Shanghai

---

We arrived in Shanghai, the largest city in China on Wednesday 30th April. Part of the trip is an organised tour with Intrepid travel which begins on the 6th May. We met the tour group of 9 people on Monday 5th for an introductory meeting, complimentary chop sticks, a stroll along the Bund area and a nice meal. We will be spending the next 12 days touring with this group.

Shanghai is an interesting city; when we first arrived, I was slightly dissapointed with how industrial and commercial the city was... after a few days it was easier to see that this monumental change was improving the conditions for the economy and if you look hard enough traditional China can still be found.

Once settled in our hostel, we took the subway to Peoples park, a normal park with some traditional Chinese architecture. We were happy to be approached by a group of Chinese students interested in where we were from... to cut a long story short we were successfully scammed into paying nearly 100 euros as payment in taking part in a Chinese tea ceremony - we will keep the finer points of the story for when we return but in the meantime we will be weary of over friendly strangers!

Getting around the city is surprisingly straightforward with signpost directions in both standard Chinese Mandarin and English. The taxi service is reliable, cheap and the most efficient way to travel the city. Our trip co-incided with labour day, a Chinese public holiday which lasts for three days. Coincidentally my friend and past work colleague Kan Wang was home for the holidays. We met Kan on Friday night where he brought us to various parts of the city starting in an up-market restaurant, an Irish bar and a nice roof-top night club in the Bund area looking over the Yangzi river.

The next day our tour guide recommended a few aditional tourist activities (prior to this we had visited the Shanghai meseum and Zoo). We started of at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower where we took the lift up 266 floors to get a birds-eye-view of the city. The bottom floor had an interesting mesuem of the history of China. Then it of to the Yu Gardens and Bazaar - this area depicts traditional China with fantastic architecture, unique food and souveners. Later that evening the tour group went to see the Shanghai Acrobats, this was a good show with amazing stunts. To top of a good day we met up with Kan who brought us to a fancy jazz club in a building overlooking the city lights - Thanks again Kan 😊

Our tour officially begins with a quick vist to an historic canal town called Xitang before traveling west to Xi-an.

---

Comments

[mum]

Did you eat that Ivan? good to hear from you both.

[grons]

wowzers!
Hi Gems, the architecture looks beautiful, it reminds me (kind of) of my time in thailand. Are youse planning to go to japan at all? I miss youse so much, even though I only seen you about three times a year before you went away! this seems totally different!!

[Kan]

You are welcome. It has been great meeting with you and showing you around Shanghai. Enjoy your time in rest parts of China.

[Jackie]

Hey china girl
well you are having a great time and mum will now be counting the days to see you again. barry and Amanda are in love...how many photos now. Hope you can do one big dvd of photos and send to me. Keep on enjoying and thanks for the up date.