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...