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Hi folks, hope you are all well...
Our final destination in China was Shanghai. We took an overnight bus from Wuhan leaving behind the rain and praying for some sunny weather as we literally had no clean clothes left and desperately needed to do some washing plus I was sick of wearing our sexy cagooles! The journey was better than expected as the coach had proper beds so we managed to catch a few zzzz's before arriving in Shanghai.
We took a taxi from the bus station to our hostel which was the usual of us fearing for our lives by the crazy way the chinese drive. The hi-way code is basically drive as fast as you can and beep your horn a lot! Just outside our hostel our taxi managed collide with the side of a bus. Both drivers got out and proceeded to practially have a punch up in the middle of the road - we just sat there and to add insult to injury the bast*rd had completely ripped us off by driving the scenic route around the whole city - we didn't like to query it with him at this point though as he was not in the best of moods...we paid and legged it to the hostel!!!
As with all our hostels in China, this one was nice and clean. I have to say we have both been surprised by the high standard of the accomadation in China, we've only had one bad place in Wuhan and that was only for one night.
Anyway after recovering from our minor accident in the taxi, we headed out to check out the sights of Shanghai. We decided to go the the French Concession which is an area dedicated to shopping, perfect place to start we thought. We took the metro and using some excellent map reading skills started walking along the main street. We figured we weren't in any hurry so just wandered along window shopping in the likes of Gucci and Prada - oh if only we had a lot of money! Looking at the map in didn't look that far and we stopped off so Carly could have her Starbucks fix! Another reason for wanting to go to this area was because we were craving Steak and Chips (we had been in China 2.5 weeks and it was all we could think about!) I had seen there was a restaurant in the LP so we were on a mission....mmm, our mouths were watering at the thought of a juicy steak!!!
After walking for literally 5 miles during the whole day and night, we never found it...however we did discover a great English bar on route called Oscars which was doing happy hour. Four quite strong vodka/orange and malibu/orange's later we strolled out - maybe this had something to do with not finding the restaurant - oops!!!
The next morning we went to meet our new friend Jen who we had met on the Yangtze river boat. We visited the Oriential Pearl tower which is opposite the Jinmao Tower (china's tallest building and the 4th tallest in the world). The views were great but the crowds of people were a nightmare. This week from 1st-7th May, the Chinese are on this annual holiday which means that everywhere is rammed of chinese tourists as well as the token westerner. It's really not a good idea to have the worlds most over populated country all on holiday at the same time!!
We then went to The Bund which the walkway along the Huangpu river and stretches for about a mile. It's Shanghai's famous skyline. Again the crowds had flocked but we managed to find a little cafe on the Bund overlooking the river which sold the best homemade icecream I have ever tasted (sorry Maggie!). That evening we headed back the the French Concession (we still didn't find the steak restaurant but had a lovely mexican instead!) oh and we also treated ourselves to a bottle of red wine which cost 20 quid - v nice though!
Our third day was spent wandering through the Old Town, Jen met up with us again. I was really looking forward to seeing this area as it has the famous Tea House in Yuyuan Gardens. After wading through the crowds of people, it was truely beautiful and fantastic to see. Totally what I imaged china to be like and very quaint. (Oh, apart from the Starbucks shoved in the middle, check out the pic of Carly outside her favourite place!)Â
In the evening we headed back to The Bund so we could see the famous skyline all lit up with the array of neon lights. Our new found celebrity status also continued...We were sitting outside this cafe enjoying another icecream which overlooked the whole famous skyline and rather than look at this, all the chinese/japanese people were literally obessed with looking at us. Actually stopping to have a better look, then walk back to have another look plus take photos. After a while we even got to the stage where we were hiding our faces so they won't take our picture before asking, I mean come on, we don't mind posing and smiling if they ask - ha ha check us out eh, who do we think we are? Move over Posh N Becks!!!! Probably the most bizarre thing though was when this chinese women came up to Carly and gave her 6 month old baby to hold and take a photo. About 20 people were crowding round to have a look - can you imagine if you did this at home, you would never trust your baby with a stranger?!
We spent our final day chilling out in Zhongshan Park which was near to our hostel. After all the walking we had done over the previous days, it was lovely to chill out in the sunshine. We even got chatting to a local chinese school girl who wanted to practice her English. She was so intelligent and lovely, telling us about her school, the laws in china about only having one child per family and asking us all about England.
In the evening we met up with Jen and Kris (Polish guy we also met on the river cruise). We got dressed up, backpacker style, and headed to this Mexican bar where the cocktails did flow. Even managed to cut some shapes on the dancefloor. Very funny and enjoyable night - Kris did you end up getting lucky with that chinese girl????!!
So that's the first country done. China has been an absoluetly great place to visit and after the intial shock we have grown to love it more and more as the time has gone on. Definately recommend it as a place to visit....
So it's goodbye China, hello Hongkong.....until next time.
Lots of Love
Claire and Carly xxxxxx
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