Sunday in Shanghai

Well I'm now back home, but I didn't post to my blog when I was in China. There were a couple of reasons for this, firstly it wasn't particularly easy getting on line in Shanghai, and secondly (and this is probably the main reason), I didn't want to spend time in front of a computer when I only had a limited time away.

Anyway I can now post at my leisure!

The flight to Shanghai from Singapore was fine, but was just too short to really get any proper sleep. I thought I'd filled in the various forms (landing card, customs form and health declaration) before the flight, but I'd forgotten to put my name on the health declaration form. As a result I was a bit alarmed when someone came running after me shouting "Sir, Sir!". Fortunately this omission didn't result in me getting booted out the country, and once I'd scrawled my name on the form I was allowed to go on my way.

I was through immigration, picked up my bag and then through customs by 6.45am. Unfortunately the airport was completely dead and most of the shops weren't yet open. I was gagging for a drink of water but didn't have any change for the vending machines which were everywhere, so I went on a bit of a trek and eventually found a shop that was actually open and also sold water.

My original plan was to get a hotel shuttle bus to where I was staying, but at the bus stop there was no sign of any buses and what looked like the information counter or ticket office wasn't open. I wasn't really able to ask anybody else what was going on! So I swiftly changed my plan and decided that I'd get the MagLev train to the terminus at Longyang and then catch the Metro to my hotel at Shanghai Stadium. This proved to be pretty straight forward but did involve lugging my bags a fair distance as I transferred from the MagLev to the Metro and then when I changed Metro lines. I also got to experience how busy the Metro is -- thankfully I wasn't trying to make this journey during the week day rush hour!

I was at my hotel before 9am, but I had to wait an hour for my room to be ready. Once in my room, I showered and then set off to explore the city.

My hotel was in the South of Shanghai so I decided that I'd walk up Hengshan Road and through the tree lined streets of the French Concession, with the vague notion of getting to the Ritz-Carlton to have Sunday brunch with its free flow of champagne! I did get to the Ritz-Carlton in time for brunch, but the only problem was that I wasn't feeling particularly hungry and also the thought of having a few glasses of champagne in my jet-lagged, weary condition wasn't particularly appealing. So all I ended up doing at the Ritz-Carlton was to make use of their excellent toilet facilities!

The Ritz-Carlton is in the Shanghai Centre on West Nanjing Road, so from here it was reasonably straightforward to walk to People's Square. There was also the unexpected bonus of taking a very slight detour down one of Shanghai's food streets, in this case Wujiang Road. So instead of having brunch at a 5 star hotel, I had fried dumplings from Yang's Fried Dumplings which cost about 30p and were mighty fine. Dumplings are big business in Shanghai, except they're more like Chinese ravioli.

After my first dumpling experience I carried on my meandering walk to People's Square (which used to be the racecourse in the Concession era). Once at People's Square I got my bearings and realised that I could tick off two items from my 'to do list' -- the Urban Planning Exhibition and the Shanghai Museum. I figured that the Shanghai Museum could wait until later in the trip and that being as I was 'new in town' the Urban Planning Exhibition would be more useful and interesting. I wasn't disappointed. The 'Exhibition' itself is a couple of very impressive scale models of Shanghai as it will look in 2010 (when the city hosts the World Expo). The term 'model' definitely does the exhibits a disservice, you are in fact presented with the entire city in miniaturised form.

After the Urban Planning Exhibition I had a very early dinner at the Raffles City food court. I was starting to feel the affects of having little sleep in the previous couple of days and the change in time zone. The food court option was a hassle free way of getting some decent food without having to pick a specific restaurant.

Once fed I did a couple of the Lonely Planet guide walking tours, one along The Bund and another entitled 'beyond The Bund' which basically meant some of the streets parallel to the Bund. I kind of got a bit lost getting to the starting point of the first walk and spent a bit longer walking around the streets North of Suzhou Creek, but hey it all adds to the experience. The Bund itself is impressive architecturally, but I think it's the history and stories associated with the various buildings which are just as interesting.

Another thing to add was that The Bund was heaving. It was just so busy, mainly with tourists from other parts of China. I was really starting to feel the pace at this point so walked towards the Metro station at People's Square via East Nanjing Road. East Nanjing Road used to be Shanghai's equivalent of Oxford Street, however with all the new shopping malls that have been built in the last decade most of the best shops are now elsewhere. However, it was still packed with hordes of people and I was getting annoyed with being hassled about bars, girls, drugs, fake watches and copied handbags.

I made it to the Metro station in one piece but my brain was a bit frazzled so I ended up getting on a train going in the wrong direction, I realised my mistake at the next station and switched to the right train. It wouldn't be long now until I got back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep.