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 having sweated out the alcohol from the night before we headed to a bar for some food and a couple of beers for 'hair of the dog' purposes. We got to know Jo's friends a bit better after he headed off to see his fiancee then headed back to meet Alan who'd declined the football to go to a temple instead. We decided to have a walk down to the 'Bund', the historical jumble of European buildings on the waterfront and were joined by Axel, a Frenchman who defies the stereotype by being neither distant nor arrogant.

At the Bund the crowds of people are suffocating and we spent most of the time going where the people around us were heading whether we liked it or not! Being the smallest of the group the experience was less 'sight-seeing' and more 'people seeing' as the crowds made the walk rather more of an ordeal than travelling is meant to be! Axel led us away from the multitudinous throng and into a hostel with a rooftop bar and cafe with a magnificent view of the river and the 'Pudong New Area', the ever increasing jumble of skyscrapers across the water from the Bund. At night the whole lot are lit up, with various strobes and light projections littering the view. Dave and I ate our fill then we headed to '18 on the Bund', a chic bar that has a 100 Yuan cover charge then drinks are free all night. It also had a wonderful view and we chatted away into the night as the skyscrapers gradually switched their lights off.