What a day! What a day! Actually it wasn't than exciting of day but it was a good day.

We started out with breakfast at the hostel which was a club sandwich with coffee and juice and pretty tasty (although maybe a tad expensive).

We left the hostel at around 9:30am and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about stepping out into Shanghai. I wasn't sure if food would be easy to find, which should always be one's first concern according to basic rules of survival.

We took a brisk stroll down to The Bund, or basically a line of buildings that were built by the British when they inhabited China. It's a nice walk down the boardwalk to get a view of the buildings and also the Pudong (skyscraper) skyline across the other side of the river. Unfortunately it was a pretty overcast and smoggy day so the view of Pudong wasn't great.

When we reached the point on the river we went underground to experience the sightseeing tunnel. We bought our tickets and stepped onto a monorail that led us through a 800m long tunnel that was lit with LED lights and screens. It was quite strange with an English voiceover saying things like "molten lava" when we went through a red screened section and "meteor shower" when we went through a strobe light part. Quite strange and not really sightseeing, as you would typically expect.

When we got across slash under the river we walked up to the Oriental Pearl Tower to look at prices. It seems fairly expensive considering it was an unclear day so we went across to the nearby Super Brand Mall to browse the shops.

After a while we decided we would go up the tower and we went back to purchase tickets. We got the package that went right up to the top level, or the space capsule as they called it. There was a bit of a line to get into the lift but it moved quickly and before long we were at the lower observation deck.

You couldn't see much. The smog and fog was thick and we barely had a view. It was actually just mostly glarey up there. We did a lap and then proceeded to the lift to get to the space capsule.

Well. The view from the space capsule was even worse! The fog was just thicker up there. But the space capsule was an interesting experience with white lined walls and floors and a few space themed decor items.

Anyway, we made our way back down and went to the skywalk level where you could walk all along a glass section. That was pretty cool. And didn't look nearly as safe as some of the ones in the other towers we have been to. On the levels below the skywalk there were some games and also a roller coaster that was unfortunately out of order.

After the tower we went back across to Super Brand Mall and went to a place called Jade Palace for dumplings. We had delicious soup dumplings, fried duck, pork fried dumplings and gyoza type steamed dumplings. It was so much food but pretty damn tasty. Especially the soup dumplings.

After that we took the subway back to People's Square and strolled around there for a bit before checking out another shopping mall to see if we could scope places for dinner. We didn't find much of interest but there was a basement floor dedicated to sweets and Shannon bought two cream puffs and I got a hot tea that had cheese and Oreos in it. It sounds gross but it was actually really delicious and I will definitely try to have another before we leave China.

We had a rest in the hostel for a few hours and tried to look up stuff on the Internet. It's a bit hard because a lot of the websites are blocked. We had a drink at the hostel bar and played a snap like card game and also chess.

At 8pm we went out to find dinner and ending up having Ajisen. Shannon ate here a fair bit when he was in China last time. Shannon had ramen and I had fried rice with bok choy. It was quite tasty.

We are now back in the hostel getting ready for bed. We have plans to go to a water town tomorrow.