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Day 1/2
Our flight out to Shanhgai from Heathrow was cancelled with thanks due to the kind people at BA who said the weather was too bad. Instead we got a Luthfansa flight to Frankurt and caught a connecting flight on China Airline. However our flight from Frankfurt was delayed 5 hours so we ended up taking off at 1am rather than our original 14:20 flight from Heathrow. We were given a free meal at Frankurt which can be best described as chicken which looked like it had a strong case of bird flu and a vegeatble regurgitated mush. Despit Will losing the tickets fro the flight to Shanghai that BA had given us we still managed to get on the flight with ease. China Airlines was cramped as you would expect but the food was actually better than BA inboard flight grub.
That said we fianlly got to Shangahi at half seven in tact and with our bags. We took the Magolev train nto the city at a mere 300km per hour, hopped on the metro and then walked to our hotel which somehow ended up being twice as much as we had booked for. To be hoest we couldn't give two s***s as we were tired and had a comfortable and pleasant room for the night. Oh we had McDonalds we are sad to report because it was easier than thinking and we have yet to master Chinese.
The next morning we changed to a hostel. The days activities including going to Shanhai museum which was slightly dissapointing as it seemed as though they collected lots of bits and bobs from all over China then put them into categories and each category had its on room. While interesting we were expecting some more relevant things to China's history and an exhibition with a purpose. The Shanghai Urban Planning Centre which was far more entertaining with a virtual tour down the river of Shanghai which was damn good. In between we had a slightly dodgy lunch mostly due to the fact we can't read Chinese and resorted to pointing at something on the menu in the hope it would be eadible; it was but only just. It consisted of soup with some form of horrible dumpling, a bowl of noodles and some sort of meat with spices and breadcrumbs. The meat was similar to that found at KFC, it had small bones hidden away within it to catch you unsuspectingly out and also similar to KFC we were wholly unsure what we were eating; it was UFO (unidentified fried object).
Day Three: We went to the Jinmao Tower...so we thought but ended up in the Oriental Pearl Tower by mistake (don't ask). It turned out it be the better option anyhow as the taller Jinmao Tower had its head in the clouds (it was f*****g massive! We headed to the old town to see the Yuanyuan gardens, some temples and a walk the markets to attempt some bartering and haggling with the locals which we are rapidly improving at, ralsing you can instantly take a 1/3 off their orinial price, get half off without too much difficulty and slash it by a 2/3 to 3/4 in some cases. The Yuanyuan gardens were splendid despite the snow scattered n some places, however it would have been even more magnificant in warmer seasons when it the weather would allow its colourful and plentiful flowers to bloom in full.
In the evening we went to the French Concession of Shanghai described as the 'Kensington and Chelsea' of Shanghai by the guide book. There were houses as opposed to high rise flats there, but obvously not the lxuury of london. The meal of shared starter and two mains came to 88 yuan (under 8 pounds). Ben ended up with a chicken dish conisitently largely of cooked chilli skins which as you can expect he was unable to finish, with the waiter bringing extra napkins to wipe his brow, spotting he was struggling to cope. We believ rice was supposed to have accompanied the dish; oh well. Chinese dining is unlike the UK, all food is supposed to be shared rather than each man to his own as it is in the UK, so we will adopt this approach in the future, it also reduces the chance of one of us having a whole unpalitable meal and the other loving his.
The weather has been seriously cold so far with snow malignant on the streets and on the second day it kindly rained for us. I (Ben) have bought a coat for roughly 8 pounds as I couldn't feel any of my extremities anymore. Will has resisted to get a coat as of yet.
Overall Shanhai is a city unlike i have ever seen before. Although having not been to many of the world cities ypu can get a firly decent idea of what they are like through the media. We had no idea what Shanghai would be like when we arrived and I can say that it is massive in terms of skyscrapers and high rise buildings, due to its growing financial reputation and the Chinese Communist Goverment's eagerness for it to overtake Hong Kong as the main financial hub of the region to get away from its link to colonialism and being run by the West. Shanghai is a city that can be done in two days from the tourists point of view, longer than three days and one could easily exhaust most activities. Its worth a visit as it is so different to other major world cities with a population of over 20 million but there isn't a great deal of culture flying about. We eagerly await Beijing!
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