China: What a great, whirlwind trip! Everything about it was kind of amazing. We saw so many great and interesting sights, met wonderful people, had new experiences, ate great food, etc. Everything went smoothly and we didn't have any real problems...... except for the fact that it was freezing cold and we both got sick! I was sick for about the first 4 or 5 days of the trip and then Jason was sick for the second half. It was mostly just sinus and chest colds, but it wiped us of our energy and did mean spending a couple days laying in bed rather than being out enjoying our trip. But that aside, it was all great. But before I get ahead of myself, let me start back at the beginning......
We left Seoul and flew to Shanghai early Christmas morning. It was the most un-Christmasy Christmas I've ever had. I think for most of it we even forgot that it was supposed to be a special day. But that was just fine, because we were thoroughly enjoying what we were doing.
First off when we got to Shanghai, we had some slight problems getting through security. Jason's passport picture is about 8 years old, and his looks have changed quite a bit over that time. The customs officer who checked his passport wouldn't believe he was the same person as the picture. He had to call over two managers to check it out and finally let Jason through when he showed his US drivers license and his Korean ID card. Ended up not being a problem, but it did make me a little nervous for a minute. There haven't been any issues anywhere else we've been, but as we came to find out, China seems to be super strict with their security.
After dealing with the problems in customs, we took a high speed train from the airport into the city. It went 30 km in less than 8 minutes and got up to a top speed of 431 km/hour. (For those of you who don't think in metric, that's a distance of about 19 miles and a speed of 267 miles/hour). It was so fast, it gave me a headache and made the cars outside look like they were moving backwards. Insane. And this train isn't for long distances, just to and from the airport.
After finding our little hostel in Shanghai, we set out to explore the city. We headed over to the Bund, Shanghai's European area, to check out the famous skyline. It was definitely a picturesque sight and we were amazing but all the different architecture. My favorite building was the tallest building in China, which we named "The Bottle Opener" (See photos). But there were other good buildings as well, such as "The Taser" and "The Rocket Launcher." Also, there were tons of people there wandering around trying to sell kites, keychains, jewelry, knicknacks, food, etc. (My favorite was a guy that had a grill built into the back of his bicycle and was roasting some kind of meat on a stick. Again, see photos). But apparently it's highly illegal for them to do so, because every once in a while they would all get up quickly and take off running. We never even saw any cops.
From The Bund, we wandered through some parks and made our way to Old Town to see the Yuyuan Gardens and shopping area. Very touristy area filled with loads of shops where you can buy just about any kind of souvenir imaginable. I got a couple good ones, including a mini glass vase that was hand painted on the inside and Jason bought me a pearl necklace with an inscription engraved on it so small that you have to use a magnifying glass to read it. In this area, people come up to you and try to get you into their back alley secret stores by saying, "Watch? Bag?" The first time I heard it, I thought they said, "Watch your bag," and I clutched my purse and started looking around for a thief.
The gardens themselves were nice, although I imagine they would be a lot more beautiful in the summer when everything is in bloom. They were mostly rock formations and pools surrounded by nicely decorated walls and creative doorways. We spent a while wandering around and really enjoying the beauty. But by the time we were done, we were freezing! While it wasn't as cold in Shanghai as it was in Xi'an and Beijing, it was still cold enough to really be feeling it after quite a few hours outside. So we decided a nice hot chocolate and the comfy chairs of Starbucks wre in order. Yeah, I know, hanging out in Starbucks on our first day in China, but we were really cold! And there was no where else good to warm up. Even the restaurant we ate lunch in was really cold...
After taking some good night photos of Old Town and the skyline, we made our way back to our hostel and after a few rounds of ping pong called it a night...
Check out all the Shanghai photos here.
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