After a 06.40 bus from Huang Shan, we arrived in Shanghai at about 1.30 in the afternoon. From the long distance bus station, we took our first ride on the metro system to the centre of town in the hope of finding a room for the next four nights...our hopes quickly faded! We spent a good few hours walking round the busiest area of town, through busy pedestrian streets, all with 10kg strapped to our backs, and another small rucksuck on our fronts...in the bright sunshine and temperatures in the high 20's! Not exactly what I had envisioned, but we kept soldiering on, we eager want a hotel to stay.
To be fair, it was a city never sleeps Saturday, it was July, and the Shanghai Expo was on! We would have booked, but we didn't know when we were going to arrive, and were a day ahead of schedule anyway! Along the way I had found a ridiculously overpriced hotel, and then a mid range one, and by this time it was about 5pm, we'd had no lunch and were a bit over it....we paid over the odds but needed a room, nearby, and soon, before it got too dark and we got further and further afield! We booked a nice room, with internet, which meant we could book a place online a little further out for 3 nights in a row.
That night, we had a much needed hearty Chinese dinner and walked to the Bund to see the city properly, not through tired traveler, backpack-wearing eyes! We had a nice walk along the riverfront and admired the impressive skyline along with the crowds!
We left our hotel, and took the metro to our new accomodation which was a mission to find....helped by the fact that we'd missed off a line of the address, not naming names on who did that. Once again we found ourselves wandering in the Shanghai sun with bags on our backs, maps in hand!
The metro system was easy to navigate, and it didn't take us long to get in and out of town from our new hotel. Due to the Expo, Shanghai have added eight new lines to their metro system, and you still smell the glue drying in some of the stations!
Finally we check out and we walked along the bund, took a crazy train across to Pudong district where we went up the worlds 3rd tallest building and viewed Shanghai from the 100th floor - very impressive, if a little smoggy. We explored the French concession area which was very nice with its wide tree-lined streets and calmer nature! After much walking we rewarded ourselves with a Peking duck dinner, even though we were not in Beijing, it was still as tasty!
Another scorcher of a day in Shanghai and we visited the Shanghai museum with an impressive collection of all things Chinese. Outside we enjoyed the beautiful weather and blue skies in the park before walking to Old town to visit YuYuan gardens, a beautiful traditional Chinese garden and rockery complete with pond and coy carp. We had the traditional "xiao long bao" for lunch which are famous shanghainese dumplings, and after explored the rest of Old town...which is actually quite new looking but has been made to look traditional. Under the ornate buildings there is still a starbucks! There are some bustling side streets if you explore a bit though!
Another Chinese dinner with strange crispy noodles and a complicated time buying train tickets ended our day. The self service machine provided much confusion so we got in line for the counter, and I had a good conversation in Chinese with the sales person, and could tell her what time we needed our train because tomorrow was our day trip to Suzhou....
To be fair, it was a city never sleeps Saturday, it was July, and the Shanghai Expo was on! We would have booked, but we didn't know when we were going to arrive, and were a day ahead of schedule anyway! Along the way I had found a ridiculously overpriced hotel, and then a mid range one, and by this time it was about 5pm, we'd had no lunch and were a bit over it....we paid over the odds but needed a room, nearby, and soon, before it got too dark and we got further and further afield! We booked a nice room, with internet, which meant we could book a place online a little further out for 3 nights in a row.
That night, we had a much needed hearty Chinese dinner and walked to the Bund to see the city properly, not through tired traveler, backpack-wearing eyes! We had a nice walk along the riverfront and admired the impressive skyline along with the crowds!
We left our hotel, and took the metro to our new accomodation which was a mission to find....helped by the fact that we'd missed off a line of the address, not naming names on who did that. Once again we found ourselves wandering in the Shanghai sun with bags on our backs, maps in hand!
The metro system was easy to navigate, and it didn't take us long to get in and out of town from our new hotel. Due to the Expo, Shanghai have added eight new lines to their metro system, and you still smell the glue drying in some of the stations!
Finally we check out and we walked along the bund, took a crazy train across to Pudong district where we went up the worlds 3rd tallest building and viewed Shanghai from the 100th floor - very impressive, if a little smoggy. We explored the French concession area which was very nice with its wide tree-lined streets and calmer nature! After much walking we rewarded ourselves with a Peking duck dinner, even though we were not in Beijing, it was still as tasty!
Another scorcher of a day in Shanghai and we visited the Shanghai museum with an impressive collection of all things Chinese. Outside we enjoyed the beautiful weather and blue skies in the park before walking to Old town to visit YuYuan gardens, a beautiful traditional Chinese garden and rockery complete with pond and coy carp. We had the traditional "xiao long bao" for lunch which are famous shanghainese dumplings, and after explored the rest of Old town...which is actually quite new looking but has been made to look traditional. Under the ornate buildings there is still a starbucks! There are some bustling side streets if you explore a bit though!
Another Chinese dinner with strange crispy noodles and a complicated time buying train tickets ended our day. The self service machine provided much confusion so we got in line for the counter, and I had a good conversation in Chinese with the sales person, and could tell her what time we needed our train because tomorrow was our day trip to Suzhou....
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