After fighting with the heat and the crowd in Bejing for three days, Shanghai appeared to us as an oasis of peace. Not so much for the weather, as the humidity was, if possible, even worse than in the capital, but for the general efficience of the city. The metro is almost as frequent as in Beijing, but much less crowded and always air conditioned. It is true what our guide book says, Shanghai is miles ahead of Beijing. Despite the lack of the breath-taking sights you find in Beijing, Shanghai is a very enjoable city, and much easier to navigate. Full of cafes, restaurants, nice shops and a very intense night life. Ouf first taste of the city was the French Concession, the area of town that was stricktly controlled by the French, and where they built houses for their own immigrants. And there I finally found the small and (relatively) quite streets I had been longing for, and I managed to do some shopping. In one of the boutiques we met two unbelievably annoying Italian girls, who were trying to decide which of the touristy t-shirts with the picture of Mao looked "most communist". As I generally do in these cases, in the attempt to hide my nationality, I switched to Norwegian, just in case they could spot my accent from the English, and left the shop as quickly as possible. At night we were invited out to dinner by an American friend of Odd's, who took us to a very cool place where we finally got to try the famous Chinese hot pot, basically a giant pot of boiling water with spices, where you dip all sorts of stuff, from pieces of meat, to nooddles, to potatoes. All accompanied by the most giant and tasteless beer I have ever had. After dinner we continued the evening in one of the (supposedly) trendiest bar in town, which was actually half empty and incredibly overpriced. The second day the sun came out and the temperature reached levels never experienced before. On our way to the old town, we had to stop several times to drink and cool off. The only really nice and not too touristy thing in that area were the Yuyuan gardens, with their wonderful little bridges, canals and temples. Other than that the bazar had been turned in a Disneyland looking road, full of shops and people trying to get you into them. After a very tasty lunch in a restaurant that served food from the region of Yunan, in the south of the country, we finally ventured to the Bund, the area of the new crazy tall skyscrapers. We walked along the river, facing Pudong on the other side, the other even newer area and with even crazier and taller buildings. The view was incredible on both sides, something in between New York and Futurama. You really have the feeling, while walking those streets, that there is where everything is happening and that you get to be a witness of it, even if for one day only. We really wanted to see again the skyline at night, so after dinner we went back to the Bund and took the elevator of the Hyatt that takes you to the View bar on the 36th floor. And there, sipping a cocktail, we got to see the show of lights and colors of the buildings on both sides of the river until it got late, and we headed back to the hotel to try to get some sleep before the very early flight to Macau of the next morning.