Not Approved by LP

Yesterday did a day trip to Shanghai just to get a glimpse.  Early morning train and about 1 and a half hours so nothing too difficult even if train station ticket offices are a bit like facing NHS doctors receptionists at 9am on a Monday morning to ask for an appointment.  Then my first chance to try out their metro which thankfully easy enough.

Checked out the French concession area, old town, Bund and main streets so a lot of walking and for some reason seemed to get lost more than normal, surprise given the landmark tower buildings are tall enough. French concession area nice.  Tree lined streets with fairy lights, chic shops and a touch of elegance.  Could do with a few more French concession areas in China  – ouch, shouldn’t say that.

The old quarter nice enough but seen many of those places now in China so not too bothered.  Biggest disappointment was the Bund and waterfront, my main reason for coming.  The whole area just one huge Chinese size building site for the EXPO 2010.  Not sure when it is but in any other country would say its 5 years away from completion but this is China so it will be completed.  So whole riverfront closed off and the buildings being renovated or knocked down.  Couldn’t happen anywhere else but here.  So anyone planning to come to Shanghai best wait until after 1010.  It has to be said even without the pollution and building work the Bund had a slightly depressing feel, large gloomy buildings with a back drop of grey skies.

After that the plan was to do the tradtional English thing of having a few beers on Christnas Eve and trying to get the last train home ( actually second to last train).  Actually not easy, Shanghai night life might be ok but the Chinese drink tea and a tea crawl not quite the same.  So I thought find one bar by which I mean not the expensive place serving imported BUD, failed at that so ended up by drinking cans from the shops.  At least cheap and had the same effect.  Then it was a case of trying to get back worse for wear,  which on a British Rail cattle truck is no problem but on one of their ultra smart jobs I felt a bit embarrased – their trains very good, even at 170km per hour didn’t feel like we were moving.

Missed the last bus back to the hotel by 6 minutes so then a long walk home. Then went night clubbing until 4am but can’t remember much about it.

Probably a late one tonight and then an early start and a 27 hour train journey to Xiamen.

Tags: 1

This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 1:22 am and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.