Blogs from Jing'an, Shanghai, China, Asia - page 3

Today i am leaving hangzhou to shanghai! I am so excited to see the city and go exploring! I had a rough start this morning.. Slept through my alarm but woke up just in time. I was supposed to skype with my class but it didnt work out, i had just enough time to brush my teeth and cover my bags with my ponchos and head out the door. It is pouring today! I had a 25 minute walk, or should i say run walk, to the train station. I got all the way in the station until i realized i had to go back outside to another building to get my ticket. I found a bilingual window and watched countless people cut, its normal in china, but i patiently waited my turn. I am so ... read more

Day 1 My Mom called me this morning just to wake me up. Thank gods she did, otherwise I would have missed my train and slept through everything! I guess she knows me too well, or just remembers how I missed that one flight, all too well... I still don't remember what time I got in yesterday; how I got into bed is also a mistery. And the hangover... don't even get me started... I'm thinking, maybe I should undergo an electro-shock treatment that will once and for all stop me from mixing vodka, wine, beer and so on, you know? It would teach me to grab only one sort of drink all night and zap me everytime I'd try to go for the oh-so-tasty Long Island Icetea. Or I don't know... Make me prefer water ... read more

When the feelings of being like Sisyphus finally lifted and changed into the feeling of being like Titan instead, everything finally started to fall into place. The initial summer plan was: Shanghai – Yunnan Province (1 week) – Vietnam (2 weeks) – Japan (Tokyo and Fuji Rock, 1 week) – Shanghai. Since I’ve had to abandon Japan, and my Yunnan plan was already complete, I thought, why not start from there and see what else I could fit into my itinerary. Before I realised it, I managed to include Guanxi Province. And well, I was hyped about Vietnam all along, so I began bulldozing through Lonely Planet’s “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring”. Those 2 weeks I mentioned before would not do Vietnam any justice, at all! The new plan became: Shanghai – Guangxi Province (~6 days) ... read more

Yesterday was a picture perfect day - blue skies with a hint of white cloud, unseasonably warm weather made even warmer by the bright sunlight. It was the perfect day to do some Shanghai exploring. A friend and I headed over to Jing'an Temple and it was the best choice we could have made. Jing'an Temple is a Buddhist monastary that was built almost 800 years ago. It now sits in the centre of Shanghai, on West Nanjing Road. It is surround by skyscrapers, traffic, and some of Shanghai's most expensive shopping. But as soon as you enter it, you forget that you are in the city. It's almost as if the temple is under a dome of quiet - within its walls the noises from the city fade away and you are completely focused on ... read more

Si vous voulez faire du shopping à Shanghai, Nanjing Road est sans doute l'endroit le plus propice à cela. C’est l’occasion de se balader tranquillement à pieds au milieu de nombreux centres commerciaux et autres boutiques en tous genres. C’est l’une des avenues les plus grandes de Shanghai dont un tronçon a été entièrement transformé en une rue piétonne. Elle démarre à l’Ouest, dans un quartier clairement plus business, et rejoint la rivière Huangpu à l’Est, en direction du Pudong District. Ce jour-là, j’ai rejoint la station de métro « East Nanjing Road », et je suis parti en direction du People’s Square en passant par le tronçon piéton. Attention aux nombreux rabatteurs dans cette rue qui essaient de vous vendre bien des conneries (fausses Rolex, DVD, CD, etc.), mais aussi, aux charmantes demoiselles qui essaient ... read more