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Published: September 25th 2005
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Jing'An Temple
Fronted by an obscene amount of VW Santana cabs. Feeling a bit more confident about the orientation of the city we ditch the taxis and walk North towards Nanjing Lu, which takes roughly 20 minutes. We explore the busy side streets which are full of markets. I find some reasonably cheap mahjiang games and decide to pick up a copy of the smaller sets. We then board the MRT and head west for the Jing'An temple. It is a nice view alright, but the touts and beggars are hardcore and don't give any breaks here, so we don't remain for long, returning to People's Square and Renmin Park.
Kay is meeting up with a friend of hers, so we split up for the rest of the day. I walk across the People's Square to find a good overpass from where to watch the busy traffic at a junction connecting to the Yan An elevated highway. I pick up a local SIM card and even though the guy speaks no English I manage to get it to work properly. Thinking about the next project of getting to Yiwu on Monday I look around for any travel agency or airline office and stumble on a China Eastern office. There are flights
available to Yiwu, but they are cumbersome and expensive passing over Guangzhou, so I realize that the plane is not an option.
I walk some side roads through a confusing labyrtinh of streets only to reemerge in the middle of Nanjing Lu again. I decide to have a look of the southwest and take a crowded train to Xu Jia Hui to go look for the Catholic Cathedral. Normally, you would expect a cathedral to be a spectacular feature that stands out from the rest of the city. Here however, it is the other way around. While still a beautiful twin tower church it is comparatively diminutive, the little park being surrounded by gigantic residential towers. The park is a quiet and peaceful place though, and many people have sat down here for a welcome break and I follow their example.
As the sun is about to come down it is getting a bit chilly and I decide to take the train back to People's Square. The MTR is absolutely cram packed, and I get off at the Huang Pi Nan station just south of People's Square and walk the remaining way back to the hotel. In general
Always enjoying a ride on the train
I've been known to ride around many a MTR network for sightseeing purposes, although it can be discussed how much there is to see in dark tunnels. it is easy to find your way about Shanghai, and the central Eastern part can definitely be made on foot without much trouble. Returning to the Yu Yuan Garden area I visit the local food market and stock up on bread, meat and snacks for an improvised dinner at the hotel room. My old friend Joanne is in town visiting her sister and invites me to join her party over at Nanjing Lu.
Walking back North I come across some more gold digging girls and coffee invites, and amusingly I recognize one of the ladies from yesterday. I meet up with my friend over at the western end of Nanjing Lu and we go have a coffee in a quiet place. As they head on towards the east I return to the hotel via the smaller alleyways, getting offers from a bouncer trying to lure me into some girlie bar. A taxi drives past with a very ill man vomitting out the window. It seems the spoils of the financial boom are doing well here. Back at the hotel I arrive just in time to open my Mahjiang set before Kay walks in the door. We try to give
it a go, but I notice I have forgotten all the rules to play the game. Bummer.
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