Shanghai - the NYC of China

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Hi all, we are back on Air

A bit tired of travelling and site seeing we arrived to Shanghai.
Although Shangai development is based on humillation of the chinese by the west (mostlly in the 19-20 centries) - it has done the chinese nothing but good.

We arrived on the first of May week - the labor day holiday. Dozens of millions of chinese are travelling around china during that week. we really tried to avoid walking in shangai's main attractions.
After a week we moved to our current hostel - check the picture. its really nice and we spent much of our time in the courtyard - reading , studing and eating.
There is one problems: internet computers are on a bar like table with no chairs - it causes a lot of pain to our legs, which the everyday walking and siteseeing do not do good for it anyhow.
we suffer so much that we considered buying a laptop . we are also considering buying a bar chair in Ikea (they have it here and all the products are made in china of course)

So what do we do here? mainly nothing. we study chinese 3 times a week.
we had one chinese calligraphy class(artistic chinese writing with paint and brushes) .
Noa might take other art classes.
Amir voulentered once in some handicaped children center - not sure about continuing.
There are many good western style restaurants here and quite a big foreigners community.

The city got it's push of developmet in the mid 19th century, when the western powers forced china to let them trade and buy real estate in this area. the french and british had their own conssetions (revaaim). They actually had their own police and low systems. That influenced the city economics and architecual a lot.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Photos

Night view of Pudong area
on the east bank of the river

Nanging St. at night
One of the main shopping streets. On May day holiday we could hardly walked there. Thousends of people.

Old Shikumen buildings in Xitandi
An area with old traditional buildings that was renovated and now its a cool area with some of the most expensive restaurants and bars.

Shanghai museum
very intersting, great museum shop.

A very long line for the bus
at People's square

Chinese construction
With all the modernization, the pigumim are still made out of bamboo.

Chinese laundry
hanging on bamboo.

Our hostel
The hostel is brand new with great design (most of the stuff is Ikea). The food sucks but thats OK.

Sunday BBQ at the Cotton's
A nice restaurand & bar. mostly foreigners there.

Rooftop bar of the Captain hotel
Great view. really bad food.

Element fresh
Our favorite place.Great food. Especially the lafa with kebab.

Comments

[Dugies]

Good stuff
It's nice that you're taking classes and doing stuff that's not typical tourist. That's how you really get to know the local culture and get in touch with local tradition.

[aba]

dira
I heard that it is cheap appartments . Do you want to buy one?

[Noa Amir]

dira
we thoght of renting one for a start... :)