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Published: October 6th 2009
Paul Pudong Shanghai
Shanghai skyline with Oriental TV Tower on leftTUES 29 SEPT 09
Brimming with excitement but with a little pinch of apprehension we headed for our next major flight - Shanghai, China!
WED 30 SEPT 09
At 7am local time (midnight UK time) we landed in a rather wet, cloudy, rainy, grey Shanghai. As we left the airport I realised rainy and wet may have been a minor understatement ... it was a monsoon, absolutely chucking it down and getting heavier by the minute!!
We took the Worlds only commercial Maglev train to the city. The train is suspended above the track and propelled by the forces of magnetism. It takes eight minutes to reach the suburbs of Shanghai from the airport and accelerates to 430kph in the first four minutes before immediately decelerating again. It was incredible as the outside world whizzed by became so fast it was just a blur and it was so smooth - a great experience!! (Huge thanks to Valerie for recommending!)
We grabbed a taxi for the final leg of the journey back to the hotel. Well ... what an experience that was!!!! There do not seem to be any rules or regulations regarding road usage. The roads are full
of not just cars but people as well, on push bikes, scooters and walking (yes, even in the middle of the fast lane on a duel carriageway)! No one looks, they just pull out. People just walk in front of cars, no matter what pace they are doing. Red traffic lights don't seem to mean stop, just slow down and pull out anyway. There are only two speeds, flat out or totally stationary which results in a fairly whiplash inducing ride. Car horns are utilised virtually continually and seemingly instead of indicators or the brakes!! Sitting in the back of the taxi would rival any white knuckle Pleasure Beach ride and I guess the road casualty incident rate here is astronomical!!
Now, before getting the taxi I had read that you had to insist on a printed receipt not hand written and the cost should have been around 50RMB (£5). I had the address written in Chinese and showed it the driver, he set off. Half an hour later and by the way he kept glaring at the piece of paper, we established that actually he didn't have a clue where we were going!! (Huge thanks those at home
Shanghai Train Station
Work that announcement board out! who warned me about the taxi situation prior to leaving ... think you cursed me!! Ha ha!) Another ten minutes past and he made a phone call, seemed to determine the location and headed back the opposite way.
When we stopped the hostel was not in sight. The taxi man pointed through the driving rain down a road which listed the name of where our accommodation was located. He then proceeded to try and charge us 300RMB (£30) for the journey!! Astute to this sort of scam I had already hidden all of our money except for 50RMB which is what it should of cost! Well! I won't go into details about what ensued so as not to scare my pa but after much yelling in Chinese (obviously that wasn't us!), the taxi pulling off and stopped again several times, I got my phone out and started to ring our hostel and the driver backed down and said 200RMB, when I continued to phone he said 150RMB, when I started to speak to the hostel (not that was much help as they were Chinese and couldn't understand) but it seemed to do the trick he got out, threw our bags out of the boot onto the road, took the 50RMB I had in my hand and drove off - still yelling in Chinese! Feeling pleased with the fact we hadn't been scammed we picked up our soaking bags and put them on our dripping wet backs and started to walk to our hostel. Just one problem ... it was at the opposite end of the road - about a mile walk, with all our worldly belongings and in monsoon rain so heavy we could not have been anymore wet if we had been submerged underwater, we trudged towards our hostel!!!
We finally reached the hostel and a bemused reception after our odd phone call, we were shown to our room where we could wring out all of our clothes ... including our underwear we were that wet!!
The room was ok, just a bed basically with a 30cm gap from the end of it to the wall ... as Paul so eloquently put it on entering the room, “Good job we don't have a cat!” However, it was only needed for sleeping so just a bed would suffice. The main problem with the room was immediately upon opening the door a strong pungent smell engulfed your nostrils and resulted in the gag reflex being initiated! We soon worked out that the small windowless room with an equally small windowless bathroom attached did not allow any steam or damp to escape and culminated in the smell (a cross between damp rot and stale water from sparsely utilised drains or pipes). Thing is this was a particularly good rated, clean hostel - got to say room was passable ... it was just the smell!! Definitely not flash packing this time ... Well and truly back packing!!
After a brief sleep to try and combat the effects of jet-lag, we set off to try and distinguish the metro, Shanghai's equivalent of London's tube network. What became immediately apparent is that non of the Chinese we encountered were remotely friendly, let alone helpful or even patient. We were on our own! Luckily after watching several Chinese using the automated ticketing machines we worked out we had a better idea of how to use them than they did and we were well away! The metro was cheap, mega efficient and could take you anywhere across the city you desired. Our first stop was the main train station as we were advised to book tickets to get to Beijing asap to ensure we got a seat!
