Shanghai

Trip Start Aug 18, 2008
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23
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Trip End Aug 16, 2009


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Flag of China  , Shanghai,
Friday, January 9, 2009

After we finished the cruise we were stranded in a little town called Yichang. It turned out to be a blessing in as it was a very nice town. As we were out of season we could negotiate a great rate on a hotel suite for a few days. We found some great restaurants and as its was the Sichuan Regine the food was oh so spicy (it Nealy blue Majas head off).This was also the first place we encountered dog meat, Maja was looking at some very fresh fish being sold by a little street vendor, when I pointed out the not so very fresh dogs and cats being sold by the same guy, I turned green and decided it was time to move on. All in all we spend 3 days there and we never saw any other travelers, which in China is a nice thing because it means we get treated like royalty - and what is not to like about that.

We took a 24 hour long train journey to Shanghai, which was mainly spend beating Maja's mum and brother at "shit-head" - a very well known and liked travelers card game we learned in Nepal. Trains in China are fantastic and thanks to Maja's mum, we were traveling 1st class, meaning that we had a little 4 person cabin and all the tea you can drink.

Shanghai is a town off contrasts! On one side you have super modern buildings and super high speed trains to the airport, top speed of 430 km/h (I have never gotten to an airport quicker). On the other hand you have really old buildings, where there are no toilets in the houses, so you see people going out emptying their potties,  luckily not into the gutter!. Shanghai is a huge town and we spent most of time shopping and looking at skyscrapers. We even went up the Oriental Pearl TV tower, so worth the 100 kuan but you must go at night, as you can see all the beautiful lights shinning over the city. But on the main we spend most time sorting out tickets to get out off China. We also thought that it would be hard getting the visa and getting into China, we had never dreamed about how hard it would be to leave.

The problem started back at Beijing when we tried to get our travel dates moved forward, as its impossible to travel and get rooms in china over there new year. All the flights out of Beijing were full, but they could put us on the Shanghai flight or so they said, when we came to pick up the tickets in Shanghai a month later it had not been moved and whats more our original flight and been canceled. As my visa was about to run out and there was no flights availability we were in trouble . It took 7 hours of holding on the phone to virgin in London two trips to the Shanghai office and a very helpful travel agent whom we purchase our ticket from to sort it out. Just in the nick of time.

Itinerary of time spent getting in and out of china

London first attempt to get visa, but we were to early 1/2 day
Nepal to find embassy (but shut) 1/2 day
Nepal queued up but not getting visa 1/2 day
Singapore got visa (but only 30 days) 1/2 Day
Singapore collect visa queued 3 hours
1st attempt to extended visa in china 2 hours (shut)
2nd attempt ( quoted us that it would take10 days to do, too long ) 2 hours
3rd attempt (said it was to early) 1/2 day
4th attempt, got it ( but only 10 days, he he I (Maja) got 30 days) 1 day
first visit to Air New Zealand 3 hours
second visit to Air New Zealand 2 hours
fist visit to virgin 2 hours
second visit to virgin 1/2 a day
spent on phone to virgin 7 hours

Total 6 days 2 hours
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