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Shanghai

This is an awesome trip i must blog about. So i went to shanghai from tuesday to friday, with khairul and yelena.

Day 1. Left early tuesday morning and reached shanghai pudong airport at about 2? i think. after much debating, we decided to take the maglev and a taxi to the hotel.

The maglev was fast. 400 km/h?? and we reached the station in 8 mins. but you couldn’t really feel the speed sitting in the train.

We stayed at the H hotel, which was quite good actually. I expected worse. It was nicely decorated, if a bit small the rooms. and i had a window view room. which allowed me to see the wall.

After putting down our baggage, we headed out to the Shanghai World Financial tower, which was this really tall building that allowed you to go about 400 m in the air. The view wasnt good, as it was quite hazy, didnt allow you to see far. But an experience nonetheless.

We decided to head over to the world famous bund, and decided to go by the bund sightseeing tunnel.

The Bund sightseeing tunnel was ridiculous. and quite lame. it was just a train, that brought you through a tunnel decorated with lights, and announcer annoucing words like space swirl, in english and chinese, for each section we went through. Paid 45 rmb for that and i didnt take any photos.

We went to the bund and realised it was quite cold. All i had was a t shirt, and both yelena and i didnt bring jackets. Only Khairul did. anyway the bund was nicely lighted up , and also the pudong side of the river. All in preparation for the world expo i think. It was crowded, but the view was nice. Loving the weather too.

Went to nanjing lu after that. supposed to be a famous shopping street, but we didnt like it much. headed to pizza hut (!) for dinner. hahhaa. our first two meals in shanghai were fast food. subway and pizza hut. quite bad.

Headed home after that. or tried to.

we tried to get a cab, but no one wanted to fetch us across the river. see, we were at the puxi side, and our hotel was at pudong. so we decided to take the metro, and we had trouble buying tickets, thanks to our horrible chinese. all our chinese sucked.

we finally bought tickets thanks to some kind soul who coulding stand waiting behind us anymore, and got over to the pudong side. however, we coudnt get a cab. and it was getting cold.

So we walked all the way to the shanghai world financial centre, the place we had been in the afternoon, as it had a taxi stand. It was almost our turn, there was just a woman in front of us. but then suddenly no cab decided to come. after waiting half an hour, a guard told us there was no more cabs. turns out the roads were closed, i guess in preparation for the world expo, which i really wanted to see.

so we had no choice but to walk back home. but we got a cab back halfway, which was good. so we were finally back after 2 hours. hahaha

Day 2 we woke up early for breakfast, then headed out to the factory tour by wincor nixdorf, which was why we were in shanghai in the first place. took a super far taxi ride, and saw the factory. ok nothing much.

Took another taxi to the software branch, and it was much better. got a free lunch at the canteen, and were brought around by the nice office ladies.

Went to yu gardens after that, which was the old shanghai. nothing much to see, forbidden city was much better. some shops, touristy place.

next was xin tian di, which was like shanghais clarke quay. didnt feel like we were in china, more like europe.

wanted to watch ip man 2, but the tickets were 90 rmb, which is about 18 sing?!? crazy. ate at chamate, some taiwanese restaurant. we havent had real shanghai food as of yet. and my xiao long bao:(

but we headed back to our hotel. and went out again for supper, where i finally ate xiao long bao!

the last day: Thursday

we had no idea what to do, so we went to check out the oriental pearl tv tower. we thought it was quite lame at first, since we alr went higher up, but it turned out to be great. its the space ship looking tower. the views were better, there was a glass floor area, an open air area, cool tour guides with perfect timing in the lift, and even a roller coaster!!!

went to the super brand mall, which is called zhen da in chinese. super big. well it was, but not as big as those malaysian megamalls.

then we went looking for bicycles after that, which i saw in a magazine. took a cab to the place, spent some time looking for it, which turned out to be in a housing complex’s bomb shelter. quite cool and old school.

bought this cool china post bike, but i wanted the mens one, but the packed the ladies. ugh.

headed back to the hotel, and we went out for dinner. Finally ate at a real chinese restaurant, where i had my xlb. again. and Khairul finally got his har kow.

took two cabs to the airport, thanks to the bikes, and the cost came up to 40 sing. really ex. the airport was damn far. this shows how fast the maglev was. actually it doesnt.

Went in early, played with the travellators, the headed home. Too short, but packed trip. Fun though! just wished i got the mens bike, and could have seen the world expo. oh well. Lots of regrets. ugh. gotta go back in 6 months

I would have put in more photos, but im lazy.