Shanghai Shenanigans

---

Arriving in Shanghai,after a rather enjoyable overnight train, we quickly headed round to the hostel and dropped off our bags before heading off to the Bund. The former British concession in Shanghai, this is a rather delightful area of the city with lots of grand classical designed buildings with stone colonnades and domed roofs to boot. The most impressive of them all, in my opinion, is the old HSBC building, which also looked impressive inside with 8 murals depicting the bank's primary locations.

After a stroll down the Bund we headed off to the old town area around Yu Yuan in search of some dumplings for dinner. Along with the veggie dumplings, we also acquired some nice little sweet cake thing and a rather good salad. Alas, we also ordered some pigeon eggs, which were rather disgusting. Fortunately we could wash it all away with some good ice cream. The old town in Shanghai was much like all modern old towns in China, a complete tourist-vest, which lacked much real character. I did however get offered all manner of oddities including watches, shoes, sandals,handbags and some wheels to add to my shoes to roll around on.

The next day we got up and headed down for some steamed buns for breakfast, as the included option, before heading out and exploring the French concession filled with cafes and character. In a fitting tribute to a wander around Europe it rained pretty much all day! By the time we stopped in the chocolate cafe for some amazing chocolate cakes, my feet were drenched. By the time we stopped for a drink I was drenched through to my undercrackers. That said we did have a glimmer of light in our rainy day when we stumbled across a Coldstone Creamery. Granted the options weren't as great as in America, but it was still good ice cream.

The next day the heavens continued to open and, as my shoes were still drying out from the day before we decided to do the only productive thing that we could, namely sort out where we were going to go and where we were going to stay. This unfortunately meant that we decided not to go to the Three Gorges. Mainly because it was almost impossible to guarantee that you would actually be able to book anything good without throwing a fortune at it and also because it was forecast to rain for the entire period that we would have been there.

However, despite the weather we did head out and brave the elements as it was our First Anniversary. One year of wedded bliss could only be celebrated half way round the world by drinks in what was formerly the worlds highest bar. Sitting on the 87th floor of the Hyatt Hotel, Cloud 9 Bar boasted some spectacular views over the Bund and the financial district of Shanghai. I was a little dubious when we first arrived, as we were sooooo high up that we were actually sitting amongst some of the low lying clouds. However, they soon cleared up and gave a fantastic view over the Bund. I know, from reading many guide books that the best city landscape in China is meant to be Hong Kong, but having seen both in quick succession I would have to say that my vote would go to Shanghai. With a mix of modern skyscrapers, of all different shapes, and the old buildings on the Bund it has a much greater variety in the cityscape to that of Hong Kong.

The next day we finally hit a wall. Having been on the road for four and half months it had to happen at some time. We had always seen other backpackers who just lazed around the hostel during the day and wondered what they were doing with so much of the world to see. Well, we finally understood what they were doing. Sometimes, no matter what you look at in the guidebook, or how enthusiastic the author is about an area of a city or a park or temple, you just can't seem to find the energy to care. As a result we spent the day mooching around in the hostel doing remarkably little.

Eventually however, we decided we had to at least make it out of the hostel, why I don't know, and so we headed out and bought some train tickets to our next destination, Xi'an. Fortunately there were train tickets available for the next day, thus forcing us out of our stupor as we only had one day left in Shanghai and more, importantly, we had to do something otherwise we would miss the train.

It was with this firmly in mind that we started our final day in Shanghai. With little more to do, and for something of a change, we headed over to the People's Park. Whilst this wasn't much of a change, or actually that impressive, we then headed in to the Shanghai Museum. This must be the first time we have set foot in a museum in almost two months! It was actually a really good museum with some good exhibits showing off some of the ancient style of Chinese art and the intricate details that could be achieved in some of the old silver ware. Probably the most impressive, and informative, was the section on the Chinese minorities and their dresswear.

After a good look around the museum all that remained was for us to grab our bags from back at the hostel and head over to the train station and off to our next destination, Xi'an.

---

Photos

Location of Anniversary Drinks
Top of the Tower on the Right