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Published: February 22nd 2010
Arrived at Pudong international airport and greeted by our pre-arranged chauffer driven limousine, which in China is a mini van. Our English speaking guide barely spoke English, it was a challenge getting to our accommodation at 8.30pm. Finally arrived at the Bund Riverside Hotel at 10.30pm. Dragged ourselves and four large bags, to our room and then collapsed for the night.
Next morning, we went to breakfast. Not the usual breakfast you get at home, there was dumplings, rice, vegies, savouries and all the food you would expect for dinner, however we did discover some bacon. That was about the only thing we could recognise as a normal breakfast item. Breakfast cost us about 50 yuan which is around AUD$8.00 each. This is expensive because we ate at the hotel.
Later in the morning we went to Nanjing Road which is a big mall full of shops selling every designer label of everything you can think of, down to low quality. What awesome fun being a westerner with no Chinese language skills. As soon as you walk in somewhere you are a target. After the initial shock we had great fun. We shopped and ate, and ate and shopped
into late in the evening because the shops don't open until 10am and don't close until 10pm, 7 days a week.
Next day went to the Bund and looked at all the markets. They are amazing. We took the underground, under river tunnel shuttle which was amazing with the light show, we also made the decision with our Chinese friend Liuyan who flew from Beijing to Shanghai to meet us to go and look at the Antartic display which was amazing. This is also where Linda became one of the attractions. Whilst looking at the displays I was grabbed on the arm by a very excited Chinese lady who wanted a photo taken with the blonde haired western lady. Once that was done she wanted her two children to have a photo taken.
After lots more sightseeing, shopping and eating, we decided four large suitcases was going to cost a small fortune to fly to Wuhan so with one hours notice, we researched and found the local FEDEX agent to move a 25kg case for 157 yuan which was amazingly cheap. The communication problems we encounted would make a good short story.
Next day our car arrived
Lanterns
Inside a six story shopping complex. One of many, many, many, many on Nanjing Roadto take us back to Pudong airport and we said goodbye to Shanghai.
The staff at China Eastern Airlines were fantastic and we left Shanghai with great memories and no problems. We will be returning in a couple of months for the world expo.
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Ann Jeffrey
non-member comment
happy travels
glad to hear you arrived safely and had a great time in Shanghai, despite the language barrier! Hope your stay in Wuhan goes well. How was your birthday? Love Ann and Erich