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Published: April 27th 2006
hello,
Laura - Still in Shanghai til Monday, then we get a train to Beijing overnight. It was such a hassle getting train tickets - we ended up going to the train station twice, couldn't get tickets on the day we hoped, and had the only ones left were 1st class (at least we get to travel in style!). Not to mention the irritation of queuing in a 50 people queue in a country where pushing in right at the front desk is perfectly acceptable!
So we find ourselves with a few days extra to spare in Shanghai. We had a chill out day yesterday and stayed in the hostel until dinner (partly because we'd been woken up in the early hours by the sound of a wall being demolished in our hostel). Today we went walking around the old town and went to a really nice traditional garden called Yuyuan gardens, which was a nice escape from the chaos of the city centre. Then we had a walk into the Old French Concession (or 'French Connection', as Paul thought it was called!) and looked around a building where there was a delightful waxwork model of Mao. It was
the location of the first China communist party meeting in 1921.
Getting used to the difference in culture now I think. Although I still cringe everytime I hear the delightful sound of someone spitting in the street (usually grown men, I hasten to add). Also getting used to being stared at and hassled to buy DVD's. I have started to learn the shanghai green cross code. Stop Look Listen no longer seems to apply. Nor does the little green man mean that I can cross the road safely. It seems to be a case of cross when the man is red and it's certain death, cross when green and you MAY survive. We have to dodge about 10 million bikes and taxis everytime we want to get to the other side of the street. And nobody seems to care if they run into you!
Paul - Just because Laura hasn't, I will explain the "hilarious" title to this entry. It is from a classic late night Chinese show aimed at children which teaches them English. We couldn't work out what on earth they were trying to teach the kids, but it made me laugh. Anyway had a
good day today, went round Yuyuan and the Old Streets (as shown in the photos below) gave us a different view of life in Shanghai. One thing that strikes me is how unbelivably cheap it is here (our lunch was dumplings with pork meat and a coke which came to about 6 Yuan, which is about 40p). Ate tea at the Lonely Planet recommended (and very nice) Yang's Kitchen. Tiny little restaurant off some random side street but food was great. I think we are most enjoying the vegetable side dishes but the meat is good too.
Going to Suzhou tomorrow which is supposed to be a small town with a huge collections of Chinese gardens and canals. A little bit like Venice apparently. Sounds like fun but we have to brave the train station again which should be interesting and may result in us not going at all!
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Happy Dad now i;mnotlooking after welsh asylum seeker
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Paul why is my REAL MADRID shirt in shanghai i wont it back. All going to Macclesfield on Sat. UP THE MARINERS