Ewen Bell's famous China Photography Tour - Part 3

Welcome to sassy, savvy Shanghai. It's glitzy, it's glamorous, it's modern, it's commercial... but underneath it all it's still very Chinese.


The last stop on Ewen's photographic tour of China. My last stop on the 6-month tour of Asia, before flying to Holland to start a new life. A lot of emotions running through me at this point; mostly the conflict between wanting to keep travelling and just wanting to go home. After a few crushing lows in Vietnam involving calls to Canada & New Zealand at all hours, I'd had another one in Yangshuo and had come to the realisation that 6 months of continuous travel is just too much for me. It gets very weary having to hunt for food, hunt for accommodation and constantly hustle to get the best (or even the most reasonable) price. Being on the tour and having everything arranged was a big relief, but I just couldn't shake the underlying wanting to go home-ness and wanting familiar things-ness. I still can't shake them - at best you can distract yourself with new and interesting things, but generally you have to learn to live with them.

So Shanghai was everything we expected and more! The lights were brighter, everything was larger than life, and the hotel was LUXURIOUS beyond belief. It even had a gym! Yes I went for a good long run and it felt good.

We visited the antiques market in the Old Shanghai part of town. Totally unfindable if you don't know where it is - truth be told we nearly didn't find it even with Ewen and Yi Ran giving the driver directions. Inside was a treasure trove of carved jade pieces, calligraphy, old coins and trinkets of all descriptions. All of it on the top floor was authentic stuff, sellers come in from all around on Saturdays for the ghost market because it's so well known amongst local antique dealers. Downstairs are the regular (local) tourist stands selling mass-produced strings of jade, jade stamps, posters of Mao etc. and on the ground floor you can get your jade professionally strung & finished. I bought a beautifully carved jade piece which I had strung on red cord, very Chinese!


After the ghost market we headed to the local market of old Shanghai to take photos of a rapidly disappearing community. It was an interesting atmosphere, a mish-mash of things I'd seen in other markets. Old ladies dressed in pyjama outfits doing the daily grocery shopping (freshly cut frog by the kilo), smartly dressed ladies taking their smartly dressed dogs for a stroll while picking up some laundry, old men walking their grandchildren and just enjoying life out on the street. We saw all sorts, and it was a very interesting contrast to the sky-high steel & glass skyscrapers of the Bund.

Proud grandpa with baby

That is one angry cat

Filet of frog?

This old man was proudly walking the street with a book about the disappearing old Shanghai, which has a picture of him in it

I'm not sure why he's carrying a mattress

We finished up the tour with cocktails on the observation deck of one of the tallest towers (I forget which one - a tall one), followed by one last fabulous dinner at Grandma's restaurant (or something like that) - Ewen's favourite restaurant! And I must say, the pork was fantastic. It was all fantastic! If my metabolism hadn't been in overdrive from constant travel and I hadn't lost 8kg in punishing tropical climates. I'm sure I would have packed it on in these 2 weeks. (As it were, I've packed them on here in Holland, as expected)

I had the last 2 days to myself to unwind & prepare for the move to Europe. I moved to a hostel downtown (a very nice and very professional hostel, I might add, with own cafe/restaurant and comfy lounge suites, probably the best hostel I've ever stayed in), strolled along the Bund, took the obligatory pictures of the Pearl and meandered up & down Nanjing Road. Close to the hostel was a huge shopping mall filled with western brands, so I indulged in a little (actually, a lot) of retail therapy and spent a whole day in the mall trying on jeans and jumpers in prep for Europe. I introduced myself to Zara, Esprit, Benetton, M.A.C., and a raft of other international brands, bought a pair of jeans and cute cartoon cat jumper, ate one last Big Mac Combo and on 27 September, said goodbye to Asia for good.

~ breathe out ~