidden City the other "must do" in Beijing is the Great Wall of China, which is a few miles north of the city.

Even more than the Forbidden City it was overwhelming in its scale. You can see its line dotted with forts string its way up and down hills as far as the eye can see, and yet you can only see a fraction of it at any one time.

Apparently you can't actually see it from space as its not wide enough, but boy is it long. According to Wikipedia, with all its branches and counting those bits that have weathered away, there could have been as much as 21,196 km of it.

The most touristy section which is familiar from all those photo-ops with foreign dignitaries is Badaling which is meant to be pretty commercial and not very authentic.

I did a hiking tour from Simatai to Jinshanling which was about 7 km with lots of up and down so it was a good thing I had three bottles of water with me.

It was a good hike though not as uplifting as I'd expected. There was something relentless about how it just keeps on going, how you can never "do" the Great Wall.

You will be defeated, eventually, simply by the scale of the Great Wall.

The Forbidden City Beijing

There are two things you really should do when you go to Beijing and one is visit the Forbidden City.

So despite 12 hour days and relentless flow of emails I took some time off to go round this extraordinary World Heritage Site, mostly 600 years old.

It is absolutely vast so in the end spent over 4 hours touring its apparently endless passages and halls:

I took the audio tour which is well worth it as it gives gems about the background.

Each building had a name - something like "Eternal Halls of Peace and Tranquillity"  - but the stories associated with them were usually very different to their names, almost always involving concubines scheming or dying of a broken heart.

It was the start of the school holidays and it felt like a million families were there too, but if you went furthest from the main route through the backbone of the site you could get a bit of quiet. My favourite moment was near the three level theatre:

Here I had a good sit and long drink of water, for it was another hot and humid day, and to consult the guide book.

I was finding I was doing this quite a lot as there is so much history about China that I for one don't know and it was hard to keep track of all the emperors and invasions.

Finally my zigzag route based upon the Lonely Planet and audio tour guides ended and I could proceed north to the exit and a well earned slice of water melon.

Then it was back to the hotel for work related chores, so I didn't go to Jingshan Park on the hill in the photo above.

There was indeed much I didn't manage to see - maybe next time!

Navigational shape quiz

What does it mean when a power driven vessel underway raises the ball above or lowers it?

Updated

I think the Bursledon Blogger was closest, in that I think this was a navigational signal used on the Huangpu River.

I was on a boat that gave a tour of the river, first heading upstream, then down, before returning to the start point. That meant it had to do two u-turns, and as can be seen by the pictures above and below the river is quite busy with a constant stream of boats in both directions. So it was useful to be able to inform the other shipping of its intentions.

It raised the ball sufficiently prior to the turn that other traffic could be aware of its intentions and then dropped it as it was turning.

However I guess Tillerman had a good point too - if you don't understand what a boat is indicating keep a good eye on it!

The Bund in Shanghai

I think it was after seeing the film Skyfall that I decided it would be cool to see The Bund in Shanghai.

The view was spectacular (above) but it was a steamy 33C rather than cool and this view is actually of the buildings on the opposite side of the Huangpu River, namely Pudong.

It looks pretty good in the day time too, as you can see more buildings including one that looks a bit like that Eye of Sauron building in Mordor:

The Bund itself is a collection of colonial era buildings, part of the international settlement, that runs along the river. This is the view approaching it from a boat:

In the evening it was absolutely packed with what looked like locals, strolling down for a photo or heading back to the shops.

Behind the Great Wall of China

I had these posts from Australia planned in my head.

There were roads worthy of Top Gear and some rather nice paddle steamers, but there was a problem: I was in China.

And in China there are various sites that mysteriously (or maybe not so mysteriously) fail to load.

I never got into Facebook, nor Blogger, but also many actual blogs were inaccessible. So no updates from the worlds of Tillerman and Bonnie.

China is making an effort to welcome foreigners, with many signs in English, but this wasn't one of them. For anyone from the PRC reading this: social sites are how we connect to friends and family and to be cut off from them is not welcoming.

And it can be counter productive. For example I read in one of the local papers about a recently produced video called "This is Shanghai" - but you can't actually see it in China, which is a shame.

Anyway, back in blighty now so normal service will be restored.