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We left Wuhan on Friday morning, getting the taxi to Wuhan Tianhe (this word apparently means 'Sky River') Airport. It is our most expensive taxi to date, 13 pounds for the 50km drive. This is comparable to going from Ashington (sussex) to Brighton - which costs about 40 pounds! We decided to fly with China Southern again, having no quibbles about the quality of their planes. The plane however, was late again, maybe we should change! On an aside, I have come to realise that Barnes does not like small planes... she seems to have this idea in her head that the smaller the plane the more unsafe it is?! The food this time was better, probably because the plane was flying on to Seoul.. noodles and rice concoctions... I did say they were better but no where near good, so I was left to eat them all. Landing was a wavy affair, Barnes had her eyes closed and I had my eyes out of the window as the plane leant one way then the other... even I was a little scared! We landed at Pudong, and headed for the Maglev train. The train hit top speed at 430 km/h (approx 300mph) and it is floating in mid-air! There was an American on the maglev, who had not come from the airport but in fact was merely enjoying the ride... I got a lot of this when I worked at Hovertravel. We then got on the Metro... its not as good as Beijing, but still puts London to shame. The hostel is big... really big! I think most of the ones we have been staying in would fit in the bar. We are staying in a 4-bed dorm as Shanghai is relatively expensive. We relaxed for the evening, watching US college basketball on the big screen (Carl would love China as they are crazy about basketball!). Barnes bumped into our German roommates and we did some much needed washing!
Yesterday, we woke early for some free breakfast, cornflakes (with Milk - I cant tell you how scarce milk is in China!) and some toast (that isnt sweet for once). Then we got the free shuttle bus to People's Square passing Jing'An temple on the way - this looks nice but we are saving it for another day. Shanghai museum is in people's sq. - we went to the toilet here but are saving that for a rainy day! I was just excited about going to the Bund. After a not so short walk, we got there - it was cool - the old financial district of Shanghai by the river, complete with European architecture. We went into the Bund sightseeing tunnel which runs under the river, I was expecting to see the river, but instead we got some crazy light show... it was pretty awesome actually! After some Pad Thai in Pudong (costing us Y8 each) we got back in the tunnel... still awesome! We heard, from our Ozzy chums in Beijing, that the Peace Hotel was worth a spin for a drink so we weant in search of it. Apparently it is closed... b*****! We checked out the prices in the nearby 'Bund 18' for Valentines dinner, set meals starting at Y555, not expensive but relatively so for china! We got the tube back from Nanjing Rd (Shopping st - were Barnes saw a Zara - how exciting!). We spruced ourselves up for the night and headed for the Bar, spoiling ourselves with an 8pound bottle of Wine - called Great Wall - except it was warm so we put ice in it! A it tipsy we got a taxi to a peking duck restaurant (which Barnes had spent an hour earlier in the day researching as she was desperate for some crispy duck). God (sorry for blaspheming - but this is necessary) was it good! We also had some Shanghai noodles and some patty things/onion rings which were immense! He also brought us some complimentary broth (obviously made from the leftovers of the day as we were the last to leave). We treated ourselves to another bottle of wine, with the food only costing us 6 pounds each! Drunken we headed home, via the hostel bar for a mudslide, again I cant express how good it is to have some milk!
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