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Published: March 26th 2010
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What an eventful day in Shanghai. I started the day with a traditional Chinese breakfast of minced pork dumplings. I caught the tube and stopped at Nanjing Rd West. Nanjing Road is Shanghai’s own Regent Street.
It was a sunny day although it still necessitated wearing a fleece it was warmer then Beijing and Xi’an. I had read in the guides to be weary in Shanghai of people posing as English students who will try to get you in to a tea house where they will scarper shortly afterwards and leave you with a huge bill to pay, they have a deal with the owner and take a cut. There are posters all over the hostel warning of various scams. The problem is that that being “Engleesh man” I attract a lot of attention and a lot of the 18-30’s (mainly females) want to stop and talk so they can either practice or show off their English skills. I was stopped shortly into my walk down Nanjing by 2 girls but I was polite and chatted for a while then after about 10 mins when they asked me to go to the cultural centre for the afternoon with them I
made my excuses and left.
By chance I stumbled across an Exposition centre that details Shanghai’s development from BC to the proposed vision for 2020. As most of Pudong is a big building site (the bit with the sparkly buildings) I took a look. Inside was a full scale model of Shanghai in the future and it is massive. There is a bigger building planned then the existing Shanghai World financial Centre I visited yesterday. The point of the Exposition was to Promote Shanghai Expo 2010, it’s a huge Exposition with a building made to represent each major country, take a look on the internet to find out more, it seems to be way with anything China enters into at the moment that it will be best one yet and set the benchmark for future events.
I then continued down Nanjing, through the pedestrianised part (a bit like Piccadilly) and got to the River. Underneath the River is a passenger tunnel with cable cars, I decided to take this as there is an optical illusion display and sound affects for the journey. It was all very surreal and on reaching the other side I took a look around
Shanghai 2020
This is only a 3rd of the plan!! the aquatics centre. This is a huge indoor aquarium with Sharks, Stingrays and loads of shiny fish. I spent a good hour in here before moving onto Shanghai Stadium. I thought this was a soccer stadium but it’s actually the Olympic stadium, it’s quite an immense looking building with a very individual design. I didn’t actually know there was an Olympics in Shanghai so I’m assuming its pre me.
After the stadium I took a tube back to Nanjing road and walked down the Bund. The Bund is the Old French concession of Shanghai. The Brits hit Shanghai first and set up various trading posts followed by the Americans and then the French; this was all before the communist uprising where everyone was subsequently booted out. After being stood empty for years the bund is now a thriving place with some of the world’s best restaurants lining the avenue, these are £30,000 bottles of wine places and any building that isn’t a restaurant is an upmarket bank, the place oozes money and class. I was accosted again this time by 3 students who wanted me to go and look at their artwork but I declined.
I walked up
the bund and on for a good 2 miles before coming to a place called Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan is the garden of an ex-emperor and feels a bit like a Chinese York with very old Chinese buildings close to each other around a pretty garden, after having some Green Tea (I now have quite a taste for this) I made my way back to Nanjing (being accosted again) and bought a ticket for a river cruise so that I could get really close to Pudong and get some good pictures of the Old Shanghai Bund on one side of the River and the new Shanghai Pudong on the other.
As it was getting cold and late, I walked back to the tube and caught the tube. Unfortunately when it came to getting a transfer at the next station the last train had gone. As I was about the walk the 3 mile journey I was stopped by a motorcycle taxi, after getting through the language barrier with (I’ll name him Borris) I hopped on. I insisted on a helmet but Borris didn’t understand this and took off at warp factor 12 as we ploughed on through red lights and
swerved from side to side of the road though oncoming traffic we approached some traffic lights, this wasn’t a problem for Borris as he just rode the pavement instead. It was like a movie all I could see were people flying out of the way as Borris kept his horn firmly pressed in. It was certainly a white knuckle ride but I had a huge grin on my face at then end, not bad for £1.50!!
I’m about to pack my stuff up now and wave goodbye to China, I catch the worlds fastest train tomorrow (does nearly 300 MPH) and then I have 2 flights before I land in Vietnam. I’ve enjoyed my stay in China, and other a minority of scam artist I have been overawed by the hospitality of the Chinese People who hold Westerners in very high regard. Again today a man stood up and offered me his seat and wouldn’t take no for an answer when I said he could stay in it, it’s been a great experience (but an expensive one)!
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Hostels Valencia Nest
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Nice, huh?
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