Shanghai

On Thursday night three of us all made our way to the Beijing Railway and hopped on a sleep train to Shanghai. It's an 11 hour trip but it was great because we had to get the most expensive ticket as the rest were sold out so we had a soft sleeper which cost around $250 return.

After a quick dinner at a Japanese restaurant we found our Harry Potter style platform after asking more than one authoritive looking figure for directions in the huge station. We had a great cabin in the soft sleeper section and the forth bed was left unoccupied which was a nice change from being surrounded by millions of them. Our wake up call was at 6:30 and staying true to the culture, consisted of a no-knocking, door-opening with a screech of a few unrecognisable words.

We had been told Shanghai was much warmer then Beijing at this time so we only had one outfit and no big jacket, which worked ok if you were walking (fast) or inside but it was still pretty freezing.



We arrived with nothing but a subway map and a scribbled address of a Backpackers Hostel but after realising the hostel was miles away from both the French Concession and the Bund (Shanghai’s two main areas) we had to find somewhere else to stay. The subway took us to Huai Hai Road which is a massive shopping road and we were told there were lots of Bars and restaurants around thus thinking there would be tons of foreigners and cheap hostels. After walking for about an hour we had found none of these things and finally went into a ritzy looking Hotel which had an Australian flag out the front. Here we got a proper map of Shanghai and was told the cheapest place in the city was a students Hotel just next door. It wasn’t cheap and after looking at one of the rooms quickly decided against that idea. The map took us to another street claiming fame for it’s bars and eateries and just as we were turning into it I spotted a tourist information booth, we all rushed to signal the taxi driver to stop and went in to ask about cheap accommodation. The lady could hardly speak a word of English and eventually told us that because Shanghai was such a busy and modern city there were no cheap youth Hostels in the city. Back at square one, while we were being obvious tourists standing on the side of the road with our map flailing in the wind, a Frenchy walked past and asked if we could use some help. We all cried “YES!” simultaneously before even looking who was speaking to us and he proceeded to point us to an International Youth Hostel around 4 blocks away from the tourist info booth!! Eventually, after getting some more directions along the way, we saw a green sign pointing us down a dingy alleyway. The Hostel was nice and we paid about $15 for a 4 dorm room which we shared with another Chinese girl. We had a quick breakfast there which was the choice of: plain scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs with bacon and green in it, and hard boiled eggs, on toast.

After talking to some Poms and Sweeds at the hostel we planned a little self guided tour. First up was the site of the first national congress meeting of the communists which has been made into a mini museum showing the founding of the party. It was pretty interesting but not sure how much bias is involved in things like that. I found it funny that they praised all the founding members but when reading the captions next to their names more the two thirds of them were executed or put in prison for treason!
Next up we went to People’s square/park for a few photo’s and got chatting to some Chinese uni students from Xian who asked us to take a picture. Because we had no plans set in stone they offered for us to come with them to see a cultural show. It sounded fine but after asking what the show was about they said “Just some Uni student’s artwork and we can drink some tea.” Immediately we all said No and walked away. Although this sounds like a safe enough offer this was about the 6th time we had been asked this since arriving in China on different occasions. Recently all tourists have been warned to refuse offers to visit Uni Art exhibitions and tea drinking sessions as it is a set up which you end up being accused of either buying something or owing a lot of money and is apparently a very scary and intimidating experience that you come out of a lot poorer. We read it in my lonely planet guide and it was on the hostel notice board as well.

Next we made our way to the Yuyuan gardens which are in the middle of a maze of beautiful old building that have been converted into markets and dumpling shops. They are mostly made of rocks which is great maintenance for the non-gardening type like myself. While we were in there we got sucked into having one of those photo’s taken wearing the traditional Chinese clothing as we didn’t have any souvenirs from Shanghai yet. It was hilarious and we became the laughing stock of every tourist in sight feeling like some distorted photo shoot as stacks of Chinese cameras were flashing in our faces. Turned out to be not a great photo as we were all trying not to laugh but it’s a funny memento.

We grabbed a quick lunch drinking tea that tasted like the Murray River and after being unable to find an empty taxi made our way to the Bund. It’s a strip of river with modern city buildings lining one side and Old buildings built by all different countries business men like banks and hotels on the other as every county back in the day wanted their little piece of culture in Shanghai. It’s quite beautiful in a city sort of way.

