Shanghai - We Love The Sightseeing Tunnel

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After a wonderful few days in Beijing it was time to head further east to Shanghai, so we boarded the very plush express sleeper train with TVs and complimentary water and headed as far east as we will get for a long time.

After 9 hours of the smoothest train ride ever, we arrived in Shanghai and made our way to our hostel, Mingtown Hiker Youth Hostel, 220yn a night for a double en-suite (no window but very nice). We arrived sweating buckets so before venturing out we had our first decent shower in 3 days and chilled out in the bar.

We had read there was a sightseeing tunnel going from the Bund across the river to where the Jinmao Tower is. This tunnel was not what we expected it to be. It was hilarious; one: it was a tunnel underground, so I don’t know what kind of sightseeing you can do underground and two: the tunnel was all light up with flashing lights, every new section you went through a booming voice came through the speakers telling you what the lights represented, we had magma, heaven and hell, you name it, it was probably there. When we got to the other side we realised that apart from the tower and a sex museum there wasn’t actually anything to see, so we had a walk along the font and looked across the river to the Bund, noticing that part of it looks like the Liverpool waterfront and had a not so cheap Tiger beer.

Once we had cooled down, only slightly, we headed back to the other side of the river via the “sightseeing tunnel” as we had paid for a return ticket and strolled along the Bund before ending up in a bar people watching for the rest of the day.

The Bund is an Anglo-Indian term for the embankment of a muddy waterfront. It was once only a few feet away from the Huangpu River until they widened the road, which is what we think they are doing again. It is symbolic of Shanghai and gives a grand facade for those arriving in Shanghai by river. To Europeans it was Shanghai’s Wall Street, a place of trading where fortunes were won or lost.

Our first evening in Shanghai had to involve us getting a photo of the skyline at night, this wasn’t as easy as we thought because there are road works everywhere, so precariously we walked along the side of a somewhat busy road and finally found a spot to take photos, next was our mission to find food, we walked along the Bund finding nothing before turning off and venturing along the side streets where we found the wonderful and cheap place to eat called Shanghai Grandmother Restaurant , for 10 quid we had the most delicious meal with beers. We were then going to hunt down a bar but Tony being Tony and not picking his feet up once again cut open his foot, so we had to go back to the hostel to bandage it up!!!

Our next day in shanghai saw us taking in many sights, we walked along East Nanjing Road (China’s golden mile) where we got offered numerous watches and bags. At the top of the road is Renmin Square (Peoples Square), the home of the Shanghai Museum, the LP says it is a must see but we weren’t that overwhelmed, on the upside it was free!!!!

Next stop was the French Concession a residential, retail, restaurant and bar district with tree lined streets. Well we found the tree lined streets but did not find any of these bars or restaurants, feeling rather deflated we headed back to Peoples Square for a Starbucks and to decide what to do next.
Refreshed and cooled down we decided to give the French Concession once last try and headed to Xintiardi the one place we didn’t go to the last time round, we got there and immediately felt we were back home. It was full of bars and restaurants and looked just like any street back in London. We decided to stay for a few drinks as we had luckily got there in time for happy hour, so we had a few glasses of wine to toast the 1st wedding anniversary of Laura and Bundy (That was our excuse for having wine and not the cheaper beer option). Feeling rather tipsy we headed straight back to where we know had good and cheap food, Shanghai Grandmothers Restaurant mmmm.

Our last day in Shanghai was spent in the Old Town, the Old Town is famous for its Bazaars and Yuyuan Gardens. We first headed to the gardens, they were beautiful and so peaceful, its hard to imagine you’re in the middle of a town when you enter these gardens. The Pan family, rich Ming dynasty officials founded this garden in 1559, it took 18 years to be nurtured into existence before being ruined in the opium war in 1842. The French then had their turn before it was finally restored to what they are now.

After a potter around the gardens we hit the bazaars before making out way to the train station to board our soft sleeper train to Xian.

We loved Shanghai!!!!

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