Saturday morning, feeling a little worse for wear, we got up late then raced into the (sunny yay!) city centre for some sightseeing while we had time. Because of train times etc we've only really had a couple of days in Shanghai, so we wanted to cram in as much as possible! We raced through the Bund, past the river and the spectacular skyline, to the Yuyuan Gardens, recommended in our Roam China itinerary notes, for the bazaar and walled garden complex. It was an absolute mission to find, and because it was a weekend and Shanghai is a city of 18million people, the place was HEAVING and rather frustrating to get through. We had to pass a narrow zigzag bridge to get to the entrance to the gardens, and resorted to using our elbows, bags, and any other means possible to get through. Needless to say we were in need of a cornetto on the other side.

The gardens themselves were lovely though! Very classically oriental, as the photos show, but quite intricate and maze-like, so no surprises we got lost! We spent a good few minutes watching some terrapins in the lake, and people fishing on the banks too. The bazaar on the outskirts was full of people trying to sell you things we really don't want. Liam has gone past the point of being polite now, and when approached by a man trying to sell him a 'lo-rex' he'll just say no and ignore them. Seems to work. We ate lunch at a place called Babela's Kitchen, a little like a Chinese Pizza Hut, where Claire had pesto (!!!) and we spotted Rosie and Becky 7 floors below us wandering around on the streets outside. In a city as big as Shanghai, it's mindboggling if you see someone more than once, so to see those two from so high up was hilarious! One thing we did noticed was how accustomed we've become to using chopsticks, and therefore one hand. We were eating with the provided knife and fork, but instead of using both hands and using the knife to cut, we discarded that and just ate things off our fork, hilarious! It's only been 2 weeks and already we have actually turned Chinese.

In the afternoon we went to the Shanghai Exhibition Centre opposite the museum, where they held a show for the urban planning of the city for the 2010 Expo (very apt for Claire's degree choice!). Aswell as being fascinating in itself - we decided Shanghai would be brilliant to visit again in a couple of years after the construction was finished - the models of the city layout were amazing! There was a model of Shanghai which filled an entire room, we spent quite some time trying to find various landmarks we'd seen in our trip so far. Liam felt a bit like Godzilla at one point.

We'd been walking... and walking... and walking... and walking... all day, so when Bobo told us it was BACK to the subway to go to the Acrobat show tonight, we said thankyou but no thankyou, taxi for us! Bearing in mind a taxi for a 10 km trip costs about 2pounds, we would brave the expense for the sake of our feet. The Acrobatic show cost about a tenner, but was well worth it! A group of men and women demonstrated their unbelievable strength and agility in a series of 'sketches', hoopdiving, contortion, light-balancing, trickcycling and using ropes to name a few. Possibly the most dangerous stunt was the 'globe of death', where no less than FIVE motorbikes whizzed around in this giant sphere at one time, impressive! In some places we just couldn't look!

Today is our last morning in Shanghai, so we've got to do a bit of shopping for out overnight train journey to Yangshuo this afternoon. It's a 26 hour job, then a 2 hour bus journey straight after - so we'll probably get there about 7pm tomorrow night. Shanghai hasn't really been as impressive or as international as we had expected - but coming from the magnificence that was Beijing, I suppose we're just comparing our favourite city with another. Wish us luck overnight!