My first trip to China started five days ago in Shanghai. Dad was coming here on business trip so I decided to tag along. The whole trip is almost 3 weeks and we'll visit three cities + hopefully go to the Emeishan mountain. (There was convinently a long article about it in this months Mondo magazine.)

Shanghai is said to be the Paris of the East, but I was still surprised how western it seemed. I was prepared for a big culture shock, but I guess when you're staying in fancy hotels with English speaking staff (although you can't always make out what they're saying..), it isn't that big of a change. Well at least in Chengdu we won't stay in a posh hotel and we'll spend time with the locals, dad has friends there and he will be teaching at the university for a week.

But I can't say I mind staying in fancy hotels, since I normally never get to stay in them. Our hotel had a lovely swimming pool (25m), which no-one ever seemed to use, so I had it all to myself. It was a nice way to start the day, going for a swim and getting a little exercise. If we would've stayed there for the whole three weeks, there might have been a risk of me getting fit :)
There was also a proper sauna, the stove in the sauna was Finnish and you good get good "löylyt" after the swim. Although there where strict instuctions such as "observe a time limit 5-10 minutes", "elderly persons should not use the sauna room" or "parkayrd hotel accept no liablility whatsoever for any injury or death associated with the use of sauna room". They made it sound a bit dangerous..

Traffic is crazy in China, when looking at the way they drive, I wonder how there aren't more accidents daily. I've "only" had two near-misses, one time a scooter was speeding straight towards me and I only realized to step back at the last second. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I was to be a bit more alert and not so dazed when walking around in the city.

Apart from the hotel staff, no one speaks English. So it's a bit of a challenge to run errands here. The subway isn't too bad, since it works more or less the same way in every country, you can just assume what buttons to press when buying tickets etc. The taxis (which are ridiculously cheap here!) take you where you want to go, but you have to have the address written in Chinese for them. And in the shops, well you just have to communicate anyway you can. One day I went to a shop, looking for gift wrap for dad and somehow managed to express what I was looking for and I felt so proud walking out of the shop with the gift wrap in my hand.

I liked the Shanghai skyline, so many skyscrapers and all so very different (I took lots of pictures for you Pipsa!). On the weekend we visited many cool bars with stunning views of the Huangpu river and the city. My favorite was the Vue bar, which was highest and to my delight they had fireworks on that night. Vue bar and Bar Rouge are the places where the rich and the beautiful hang out. The place to see and be seen.. I can't really say I felt at home, it wasn't really my scene, but it was still nice to see the places and have a few profesionally prepared mojitos :) There was this group that looked as if they were straight out of a Chinese version of the "Gossip girl". (I mean, I don't watch the show, just happen to know about it..)

On our last night in Shanghai I wanted to treat myself for a massage, a 90 minute Chinese massage. It was nice, only hurt slightly at times, but the following morning when I woke up I felt like I'd taken a proper beating the night before. All my muscles were really sore and I couldn't even lean back on my chair without wincing.

We arrived here in Chengdu late last night. We just had lunch with some Chinese professors and students. The students are taking me out for the day tomorrow and promised to teach me Chinese. I have to say, I have no high hopes on anything at all, it just seems so incredibly difficult! Dad went to teach and I'm going to explore the city, with the Chinese-English electronic dictionary in my handbag..