Day 44 We left Nanjing early and after an hour delay, arrived at Shanghai by train at midday. We checked into the hostel and set about exploring immediately, after some dinner of course, at our favourite Muslim chain. Our hostel was perfectly located just behind the Bund so we were able start at the top and work our way southward from Suzhuo Creek bridge, taking plenty of time to take in the sights of the Pudong skyline and take plenty of snaps. The Bund is gorgeous as all the buildings are very colonial, built in an era when many European countries had concessions here and built trade houses. The trade houses stood along side consulates and some of the best hotels in the East. We read that some buildings were nicknamed 'Houses of Snobbery' due to the sheer wealth that visited or resided there. This meant in the past Chinese themselves nor any woman was allowed in and where rich traders would sip champagne and discuss fortunes. As we came back to reality from a bit of daydreaming we carried our way down to 'Old Street'. This is a super-touristy area filled with Starbucks, Costas and shops selling everything you will never need. Luckily Eve and I got lost on the way and were fortunate enough to see the actual old streets where we could see inside the shops where they sold food, computers and car parts and just beyond the till there would be a sink and a bunk bed. All the surrounding streets were like this and it was fascinating to see these one room, home and shop combinations so close to the skyscrapers and hotels. Clearly not much has changed in the past few hundred years for the locals and its unlikely they will ever benefit from the mass tourism Shanghai receives After strolling the streets we headed back through the park and managed to see the Pudong skyline in all its glory at night. Every skyscraper was lit up with flashing lights and advertisements with one of them taking the role of a giant TV showing adverts and light displays. Again it's interesting to think that it wasn't even that long ago when the whole area would have just been marshland! Feeling tired from a lot of walking we managed to find a woman to knock us up some beef noodles in her back ally cafe/home and headed back.

Day 45 Up early we stopped off at a bakery for breakfast and walked straight to People's Square via pedestrianized East Nanjing Road which was packed with people looking in all the shops. The skyscrapers don't seem to stop as we were again flanked by them all the way down the road and in fact for the rest of the day. People's Square was a bit of a let down, the only excitement coming from two Chinese girls who after asking us to get a photo of them, started to suspiciously ask us questions of our travels. They asked if we'd been to a traditional tea ceremony, we immediately clicked on but thought we would play it out and told them all about the traditional tea we tried at the Folk House in Xi'an and what they used and what we drank. Predictably enough they soon got bored and hastily said bye and left us. Me and Eve had a good laugh as we walked off and then 2 minutes later another couple tried it. Not fancying a replay we brushed them off and went to the Shanghai Museum. It was very interesting but much of it we had already seen elsewhere so mainly stuck to the blue and white porcelain exhibit- many pieces of which were from the British Museum, traditional furniture and clothing rooms and finally the currency exhibit- one that I may have found a little too interesting judging by Eve's discreet sighs and moans. Then we were off to the French Concession which funnily is the area of the old French concession, now it is full of pricey cafes, yet more Starbucks and quirky boutiques. It was still nice to walk around though and within the concession there are few central areas so walked to a second one which was prettier still and bought some nice pizza for dinner as a treat. Next we took a metro to the New Pudong Area which we saw from the other side of the river yesterday. It was dark when we got off the metro and the place was dead. This was mainly because it was Sunday night so no bankers rushing around and with nothing there apart from very wide highways and very tall buildings we had a nice walk about. We got up close to Shanghai World Financial Centre and Jinmao Tower, both of which stand side by side and make u fall backward when you look up at them. This is clearly where luxury lives as around the corner there was a shopping mall where if you can believe it or not the LOW brand shop was Louis Vuitton. In one shop we saw a watch price tagged at £170,000 and covered in diamonds (Eve will get such a shock on Xmas morning!) We then walked along the river and got the metro back just in time for the derby, we managed to find a good stream on the internet and watched it. I wasn't too happy with the score but I think Eve was simply pleased we didn't lose, in fear of the next day being miserable!

Day 46 We picked up something from the bakeries for breakfast again and hopped on the metro to one of the many bus stations. We managed to find the bus we wanted that would take us to Zhujiajiao which is an ancient canal village. The bus pulled into an ordinary station and looking around it looked like every other run-down part of China, "great" we thought, the Chinese have managed to con us into going somewhere that used to be good but has since been turned into in to a shopping frenzy with little in terms of culture to offer. As soon as we stepped outside the station we were mobbed by rickshaw drivers wanting to take us places so we shot off in the other direction and soon found a map. We headed where we thought the river was and then followed it down and it wasn't long before we were proved wrong. It was beautiful, only a small section exists and its almost like a village within a town. So we walked around and over the many little stone bridges and then we came to a big canal which was lined with pagodas, temples, restaurants and plenty of shops. It was almost dinner time and the food here looked amazing, most selling fish, crabs and shrimps. Yesterday we took out enough money to pay into one of the big skyscrapers and have a drink at the top but decided it was just a waste of money at about 20 quid each so thought there wasn't a better way to spend it than on a nice meal. So we picked a good looking restaurant with decent prices where we were seated upstairs overlooking the canal. In the end we ordered a hairy crab each, a plate of shrimps, a plate of green veg and some rice. It was the nicest meal of the trip by far and we were there for a good two hours devouring it. As we were heading back to the bus we persuaded each other into buying a coffee for Eve and an Oreo hot chocolate for me. The bus journey back was a one to remember. Half way back to Shanghai it was starting to get nippy so a girl next to me leaned over to close a window two rows in front on the other side of the bus which didn't please the girl sitting under the window, there was a few words said and then it settled down. A couple minutes later the two Chinese girls next to me started to mumble to each other and then all of a sudden the other girl in front jumped and started to shout at them which incurred a rally of insults. The Chinese girl in front was with her parents and her father in law who was white English. After a few minutes of shouting the girl in front leaned over and went to hit one of the girls just as one of them next to me struck out her leg, before we knew it there was a full scale fight with me in the middle trying to stop the two girls next to me and the father in law trying to stop the other. In terms of fights it was a bit of a let down, no broken noses or anything interesting, just a daft scrap but either way it was quite a scene. Once it settled down- which it never really did, the father in law asked if we were okay and started chatting then the girl turned around and was telling us that the reason she jumped up and was so angry is because the two girls said she was w**** who was taking money from the old white man (which wasn't the case) which infuriated her and made her act so rashly. They were then insulting her for even being with a white person at all, which offended us as well and made me think about how I helped them from getting hit- weren't so fast to judge then! Anyway we got off the bus and the girl in front wanted to go again and get the police, we thought we better leave as the police would see we were white and immediately see us as guilty for something so we did a runner. That was far too much excitement for one day so we just grabbed street food and went back for the night.

Day 47 Our train to Shenzhen was at 13:40 so didn't have much time to do anything in the morning. After packing we were pleased to find out our couch-surfing request in Perth had been confirmed and then caught the subway to the south train station where we boarded our 18 hour train!