Nanjing Road. The 'tourist' road in shanghai. Like the rest of
shanghai, left us fairly unimpressed...
Stepping into our space-like capsule, we were a little unsure of what to expect from our scenic tunnel ride. As we launched, it became clearer... technicolour lights, music, and a wise Yoda-like voice began and our capsule launched.... slowly.... through laser-lighted tunnel with 'themes' of earth, heaven, hell, space... you get the gist. Light shows seem very popular here. As our journey ended, we agreed that all the trip needed was some LSD with the purchase ticket to 'enhance' the experience.
Weird tunnel thingy
Hazy skyline. This is actually fairly clear relatively...
This is more like it.
Newly enlightened, we headed for our next touristy obligation. The Sky tower. It is either 450 ft or metres tall (i cannot remember which but 450 metres is starting to sound a little big...), and is a communications tower. Ascending to the top was the usual sightseeing tower fare. The view... well, there is a lot of smog... so we saw maybe 200 metres out. I felt a little ill that this was what we were breathing in. The view was nothing compared to the space museum a little lower down though. A round room painted black with a yoda in the corner and some pictures of planets. Dean's glowing white shirt was my personal highlight.
Oriental Pearl Tower (or something like that)
I had my first dose of blond-celebritism by one little stalker in the tower also. At first he asked for a photo with me, i declined. Later whilst on a different level, walking down some stairs, the stalker was waiting and took a photo of me whilst walking down the stairs! Not happy Jan!!!! Disliking the day we headed for some lunch.
This was more successful. We found an outside eatery, where you simply point at the food you have with your rice and tuck in. So, Dean and myself filled up, with a couple of drinks (inc. beer) and it cost a grand total of $3. Day was looking up.
In fact, the food of Shanghai was the highlight. Our hostel was located in a more 'local' area so we took the opportunity to eat local. On our first night, fresh into Shanghai, we headed out. Completely forgetting our phrasebook, we soon realised we were going to have to find a restaurant with pictures. Walking past street side venders of noodles, BBQs, Dean was dribbling and leaving a small trail. Eventually we found somewhere where I too could eat something. Between the wonderful world of pictures, body language and a lovely restauranteur, Dean had noodles and myself, shredded bamboo shoots with chilli and garlic (I have since wanted every meal to have this combination.... I might be an addict). We were also served a broth on the side each. Looking all meaty, I gave mine to Dean. This was not the best idea, however, as they seemed to be never-ending. After 3 bowls, Dean was a little full. We soon learnt to leave some broth behind.
At another local eatery, they have all different ingredients on skewers and you select the ingredients you want and they cook it up. I got a little excited by this set-up and was selecting every vegetable i could get my hands on before dean warned me that I would be paying for each one. Sighing at the ingredients I left behind, I handed my collection over. The price for mine was 5 Yuan (~80cents!!!!). Dean's was the same and as you can imagine, it was all meaty. The ingredients get added to noodles and voila, dinner is serve, with drinks for under $2. I think that is almost our cheapest dinner in China to date... Did i mention that we also got drinks with that, still for under $2....
Lastly, the subway. We seemed to spend a lot of time on it. Shanghai is massive with around 18 million people and lengthy tunnels. It is quick, clean, colour-coded and bi-lingual with signs and announcements. The best train in all of Shanghai though is the Maglev. The engineers of you may want to google this one. Somehow using magnets in a catapillar style (????), the Maglev train from the airport to the city travels at a cool 450km an hour. This means it takes a couple of minutes to get from the city to the airport and that the cars on the freeways on the way appear to be zooming backwards. It's cool and I want one!
So the tip for Shanghai (Geoff I know you will be there shortly), eat. Eat lots. At local restaurants of course. Oh and bring an umbrella - still raining.
ally
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