Chinese adventure begins, 3.30am Sat 22 May

Trip Start Nov 15, 2004
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Trip End Nov 10, 2005

Flag of China  ,
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

We finally made it to Shanghai's 3 billion dollar airport but due to our flight delays it was 3.30am so we decided to try and get some sleep in the airport and brave the world at a decent hour. Our plan didn't go down well as the taxi touts kept insisting we had to leave and catch a taxi (150 yuen) and that there was no bus to the city in the morning (despite there being a sign on the wall stating so). We eventually escaped and found some cold metal benches where we got a little more sleep before catching the bus to the city at 7am (30 yuen!).

When we arrived at our hostel we thought we had walked in to the wrong place it was so flash! The Astor Hotel, we later learnt, is one of the oldest western hotels in Shanghai - Einstein and Bertrand Russell were two great thinkers that stayed here in the 20's and 30's. It has beautifully restored rooms and a grand lobby as well as (thankfully) some much cheaper rooms on the top floor. We were quite happy with our room despite it being more than 3 times the price we have paid through out Asia; China will test the budget out a little, and enjoyed sleeping in it for most of the first day as we were knackered from our long flight. Michael also picked up some unwanted visitors from Delhi (again) so he needed some time in the bathroom to recover .

Shanghai is probably the most modern city we have visited so far, not at all what we expected of China. The city is full of designer skyscrapers and is the cleanest place we have been so far (bins,and,to Kate'sdelight,recycling!). Shanghai is not so full of tourist sights as other places in China, but it is the only place in China where you can get Russian visas and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Russian Embassy was directly across the road from our hotel. After some difficulty arranging visa support documents, we managed to get our visas.

The rest of our time was spent sightseeing - the Bund (waterfront area) with historic buildings on one side and sky scrapers across the river on the other, the old China town area for a slice of more traditional China, the Shanghai Museum, and a visit to a garden and temple complex, which was the former relaxation area for the Emperor. We also couldn't resist seeing the new Star Wars film, as well as seeing one of China's renowned acrobatics displays which we didn't think was very impressive.

Photos to come later.
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