2007 Chinese New Year Trip! Peasant, Ecology, Farts, Paintings, KFC...

    For the Chinese New Year holidays, D, B and W where thinking about a place to go, not to crowded and not to expensive.
As you know, for the Spring festival every single tickets are booked or very expensive and we didn't have that money to spend!

Baoshan Revolutionary Martyr Cimetary

So we decided to go somewhere close and cheap and with nobody! We wanted to escape the noise of the city! Coz when you hear 24 hours a day fire crackers and fire works, it's very tiring and it left you sleepless! We didn't want to bear it for one week!

So D suggested to go to Chongming Island coz it's close to Shanghai, it's green and it's almost a no man's land!
So a Tuesday, early in the morning we left for Chongming! Our trajectory was really simple.

B and W took the cab to meet D at the metro Shanghai Rail Way Station. Then they took the elevated metro to BaoYang lu where the port is, but what they didn't know is that the ferry station is a bit fare from the metro, so they walked for half and hour and then decided to take a cab to the port! While walking they saw some interesting signs...
finally they reached the ticket office to buy the ferry ticket, but the boat was late for 30 minutes! They were with hundreds of Chinese people, and it was very noisy...it wasn't what they expected at all...especially one kid close to them couldn't stop shouting, and playing the fool and running every where and being insolent with his aunt...B, D and W really wanted to shout at him and to slap him... he was really annoying!
Then the boat was dirty and smelly... people eating, speaking loud... Chinese way you gonna tell me... after 45 minutes of boat we arrived at Chongming island, at ChongMing Xian, ChengQiao Zheng (city).
It was already 2 o'clock! what a trip for few kilometers! But it was not finished at all, the place we needed to reach was in the north of the island, it means 20 km from us. we decided to eat before going to the small Supposed ecological village, but we cannot find a single restaurant in this town, the only thing to eat was street food like lamb sticks and all kind of sticks boiled in old oil...or KFC, we found 2 KFC but no restaurant opened!!!
we were desperate!
At last we took a cab to go to the village, maybe we would have more chance in finding some good food!
After crossing the island from the south to the north, we arrived at the peasant ecological village... it was supposed to be very nice and clean but i saw nothing like that surprisingly!
Only some tricycle trying to convince you to have a tour of the village with them...

We refused and just walked around to see if there is any restaurant...finally we noticed a house with a yard and a table in there. It was a peasant house be they were a restaurant as well, so we entered and sat at the table outside, the sun was shinning and it was really nice.
We ordered some local specialities like golden cucumber, salted vedgs, and peasant raised chicken.
We ordered 5 dishes and we ate it in 5 minutes! hahaha! so hungry!

Following our late lunch, we decided to visit this ecological peasant village...and we walked and walked around trying to figure out what could be interesting and ecological here, but we cannot find!!!
Nothing around except houses in constructions... and nobody was there... not even a cat...the village is not even finished! the only ecological thing we noticed was some solar panel in the newly built houses...
The landscape was just very cold like the weather and very Grey and sad... close to a bridge we saw like everywhere in China lots of dirty used plastic bags and fat papers... Were we really at an ecological village??
After this interlude, we decided to walk back and to smoke a little something... we need it after all these emotions! HA!

At the entrance of the village they said there is a fishermen ancient village, but as usual it was all very fake and silly... nothing really special...and you have to PAY to see nothing!
It was funny though to see Chinese people very interested by all the stupid games they installed there...
In this village there is also a Zoo and a temple, but we need to pay again and again!! So we decided not to go and see some fake animals! and temples!

We left for the DongPing forest. At the arrival we were told that it was already closed! Yes at 5pm it is actually very late for peasant!
So the only thing to do in this almost desert was to find an hotel and it was not ans easy task... it was quite a challenge! We walked a long way and finally found and hotel but it was very expensive, one room was about 500RMB...So we changed and waled again for a long way...and this hotel was hidden in the woods...quite beautiful; It was an hotel composed of many small houses built in the 70's architectural way, it was all white with geometric forms, circle, squares and triangle, etc... very pure and simple lines.
We had no other choice coz it was already the night and no other places to stay.
So we said yes for 480RMB for a room for 3, but only one bed and it's still very expensive for us...So we had to sleep together...in order to save money! Share the bed!

The only problem was that D was farting all the time, and he farted all night!
When we went to bed after a good diner in the hotel's restaurant (we had hairy crabs from the polluted river ahaha but still tasty!), we smoked and got very high, and when we shouted up the light, we started to see some small point in the ceiling, at the beginning it was a small red light, but then it was changing place and color, it was afterwards green!
Then we stared to fight in the bed, coz D's fart was so smelly that B and W wanted to kick him out of the bed! But we were so tired that we felt asleep after 15 minutes...

The second day we visited the forest but it was very boring... nothing more that the park of the hotel we stayed and the entrance ticket was 40RMB!!!
So we walked around and eat a BBQ for lunch, a fake BBQ that the park was selling, it was very expensive and not very good, not worth it at all!
Then after 3 hours spend in the park lunch included, we walked away...anyway we had to go back to the ferry station and the last boat was at 6pm.
when we arrived we got problems to have tickets, everything was supposed to be sold out, and there's a queue of hundreds of people!
Ho no! we did not wanted to stay in this Island!!
But by chance we found that a new ticket office window just open and we ran to fight for our tickets!
Yeah!! We were so lucky!!!
Back to civilization again!!!!
This night we went to our favorite lounge in the EX-French concession to join L, and had a drink and told her our boring and farting story!
She would like to go the village with peasant that are painting!
So the day after we were on the road again, we took, the metro to XinZhuang then we took the bus for the middle of nowhere...
I'm gonna explain you why! D was supposed to prepare the trip and take note of how to get there!! But in fact he did not do his homework...so we were lost...
We asked where was the fishermen painting village, but nobody knew...
So, we took a bus that was going to FengJing, and it was really a great bus!! So clean! So non peasant! In fact I am jocking, it was dirty like hell!! and we even found a GUN! Yes a gun hidden in the back of the bus, where actually we were sat! But it was just a fake one...

Gun in the Bus....

After 2 hours ride, we finally arrived at FengJing, which is a water town you often see around Shanghai...same everywhere...pretty but boring...

So we asked for the painting village again...it was 5km from where we were. So after waiting unsuccessfully for a taxi, we took 2 cyclos (sanlunche in Chinese ) to take us there!!

At almost 3pm, we arrived, finally, at destination!!!!

But, as usual we had to pay to get into the village...30kuai!
And what a surprise...nobodies in there, nothing... except some house with paintings on.
So we walked into the houses, almost all the same, with a guy inside painting and with some painting to sell, quite all the same too...
They are not creating paintings, they are just copying some paintings and filling it with some colors...
What a deception! No real peasant painters...no real creative paintings...nothing...and we still did not have lunch...
So the only thing we wanted now was to eat...so we found the only place serving food and got there and eat and then we took a bus back to town....the food was not bad!!
Really nothing interesting in there...
You can think we have boring holidays, but we still had fun, in discovering day after day all the fake things...actually we didn't expected more!

Just change air, change from the city...

no stress.....no stressssssssssss, no nothing! Hahaha!

This is real holiday!