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Published: February 17th 2009
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Shanghai was a pretty straightforward affair. Going from the train station to the hostel was incredibly easy, as it tends to be once we figured out the trick of getting a business card for a place or getting it written down in chinese before we go to a new place.
The first night we went to a chinese acrobatics show. But instead of just having a lot of crazy bendy people running around on stage, it was really well done as there were a range of 'themes' that kept the show fresh and interesting. There was everything from a bendy woman fitting through small tubes, men juggling hats while doing flips, plate spinning, acrobatics on bicycles, diablos, hoop jumping, magic, and the grande finale, five men on motorcycles, riding around inside a giant sphere and narrowly missing crashing into eachother while upside down. It was the most stressful performance I have ever seen in my life. The finale was the worst, but really just an enhancement of the 'oh my god, they're actually going to hurt/ kill themselves' feeling of the entire performance. It was a great show.
Unfortunately on the long overnight train ride to Shanghai I had
managed to get even more sick than I was in Xi'An, so our first full day I found rather exhausting, with the extensive walking and discomfort involved in using the subway system in shanghai to get anywhere. First we went to the French Concession, which had nice architecture, but nothing particularly more exciting to do than check out department stores. That said, lex and I did find it rather exciting, as we spent ludicrous amounts of money at H&M.
Next we caught a subway to the Bund. We were once again a bit disappointed by the lack of markets on the street going down because we had been hoping to do a lot of gift shopping in Shanghai. By this time the weather that had started off clear and pleasantly warm had become rather windy and incredibly foggy. This was unfortunate as the main point of going to the Bund is to see the view of Pudong, the business district of Shanghai. As we were looking through lonely planet trying to find something else to do with the day, we were approached by a local who was an english teacher and asked if he could practice his english on us. We had nothing better to do so went to a cafe (I was also in desperate need of a pick me up coffee) and talked. He was rather interesting, and it's always great to talk to locals. After a while though I was starting to get really tired and decided to head home for an early night in bed.
The next day I didn't feel up to doing anything. It's a bit annoying because I'm sure i could have handled walking around an art gallery or museum for a bit, but it's just the prospect of all the effort required to get and there and back on public transport that made it an unthinkable prospect. So I spent most of the day in bed trying to concentrate my energies on getting better. Then I got bored and went on the internet, which was an incredibly frustrating experience as once again I felt the rule that free internet is always bad internet.
My worries that I was missing out on a lot of fun and interesting things was relieved when Lex came back and related her day dealing with cold weather, overcrowded streets because of valentine's day and the dodgy maps in lonely planet that made it incredibly hard to find anything. She had spent the entire day trying to make it to shanghai museum, and when she finally got there, found out the exhibition was all of ceramics and there was an entrance fee. She came straight home. Because we'd both had such frustrating days we splashed out and bough some chinese wine, which is very overpriced considering its the worst wine I've ever tasted. At least we got to talk to some travellers and the day didnt feel totally wasted.
The next day I once again felt too sick to go out. It's a real shame, especially as we were spending so much on accomodation in Shanghai (well a lot relatively, around Y100 is a lot on my budget), to not do anything with it, especially as there are so many great art galleries around that I would have loved to see. In an effort to pick myself up with a change of scenery (and also in the hope that the weather would be better than the chill and rain that had developed in Shanghai), and also of course because it was a place we wanted to see, we decided on the 4th day to go to Hangzhou, a 2 hour train ride away...
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