18th

Today we fly from Chengdu to Shanghai. Its a 3 hour flight. The flight is very smooth till we get close to Shanghai, when we experience some massive turbulence. It rocks the plane with a huge thump. Then we are keep in a hold pattern as we cannot land. We are in the air for an extra half an hour before landing.

From the airport we take the Maglev train which travels at 300kph. It does not take long to get to the connecting subway station. We arrive and check in at the hotel. Its time for a walk along the Nanjing pedestrian street. We are bombarded with street sellers of fake watches etc. It is a warm and humid night, and we keep walking to the Bund. The Bund is a favourite tourist spot to see the buildings of Shanghai all light up. So many people.

19th

After breakfast we decide to go for a walk to see the city. The only problem it is 35 degrees outside and very humid. The air pollution means no blue sky, just a thick blanket of dirty smog. We must walk 10 kilometers with lots of drink stops. We stock to a walking route but it is nothing special, just lots of high end shopping malls.

20th

We start the day by visiting a fake market. Yes everything here is fake. We both had a great laugh in here. Ok so we walk into a sunglass shop to look at sunglasses. The person will tell you the price on a pair of Oakley sunglasses is 500 yuan. I tell them its to much and start to walk off. Well the person is following us with the price going down from 500 to 300 to 100, then 80 yuan. 60 yuan is $10. What a laugh.

Anyway we walk till we can walk no more. Feet are sore and we head back to the hotel for a rest.

21st

Our last day is spent in Pudong, which is the other side of the river where the new buildings are. Its all very new and modern. We are sort of lucky as it is nearly a blue sky day, only just.

You can go to the Shanghai Finance building and go to the 100th floor for 150 Yuan, or you go to the Grand Hyatt Building and go to the 88th floor for nothing. We decide to enjoy the opulent surroundings in the Hyatt by having 1 coffee in the lounge for 80 yuan. Was not worth the money. As we are nearing dinner time we decide to have dinner in the Hyatt on the 57th floor overlooking the city. As the sun sets the smog cloud descends and visibility is all but gone.

22rd

As we dont fly out till 8pm we spend the day wandering around the little back streets and lanes away from the tourist traps. Probably the best part of our stay in Shanghai. We get to see the everyday lives of the local people going about their business. Everything is so much cheaper here from food to drinks to clothes. We dont see another white person the whole time. A really enjoyable day.

Now its off to the airport and back to reality once again. Have to start planning the next trip