Welcome to China!

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Well, we finally left Japan and boarded our China Eastern airline flight to Shanghai. Straight away we noticed the differences in cultures. The Chinese flight was full of, well that, Chinese, loud mouthed and much less respectful than the Japanese. On board our flight, I looked up from reading my book and noticed the Chinese air stewardess was picking her nose, like it was the most normal thing in the world, while conversing with her male colleague; she rolled the booger and flicked it away. Her colleague was indifferent to the whole spectacle; I was pretty much in shock. The flight went without many hiccups, except maybe the lady behind me sneezing all over the back of my head several times, the male flight attendant drinking directly out of the same bottle he was serving every one else on the plane from and a tidal wave of liquid that flew all over the cabin area from the galley area, when we came in to land. Our first impression of Shanghai was a bit mixed. Our crazy Taxi driver got us to our hotel at warp speed, that was really impressive, especially as we weren’t killed several times by lorries, as he kept weaving in and out of traffic, with several near misses. I could see B’s face going white! The hotel is really nice; the area (Tao Pu Road) is a shit hole, to say the least. We went for a walk after settling in and people kept staring at us (I don’t think they see many foreigners in this area). We decided tomorrow we would do our tour from the “safer” position of a taxi, after all, they cost pittance! I won’t bore you any longer, only to say that B is taking a break at the moment, doing her stretching exercises and I will be going for a quick dip in the hotel pool, or maybe not!
Zai Jian,
M & B

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