City Life: Shanghai-style

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So we've gotten a bit behind in blogging, but the days seem to just be flying by without much time in front of a computer. But now we've updated pics for two earlier blogs (Mike's bday & Emei Shan) and gotten more up to date!

We arrived into Shanghai late on Thursday, May 25. Too late to take the Maglev (magnetic levitation train) into the city so we hopped on a bus to get to the metro instead. The bus dropped us off seemingly in the middle of nowhere, with only some taxis in the vicinity. We ignored the cabbies and set off in search of the metro. After a block or so we found the metro building had just closed for the night. Ok...back to the cabbies. They were happy to see us return and all gathered around Mike to try to figure out on the maps where we were going. I guess we expected they might know the downtown Shanghai area a bit better but oh well. We finally set off and after stopping twice more for the driver to ask directions, we made it to the hostel.

So while not the best start to the stay at least we were there. And once we got situated in a nice size double room (instead of the dorm room we stayed in the first night), we were ready to settle down and explore the city.

Highlights:

* Stolling along the Bund taking in the view of the high rise buildings in Pudong and then wandering Nanjing Lu, the main shopping street.
* Seeing the Davinci Code...not an Oscar winner but fun to catch an American flick
* Going to the Shanghai Museum building (I'd spotted it a day earlier during our walk so we headed right to the ticket office and paid admission) and then realizing we weren't in the Shanghai Museum, but the Urban Planning Exhibition Center - from the top floor we realized that the Shanghai Museum was across the street. Whoops...so I'm not always right... Then we headed over to the Shanghai Museum and enjoyed walking around the ceramic exhibition and other ancient Chinese exhibitions.
* Having yummy Thai food in the French Concession
* Checking out the hidden nooks and crannies of Yu Yuan garden
* Mike's bday (see other blog entry)
* Hanging out in the hostel bar watching someone's collection of Friends dvds drinking dollar beers
* Walking around the Jinmao Tower (4th tallest bldg in world) and then heading up to the Grand Hyatt on the 57th floor to check out the view
* Bargaining hard for goodies (Ray Bans, Adidas jersey, etc.) in the Xiang Yang Market Place (supposedly getting shut down for all the pirated goods, but I think they've said that before)

Lowlight:

• Day trip to Suzhou: Billed as one of China's top tourist destinations for its beautiful gardens and canal streets, we left rather unimpressed. It didn't help that the sky was flat gray and it was incredibly hot and humid. The train station was frustrating and we weren't excited about any of the restaurants. We went to one very pretty garden but in the end it wasn't worth all the effort. Oh well...
  

All in all we enjoyed Shanghai. Not a ton of touristy things to do but a very livable city it seemed (although with 16 million people, the crowds may get overwhleming after a bit). Of the mainland China cities we visited, definitely the one we'd be most comfortable living in.

On to more western places for a bit...up next, Hong Kong.

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Photos

Shanghai Skyline
Shanghai's great Pudong Skyline

Yu Yuan Garden
Laura relaxing in the garden