We stepped out of the train station onto the main square which was just covered by a plethora of multi-coloured umbrellas - never mind nine million bicycles in Beijing, Paul said there should be a song there are nine million umbrellas in Shanghai!! As we trudged through the ever increasing water level, mud and dirt being swept across the streets, pavements and ever higher up our walking boots till it was precariously close to running into our shoes, it must have looked like something from the Ministry of Funny walks as with every step we had to dodge, duck and side step the millions of umbrella points headed straight for eye level!
After queuing for over two hours in three different queues attempting to use an automatic ticket booking system to secure a seat on a night train to Beijing, we finally secumed to the fact we were not going to be able to locate the one correct ticket machine out of over one hundred which covered that route and headed for the posh five star Longmen Hotel where we read there was a business centre which could book for you.
We had no sooner stepped across the elaborate marble threshold to enter the hotel when a rather concerned looking employee raced over to our bedraggled bodies. In fact we continued to be frowned upon and treated with just a morsel of contempt (which included being informed that the hotel only booked soft-sleeper executive level overnight trains to Beijing) until I confirmed that would be appropriate and displayed sufficient money to cover the cost!!
Hhmmm! I had to ask myself ... would it actually be easier and perhaps more enjoyable to settle down ... or consider starting a family???
Nah! Must be just over tired!!
THURS 1 OCT 09
Shanghai is divided into three main districts, two of which (The Old City and the Former French Concession) lie on the West of the Huangpu River and one (Pudong) lies to the East.
We caught the tube across the city and the river to Dongchang Lu and started our explorations in Pudong.
Apparently, this area used to be known as the wrong side of the river, but since being granted the status of Special Economic Zone in the early 1990's its skyline has been transformed from a stream of paddy fields into a sea of skyscrapers and cranes.
The modern buildings and architecture were incredible and designated primarily to commerce. Obviously, I wanted to get a birds eye view of this dramatic scenery and so managed to convince Paul to enter the Jinmao tower which boasts amongst other feats as having the highest swimming pool in the world and the highest bar in the world. The Hyatt Hotel takes up most of the floors from the 54th where its lobby is upwards. (Quick note to all those people who wanted to visit Shanghai but were put off by my description of the intolerable stench permeating from our hostel pipes - there are some very ... VERY good high quality hotels here - prices to match but if you want to visit in style, this hotel for one was jaw dropping!!!)
Yet again looking slightly conspicuous dripping water with every step and not looking anywhere near of sufficient caliber to be within the confines of a five star hotel, we looked out of the 360degree panorama, floor to ceiling glass windows over the Shanghai skyline and marveled at the feats of engineering which surrounded us on all sides.
The next stop was the oriental pearl TV tower (457m high), a rocket shaped building with two globe shaped projections, probably the most recognisable feature of the skyline - what shocked us here was the amount of Chinese! Apparently, the tower has become a mandatory pilgrimage for most Chinese visitors to Shanghai! Very amusing!!
To return back to the West side of the Huangpu river we opted to travel through The Bund Tunnel under the river which due to sitting in a small motorised carriage and being subjected to light, sound effects and various things which appeared or disappeared in front of the carriage for the entire journey closely resembled a Pleasure beach ride!!
The Bund in stark contrast to the East side of the river consists of a strip of grand colonial edifices. originally it was a working harbour - now it is stated to be one of the “most exclusive chunks of real estate in China”. All the most luxurious brands Cartier, Gucci etc have shops along the front. We walked from here West towards Peoples square along the main shopping street Nanjing Dong Lu. It was dark by this time and the street was illuminated by neon lights and vibrant window displays. Ornamental decorations hung from the tree lined pedestrianised street and there were people EVERYWHERE!! It is like rush hour in London but 24/7 here - sheer and utter madness and chaos!! I have never seen SO many people!
We had read in the guide book it is much more authentic and a great deal cheaper to eat from the street stalls rather than in restaurants, we just needed to find one with a lot of people and this narrows the chances of food poisoning!! This we did, a little stall selling dumplings, a spicy pork stuffing type filling, coated in a baked suet absolutely delicious and only 20p!!
The final place we walked through before returning to the hostel was a development called Xintiandi. It comprised of two blocks of renovated and rebuilt shikumen converted into an extravagant architectural design that although voted one of the four greatest modern buildings in China was still recognisably Chinese. Houses with stoned gateways, paved and pedestrianised narrow lanes lead to and from a central plaza littered with fancy restaurants and bars all of which has been reconstructed with original materials. It was a beautiful area with an original, authentic but modern feel and aura.
After walking forever, we called it a day and headed back to prepare to leave for our next stop ... Beijing!!!!!
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Mandy
non-member comment
Great to hear from you!
Hello to you both. Great to hear you are both well and enjoying yourselves. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. Take care. Love Mandy x