Shanghai - July 26 2007

Final day in Shanghai and by god it is hot and humid! We have spent four good days here though, finding a great hostel to stay in near the People's Square - a very central and pleasant location. On Monday after we had checked in, we went to visit the old Chinese town area and the Bund.

The old Chinese town area was fascinating, with lots of small streets and vendors offering all kinds of goods! More "window shopping" than real shopping on my part, but Olivia managed to buy some tops - and bargain down a clearly unhappy Chinese xiaojie (woman).

In this area we also visited the Yu Gardens, created several centuries ago as a private garden for a rich merchant and now open to the public. It was very relaxing and a good place to spend a few hours, including having the fun of feeding the most ravenous goldfish I have ever seen - they were like piranhas (however spelt!!) and reminded me of the Chinese trying to get on trains :)

Later on, we took a walk down the Bund, which is the area along the river. This was part of the old concessions to the colonial powers and you could clearly see the influence of the Brits in the architecture: it did look like Liverpool as the guide suggested, but thankfully there were no scousers in shell-suits hanging around the place - or at least I didn't see any!


Tuesday we had a relaxing day mooching around the town and reccing the journey to Zhouzhuang (Wednesday).

We also met up with my colleague, Ingrid, from the City Office in Shanghai for dinner in a very nice restaurant! We certainly looked the part in our tourist outfits ;) Wednesday we took an excursion out of Shanghai to the village of Zhouzhuang which is on a series of rivers and canals - a Chinese Venice of sorts.

It was very beautiful once we had escaped the clutches of Chinese tour groups with their megaphones and flags!

We even found a tea shop which didn't hassle us in the door and spent an hour or so drinking jasmine tea and watching the canal boats pass by :)

It was very relaxing.

Returning yesterday evening, we met up with a Chinese friend of Olivia's, confusingly also called Olivia and her friend Lilly for dinner, in another nice restaurant (we were on a lucky series!).


And so to today, and the end of our time in Shanghai. I have just returned from the station and seeing off Olivia on the train back to Beijing, while I shall catch the train to Guilin in the south later today. From there tomorrow I'll get the bus to Yangshuo and hook up with the Cantonese cooking course for five days, before heading on to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for the final part of my trip :).

More to follow later - I'm literally melting in the Shanghai heat and must stop now :)

Rob