First stop...China

Hi all,

Well so far so good and i am actually entering my first post onto my blog.

So...here goes... We landed in Shanghai to immense heat and humidity which was unbearable but expected. After checking into our hotel we went for a stroll and ended up in the Old City at a place called Yu Gardens & Bazaar.

This is how you imagine China to look, stone dragons and red lanterns everywhere and oriental style buildings down narrow passageways. They even had a Starbucks that fitted right in! We came across this place completely by accident and ended up going again because we loved it so much, aside from the Chinese who will push and shove you all over the place. Apparently this is standard in China and so we've started doing it back!

The following day we walked through a place called Nanjing Lu which looks like Shanghai's equivalent of Oxford Circus. The hustle and bustle is crazy and there are people coming up to you from all angles trying to sell you a Cucci or Prado handbag.... or buy a hat and get a rolex free! It's probably a good thing we don't have the space in our backpacks for anything else because it was shopping galore. We even took a tram ride through the centre and never even saw it all, the shops and department stores just went on forever.

Later we met a very nice Chinese couple in People's Park who wanted to practice their English and so we went to a Tea Party for traditional Chinese tea. You learn all about the history and different types (over 1600 in China) and so on, much more interesting than i thought.

We attempted the Shanghai museum but i am sorry to say i'm just not interested! I love China but there is only so much i need to know about vases and paintings from different dynasties and so on. I think we lasted about 30 mins before we had to get out of there.

We walked to a place called the French Concession, there is a whole history behind the place that i won't bore you with, but it was like being in a part of London with the quirky bistros and boutiques, which i really didn't think i'd be seeing in China.

Later on we went to the Bund which overlooks the river Huangpu with Pudong on the other side. The buildings on Pudong are like something out of the future, and the Bund looks very much like Westminster! We went on a boat trip to get amazing views of both skylines lit up at night time. The river divides the Bund and Pudong, so you get some pretty cool views.

We saw the Shanghai of the future at the Urban Planning Centre where they think in a few years time the city will have massively expanded. The city really isn't how i imagined it as it's all so modern and advanced. If it wasn't for the billions Chinese people and noodle bars on every corner you could be at home!

After we had done and seen everything we wanted to we decided it was time to move on to Beijing which is a 13 hour train ride away. What we didn't know was that in order to guarantee a 'sleeper' ticket on the train you have to book days in advance. On top of that it was also a Chinese public holiday and so there were loads of tourists from Beijing going back home. So... unless we wanted to stay in Shanghai longer we had to get a stand up ticket. That was the worst decision of my life! We were in a standard train carriage filled with as many people as they could cram in. Those fortunate to have the right ticket had a seat, the rest had no where to go other than the aisles/ toilets and under people's seats. We were so lucky that 2 Chinese men gave us their seats for the entire journey otherwise i don't know how we'd have done it! To get up to the toilet you had to step over people trying to sleep on the floor and it wasn't easy, and also the loos were just a hole in the ground, so neither of us drank a drop until we arrived in Beijing! Aside from feeling like I was in hell for the longest 13 hours of my life, i can laugh now that we got here safe and sound, but never again!

I'm not sure i've done Shanghai justice but i know i have a tendancy to go on and if i don't stop now i'll be typing forever. I absolutely loved it, except the men are gross and spit everywhere and there are beggars on every corner, but it is a great place for all interests and we ticked every sight off the list in the Lonely Planet guide and more.