An eventful day in Shanghai, visiting the Oriental Pearl Tower

 Last Wednesday was my first morning in Shanghai, and I decided to visit the Oriental Pearl Tower.  The Tower is to Shanghai what Big Ben is to London, the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and the Statue of Liberty is to New York.  It was my first visit to Shanghai in almost twenty years and my third visit in total but it would turn out to be my most memorable for the wrong reasons.

When I arrived just after its opening time, it was busy but not crowded, I opted for the 299RMB ticket which covered everything.  There was a cheaper 199RMB ticket which did not cover the top most floors.  The first lift took me half way up and here I was treated to a circular panoramic viewing platform.  There was handy Chinese and English description of each building that you looked at in front of you.  It was nice view of the Bund and the rather opaque looking HuangPu river.  I have been to the Bund before so I skipped going there this time.  It’s a credit to the government to keep the heritage buildings intact on the Bund.

As I sat down and put my mobile phone down on a wonky table, disaster struck, it fell on the floor!  Normally this would have been no big deal, except the screen went black but I can still hear notifications and even ringing from it. Try as I did, the screen remained dark and I was not able to reboot it. Oh damn!

I decided it was time to cut short my visit and get it repaired.  This was easier said than done, instead of taking the lift directly back down, I had to finish the tour by going to the top floor, which had a space exhibition, then I progressively went down the levels. The next one had the scary looking glass walkway where you can directly look down on the pavement below.  Then it was to virtual reality display and then finally a historic exhibition of the area. Eventually I made it outside.

Now to find a mobile repair shop, I took a metro for about five stops, got off in a residential area and went inside the local shopping arcade. A repair shop did appear but unfortunately it was closed.  The manageress of the little retail unit next door kindly called the repair shop owner for me but the feedback was that he was not able to help anyway.

Feeling stuck, I realized the only solution was to buy a new mobile phone, so it was back into the metro and headed back towards central Shanghai.  The shopping mall where I got off luckily had a Xiaomi shop and I bought myself a replacement mobile. Even better the assistant helped me set up Wechat and installed Google Play.  Wechat needed one of my contacts to verify me when I logged onto it on the new phone, however I did not remember the wife’s number.  Thankfully it allowed me to verify by password, which I remembered.  My ordeal was finally over! 

In the last ten or so years, China advanced well ahead of everyone else in using mobile technology to the fullest. One example is Wechat, which started off as an instant messaging app, but morphed into a Swiss Army knife App which can use for payment in shops, taxis and public transport.  Most retail vendors and taxis only accept mobile payment, cash is hardly used. And then there’s the issue of online maps.  Only the metro systems uses tap and go with credit and debit cards.  So without a working smartphone in China, life becomes near impossible.

Me outside the Oriental Pearl Tower

The view from inside

Leeds United vs Manchester United

 Hello all, I have been in mainland all last week so I did not have a chance to blog anything despite having a few adventures. I took the overnight high speed train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and I listened to the BBC radio five live commentary of Leeds Utd versus Manchester Utd. It was an exciting game but unfortunately the Reds failed to hold on to a lead. I did wonder why so many have called for Michael Carrick’s head on social media, so early in the season.  Give the man a chance, a high turnover in management is not good for any organisation. 

The Sceptred Isle: twentieth century by Christopher Lee

 This is the current book on my reading list, it may take me a while to review it.

In search of the dark ages by Michael Wood

 Yesterday I finished reading “In search of the dark ages” by Michael Wood, one of his earlier books, published in 1981 but how was it, let’s find out more.

First of all, like all non historians, I knew very little about the dark ages, especially dark age Britain. One of the reasons is that very little of it is mentioned in the media and taught in schools. So I bought this book last year to learn a bit more.

Like his other books, this is a very readable book and it teaches us the events and personalities of that time period between the end of Roman Britain and the Norman conquest. I learnt about the Saxon, Danish and Viking settlement in England and their local leaders. It also explained how England was divided up between the different ethnic groups.  I was particularly fascinated by his description of the lead up to battle of Hastings and how it was likely fought.  Strangely enough the book content coincides with the migrant problem happening in the UK at the moment, as new arrivals from Europe clashed with existing host communities. Maybe Wood had some foresight back then. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in this less well known part of British history.

 

Jeffrey Archer

 One of the first items I saw on my Instagram app this morning over breakfast was the news of Jeffrey Archer’s death yesterday.

He was a former Conservative MP, deputy chairman of the Conservative party and most remembered as a novellist.  I have read two of his works, ‘Kane and Abel’ and one of his prison diaries about his time in Belmarsh.  He was a very flawed character due to his perjury conviction and he was the subject of mockery on BBC “Have I got news for you” and in Private Eye magazine.  Rest in peace and condolences to his family.

Esther Rantzen

 I woke up and after finishing breakfast I saw this sad news appear on my Youtube feed.  Like most people of my generation I remember her from BBC “That’s life” it was investigative journalism, fearless campaigning and light entertainment rolled into one. It was a must watch on Sunday nights. Esther, thanks for the memories and rest in peace.