As most of you no doubt know
Tom was recently out here for a visit/holiday, we had 19 days of stomping about
China fitting in as much as we possibly could. Looking back, I think we did very well
considering how much time he was here.
This year, we decided to meet in Shanghai. We
went to Beijing last year and, although we both love Beijing, the further
travel options are limited.
I had already been to Shanghai as so knew a very nice hostel and the basics of
the subway system, which definitely made things easier. The hostel is
fantastic; (if anyone is interested Rock and Wood Hostel) we had booked a private room so we could get plenty of sleep and still
managed to meet people in the hostel bar, plus we didn't have to worry about keeping our stuff in order, which is always a plus. Our first few days were fairly chilled
out and relaxed, as we knew the middle travelling part of the holiday was going
to be tiring and hectic. We spent the weekend wandering about the interesting
and more spectacular parts of the city making sure to find time to visit some of the attractions. We probably managed to see and do more the first three days of this years holiday than we managed in the whole of last years two weeks. Of course we were prepared for trouble! I arrived with 4 boxes of stomach tablets and Tom a further 6, between us we could have solved the problems of a vindaloo addicted elephant with a delicate constitution.
We managed to do most of the shanghai Top 10 tourist spots and added in several of our own. Walking along The Bund is always a good few hours of people watching followed by a stroll along NanJing Road, one of the world largest pedestrianised shopping streets. We also went up the World Finance Center, which boasts the Guinness books of Records, “Highest Observation platform” at a stomach churning 497 meters. It was here that we discovered that Tom was not so happy with heights. I have been up the tower before but I was unlucky to have had bad weather that day, this time it was clear and sunny so the view was incredible. Looking down on the other skyscrapers of the Shanghai skyline is really something. Tom developed a habit of muttering "wow, just wow" every time we saw something famous or impressive. As I am sure you can imagine, this was said ALOT especially in the next few places we visited.
We also booked to see a troop of local acrobats, an experience which ranged from "wow" to "I can't look any more". This was my third time seeing an acrobat show, the other two being in Beijing, and I still don't think I have seen the same act twice.
Actually, the only temple we visited was in Shanghai. We visited JinAn Temple, which is beautiful but has a very strange feel to it. The temple itself could have been built yesterday and it is in the middle of a busy shopping and market street. I wouldn't have been too surprised if someone had told me one day it fell from the sky and Shanghai decided to keep it where it was. We were in Shanghai during the May Day holiday so the central courtyard was full of people burning candles and praying whereas the rest of the temple was almost deserted. Made for a very strange almosphere but very interesting regardless.
Otherwise, our first few days were more of a 'where do I want to go back to' list as our trip would be ending back there in a couple of weeks time. We went and explored shopping areas and souvenir streets but were very restrained in not buying anything. Anything bought at this point in the holiday would have to be carried round with us or left in a bag behind a desk.
We booked a flight to GuiLin (24 hour train journey I think NOT) for our third day so it was only a quick introduction to ShangHai. We will be back!
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