Overall Impressions on Shanghai

I do now know if i have ever been to a city with so much to see. After a more relaxing week in SK I was ready to go full blown tourist for my last week. It was me VS Shanghai, and Shanghai definitely one.  By my last day I was worn down and decided to simply go to a park in the north east end of the city. Seems pretty simple right? Well in doing so I saw a huge soccer stadium, a theme park, a set of statues of the literary figures of history (Dickens, Tolstoy ect), a “mountain” (more like a hill) with locals playing in a 5 piece brass band, an outdoor work-out area for elderly people (see if you can find pictures of it because it is hard to believe until you see it) and a serious game of badminton.  All I wanted to do was go read my book there. In the end i was hot, tired, a little dehydrated and decided to call it quits and retire to my hostel to have some pizza (they had a great kitchen there) and watch some Band of Brothers.

Now it may seem lame that on my last night in the city I was simply sitting around the hostel but here is what i had done in the previous couple days. I went out and found the famous soup dumplings of Shanghai (dumpling but with some broth in them, so you need to poke the top and sip out the soup then eat them...all with chopsticks less you look like a chump), went to the Bund and spent a couple hours just looking at the sky line (as everyone walking by just looked at me, oh China I can see why Yao Ming is so popular here), took an underground tunnel to the other side of the Bund which was like a scene from the Twilight Zone, went to the Shanghai Aquarium which was massive and had the worlds longest underwater tunnel (that I was in when it was time to feed the sharks...ask me for the video), went to the Jade Buddhist temple, went to the Shanghai Sculpture Park, which led me to the museum of natural history (everything was covered from the Big Bang with the current issue of overpopulation...i spent 4 hours here and feel I only saw about 30% of it), went to the underground market where you can get everything for super cheap so orders can be put in for next year as I will probably pop back to shanghai just for this place, went to the French concession area which makes you feel you are in Europe not China, went out to a bar called Fusion in which westerns get let in for free just so locals can watch us drink, had street meat and beer outside my hostel (may be my favorite thing about China is the late night grub), went to the YuYan gardens which is just a big shopping area in a historical site and people are really pushy, went to Zhongshan park and walked around the English styled area and saw some sweet TaiChi, went to LoXun Park and saw everything described in the first paragraph, went to a bar in an old bomb shelter, experienced the Shangai Metro at rush hour, got lost a billion times and found myself again a billion times.....well you get the point. I did a lot of stuff. And still feel I need to come back and explore the city more.

For anyone interested in traveling in China....DO IT. It is fairly simple to travel here as everywhere has English translations right underneath the Chinese ones. Just like going through airports in Canada, except instead of French there is Chinese. The people here are super nice. Here is a story to back it up. Today I took the metro in Shanghai to the train station where I grabbed my high speed train to Beijing. At one point I noticed I was getting close to my stop and only had two more infront of me. As I was musing this to myself everyone got off the train and I mean everyone. One man had been saying to me to get off and get next one. I told him i wanted to train station and not the airport station which was where we were. He had a basic grasp of English and wanted to help but he also knew if he stayed on the train he was screwed. As the doors closed an employee of the metro train got on and realized I was still on the train. Essentially I had to get off that train and switch to a different train that took us to the Train Station and a different airport station. I did not know this and I have no idea where i would have ended up. So this man who works for the metro station speaks better English and is able to explain this to me...great but the train doors are still locked. So he essentially tells someone over the radio he is letting me out the drivers door. So he opens up the rear door for me and lets me out. The first man who tried to help tells me he is going to the train station to and basically follow him. If it had not been for those two men I would have probably had a long and expensive  day of rebooking my train ticket.

So ya, come to China. I can say my experience the last 43 odd days have certainly been a good time and great learning experience. Traveling Euorpe is fun and all, but traveling China gives you a sense of accomplishment. Plus the two hostels I have stayed at have kicked ass. Shanghai Rock and Wood Youth Hostel and Beijing Peking Youth Hostel....remember those names if you are going through China.

Next post will be from Canada.