The digital display in my carriage shows the train speed and it just keeps getting higher! It peaks at 430 km/hour. I try to take a photo of the display but it comes out blurry, partially because the carriage is shaking but mostly because I am shaking. I’m terrified!
I arrive at Shanghai Airport around 8am. My next flight onto Cairns departs from here at 9pm tonight. I have 12 hours to kill. Fortunately you can leave the airport without a visa if you are transferring flights so I decide to spend the time in the city centre. I can get there via the buses or metro but there is another option called Maglev. I imagine this to be an abbreviation for ‘magnetic levitation’. Why not give that a try?
The Maglev
It was an exhilarating experience. There are no seat belts and all I could think of as the thing reached 430km/hour how exposed I was if something went wrong. Even aero planes have seat belts. It doesn’t take you right into the city centre so I had to battle the metro to get the rest of the way. You can only buy tickets by machine and fortunately some locals help me.
Shanghai has some unique architecture in its centre. Probably the most recognizable building would be that tall tower with a ball-shaped centre. It’s Saturday and its so busy here. No signs of economic crisis here. There is plenty of high-end exclusive shopping here and Christmas is obviously big in this part of China at least. The displays are impressive. I do a bus tour of the city centre but there is no English commentary and the Guide apologizes. But that’s fine, I get the idea of things and I’m only killing time. I find a Cinema so why not catch a movie. There is an IMAX theatre and I find out the movie currently showing has English subtitles. I couldn’t work out what it was called so it was a mystery film experience for me. The result – it was called ‘Return to 1942’ and it was about the war between China and Japan just prior to WW2 and a drought and government bungling that caused 3 million people to starve to death in Hennen province. I came out of the film emotionally shattered. It was the saddest film I have ever seen. There was no happy Hollywood ending here. What the human spirit can endure!
I manage to retrace my steps to the airport without drama and my flight leaves on time. I arrive in Cairns at 8.30am. I’m so tired.
angusmccoll 