Slow Boat to China

I’m trying to minimise the amount of flying I do, partly for environmental reasons, but also because I feel it makes you appreciate the scale of the world if you travel on it rather than 10km above it! So to get from Japan to China I took a 27 hour ferry from Nagasaki to Shanghai, and I loved it!

Firstly, I should say that I was very lucky- due to the current Japan-China tensions I was on the last sailing of this ferry till the end of the year. It turns out so many Chinese travellers have cancelled holidays to Japan that it’s not viable for them to run the service! I hope they do re-instate it, as I think it’s a great way to travel between the countries, especially if you’re not pressured time-wise. It’s also the shortest ferry between the countries- the ones from Osaka take 47 hours- 20 hours longer.  Here‘s the website for the one I went on if you want to take a look- there are photos of the interior etc.

As you can see from the photo, the ship was quite big. It has a ramp at the back, but that’s not used. This meant I couldn’t just wheel the bike on- I had to check it in as though I was flying. Luckily plastic carry-all bags are easy to find anywhere! I had to pay another 5000 Yen (NZD 80) to take the bike, which was a bit ridiculous considering the person in front of me checked in about 60kg of stuff and didn’t have to pay!

Here’s the bow of the ship while we’re still tied up.

I had booked a “Comfort Seat”, pretty much a Lay-Z-Boy for the crossing, because it was the cheapest. When I checked in though I noticed I had been allocated a room. Turned out I’d had a complimentary upgrade to a 3-person room, which I had all to myself! It had a shower and toilet, as well as a desk with power-point! The room was 4 times the price of my seat so I was pretty stoked!

We left Nagasaki at about 6pm, so just around sunset. It was really nice sailing out of Nagasaki Harbour, and we passed some interesting sights. Mitsubishi seem to still be building a lot of ships in the area (they were one of the reasons Nagasaki was a target for the A-Bomb), and the sunset was really nice amongst the islands. There are lots more photos on SmugMug if you click through on one of the photos.

I had a good sleep, and got up earlier than I probably needed too- it’s a rare thing for me to not be sleeping in a hot, noisy, smelly dorm room at the moment! There was a fair bit of time to kill- we weren’t due into Shanghai till 8pm that night.
It turns out the East China Sea is quite shallow, and looking at the chart there weren’t any depths listed over 120m. (Although they’ll be shoal depths so potentially it could be quite a bit deeper in places). But when you consider that Cook Strait is generally >200m deep it puts it in perspective!
About 50km offshore we passed through a massive collection of ships at anchor, presumably waiting to head up the river. It’s not far beyond this point that the ship enters a navigation channel for the entrance to the Yangtze River.
There must have been hundred of ships- you could see them stretching into the haze!
http://dc-onabike.smugmug.com/Asia/Japan/Ferry-Nagasaki-to-Shanghai/i-55pmmmM/0/Th/20121007-MG0213-Th.jpg

As we got closer in the traffic only increased. It was truely amazing to see the shipping tonnage that goes through that river mouth! It just blew me away. This place really is the production house of our consumer society..

Shanghai sits on a tributary to the mighty Yangtze River- the Huangpu River. In an impressive feat of navigation we managed to cross the stream of ships heading further up the Yangtze (it’s navigable by ocean-going vessels for another 1000 miles) and headed up the meandering river.

Darkness comes quickly here (Shanghai is at a similar latitude to Perth or Port Macquarie in Australia or Alexandria in Egypt). So as we headed up the Huangpu the sun quickly set.

It was pretty amazing entering Shanghai on a ship. The International Cruise Terminal that it arrives at is right near The Bund- pretty much the centre of Shanghai- right across the river from the Oriental Pearl Tower.

There were some rather well-lit boats cruising around! (And also some very dark freighters that you might be able to make out in the other photos.)

Once we tied up it took bloody ages to be allowed off the ship. Whilst we were waiting I saw one of the port-workers ride my bike to the baggage claim area- I learnt my lesson- next time I’ll be removing the pedals! :-)

Customs was really quick and straightforward, and I was through in no-time! From there it was a 500m cycle to my hostel (which I’d deliberately picked because it was close). It was a somewhat exciting ride getting used to being back on the right-hand side whilst riding at night (not something I do a lot of), and getting used to the traffic arrangements in China! But I made it unscathed and was checked in before I knew it! Indie was even able to stay inside!

So I’m in Shanghai now, a post about that will be coming soon! :-D