Shanghai in the rain

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Weeellll, Shanghai is reeaaal nice, and you can see the sky! For the most part at least, when it's not raining. We are putting our expensive waterproof jackets to the test. We are staying in a lovely hostel on the Bund (the colonial expanse of buildings along the river in the Puxi district, opposite the Pudong commercial district). It's called Captain's Hostel and 70RMB will get you a nautical inspired bunk in a clean dorm, a great location, free laundry and a brilliant bar on the top floor, with Happy Hour of course.

We set out to explore Shanghai in the rain and get drenched. This is made better by the discovery of a French bakery selling proper croissants! The architecture is lovely, mostly art Deco, 1920's European in the most famous parts of town, there's even a French Concession, although I don't think many French people lived there. We get told about 'Thames Town' a bizarre act of planning in which an entire part of the Thames river has been re-created, with English style houses, shops, pubs and cobbled streets. It's meant to be an entirely self sufficient community, except it's totally empty. All the houses have been bought but
to the buyers, the value of a house actually goes down once someone has lived in it! Madness. We attempted to get there, but it's distance from Shanghai without bus or train links ruined our plans. Shame, apparently there are even Harry Potter statues scattered about.

So instead we wanted round, watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean film (Rubbish! And he had Syphilis! In a Disney film! lol), went to a fake meat Vegetarian restaurant (Braised Sparrow anyone?) where I realised vegetables are much much better as vegetables whilst gagging on the mock crab meat. Went up the Pearl TV tower to see the view (well, the view just across the river thanks to the ever present haze). Sipped cocktails on the balcony of the bar at night and watched the lights. We even went to a museum, and it was very interesting, although having been forced into so many Jade factories, seeing the real old important jade had lost it's appeal. We even blagged our way into a show opening at a local gallery, entitled 'Ghosts of Shanghai' by a brilliant Canadian photographer, who's name I cannot remember! I can't find him on Google either so you'll never know, but it was all done in medium format and it was perfect.

It was raining when we left Shanghai, but that was alright too, as we had opted for the 30 pound 1 1/2 hour flight to our next stop, Xaimen, instead of the 25 hour, 35 pound train.

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Photos

Pottery
about 3,000 years old or something. I love it. There were a few of these guys, all standing on babies. They were labeled as Earth Guardians although that was the only explanation.

Weather
The red caps of the Chinese tourists had been replaced by umbrellas

Early Chinese money
wonder why this didn't catch on? Bet there were a lot of pockets with holes in them back then.

the 80's
Proof that china invented legwarmers and ra ra skirts 2,000 years ago

Taxi rank
Want to hail a taxi in shanghai? Just press the button and a sign on the top lights up and waves!

A not-quite-Ming vase
From the Qing Dynesty, which came directly after the Ming. Whose dissentants battle cry was 'Destroy the Qing, Restore the Ming!' Catchy.

A Ming Vase
Not as nice as the Qing