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We're back in China! After our amazing experience in Beijing we were looking forward to seeing what another Chinese city had to offer!
I should start by saying that the Youth Hostel we stayed at in Shanghai was amazing and strangely enough is overlooked often enough because it's not mentioned in the Lonely Planet books. It was called Shanghai International Youth Hostel (or sometimes the City Central Youth Hostel) and was conveniently located a 2 minute walk from the metro. The hostel itself had laundry facilities, mini-cinema, bar and restaurant area, free breakfast and locked storage facilities in every room. I would 100% recommend it to anyone going to Shanghai.
Anyway, we had 4 days in Shanghai which was plenty of time to see the sights and on the first day we headed out to have a wander. The main road in Shanghai is Nanjing Road which stretches about 4km from East Nanjing to West Nanjing Road and we more or less walked the length of it. West Nanajing Road, which also includes part of the French Concession, displays top-end hotels and designer shops popular with the ex-pat community but well outwith our price range!
Amongst this district we did, however stumble across an indoor market selling fake designer gear and where you could haggle the sales assistants down to meagre amounts so we picked up a couple of things there.
West Nanjing meets East Nanjing at Remin Square which was teeming with people and was very atmospheric. The Marriot's Tomorrow's Hotel dominates the square and is worth a visit either during the day or at night when everything is brightly lit. A couple of young, Chinese students tried to scam us at Renmin Square but luckily we'd been forewarned of this so to anyone esle - beware!
Unfortunately, when we were in Shanghai, the weather was miserable which meant that there was much smog in the city which didn't do the skyline justice. We were lucky enough that it cleared up a bit on the last night so we headed up the Shanghai World Financial Centre which inside provided visitors with a futuristice experience and a fascinating elevator journey to the top! It was extremely pricey to go to the top of the SWTC but if you want similar views but for half the price, you can go up the Jingmao building of the Oriental Pearl Tower.
Other highlights of Shanghai included walking the Bund at night where you can see the older, historical buildings on one sight contrasted with the ever-expanding skyline on the Pudong side. It is awesome at night if the view is good and a must for all visitors! We also visited the Jade Buddha and the Shanghai National History Museum. The Old Town which is Southeast of the City was really beautiful with lots of bazaars surrounding the vast Yuanyuan gardens. After having a lazy stroll around the Old Town found much of the day, we noticed a huge queue of locals outside a food stall so we joined the queue to see what the fuss was about. We ended up getting Nanxiang's Steamed Buns which were delicious and apparently renowned for being so good and cheap!
Overall, we enjoyed Shanghai but much preferred Beijing as there was much more to do in Beijing and the 'feel' of the city was very, very different. If anyone is travelling to Shanghai, you could definitely see it all in just 2 days and then move on. Looking forward to the rest of China!
Nikki and Craig
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