Shanghai was a wonderful place

Shanghai – Saturday 23 April

 

What a day but first I really should say a big thank you to Renee Olsen from the Flight Centre at Dukes Arcade.   She has done a great job of putting our trip together so if I mention Renee thought this blog that will be who I am talking about. We managed to sneak our way into the Koru Lounge in Auckland so a few snacks there as we went through some last minute briefs with Doug & Ngaire and gave them their documents.

 

The flight left on time and we were soon in the air.  NZ480 bound for Shanghai.  The realisation that we were on holiday finally starting to sink in. A pleasant fight but the screen on the in house entertainment system was crap and everything seemed to be happening at night.

 

Shanghai – Saturday 23 April

 

We arrived at Shanghai early (7.30am Saturday) to a beautiful but smoggy day and found our way to the Maglev.  This rocketed us into the edge of the city reaching a top speed of 431 km/h.  We thought we would catch the Metro from there but after standing in a queue that hadn’t even got in the station door for a while we though we would grab a cab.  We negotiated a price of 180RMB (around$45kiwi) for the trip amongst many taxi drivers vying for our custom.  We managed to squeeze all our bags and us into this not so big cab and head off.  He obviously did not know where he was taking us and we then had to talk to a call centre and explain where.  An interesting time where we made our own lane down some of the roads. Constantly had horns blown at we think us and every now and then he took booth hands off the wheel to show us how big Shanghai was.  The road in many places was set well above the ground level.  We had a bit of heated discussion when we got to our hotel as he then wanted 300RMB and wanted the money before we got out of the car.  We gave him 200 as that was what we had in notes, got out in the middle of the street and headed for the hotel.

 

It turned out we were at the wrong wing of the hotel but they stole us any way said they were giving us an upgrade and it wouldn’t cost any more.  That’s what we did so hope it all works out Renee.  We got our room straight away dumped our gear and were ready to explore what promised to be a wonderful city.

 

Our closest station was Shanghai Railway Station so we headed off there. 4 minutes away.  We got in this queue and after going down these raceway things found ourselves at the front of the station only to realise that everyone else had tickets and we didn’t.  We could then see there was another place next door for buying tickets but these raceway things only went one way.   After some stuffing around as we appeared to be locked in this corral area we found a gate that was not locked and we could head the other way down one of the chutes.  Lined up in the room full of automatic ticket booths and were struggling our way thought that to find the main station and the Metro were too different places.  So off to the Metro we go a few 100 metres back the way we had come.  We found a nice lady in a booth and managed to convey to her that we wanted 4 tickets to Najini Nth Road Station.  The fun had just begun,  We need to get on Line 1 and into Peoples Square (3 stops) and change to  Line 2 and go 1 stop.  After more fun with the machines and a long walk to No 2 line we were there. The trains were long and almost standing room only we shared odours with the locals as we got up close.

 

We emerged from the station to be greeted by a couple of locals that wanted to take us to their shop.  We couldn’t shake them as we headed down the road so eventually did end up in their shop.  They didn’t have what we wanted and we escaped although we could have brought an iPhone for about $NZ160.  An impressive looking copy I am guessing. They recommended a restaurant across the road which didn’t look much and nobody spoke English but turned out to be good.  The Chinese beer was great and we have had it a few times since.  We headed off down he Bund which was a very popular spot along the old town side of river.  Hundreds of people walking along wedding photos but possibly the most popular event was a white guy with a long green spiked Mohawk.  The Chinese loved having there photograph taken with him. The Huangpu River was a huge river with all sorts of shipping going past and on which Shanghai is built around. The Bund was touted as the spot where you can see the old and the new Shanghai. Across the river was the new and some really amazing and tall buildings.  Unbelievably high.  We found a tourist tunnel expecting to walk through and be able to see the river bottom but no we end up paying 100 RMB which did include a ticket to get in the Science & Technology Museum and we ended up in little pods which took us through a tunnel with noise and a laser light show.  We emerged at the other side found a Metro station and headed to the Science & Technology museum.  However after getting off the train we walked straight into the Fake Market where you could buy lots of gizmos clothes and allsorts of things.  Doug brought shirts Margret shoes and Ngaire and I nothing.  If it was the end of our trip and we had room in our cases we would have brought heaps.  We headed up to the Museum,  There was heaps in it, a fantastic building and a wee bit like Te Papa.  We were all feeling very tired at this stage as it had been a enormous day, especially those that didn’t sleep much on the plane.  We headed back to the Metro and our hotel.  It took us a while to find somewhere to eat as most places didn’t have a menu.  Eventually we found a Japanese restaurant and ended up with a really enjoyable meal.

 

Back to the hotel booked a tour of the water village for the next day and fell into our beds.  All reported the best night sleep we had had for ages.

