macau

Prior to leaving Ireland, Mother was advised by all and sundry to go to Macau. I think it's a nice place but nothing special. A smaller, grimier, less glamourous version of HK. One visit was enough for me and I had already made four visits in recent years. I figure the Catholic connection was the driving force behind her desire to go there. Many Churches. I had been there during Chinese New Year, three weeks earlier. Had my fortune told by sticks (!), ignited enormous firecrackers to signfy the new year but the best part for me was buying cigerettes at 10 euros for 200. Good, quality ones too. Mothe and I attempted to go there before going to China but I had mixed up the ferry terminals in HK and lost interest. So, it had to be done the day before Mother headed back to Ireland.

It's a short hop by fast ferry from HK. Just over a hour . There aren't a great many things to see there. It's a very small place too but I scheduled out a few things along with some churches, of course. A graveyard too! It was a fair bit of walking though and Mother was tiring from the many long walks of late. The Portugeise influence shows, especially with the Churches but if one were to be unkind, the mentality too. Mañana. Opps, that's Spanish.

At one of the many beautiful church, a priest was taking confession. Mother went over and got a blessing from him. He instantly knew she was Irish ( he being Chinese). Maybe it was the bottle of whiskey under her arm. Just kidding. He made a unusual request, I thought, that she should pray for more converts in Macau. She tried to persuade me to get a blessing too but I was wearing my 'Mao Zedong Happy Communist' tee shirt and I felt the priest would be very disapproving. Had enough of all that at school.

It was a pleasant enough day trip and Mother was particularly happy to have another stamp in her passport.

beijing

Flew from Shanghai to cold Beijing. The hotel was nicely located by the Forbidden City but the sandwiches came in at 14 euro's. Nice. I was surprised it was still so cold in Beijing but not so surprised by the dreadful pollution. Everyday a mist hangs low over the city. Wonder how that'll be sorted in time for the Olympics. The chronic traffic problem will be easier to fix; just issue a state order that driving is banned. I bet they'll do it too because they can!

Aside from the cold, Beijing is a huge building and restoration site. From what I have been told, the human energy of the city is being expended on meeting the Olympic deadline. Face is everything here. The construction isn't that much of a probelm for us but some the significant historical sites are being restored. The presense of bamboo scaffolds around many buildings is a little limiting. The Forbidden City being the hardest to take. I felt sorry that my Mother couldn't see it in its entirety. I have seen it before. At least the Great Wall was in good shape. We went to a different place from last time I was there. More clean, neat and accessible to the tourist. Mother did well climbing the 45% degree gradiant. Come to think of it, I did too. It was hard work.

We had the pleasure of being on our tour with this horrible, bigoted, bald American, who sported a rather fetching ponytail. He was accompained by this extremely pretty Chinese girl. I thought she might be a prostitute but later, at dinner, we discovered that they had just married. A tradegy given the 30 year plus age gap, the enormous girt differential, the fact that the man was clearly a pig! He lives in Florida. I gathered that he received a huge insurance claim as the roof of his house was blown off in a hurricane. Clearly, it was time to buy a younger wife. I wonder what his two kids think. But this Chinese girl was blissfully happy, no doubt about the prospect of going to a country where everything is wonderful, money lies around on the streets and all things attainable. But I forsee problems.

The man was a pig. He ate like one, he had no manners, he voted for George W Bush (one of the genuine ones in Florida then!) and he admitted it proudly. He was annoyed that it would be difficult to get his new found love into the US as homeland security made things difficult. But he thinks it's important to keep the dark people out and of course, the A-rabs! He believes the war in Iraqi was needed as the Iraqi's were on the verge of destroying America. I left the table when he started harping on that America would have looked like Europe at the end of WWII.

As part of this tour, we were taken to a Jade factory and a Chinese heribal doctor. We studiously aoided buying any of the over-priced wares. The Doctor had diagnosed an expensive array of herbs for my Mother. She declined. When my examination came, he advised me to exercise more and watch my diet. What about my partial hearing ! What about smoking! What about drinking! Still, I thought it a fair judgement as it means I can continue to as before...with one workable ear.

shanghai

During the course of my travels, I invited my Mother to Hong Kong. She likes to travel so I figured it would be a good place for her to come for the obvious tourist reasons but also it would be easy given the assistance of my friends in HK. But she wasn't aware that I had planned an excursion in China. This was to be a surprise. I couldn't hold off the surprise for long as she kept asking questions about the Great Wall (how far away it is, etc, etc) that I relented and told her of the plan to visit Shanghai and Beijng. She was chuffed as she dearly wanted to go to bBeijing. We did the usual stuff in HK for a few days before making our way by flight to Shanghai.

I have been there before. I was dazzled by the enormity of the city then and remain so. The city just seems to be bulging with skyscrapers, people and a feverish capitalism. Take a walk down the main commercial road and every high-brand designer has set up shop. Dozens of them. It's hard to imagine that these luxury stores are making money. But I bet they are. China is now the fourth largest economy in the world (if the statistics are to be believed) having overtaken France and the UK in 2005. A lot of this GDP passes through Shanghai, as one of its main ports, so some people are making fabulous sums of money. It must be said that out of a national population of 1.3 billion, the vast majority certainly aren't.

But Shanghai is one of the most prosperous areas. With a population of 14 million, it is noisy, conjested and packed. It has a few places of historical interest. The Bund, its riverside area, and Frenchtown allow one to see the remnants of its decadent colonial past. A lot of those splendid buildings were the product of cash earned from improvishing the Chinese. Mainly with the burden of chronic opium addiction. The Yuyuan Gardens are more the kind of thing I like to see. A traditional Chinese intepretation of a beautiful landscape.

That said Shanghai is a modern city that very much tries to ape and surpass Hong Kong. The central government is certainly intent on making Shanghai the new financial city of China. Something they will have created, not the foreigners. (Despite Shanghai being mainly a colonial creation anyway) So the bigger, the flashier, the more impressive, the more gigantic, the better. Sometimes good taste is lost in the headrush. Let's not mention pollution. We viewed Shanghai from the hightest buildings, got on the underground Bund metro (a weird flashing psychedelic experience, I wonder what the designer was on) and generally experienced the hustle and bustle of this amazing city.

The nightlife is good too, although pricey. I left my Mother to watch English language news channels and went off into the night. I will say no more than I returned to the hotel at 6am. A great night.