Up, up and away!

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Hi all,

Spent yesterday having a "rest", all the walking and sight seeing has battered our feet into a smelly mess! Ended up having a few beers in the bar with an Irish couple from Dublin who had just spent a year teaching English in Japan. They are travelling roughly the same path as us through Asia before heading to India and then back to Ireland!

Got up this morning and headed over to Pudong on the eastern bank of the river. Decided to take the local transport again and hopped onto the river boat ferry for about 3p! It was interesting to mingle with the locals and smile politely as they all stare at you. I got the impression that not many Western people get the public ferry, which isn't really surprising as it would have been much easier to whizz across on the tube. It's interesting to see all the traffic that makes it's way up and down the river and from the ferry you get a really good impression of how much "stuff" is transported up and down the river. There are boats moving past every five seconds or so.

Hopped off the ferry and stocked up on water as it was probably the hottest day yet. Strolled along the eastern side of the river looking back towards the Bund and the first thing that struck me was how much less congested it was. Pudong is a new development and up until 1990 ( I think) it was all just marsh land, but now it is a mass of sky scrapers and brand new paths that hug the river. So we didn't have anyone coming up to us and seeing if we wanted any DVD's!

Strolled past the huge Pearl Televison tower but didn't go up as it was expensive! And we wanted to go up the Jinmao tower anyway as it is the 4th tallest building in the world. Luckily the Jinmao tower doesn't attract the huge crowds likde the TV does. Personally I can't see why they'd chose to go up that thing over the Jinamo Tower. The Jinamo is a really impressive skyscraper, whereas the TV tower looks like something that has dropped right out of a tacky space city! Walked past a maze of banks and investment banks and probably bloody Ernst & Young before making it to the Jinmao tower.

Paid about 3 pounds to go all the way to the top and the views were stunning. But I think what it highlighted to me was how polluted Shanghai is and what a problem they have. As you can see from the pictures it just looks misty but it was clear blue skies above us and about 30 degrees! The pollution is almost unbelivable. I think China has 16 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world and it's not hard to see that from the top of the Jinmao tower.

So after taking in the views for half an hour we headed down and back across on the ferry before stopping off to get some steamed meat dumplings from the Old town. They are delicious and I reckon I could eat them for most of the day.

We got lost down a really tiny back street ub the old town and it was a bit of an eye opener. A quick look at Shanghai and you'd think it was all 5 star hotels, sky scrapers and designer department stores. This street showed us how a lot of Chinese people REALLY live. The houses were very small and crowded together and a sneaky peak into a few front doors showed us that the living conditions were pretty poor. I'm not sure how many people are crammed into each tiny house but we saw beds in kitchens. I thought some of the side streets in the city centre were pretty grim but this was like something from another world. This surely is a city of many contrasts! It certainly was an interesting day.

Heading to Beijing tomorrow night on the sleeper so this is our last night in Shanghai.

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Photos

View down to Grand Hyatt
Grand Hyatt is plush 5 star hotel in the Jinmao Tower

Comments

[bernard]

fair play award
just to let you know paul healing fc are up for most sporting team so if you stay away they may win it ; by the way happy birthday Laura look after Pual he will be missing marion and kuddys guidence enjoy bajing oh there are 9millon bycycles in bajing not 10 as Laura reported listen to the song see you bernard.

[Andy]

Never mind all that, what the bloody hell are we going to do without Rooney?! My only hope is that we can get through the group without him, and then have him back for the knockout stages. A 40% fit Rooney is better than a 100% fit Crouch

[Katie]

Sod the football, England will be rubbish anyway
Wow! I felt dizzy just looking at the photos. Well done for climbing up these, or should that be, taking a really long lift journey. It's a shame cos you probably missed out on loads of old Chinese chicks making their way up on foot. Shame on you both. Not sure about the sound of steamed dumplings; me and Mark are sticking with the bangers and mash. Laura - hope you're not having to watch too much football already. Paul, at least let her have part of Asia football-free! I guess you'll be sad to not be in the Hinterland for June. Jurgen ist futball crazy!

[Happy Dad now i;mnotlooking after welsh asylum seeker]

This is more like it lets talk football not be bored by all these people travelling.UP THE MARINERS.

[Big Bro]

My sisters
Keep out of this football talk go and do the dishes leave this to the men! Leave the travellers to it - I agree - Who goes away in a World Cup year anyway! Guess thats an indication of who wears the trousers in the bloggers relationship!!