 

Sunday 24 April – Tour of Water Villages

 

Woke up for a 7.30 breakfast as we were being collected at 8.40 for our tour.  Jo our tour guide was waiting for us when we got down stairs.  There were 8 of us on the tour, us four, a Nicaraguan couple now living in California.  He worked for an electronics firm which had stuff built in Shanghai.  And a Chinese couple.  It was a good group and if the Chinese couple had been able to speak English we would have all had a great time.  First stop was just over an hour out and was a garden in XXXXX.  It was a garden built 500 years ago by a communications official that had nothing else to do and wanted something to pass on to the next generation.  He must of got it right as thousands of people were still pouring through the gate 500 years later. It was a very nice tranquil place.  We then headed off to the last bit of what was a walled city and up onto a high arched bridge.  Made high to fit the Emperor’s barge under with all his concubines.  We were then off for lunch before getting a look around the number one silk works in all of China (and the world).  It was really interesting and we got to spread out a silk worm cocoon to help make a bedspread.  We ended up buying a bedspread which is being shipped home.

 

It was then off to Zhouzhuang The number 1 Water Town of China, or the Oriental Venice made famous by a New York painter who painted the right angled bridges and sold the painting to an oil Baron who then presented it to the Chinese Premier.  A fascinating smelly little town.  We got punted around the cannels.  Well not really punted but propelled by an oar out the back which was sort of twisted to get the forward motion.  They were also famous for their pork as the Premier liked it.  Headed back to the hotel arriving around 6.30 and headed out to Mr Lee’s for a meal.  Really interesting with us all eating our noodle meals with chop sticks.  Another early night.  What I have learnt is that is tiring being on holiday.

 

Jo was a brilliant guide.  Interesting, good English, a good general knowledge and a great sense of humour.

 

Monday 25th April

 

We thought we would have a sleep in but were down for breakfast at 8.30.  We weren’t in a hurray as we wanted to travel outside the rush hour.  After breakfast it was off to the Metro.  We were becoming experts by now but were still having a bit of trouble with the ticket machines.  Some were coins only, some gave no change and some just didn’t seem to work.  The only good thing was the locals seemed to have similar problems.  We headed for The Peoples Square for no other reason than we had transferred through there on the Saturday and never got a chance to go up top and look.  Well nothing much up top anyway.  We were often accosted by young Chinese looking for someone to practice their English on.  That was always a lot of fun.  From the Peoples Square we just started walking and taking in the local culture.  After a while we thought we would go looking for the Yu Gardens which were supposed to be part of the early Shanghai.  We found where they were but couldn’t find an entrance but did end up in some temple.  While the girls were in some diamond centre Doug and I were sitting out side when I got suckered into buying a couple of Rolexes.  I finally beat him down to 80 RMB but later found out the 20 RMB he had given me for change was probably monopoly money.  Well it might as well have been.  I count myself lucky as he tried to swap the 100 RMB note I had given him for another one as he claimed the one I gave him was ripped.  I told him to get lost which was just as well as he would have been giving me a fake there as well.  All good fun as 20 RMB was only $5 any way.  Ngaire did even better she came out and got her two watches for 35 RMB.  Fortunately the girls hadn’t brought any diamonds.  Well not that we know of.  We mucked around in the area, had some lunch where Doug ordered these Durian cakes.  Very vial tasting things.  The waiter watched me eat the one I was forced into eating and laughed the whole time.  Some more sightseeing and by the time we found the gardens it was too late to go in.  Something for tomorrow.  We went and explored another park and then home on the Metro.  We found this really impressive restaurant not too far from our hotel and ate a really top notch meal before heading back to the hotel for another early night.

 

This touristy stuff is really tough.

 

Tuesday 26th – Our last day in Shanghai

 

We headed off just after nine for the Yu gardens.  We found a faster way than getting home the night before and were there shortly after 10.  The gardens were lovely and we got to participate in a tea ceremony.  We then headed back into the crowd and ended up at apparently the oldest Tea house in Shanghai, 185 years old for another tea ceremony.  All these healthy teas should have fixed all our ailments.  In spite of Doug’s ribbing I went and brought a Man Bag I had seen the day before.  I needed something more styley than the pack I had been carting around knocking people in the subway with.  I am sure I got more attraction from the girls with my new bag.  We wandered off towards the communications tower which towered about half a kilometre into the sky.  It was always hard to see the top because of the pollution.  We managed to find a ferry to cross the river.  It cost 40cents NZ.  We had a late lunch in a huge shopping mall with an amazing assortment of foods.  We went to a bakery with some really nice bread and pastries.  We headed for the tower but decided 150 RMB was more than we wanted to pay so gave it a miss.  You probably couldn’t see that far with the smog.

 

Somebody said the temperature was 31 Degrees today.  We shot back into the mall and wandered around before catching the metro back to the hotel where we had left our bags. We grab a taxi to the airport so we could see different stuff to the trip in.  Driving in Shanghai is always interesting, lane markings don’t mean much and horns been blowen constantly, we saw heaps of very large apartment building.  We joked that there were maybe more people in one of these than  in Hastings.  We got to the airport far too quickly, less than an hour and over 3 hours before we could start checking in.  It gave me my first chance to really catch up on this Blog.  However have been struggling to find wifi convenient to upload this.  Heading for the plane and Athens with a two hour stop-off in Munich. Should be there in 18 hours.

 

Renee full marks for our Shanghai hotel.  Apart from no free internet it was excellent.  By the way a Taxi to the airport was 190 RMB less than $40 NZ.

 

Next stop Athens