Hot and Sweaty

Arrived here on the night train in the hard sleeper wagon, the bed is not too hard and it was pretty comfortable compared to some hotels we've stayed in. The city is hot and we're sticky in this financial/shopping capital of China. People love their shops because they can escape from the heat outside, we're obviously not here for that so just suffer the consequences of the weather. Thinking about the aircon they're using could explain the amount of coal energy that is burnt up in China since you can feel the cool air about 10 metres away from often open doors, and this in Shanghai the city that is supposed to have implemented the most energy saving measures.

Old Bund

Initially we checked out Yu gardens which offers some insights into Chinese landscaping. The garden was layed out with rockeries, pavillions and ponds which offer a relaxing moment away from the shops. It's a shame that Shanghai doesn't have more greenery but people are concentrating on making money not their environment. People are continuously working, opening new shops, restaurants, delivering stuff, building huge appartment or office blocks etc.., they are totally focused on work. Work which includes selling fake everything, gucci, vuitton, rolex, etc.. it's hard to see how the fake market can be wiped out, in fact it probably cannnot be there's too much money in it. We were stopped at least 10 times a day by these dodgy dealers who try to get you down a side alley for a custom made forgery, the police are doing nothing about it so it seems that however much pressure the big names put on governments the forgeries will not be stopped.

Pudong (new Bund)

The French Concession area is about luxury shopping and not old style buildings or croissants and cafe. The Bund area has views over the river to the modern skyscrapers whilst looking back into the city proper there are some fantastic European stlye buildings which could make you forget where you are (except for the China flags). Even in Shanghai traditional buildings can still be found even though they are hidden by touristic shops, we stumbled on then in the Xiamen area which offers a staggering contrast between ghetto and modernity.

Our hostel was pretty close to some cheap eats and especially on Friday the whole road was heaving with people queueing up for various delights. The most popular were the jiao ds (dumplings), octopus and shrimps. In fact although Shanghai is relatively expensive due to the high number of expats it offers a lot of cheap food, we often ate for 70 cents of euro each.

Yu Garden Pond

Dragon wall (Yu)

Pavillion (Yu)

Xiamen

Zhu Jia Jiao Water Village

Zhu Jia Jiao Bridge