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Funky skyline
Its like something out of a space movie.Shanghai is known as the most vibrant, most fast-paced and most western city in China, and it certainly shows. The city goes on for miles and there are skyscrapers everywhere. Its apparently fast catching up with Hong Kong and the Chinese government is hoping that in 10 years it will be a bigger and better business centre than Hong Kong itself. Its one of those cities that you experience rather than tour, because there really ain't much to see apart from the culture.
Possibly the thing we will remember the most of Shanghai though is the bed. Yup, the hotel we stayed in had the most amazing bed. The mattress was so soft, and the sheets were so clean that it made your skin tingle from excitement. It was one of those beds that you just wanted to curl up in and sleep in forever. So that morning, we had to fight every urge to just bash the alarm clock and sleep sleep sleep!!
The day started brilliantly with a chinese-style buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Think Yum Cha style plus bacon and eggs. There were lots of steamed buns and little rolled things - a treat for
two greedy people like us.
We then headed out on to the streets and headed for the Bund - apparently one of the most famous sites in China. Why? Apparently this is where it all used to happen, and still happens. Its a big long road that smacks up against a river, and sports lots of old buildings now full of offices of really big companies. More interesting though is the view across the river to the Pudong area of Shanghai. That part of Shanghai is the 'new' area and sports all kinds of bizarre looking buildings, including the Oriental Pearl tower which looks like a massive hypodermic (as described by the lonely planet). It was nice to walk about this area, although the crowds were immense because today was one of the major public holidays in China.
On the way to the Bund we almost got killed. Yes, we almost died from being smothered to death. You see, we foolishly decided to catch the Shanghai subway. And thats bad most days, but today, being a major public holiday, it was a killer. We'd caught the subway in Japan and had thought that it was pretty crowded, but
this was ridiculous. Lets just say this place was ideal place for some sick-minded groper because he'd have every chance to have his hands all over his target.
After the Bund, we hit the shops where Melenie picked up some amazing bargains on really nice designer clothes that were reduced by up to 70%. So basically she got all these expensive things for like $5AUD each. These amazing buys kicked off the start of what was to become one huge day of shopping. And surprisingly, as girly as it sounds, I actually quite enjoyed it. Because there is nothing like spending money when you know that you're getting a huge bargain.
So we basically spent the rest of the day wandering through the various hotspots of Shanghai, including the local gardens, the local markets and the major shopping centres. We ate, we shopped, we ate, and we shopped a bit more. Then we stopped, whinged about how sore our legs were, consoled ourselves with something fattening and then commenced the whole cycle again.
So that was our day in Shanghai. We shopped till we dropped and basically did little else. Our conclusions about Shanghai .... its nice
Hanging out the washing
Since so much of the population lives in apartments, the most common way of drying your clothes is to stick bamboo poles out of your window and dangle your clothes from the pole. You better hope there isn't a strong wind that day though. - lots of stuff to buy - but apart from that .... you could do better.
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