Shanghai Sniffles

We arrived in Shanghai and managed to make our way across two subway lines to the Captain’s Hostel half a block from the bund without any problem well apart from me nearly being hit by a motor bike!! The Bund is where all the large European companies had their headquarters in the early part of the 20th century. We had tried to find some cheap accommodation in Shanghai but to be honest non was to be had so we decided to stay in a dorm and after sharing with Ruth and Dave it couldn’t be that bad. So we all ended up in the same room which was huge with lockers large enough to store our bags. After our last few days we were all starving and in need for a gentle reminder of what western food could taste like so we all went to Ruzzi’s Pizza for a set lunch before doing some admin on the net.


We all met up later on and headed to the rooftop bar which gave an excellent view of the skyline across Pudong but the beers were a bit steep but well worth for the view. We had decided (or rather Ruth’s continuous talk about food led us to decide) that that night we would do a full blow out and head to the French Concession (or now known as the French Connection after Ruth‘s little slip up) to the Indian Kitchen. So another couple of metros across the city led us to a lovely Indian restaurant for some good Indian fayre but still not as great as the New Annan (that delightful place across from our old flat). Anyways after dinner we decided to hit one of the main bar areas - maybe not the best idea after an Indian but we all reckoned that we had room for a couple of beers.

So we wandered up to Maoming Nanlu which had a few bars for “gentlemen” and then a few others which we deemed were safe enough for us ladies. Our choice was the Blue Frog and we sat on the bar stools people watching and enjoying the enormous glasses of beer - I almost needed two hands to lift mine. Several of these later we realised that despite our best intentions it was now 12 midnight and we still had to look at getting a taxi home. We all got back in one piece despite a couple of wrong turnings by the taxi driver.

Well the next day was Wednesday 9th September and for those of you who didn’t know there was an Old Firm game (Celtic vs. Rangers) for one of the quarter finals of the League Cup. So being the ever devoted wife we had booked a hotel the day before which had internet access in the room for one night to allow my delightful husband the pleasure of watching the match live on Celtic Channel 67.We first of all had to walk for over an hour to find the place and then check that the internet actually worked - bonus it did. We then headed back and found a little market with lots of Cultural Revolution things and wandered around the main shopping street for a bit. We had dinner at a small café which had an English menu (yippee) and at 2 quid for a meal for 2 and 2 big beers we really couldn’t complain.


Then it was off back to the hotel. Now the game was on at 8pm UK time but in Shanghai it was 4am in the morning and Chris in his wisdom decided that he would stay up and take full advantage of the internet. Half asleep I thought we had a bird loose in the room as I heard flapping sounds, bleary eyed I spotted Chris flapping his arms as if he wanted to take off and raising one hand in the air (I figured Celtic had scored). In case you didn’t know the result well Rangers were knocked out of the cup after Celtic winning 2-0 going on 6-0 or so Chris said anyway.

The following morning we both were just a little tired and after getting back to the hostel we were put in a different room from Dave & Ruth which had 10 beds and 7 rather smelly young guys. It was raining and Chris fell asleep with a huge grin on his face to catch up on some 'well earned rest'.

We met up with Ruth & Dave in the downstairs foyer at 7pm well the beers were only 70p down there and after a couple of these we headed for dinner in the same place we ate the night before and had another cheap meal and drinks. Due to the rain we decided to head back to the hostel foyer and have a few more beers. Around 1ish (we think) we headed to bed - only to find that in our room we had a snorer who sounded more like a lion roaring and lucky me I had the bed next to him.

On Friday 11 November we managed to get a room swap - whether this was a good idea or not who knows but at least it didn’t smell as bad as the now alcohol filled room that we were in. We managed a short trip to the post office and got a box sent without too much hassle and then decided to head to the Urban Planning Exhibition.
Most of the ground floor was covered up for a Mercedes Benz exhibition which was due to open any day and due to the crowds of tour buses we skipped the next floor and headed straight to the 2nd floor which had a scale model of Shanghai. This was fantastic and showed how far the city stretched with hundreds upon hundreds of skyscrapers in every direction.


We then walked around reading about how Shanghai will look in the future (well they hope to have it all be completed by the Shanghai Expo in 2010). Pictures show how the area looks now and how it will look when completed and explain the benefits of this for the Chinese people, apparently Chinese people do not own the land and are just lease holders which can be withdrawn at any time. Hence the reason for thousands of homes being bulldozed with the occupants left looking for accommodation elsewhere, although if you believe all the descriptions in the exhibition the vast majority are re-housed in much better housing (but some of the picture of the new houses showed the electrics hanging out of the wal as the family’s moved in!!). Several areas will become eco friendly and the only industries allowed will be non-polluting industries (the polluting ones will be in another area) with bungalow type houses and plenty of gardens/greenery.

When you see the bigger picture it is absolutely amazing that a country can do this amount of demolition and building as quickly as it does and with the foresight to put the airport next to the docks and construction of several additional metro lines is under way to improve the overall transport of the city.