Dinner was an attempt to find an Indian style place recommended by the Lonely Planet we’d borrowed from the Hostel but after thinking we found it and not liking the look of all the men smiling and beckoning us in to eat we kept going and found a Nepalese Restaurant. It was in a tiny building but had a tiny staircase that just kept going up. We ate on the fourth floor and it was amazing food with great pictures of Tibet and Nepal decorating the walls. The photo makes it look bright but the only lights were tiny tea candles and dimly lit wall lights so it was nice and relaxing.

The street we were on also had a few Bars recommended by the book and the Sweeds from the hostel. The main one we wanted to find happened to be right next door to the Nepalese place but we would never have found it otherwise. It was just an opening in the wall with a metal staircase and no lights apart from 9 holes of light on the back wall. It is called “The People” and either side of the light is big steel prison doors. The only way to get in is to put your arm into two of the holes in the right order. Twice the wrong door opened which just had a mirror with the word “gotcha” on it but finally we got the right combination. It was a super nifty place with a few levels of darkened restaurants and a massive steel bar. We ordered one cocktail each with no idea what we were getting. Vikki’s was milky and pink, Mine was called the Broken Romance and was bright green and icy and Rosie got a Purple Crystal which was really sweet and…Purple. We went in search for another Bar but ended up walking around getting too cold and after looking at some city lights we got a taxi home.

Saturday morning we were all craving some nice pastries or bakery things and with Shanghai having a lot of French influences we found a great sounding one in the Lonely Planet called Croissantsde France. We got a taxi to where we thought it was then spent the next house and a half getting more and more hungry and frustrated at locals not knowing their streets. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and just as I was about to eat my own arm we saw it! The food inside was soooo good with chocolate croissants, cheese and bacon-y things and doughnuts which made it well worth the walk.

Made our way again to the Bund and went on a 1 hour river cruise (in the boat you can see on the water...) It was one big rip off so lucky it was only $12 it went for about 40 minutes tops and only cruised the bit of the river we could see anyway. It started saying some history about the building about 10 minutes before we got off and you could hardly understand the recording anyway.
(China Wouldn't be China without some construction to ruin the beauty!)


Typical German's....No one understands why they do what they do... who pay's for a boat tour just to do exercise?

Lastly we went to the former residence and museum of Dr Sun Yat-Sen who was the President of the republic of China, we didn't really know anything about him but turns out he was the guy to transformed the whole of china from the feudal system by helping overthrow the Qing dynasty in 1911 and turning china into a modern republic. We wondered why he would be still seen as such a hero now that the communist party rules but apparently after he left presidency and was old he sided with the communist members before he died. He was also known for making all the men cut off their long plaits (there was one gross one in the museum) becasue it represented the Feudal idea of peasantry and servitude which I thought was pretty interesting.

After that we were pretty much exhausted and Shanghai has no where near as many things to see as Beijing so we went back to the hostel to relax and watch a movie before we had to get to the train.

Again we had our own cabin and had a good trip back. We got into Beijing around 7 Sunday morning, and we made our way back to our homes all ready for a nice easy day. I had breakfast with Jessica and Doris then found out we were going swimming at 10am with another mother and girl. We went to an indoor pool that was sooo much nicer then the spooky one I went to by myself and swum for about an hour before a massive lunch, on the way home I found out I was going shopping..so we dropped Jessica and the girls off and the just the other Woman took me out, it didn't last long because she couldn't speak barely a word of English so we just wandered around smiling to each other then came back... It was really close to my house though so it's great to know it's there now.

Today I did not want to go back to the Kinder and at 4 o'clock when I usually try to go home I was told (without any warning) that the "new" baby class is waiting to be taught and that this is their very first english lesson...... I was pretty annoyed because of the lack of warning so I had to try even harder to feign absolute excitment and on top of that half the kids cried at the sight of a foreigner anyway. (I'm trying not to take that personally) haha so for 20 long minutes I sat there with nothing prepared and attempted to count to 3 in many different ways and said "hello" about 500 times which about 3 of them replied to. So I have no idea how i'm going to come up with 4 months of lessons for them but we'll see what happens.