Shanghai Nights

Our first week in Shanghai is almost past and on Sunday, or one day off in the week (same working hours as Nanjing L no perks) we all went downtown into central Shanghai. Since I don’t have Matt here to be my guide around Shanghai, as he has a freakishly good sense of direction and a mini map etched into his brain of everywhere he’s ever been, I paid extra EXTRA attention about how to get to the train station and through the train station into Shanghai so that if we ever want to venture out on our own we can without having to rely on the Chinese people all the time.

Since we live on the outskirts of Shanghai we have to get a bus to get the metro into town. At the metro station there was a woman selling puppies…and a man selling RABBITS! I miss Nayi so much but I have to resist buying another rabbit!

We had briefly been through central Shanghai on our first business trip here back in December but this time we got to see a lot more. We also noticed how many westerners there are here. 

Losers.

A lot more than in Nanjing but even though our kind were more popular here, it didn’t stop every other native staring. Although, I must admit, I stare at white people here too! by the end of the day I was so sick of westerners! All I could think was that they were just petty tourists, not soaking up an experience like us, however, I’m sure they were, lots of the them looked quite at home. I liked us being the only ones but in Shanghai, suddenly we were special anymore. I felt like Leonardo Dicaprio coming back from the beach into mainland Thailand! (Note to parents: ‘The Beach’ is on my DVD shelf, watch it to understand this.)

We met Jackie Chan! 

We got  some taxis to take us to a different part of the centre that is more like the Confucius Temple in Nanjing. 

How cool is this? Dragon Gate.

Lots of little stalls with various items; old coins, Chairman Mao memorabilia, fans, shoes and crap. 

Warren buying house shoes. 12 Yuan. Bargain.

My favourite type of place that is native to China. Amongst all this clutter I finally bought what I’ve been meaning to get in Nanjing. An art stamp carved with my name in English and Chinese characters for stamping my art pieces. It’s a very popular tourist souvenir but I will actually use. I want to get another one that doesn’t simply say ‘Gillian’ but that has a little motif or logo that will act as my signature on my art.

Chinese markets like these, like any market really, have some lovely items, worth buying even if they are popular souvenirs or real finds, but then you really do get the crap…

 He is selling baps with faces drawn on!!! Whaaaa?

There was a man selling a ‘Chinese Bamboo Sax’. It did sound pretty cool. He was a great character when he played. Unfortunately I only caught the last note of his show!

We grabbed lunch in some crazy busy place that was like a massive over-glorified canteen. Everyone was moving so fast and there was so much to choose from but mostly non-vegetarian, so I just grabbed a couple of things, some noodles and some tarts and moved on. I was raging when my bill was totaled to 23 Yuan!!! When I found Alex, he told me that he paid 55 Yuan for his!!! Not happy.  

On our last visit to Shanghai we were taken to a place called People’s Square where we could look out across the river and some remarkable architecture.

 Shiny!

This time we went to the other side of the river to experience the buildings. We found a Starbucks, sat down with our coffees and Nicola’s perfect Tuna sandwich and watched the sunset over the Shanghai skyline.

 Warren, he has The Cool.