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Published: October 30th 2010
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Shanghai, our last stop whilst in China, although I live in a city & LOVE getting out of London, the city boy inside me took over, it was good to be back in a city after staying in some of the most remote hotels I have ever stayed in. I was most excited about visiting the Bund but I think Nikki was most excited about our western buffet at the hotel when we arrived, which was amazing by the way!
As we drove from the airport I had never seen so many roads in my life, it looked like something out of a film based in the future, all of the roads that were raised had neon lights underneath that made them look like runways. Our first morning we were woke up early AGAIN by our neighbours, that has happened pretty much every day in China now, when I opened the door to ask them to be quiet the room next to ours & the room opposite that had wedged their doors open & the people staying in the rooms were sat in their doorways, both had the TVs on in their rooms very loudly & they were having a
conversation/shouting at each from their doorways, I should have learnt how to say ‘shut up’ in Chinese before I left the UK, needless to say I gave it my best shot anyway.
It was nice to be staying at a hotel that we couldn’t see into the bathroom from the bed, our hotels in all of the other places we had visited in China had a glass window enabling you to see into the bathroom, which is pretty cool at first however when Nikki or I went to the toilet in the middle of the night & switched the light on we may as well have put every light on in the hotel room, even with the blind in between pulled down it was still bright & it was loads better than the hotel in Chengdu where the glass was conveniently placed so that whilst inside the bathroom you couldn’t see out but on the outside you could see in especially when you are sat on the toilet, not very romantic!
We started our first day in Shanghai by visiting the Yu Yuan Garden, it is surrounded by bustling markets in the city close to the Bund, on
a rooftop of one of the shops you can take in the skyline of old & new buildings, considering it is China’s largest city it was not that busy at the tourist sites. Next stop the Jade Buddha Tempe, I love Buddhist temples, I love the architecture & the stories behind everything inside, we took a short stroll along the Bund but it was misty AGAIN so we decided to come back later to get some cool pics at night. Finally a trip to the famous Nanjing Road, a pedestrianised shopping street, it was very busy & every couple of minutes you had someone approach you “You want watch, Ipod, bags?”, a stern no generally got rid of them.
I was feeling pretty run down but was determined to go out at night & get some night time pictures of the Bund & I’m glad I did. It was not that busy at first but got a lot busier as the night went on, I spent hours taking pictures & during almost all of that time Nikki & I had a queue of people waiting to have their picture taken with us, I didn’t think we would get that
many people asking for their picture taken with us in such a cosmopolitan city like Shanghai but I think more people asked for our picture in Shanghai than anywhere else in China, some wouldn’t even ask they would just take pictures of us taking pictures which I thought was a bit stalkerish! lol.
Our last day in China was our only day with no tours booked, after breakfast we met up for a coffee with a true travel addict & fellow travelblogger Peter aka Maisondubonheur , it was fantastic talking to someone with such a passion for travel, I hate to admit it but possibly more of a passion than me....possibly! ;-)
After our coffee we headed off to the Shanghai Expo, we thought about trying to get there on the underground system but wimped out of it & got a cab, which are ridiculously cheap. We didn’t know what to expect from Expo but as each building represents a different country I thought it would be a great way to persuade Nikki to visit some new adventurous places that we could add to our ‘places to visit list’. The only problem was the queue for most places
were huge & to say Nikki has no patience would be an understatement, we started to queue up for Thailand but within 2 minutes Nikki was freaking out, we decided to just walk around the whole of Expo & take some pictures of the unique buildings at Expo & whenever we saw somewhere with no queue we would go in, I can’t remember all of the different pavilions we visited but I remember our first was Slovenia which was totally surreal with all of its multi coloured walls inside, we spent about 4-5 hours at Expo in total, which was the estimated time it of the queue to get in for the UK pavilion at Expo. I think the Saudi pavilion had the record with a NINE HOUR queue!
Nikki & I were exhausted after two weeks of nonstop travelling & so our last night in China was spent in bed in our hotel, I wish I had the energy to do more but I felt ill I was so run down from the constant travelling, jetlag, sleepless nights because of noisy neighbours & early mornings to avoid the rush of tourists, it is safe to say that China
was my most exhausting holiday ever but I’m glad I’ve experienced it, next stop the wedding in Sweden!!!
:-)
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TinNiE
" Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness "
cool
you actually met someone from travelblog?! wow! i'm still waiting for that chance - I haven't meet anyone!