Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Back to Shanghai!! 30th June

Although we are back in Shanghai, we still missed out on a couple of things the last time round.

In the next couple of days we went to

Old Town - old part of the city

A famous garden called Yuan Yi - the name escapes me

The Radisson Hotel - We went for a drink at the top for some stunning views of Shanghai at night.

And the Natural History Museum

I loved old town, you wasn't hassled and walking around was pleasurable and interesting. Tiny shops selling very similar things litter the streets of traditional style buildings. We came across a massive set of shops that were all selling various products and food. These massive traditional Chinese buildings crowd around you like the Shambles in York. Loads of hustle and bustle can be found here with loads of nic nacs. Claire would have loved it.

Going up the Radisson Hotel was great, pricey drinks but great. From the top we watched the sun go down on shanghai and watch it come alive again at night.

On the 2nd of July I wondered around where we were staying in the morning, it was really hot so phil stayed in the hostel so it became my own little adventure. I was only gone for about two hours but found loads of interesting sites. I even managed to grab some street food as well which was really cool. It was basically cold noodles with salad with a spicy dressing and it was amazing. I said Hung How which means very good. They even sat me on a small blue plastic chair to eat the food and I basically watched the world go by on a busy street.

We went back to the Cotton club for my good fun and amazing jazz and blues.

3rd of July

Today was our big trip to Guanzhou making our way back to Donguan. We didn't know how long the train would take but we guessed at 25-31 hours. We booked hard sleeper beds, which were ok. 6 beds line each cabin space and being on the top bunk made it more private all be it kind of like being in a coffin.

We made to Guanzhou in 20 hours and was delighted to be a little early and well… actually there. We got a bus to Donguan which took about 1 hour, met up with Graham in his flat, and much fun was had through the consummation of alcohol.

Then next day we went to a football tournament organised by the expats living in Donguan and the surrounding area. The tournament was held in half of a massive stadium in Donguan, and it was hot, really, really hot, and luckily I didn't need to play but Phil did. The team that won was a local English pub team called 'One for the Road'.

Straight after the tournament we got a bus to Hong Kong. It was hear that graham would met up with his brother and sister who he had not seen since he was back in England 10 months ago. Also it was here that there would be the biggest gathering of people from Hull in Hong Kong ever, in total there were, 7 Hull'ites.

The next two nights was spent drinking and having fun in Hong Kong.

It was at this point that the team split up, everyone except me, Briony and Farrer stayed behind in Hong Kong and the rest went back to Donguan. Me and Farrer needed to renew our visas which went relatively well. I went back to Donguan two days later for more fun times