Days 109-12: Shanghai

Shanghai skyline
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Here in Shanghai for 4 nights and a little underwhelmed to be honest. I think we were expecting something more like Hong Kong in terms of hustle but its more like a slightly sedate large city, not even all that shinny and new. Pretty sure the weather being overcast (or possibly the pollution – who can tell) and a few rain showers didn’t help our take on the city either.

Anyway, there were a few highlights worth mentioning despite my negative start:

- The Bund, Shanghais old ‘colonial’ riverfront with a stretch of early 19^th century buildings with some grand architecture (some a little similar to Glasgow’s best examples, some better). Just round the corner from the hotel so wandered along here by day and night.

Humble Administraitors Garden
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- The Urban Planning Museum – sounds really dull but they have this great (and huge) model of how the city is and will be in the next 10 years or so.

- The History / Shangxi Museum - some ineteresting stuff to see in amoungst some other slightly dry museum fare

- People’s Square , more for the many friendly Chinese people we met keen to improve their language skills (trying to get from Ching-lish to English as they kept saying)

One day we took a day trip out to Suzhou where over 70 ancient gardens remain within China’s Venice, the old city sitting on a grid of canals and being surrounded by a moat, walls and gates. We made it to two of the most famous gardens, Master of Nets and Humble Administrator’s; as well as taking a boat round some of the canals, watching people washing their clothes and generally life passing by. Our pilot/punts-man/whatever he’d be called was extraordinarily smiley as we attempted any form of communication and often let us drift into the banks as he tried to get the perfect shot of us!

Out on the canal
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All good to see and do despite being the worst day weather-wise of our time in China, but the trials and tribulations of trains (every counter saying a different and ridiculous time until the next available one) and the delayed bus (having given up on the train back) didn’t make us that personable by the end of the day!

To end on a positive note, the hotel was nice (funky rooms) and for only a 30min delay outwards to Hong Kong we were upgraded to first class.