Our morning was spent watching highlights from the Grands Prix and Champions League while desperately filling our bodies with liquids to revive them. By around noon this was finally accomplished and we headed out for some lunch. We headed to a restaurant specialising in Western Chinese cuisine and happily discovered that 'Toothpick' dishes are far tamer away from the West and happily filled our bellies. Dave and Alan headed out for presents for Jo while I headed ...

We were determined to get a day of sightseeing in and rose early (when you're travelling 9 is early!) to head to the Shanghai Museum around the corner in People's Square. We were stunend to find that the queue was already stretching all the way around the building and so decided to head across to Pudong to try and do a trip up the tallest building in China, the 492 metre high SWFC. Once again, however, we were thwarted by the holiday crowds and found a three hour...

After a considerable lie-in punctuated by Champions' League highlights on the tv in our room we headed to 'the cage', the rooftop 5 a side football pitch that I played at on my previous visit to Shanghai. This time, however, we'd foolishly agreed to play at 1 in the afternoon and had to endure 30 degree heat (mad dogs and Englishmen!) as we shambled around. The sun beat down as Dave and I vied to spend as much time as possible as substitute or goalkeeper. After ...

We woke up to the sobering reality that we had at least 5 hours left trapped on the train. The size of China really hit home, we had been on the train for 12 hours and even after the full 17 we'd only have covered about half of it's width. After treating myself to a cookie breakfast that had the old lady in the bed opposite tutting I jumped back into 'Great Expectations' and 19th century England. Looking out the window at the peasants working the fields didn't se...

Due to the vagaries of my round the world ticket I had to arrive here in Shanghai before heading up to meet my travelling companion, Dave, in Beijing. The flight was long and I managed little sleep but I felt strangely chipper as I headed into Shanghai on the Maglev (a high speed train topping out at 430 km/h) then continued on in the metro. This leg of my journey was made considerably easier by the instructions I'd been sent by Joe, the friend of Dave's that had...