The clogged streets and smoggy skies of Asia's cities make it hard to imagine any great drives in the region. But every time Karen Yu travels, she and her husband make time to get behind the wheel.
In recent years, the couple has toured Phuket in Thailand, Melbourne and Perth in Australia and Kyushu and Nagoya in Japan -- all by car. 'It's all about the freedom,' says Ms. Yu, a Hong Kong attorney. 'You're on your own, and you can see what you like, wander off and explore side roads.'
Whether a four-day trip or an afternoon jaunt, whether you take the wheel yourself or hire a driver, your route is out there. From the clove-scented interior of Bali to Thailand's wine country to the mountains and fiords of New Zealand's South Island, Weekend Journal takes readers on the road.
Moganshan, China
The first foreign vacationers to visit the mountaintop resort area of Moganshan, at the turn of the last century, were carried up in sedan chairs. These days, travelers can drive up a steep, winding road past tea plantations and bamboo forests.
That scenic route is the last leg of a trip from Shanghai that can be done, for the most part, on an expressway. It is a relatively easy and relaxing three-hour drive, and the trip grows more interesting as you approach Moganshan and get away from the urban and industrial sprawl of the Yangtze River delta. But in this case it is the destination rather than the journey that is the highlight. (A detour on the return trip, though, turns out to be charming; details below).
Wealthy Westerners living in Shanghai in the early 1900s built sprawling stone villas, hotels, tennis courts, clubs and even a municipal pool in Moganshan. Rich Chinese, including nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, soon followed. In 1936, Shanghai's North China Daily News rhapsodized that the resort was blessed with 'the skies of Italy, the verdure of Japan, the grandeur of the Rockies.'
The natural beauty remains, but the man-made amenities have fallen on hard times. Many of the stone mansions were turned into getaways for Communist officials and sanitariums for work units after the party's 1949 victory, and gradually sank into a state of often not-so-genteel disrepair. Some of the old villas and hotels have been poorly restored and reopened as state-run guesthouses. Others house multiple local families. On the balcony of one whose gatepost reads 'Pine Nook,' tattered underwear is hanging out to dry -- a far cry from the days of the gin fizz.
For our one-night stay, we pick a relatively new place down the mountain from the old resort area. Known as Naked Retreats, though no nudity is involved, it's a series of converted farmhouses that can sleep individuals and couples as well as families and larger groups.
The accommodations are simple. Our lodge has six bedrooms and three shared toilets and shower stalls. But they are clean, comfortable and even stylish. Our bedroom had a groovy, Scandinavian-looking bentwood chaise lounge.
Staff members will cook your meals for a fee, or you can whip up your own. Breakfast is do-it-yourself, with eggs, bread and bacon in the fridge. The verandah in front of our building had large drums set up for use as barbecue grills.
Mountain trails around the retreat make for some great, if steep, walks. The morning after we arrive we set out, accompanied by one of the retreat's resident dogs, to walk up the mountain to the old resort area. In some spots, old stone stairways ease the way up the path, lined with bamboo and other vegetation that is often more than head high.
The greenery has completely overwhelmed the ruins of an old hotel on the mountainside. A vine-entangled stone archway and retaining wall is almost all that is left of a home that once belonged to one Laurenz Bergfriede, according to an inscription on the arch.
The exuberance of nature run riot is a welcome antidote to many of the views on the road from Shanghai, of nature subjugated to economic development. On the return trip, we try a newly opened expressway connecting Hangzhou to Nanjing on the other side of Shanghai. But the road isn't finished, and at Yao Zhuang, a farming village in Zhejiang, construction puts us on a detour that lasts to the touristy waterfront town of Zhu Jia Jiao. We end up on a road following the course of a broad tributary of the Huangpu River, the main waterway that cuts through Shanghai. It turns out to be the most scenic part of the drive.
Trip Planner
Most visitors to China will probably want to hire a car with a driver. China doesn't recognize international driving permits, and getting a short-term Chinese license requires taking classes on local traffic rules. The license allows the driver to operate only certain small cars with automatic transmissions. Foreigners living in China aren't eligible for the short-term license; to get a regular license they must pass a written exam and a physical.
Safety is another good reason to hire a professional driver. China leads the world in deaths per vehicle on the road, so you want someone behind the wheel who's skilled at local defensive-driving techniques.
The eight buildings that make up Naked Retreats range from small 'studios' that could accommodate a single couple to a lodge that can squeeze in 15 people
上世纪初，住在上海的富有西方人在莫干山一带建了大量别墅还有酒店、网球场、俱乐部，甚至还有一处游泳池。富有的中国人不久也开始效仿他们的做法，其中包括前国民党领导人蒋介石和他的夫人。1936年，在上海出版的英文《字林西报》(North China Daily News)形容莫干山有“意大利的天空、日本的青翠、落基山的雄伟”。
