Ni hao ma? Wô hên hao! Our fifth destination in China was Shanghai, meaning 'Above the River'. Shanghai is a really cool place but sadly we only had 2 nights there. When we first arrived it was pouring with rain and despite being gone midday, the hotel couldn't get us checked in. Soaking wet and smelly, the group got lunch in a little restaurant attached to the hotel while Tori worked her magic. Soon enough, we checked in and headed out in the relentless rain for the afternoon.

Tori took us to Yuyuan Garden, a traditional Chinese garden that's been there for many years and is wonderful to walk around. For dinner we had dumplings, fried rice and spring rolls with another couple in our group (shout out Rob and Cat) followed by a stroll on the Bund. The Bund was gorgeous at night time; on the opposite side of the river you can see the Shanghai skyline all lit up and on this side of the river are European type buildings. There's even a building based on Big Ben and when it chimes, we swear we could be in London! On the way back to the hotel we found a little hole in the wall (literally) and after some interesting hand signals and some badly spoken mandarin we managed to buy a few 'píjiû' (beers) from a lovely Chinese lady.

Thankfully we woke up to bright blue skies on our second day. The group jumped on the metro to the finance district which is home to some of the tallest buildings we've seen. Our favourite building is the Oriental Pearl because it just looks so darn cool. We went up the Shanghai World Financial Centre to the observation deck on the 100th floor (above the bottle opener - a design used to prevent the building from swaying). In 2009, it was the highest observation deck in the world; now it's 3rd on the list. On the way out it was a special treat to see a sun rainbow circling the building.

We had lunch on Ninjang Road followed by a stroll around Shanghai Museum. Early evening we split with the rest of the group and three of us went back to the finance district to explore a bit more. The Apple Shop there was a glass cylinder coming out of the ground and we got to try the Apple watch on (well it wouldn't be a trip to China without trying on a new gadget now would it). Max succumbed to his first western dish and we had Pizza Express. As it was a much clearer night we spent the evening on the bund again with more 'píjiû' on the way home. It was nice to hang out with Owen and get to chat a bit more in a smaller group.

On the final day in Shanghai we visited the French Quarter and went to the museum for the first meeting of the communist party. It was time to depart in the afternoon so we made our way to the main road to flag a taxi. We got the taxis in groups of 3 with a note for the driver to go to the train station written by Tori in Chinese. It's crazy how hard it is for us to get a taxi! Dozens of available ones go past and completely avoid us, presumably because they can't be bothered with us due to the language barrier. Eventually we all got a taxi and boarded our last 15 hour sleeper train to Beijing. It was a bit of a shame that on this one we were all spread out sporadically across 3 carriages but we still got a few card games in.

Last stop, Beijing!

Steph and Max x