Shanghai Typhoons
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
18
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Shanghai,
China
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sadly it went downhill for a bit after that. We went back to our room to get ready to go sightseeing, this included looking at our guide books. After reading the same line many times and still not getting it I gave up and went to sleep on the couch. When Annie saw me asleep she thought it was a great idea and did the same. We left on our sightseeing adventure at 16H00!
First stop was The Bund where we walked along the promenade admiring the buildings; the old on the side we were on and the new across the river in the new area of Pudong (where our hotel was too)
Shanghai
. We also watched the world and the other tourists who were equally intrigued by us. We even had our photo taken surreptitiously by one of the intrigued Chinese tourists!Next we went off to the French Concession area to visit a cousin of Annie's who we had never met before. We had a really nice evening with Trina, Alex and their son Kai.
Getting around Shanghai is an adventure in itself. It is mostly by taxi but therein lies the adventure. When catching a taxi on the street there is no such thing as a queue or any form of decorum, scrum and every man, woman and child for themselves is the order of the day. We learnt this new skill quickly and kept the locals at bay when the next taxi arrived. Once in the taxi the preference is to have a Chinese version of your desired destination written down to pass to the driver. A good alternate is to phone someone who can speak enough Chinese to give the address and basic directions and to pass your phone to the taxi driver to receive these instructions. We got to experience both these methods which was great fun and all worked perfectly.
