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 seem such a world away from the countryside existence of Pip's early years. Away from the relentless construction and oppressive population mass of the cities you get far more of an idea of the relative poverty of most of the population.

When we eventually pulled in to Shanghai station we headed to the hostel we had booked near People's Square (nearly every city has a 'People's Square', also called 'Renmin Square' as 'Renmin' is pinyin for 'People'). At the hostel Dave caught up with and I met a tall Scot called Alan who had lived with Dave at Leeds University who now lives in Guangdong and teaches English. We head out to see some of the city and fight our way through the hordes in town for the October 1st holiday week and dipped into a small historical garden. Yuyuan Park was designed by an important Government Official in the 16th century and hosted a number of Imperial visits to the area. Though it had to be rebuilt twice after more petty reprisals by the English and French in the 19th century the garden is still designed on Ming dynasty lines and contain a number of pretty stone and water areas that make it into a real oasis of calm away from the bustle of city.

We grab a quick snack then head back to the hostel to change for meeting up with Jo for the night. We struggled to hail a taxi to take us out to the French Concession (apparently it was 'shift change' time and all of the drivers are heading home so refuse fares, very annoying!) so headed to the metro instead. We dropped down into the subway in an area with no buildings older than 30 years and popped back up in an area that has changed little achitecturally in over a century. The change in atmosphere was stark and we could see why so many expats set up in the leafy, more relaxed concession. We met Jo in a Japanese restaurant for 'All you can eat and drink' Japanese. The concept of 'all you can eat' is very different in Shanghai though. There's no buffet and the restaurant is really quite upmarket. You order a number of dishes and the food is all cooked fresh and brought to the table. We enjoyed an absolute feast of dishes ordered by Jo and washed them down with a number of beers and a little saki all for 100 yuan each, about 9 quid!

When we finally peeled ourselves off the floor (it was a traditionally Japanese establishment so we'd dined in our own small room sitting on the floor) and headed to a throbbing expat bar 'Zapatas' and drank and chatted long into the night. I have to admit the end of the night goes rather hazy after a round of tequilas in the early hours of the morning!