lost in Shanghai

As I wrote in a previous post, last night was to be spent on the train from Beijing to Shanghai. And this is exactly what happened. I traveled “soft sleeper” and slept like a baby. Or a tourist who walks a bit too much, same results though.

The train, a certain D301, is as close to luxury as it can get while not being uselessly so. Clean sheets, personal TV, boiling water, slippers, wagon attendants, air conditioning, lcd displays with the beds, and so on. Very impressed – though the price was a whopping 655 rmb. However, this morning at 7:30 I arrived fresh and ready to search the hostel and start today’s adventures.

Now I am staying at Central City Hostel. Now,the hostel is pretty nice. The only thing that it isn’t is being central. While it is pretty close to the railway station – which I presume is a good thing – it is very hard to arrive to the central area of Shanghai. But I don’t complain. All in all nice people who actually let me check-in at 8 in the morning. Almost got bonus breakfast. At one point I should talk more about the hostels here, which really impressed me.

After checking in I had to finally solve the issue of my non-existing return to Beijing. After 3 trips to the nearby train ticket agency I finally gave up and ordered the plane ticket. I cost 750 rmb which compared to every other cost here it’s huge. Until now my greatest expenses have been trains and planes.

Plane ticket secured – and no, I don’t fly from Pudong so no Maglev for me – I went to visit the city. WHich is amazing.

First I wandered a bit around People Sq, ehich in a way is the center of Shanghai. And it shows. The subway has no less than 20 exits. Some of them lead right into the malls. It was very funny to navigate the mess, while having no idea which exit I would prefer. In the end I of course stumbled in a food court, but thus I discovered some delicious smoothie. Yummy. At 15rmb it better had be, but anyway I will deffinitelly return there. Also there is a nice system where you load RMB on a card and then order whichever food you want. Kind of neat system.

2 refreshing drinks later, I started with the famous Nanjing Rd and I made my way to the Bund. Impressive buildings, and I really like the fact that central Shanghai does not seem cramped. However, when I arrived at the Bund I realized how right some people I met in Beijing were: Shanghai prepares for the Expo 2010 and the city is a nightmare construction yard. And the Bund is the victim – meaning there is construction going on right in front, and I could not really appreciate the old buildings.Oh well, I did see them better from Pearl Tower later in the evening.

Strolling on the Bund embankment I decided to cross into Pudong, which from this riverside looked interesting. As I decided against taking a boat trip or using the infamous tourist tunnel, I had to find a mass-transit system. And this combined with a certain lack of orientation lead me to arriving at one of the oldest bridges, the cruise port, the construction place for one more tunnel, a delicious little restaurant and other unintended highlights. But getting lost in a city is one of my favorite things (and I m not ironic).

Later I found a lovely maze of streets converted in a market – selling almost everything. The atmosphere was amazing, and it was great to so shortly experience both the modern Shanghai with it’s Nanjing Rd and also old Shanghai.

Some time later I finallly returned to People Sq an took the subway to Pudong. There I just strolled a bit and entered the famous Pearl Tower, which is a huge building at 340meters high. Looks a bit like a spaceship, but that is not that bad. What is bad is that someone thought it might be a good idea to light it at night like a disco. So at night it would fit perfectly in Las Vegas. However, besides it’s debatable artistic values, the tower has some redeeming qualities. One is that it is a tall builing. The tallest actually. So I had a lovely view over the city. Another value was that it had a roller-coaster ride inside. Which was not half-bad. I kind of enjoyed it.

However, the nicest part of the whole experience was the Shanghai city museum. I really loved it. I cannot explain how cool it is. In terms of thematic museums it is amazing. Rarely did I see such an attention to every little details. It tells the story of Shanghai from it’s simple beginning, through becoming the main trading port for commerce. It tells the story of the Opium wars without being skewed. And everything is done trying to recreate the atmosphere of those times. All in a Madame Tussuad’s level of characters quality. I have to say that is is better than Tussuad’s as it serves a purpose, and it is not a simple series of characters without any connection. Everything about Shanghai – trade, foreign presence, opium, brothels, wars – is told in a pretty neutral tone and really impressed me.

After all the adventure and sightseeing done today I crawled home. And I stopped at a little supermarket where I discovered something for which someone is going to really hate me. Found sushi takeaway at 4.5 rmb. Delicious. This evening I dined on sushi and tea (bottled, but still).

And yet again I started to post in  pretty chaotic chronological order, as I still haven’t said much about the Forbidden City nor about The Great Steep Wall of China.