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Pudong Skyline
The ubiquitous pose on such an occasion So, we left Beijing at 10.15 pm for our 14 hour night train to Shanghai. I tried to explain to our guide that to travel on a train for so long in England would involve travelling the length of the country and back at least once, but i'm not sure he grasped my point! The night train was a new experience to me, 6 to a berth on three high bunk beds, room enough to lie down and not much more. The train was hot, no air con, loud, and try as i might i couldnt get to sleep quickly. Normally, im out in 5 mins flat, but not on this train. I tried music, i tried reading, i tried counting chinese sheep....nothing, until about 3 am when finally i fell asleep. Only to be awake again at 5am, thanks to the locals playing cards and chatting loudly. So, needless to say, when we finally got to our hotel at lunchtime on the 14th, we were all a little bit tired.
The hotel was on a tiny narrow side street, home to mopeds, taxis, street vendors, restaurants, live animals, fresh fish and eels in buckets and a lot of noise.
Same Same
but different. It reminded me of the Hutong areas of Beijing (which i dont think i have mentioned yet - i will do a summary of china in a day or two and explain all!), and was as shaky start to our stay in Shanghai, at least that is what i thought at first....30 metres in the other direction lay Nanjing Road, the busiest, most famous shopping area in all of China. Think Oxford Street but twice as wide and long, and with more people. Lots more people.
Nanjing Road runs from Peoples Square to The Bund, or business district on the riverfront, and after a quick shower and snack, this is where we went.
The Bund represents the good and bad of Europe to me. On the one hand there are the imposing victorian buildings, towering stone built monuments and wide Napoleonic Boulevards that have you wondering where the best place is for an espresso, then on the other hand there is the question that has to be asked, why the hell does Shanghai look like Paris, London or Milan? The answer of course can be found in the colonial history of the european powers of the 19th Century. Shanghai
is a port, in the East, with access to all manner of trade routes otherwise out of European reach, therefore....ah you know the rest. Anyway, all this doesnt mean i didn't like Shanghai. I did. A lot.
On the opposite bank of teh river lies the ultra modern business district of Pudong, home to skyscrapers, TV Towers and generally an impressive skyline - when it is not hazy, which sadly it was for three days and nights! After wandering the length of the Bund for an hour or two we headed back towards the hotel, found a good palce for a much needed espresso (remember the train...) and met with the group to go see the famous Acrobatics show, which was incredible. I cant do it justice in 30 words or so here, so head over to Youtube if you are curious.
On the 15th we visited the Shanghai museum, full of jade and bronze artefacts, calligraphy, furniture etc dating back in some cases over 2000 years, covering the full range of Qing, Qin and Ming dynasties and more. We then made our way to the French Concession, another nod to Colonial Europe. In the afternoon we went
French Concession
Covent garden moved 8000 miles due east.... to the Yu Yuan Garden Market> this is a sprawling enclosed market, made up of various narrow alleys, all the buildings are in the traditional chinese style. We didnt buy any of the vast array of fake merchandise on offer, but we did indulge in some of the street food - steamed buns filled with soup (delicious), deep fired spicy soft shelled crab (not great), and some steamed pork and leak dumplings (amazing!). We kept wandering around all afternoon and evening really, enjoying the hustle and bustle of a thoroughly western Chinese city, dazzled by the neon and the skyscrapers. Where Beijing felt like a city struggling to marry the old and the new (wait for the summary, it will all make sense i promise!) Shanghai is a confidently modern, international city.
The following morning, the 16th, we got up early hoping for a clear day to take some better photos, sadly it was cold and grey. Still, we had another wander around before heading back to the train station for another train, this time 16 hours to Xi'an....
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