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Published: March 13th 2006
SOUTH AFRICA 3 ----------- austraila 2
Love it, love it.
Let me see, Shanghai. 14 million people, big buildings and wide streets. It has it all, but to be honest it did not live up to its hype in my opinion. It still has a long way to go for it to be up there with New York, London, Milan, HK and the rest of them. It certainly is a fascinating combination of old and new with brand spanking new BMW's taking over dilapidated bicycles on the city streets. One of the coolest things is that at most bus stops they have TV's built into the timetable area where they usually are showing sport. I liked that. We stayed in the Captain Hostel, once again the LP map was off and we wondered around in utter confusion for a good half our at 7 in the morning. Put our bags down and walked along the Bund. It is the walk way along the river from where you can see the big buildings. A couple are over 400 meters tall, bloody massive. Walked to the old city, which is awesome. Tons of little alley ways and shops that fix shoes and make
door knobs. Had a bit of a harrowing experience with a Chinese shop keeper that was trying to sell me a MP3 player, I really thought she was going to hit me, I really did. They have these cool veggie filled soft doughy ball things that cost 1 RMB. We also ate these pork buns which were great and oily. Ryan actually acquired a fairly bad burn on his chin after getting a little excited by one of these pork buns.
First night we went to Windows Too, this club somewhere in Shanghai. Look at the bar menu, SPRINGBOKS, are you kidding me. You can imagine our elation at the sight.
Went to the French Concession area one day and just wondered around there. It was an area given to the French for trading purposes after the Opium wars. Very nice area. We later waltzed around the Remnin park area in the center of the city. SO may people. It gets crazy trying to cross streets at intersections due to the enormous amount of people everywhere. Walked up and down Nanjing Lu, quite amazing.
We lived by the customs building which every day played the tune to "The East is
Red". It was fascinating being in a communist country. It always seemed as if the country was trying to hide this fact. For instance we found out that there are plain clothes police all over Tiannemen Sq looking for anyone who tries to raise a banner or speak out against the lack of democracy in the country. So much is censored such as the internet. The Chinese BBC is not available on the internet and even talking about opposition groups to the govt is illegal. People do seem to be more content with the govt since it started alleviating the economic policies it used to have in place.
The Chinese people were on the whole ok. I mean they have nothing on the Thai's or Cambodians or even the Vietnamese for that matter with regard to friendliness and hospitality. Generalizing they are pretty tough people. Often pretty revolting in their lack of manners. They spit all the time, clear their noses on the street and in restaurants. I once had a guy sitting next to me in an internet cafe hoicking spit next to me on the floor. They way they eat is pretty disturbing as well as what they
eat.
I know its a bit judgemental but from a Western standpoint this is true.
We had to decide between a 27 hour train ride to catch our flight to Thailand or a 1 hour flight for twice the price. Took the flight. Xiamen is next.
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Waiting for the Subway
Rona
non-member comment
windows????
haha....i was once at that club..they had some gogo dancers as well...its like the after work, middle age men place...the chicks are hot, but the men...god disturbing and the way they party is pretty sickening as well. Last time at windows, i had the hardest time trying to explain to the bartenders what an irish carbomb is...and they ripped my friend off for a bottle of jonny walker...what a night. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed shanghai, and perhaps one day you can come along with me. And btw...how awesome were those xiao long bao...the mini buns?...they're my fav...but i dont' know about goat testicles....ewww!