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Published: June 11th 2008
We leave Sūzhōu for Shànghăi at around 9am. We didn’t have time for breakfast, though surprisingly we weren’t really that hungry. The coach trip took us a couple of hours I’d say, and wasn’t anything too special. A lot of us were still tired, so we caught up on some shut-eye during the journey.
We arrived late morning, and got to Nanjing Hotel, located in the Huangpu district, with no problem. We checked in, and went to our rooms to freshen up. The rooms were nice. I was pleased, as we hadn’t had a bad room all trip. Our view from the hotel room looked out over the rooftops of tiny old-style housing, and had the modern buildings, particularly the imposing Shànghăi Shimao International Plaza, in the background.
Back down to the lobby after an hour, and we were heading out on our orientation tour with Marcia. We walked down East Nanjing Road, apparently China’s most famous shopping street, down to the historic Peace Hotel, and then over the road from there to check out the views of the Huangpu River at The Bund (an embankment), and the Pudong district, Shànghăi’s main financial district. The main iconic building here
for me was the Jinmao Tower, which is China’s tallest building. It would look more at home in somewhere like Istanbul to be honest, but it was an impressive sight. A couple of newer skyscrapers were being built, however, that will eventually rise above Jinmao Tower, once completed.
From here we walked to the Old Town, and Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar, a thriving shopping area, selling literally everything. The street hassling was particularly annoying here. This was where our orientation tour would finish. From here, some of us decided to have a look around in one place, but that was too much. By then, we were a little hot and bothered, so the last thing we needed was to be harassed into buying rubbish, so Dan and I left and headed back to East Nanjing Road. We went to have some lunch, and found a nice noodle bar called K?????moto, and then went to the Internet café to chill out for a bit, and then on to Mojo’s for a smoothie, before heading back to the hotel.
We were off out to see the Shànghăi Acrobats show tonight, so needed to freshen up.
Back down at the
hotel lobby we all met back up, and headed off to the acrobat show, which we got to via the metro to Jing’an Temple. It was only a short walk from the station. It was an entertaining evening with heaps of different performances, from plate spinning and acrobatics to daredevil motorcycling. The show lasted for around an hour and a half I’d say, and was well worth going too. We were all particularly impressed with two acts, one a Titanic-style ‘Leo and Kate’ performance, and also the daredevil motorbikes which ended with five bikes going round inside a tiny steel mesh cage.
From here we took the metro back to East Nanjing Road, and then went for dinner with everyone except the girls, as they’d eaten. We found a nice place that did Italian, so we went here. The food was actually prepared inside an old-style train carriage and then brought outside to us. Service was excellent, and the food was lovely too.
The others went back to the hotel afterwards, but Dan and I had a couple of Tsing Tao’s with Elli and Erlend first at Mojo’s, and then we headed back.
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