DAY 12 On Saturday we went Xu Jia Hui to have a look around the technology market. When I say market, I mean numerous buildings six or seven stories high, packed with computers, phones and cameras as far as the eye can see. Understandably, when the employees see two westerners walk in, they immediately flock to you, trying to be your best friend, pulling you into their shops and offering all manner of fantastic deals, when all they are really thinking is "...

DAY 11 Today we went to Shanghai station to book our tickets to Beijing, completely unaware that there was a national holiday coming up. When we arrived at the station, the place was absolutely heaving, like a human ants nest. Our first encounter, once inside the building, was with a guard whose sole purpose appeared to be to blow a whistle and generally act like he was at a rave. He directed us, through the medium of whistle blowing of course, to the queue fo...

DAY 10 Keen to forget last night's embarrassing ordeal, we woke up early and planned to fill our day with plenty of activities to take our minds off just how stupid we had been. Our first stop was the Yu Yuan Gardens. Upon entering the gardens we came across a security guard who was listening to Sean Kingston's unforgettable hit 'Beautiful Girls', so we joined in and had a little sing along with him. Daley even danced a little. Me? Well, you can't lose what you...

Day 9 Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Where do I start? To say that I have been putting off this writing today's post for some time would be a massive understatement. I had even given serious thought to not writing it at all and just hoping that no-one would notice but here goes... So, we arrived at the hostel, dropped our bags off and headed towards The Bund, an embankment and popular tourist destination (remember that bit) which runs along the western bank of th...

Day 8 Saturday was the day we left Hong Kong for Shanghai. We had some time to kill after checking out of the hostel, so went to an Irish pub nearby to get some breakfast and had the huge misfortune of being sat next to, quite possibly, the most miserable, chain-smoking, know-it-all Australian teacher on the planet, who proceded to spend the next two hours insulting just about every age, sex, race, sport, political viewpoint and religious group in existence. (F...