The main highlight for me though was the 360 degrees cinematic room which took you on a flying journey of how the ‘new’ Shanghai will look - this was really good despite us both feeling a little travel sick in the place. We also got to see how the old Shanghai looked with another film but this was pretty rank so we left without seeing all of it.


This was Dave & Ruth’s last night so we what better way to start the evening than have a cocktail on the 87th floor in the Hyatt Hotel in the Jinmao Tower. The 88th floor is the tower for viewing across the whole of Shanghai. So we wandered down in our glad rags and rain coats and headed into 3 different lifts to get to Cloud 9 bar. This building is the tallest in China and the 4th tallest in the world and stands at 420.5m.




We managed to get a seat at the window and fortunately for us we were early enough to miss the minimum tab of 9 quid per person. We all ordered cocktails although Dave’s being a ginger tea came in a tin mug whilst the rest of us sipped ours out off proper cocktail glasses and we all ate delicious hot coated peanuts. At first we could see very little due to the mist and the rain but someone was looking out for us, as the mist lifted and we could see quite a distance down the Bund and the Pearl Sky Tower.


We headed out to meet up with Chris (a friend of Dave and Ruth‘s) and once we got there we were taken in a taxi to a little restaurant and a couple of Chris’s friends came too. All of these guys have been learning Mandarin for a while now and were ordering us some food when in pops a lady who could speak English and asked if she could help. She then proceeded to tell them the specialities (despite the guys having already ordered several dishes) one of which was the squashed chicken. When asked was it run over by a car she laughed and replied “No it was hit by a hammer!”. So we had to have some of that as well. The food in this place was fantastic:- mashed potato with aubergines and minced meat (almost like a shepherds pie), spicy beef, pork and the best of all was the chicken which was put into a square dish and was believe it or not completely flat.

So after stuffing our faces we headed to the Time Passage bar. This was supposedly one of the oldest bars in Shanghai and we soon realised that how quickly things change round here as it was only eleven years old. The bar was full of expats and wasn’t too expensive for Shanghai standards and we sat and listened to a band covering Oasis, The Eagles and any other requests or sing a longs on the mike by the audience. We had a few more beers before heading back to the hostel and the beer monster (Ruth) had to have another beer (this wasn’t that bad an idea for me as I wanted to phone home and wish my sister Christine a Happy Birthday) but none of really had the energy to finish them.

On the Saturday we all met and had our last breakfast together before Chris and I walked along the Bund with some sunshine in the sky - we couldn’t believe our luck.
We strolled in amongst the locals taking some pictures of the Pearl Sky Tower and the Bund which has buildings that would not be out of place in any big European City. After saying our farewells to Dave and Ruth we had a quick meal before heading back to the hostel as we were both suffering miserably from a cold.

We were up earlyish on the Sunday and headed towards the old town and the antique market. We thought it was some distance away but in reality it wasn’t that far although the old town was actually fairly new and the antique shops all sold similar trinkets. So we wandered back to a market we stumbled on a few days earlier and Chris haggled for a Cultural Revolution figurine, with a young woman with her hand in the air, the price actually started off much cheaper than we expected.

We were both feeling a little tired and rough after being woken up the previous night several times by an inconsiderate door slamming American couple and we were also suffering from a cold so we headed back to the hostel to chill out before heading along the Pudong and the Bund for some night time pictures. This place was still really busy and a couple of women were there with their kids, when their husbands showed up they stopped first of all to admire the camera (they had their faces in the lens looking at it) and then asked could they take a picture of me with their wives and kids so I happily obliged.


Monday was a bit of a wasted day as we tried to arrange a flight to Bangkok from Hong Kong from British Airways, to cut a long story short after 3 hours of waiting we asked for our tickets back. We then decided to head overland towards Kunming (quite near the Laos border) which was our original plan. It was to be a 44 hour train journey and we managed to book our tickets for Tuesday the following day. Both of us were still loaded with the cold and thought that maybe two days travelling on a train would allow us to do nothing and get rid of it. Our other options were to stop somewhere after 12 hours or 30 hours so the whole hog was decided on.

It was both my parents birthday’s over the next couple of days and since we were travelling I decided to phone them, so we sat in the foyer until we could phone home, we met up with another Glaswegian called Jim and sat and had a few beers with him telling us his tales and travel plans before eventually going to bed. Our last morning in Shanghai was spent sorting out last minute things, food for the journey, post office and melodica buying (yes Chris eventually found the instrument he’s been looking for a while although I did want him to take it on the train and play!) before we made our way via the metro to the train station.

To be honest due to our colds we didn’t really do Shanghai justice but we still had a fun time and it’s maybe one of those places we will head back to one day, but I’m sure it will look completely different then as things are really changing quick here.

The 44 hour train journey didn't turn out too bad, we were the only westerners in our carriage and as far as we could see the only one's on the train. The train was slightly more modern and the 6 bunks were slightly closed off from the main corridors which helped keep the noise down a bit. We could get some dumplings and snacks when the train pulled into stations so we didn't go hungry, and by the end of two days doing nothing we felt we were over the worse of our colds.