Trip to Shanghai - the first three days

Halloween night marked my two year anniversary of living in China. The first time I came here, which was on vacation in the spring of 2014, Shanghai was on my list of places to see, along with Beijing and Guilin. Until last week I hadn't been to any of those bucket list places, but the opportunity arose for a trip to Shanghai because my brother was going there for business for a few days. How could I possibly resist meeting up with Robert in Shanghai?! So I went to Shanghai for the golden opportunity of experiencing, with my brother, one of the world's greatest cities.

To keep travel costs down and also to enhance my traveling experience, I decided to take the train to Shanghai. There was a choice of a day time bullet train (11 hours), or the overnight slow train (19 hours). Friends of mine have told me colourful stories of their train trips in China and they all highly recommended the overnight train ride so it was an easy decision to make. With the help of a Chinese friend, I booked a hard sleeper from Huizhou to Shanghai.

And so my journey began, at Huizhou's North train station. With ticket in hand, I made my way to the 13th caboose and boarded the train, scheduled to depart at 2:38 pm. It was not what I expected. The only other train trip I'd taken in Asia was in Vietnam last Christmas, which had cozy little berths, like the kind you see in movies. I envisioned the same for this train ride, but instead walked into a crowded, chaotic, claustrophobic hallway with open sleeping areas, six bunks in each. My friend who booked the ticket for me did mention that I was randomly given a top bunk and that it wouldn't be very comfortable, but it didn't prepare me for what lay ahead. Dazed and confused by all the commotion, I tapped a fellow passenger on the shoulder, (a young girl who had offered me a smile moments before), and asked if she could help me find my bunk. She very kindly lead the way down the hall and pointed to the top bunk that matched my ticket. Oh boy, I thought to myself! It was way up there! I thanked her with a polite, "Xiè xiè nǐ," and she walked back to her group of enthusiastic, chatty friends.

I heaved my suitcase up to the baggage rack and took a seat by the window. (Each berth had a narrow table with two flip down seats). I chucked my big bag of snacks and my purse onto my bunk. My bag of snacks contained mandarin oranges, peanuts, sunflower seeds, two hard-boiled eggs, and a whole bunch of carrot and celery sticks. Reviews from friends lead me to expect a very social experience with people sharing snacks and taking care of the solo foreigner traveler, so I made sure I had plenty of snacks to offer in return. As it turned out, I left the train in Shanghai with a bag of snacks short of two eggs and three oranges. It was not the journey I expected. Everyone kept to themselves and pretty much just slept through the whole trip.

When the train departed from Huizhou people settled back down, mostly by climbing back into their bunks, and either played on their phones or napped for hours. I took out my book and read for hours, delaying my inevitable climb up the ladder to my claustrophobic bunk. At about 8:30 pm I climbed up and slotted myself in to my narrow sleeping space, and eventually drifted off into a state of unconsciousness.

I awoke with the first stop in some unbeknownst place at around 6 in the morning. Happy to climb down from my cocoon, I took a seat by the window and watched the world go by under a rising smokey red sun. Before I knew it we were pulling in to Shanghai station. From there I navigated by subway to the Marriott Hotel, where Robert had very generously booked me a room. After a wretched sleep on the train that left me with a crook neck, I was ecstatic to check into a luxurious hotel room where I took a warm shower and a short nap before readying myself for Robert and Kevin's arrival.

Early morning on the train.

Shanghai subway - South Railway Station to Century Avenue

The busy subway, as far as the eye can see.

The Marriott in Pudong, Shanghai

Room with a view.

Robert and his business partner, Kevin, arrived at the hotel from Seoul at around 6 pm. I greeted them as they were checking in.... it was surreal to be in Shanghai with Robert! After they got settled into the hotel we hit the streets, and walked towards the financial centre where the three tallest buildings in the city stand. The anticipation of seeing the tall skyscrapers put an extra skip in my stride. I knew it would be impressive. The wide, spacious sidewalks were the perfect prelude to the tall, soaring buildings that awaited our gazes of awe and admiration.

Me and Robert :-)

The first glimpse of what I later discovered is the second tallest building in the world! (The Shanghai Tower)

The closer we got, the more we craned our necks to behold the three soaring beauties, the Shanghai Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Centre, and Jin Mao Tower. Three absolutely awesome structures:

From left to right: Shanghai Tower, Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower.

My trusty Lonely Planet guide told us we could "observe the curvature of the earth from atop the Shanghai World Financial Centre" so we got tickets for the elevator and shot up to the 100th floor to take in these night time views:

Definitely the highest building I've ever been up to the top of. There are portions of the 100th floor that are glass, which was a little unnerving! But thrilling at the same time.

Probably my favourite building in Shanghai, the Oriental Pearl Tower. Looks like something out of the Jetsons!

So that was Saturday night, then came Sunday, the only full day that Robert and Kevin had for sightseeing so we had to make the most of it! We started out by taking the ferry across the Huángpu (Yellow) River to the Bund. The river crossing gave us spectacular views of the skyline on the Pudong district side.

Waiting to get on the ferry.

Shanghai Tower, glistening in the sun.

The Bund

The magnificent Pudong district skyline.

The ferry.

The Bund Promenade

Old meets new.

We had to pinch ourselves.... we really are in Shanghai, right?!!

From the Bund promenade we turned off onto Nanjing Road, a popular shopping street where the first department stores in China were opened in the 1920s.

Nanjing Road entrance.

An old residential building on Nanjing Road.

Nanjing Road was recently made a pedestrian only street. Closed to traffic, it's a great place to go for a Sunday afternoon stroll.

And if you're feeling old and tired like we were, you can hop on a train for only 5RMB, which will take you to the end of the road.

From Nanjing Road we stopped for a good lunch on Huanghe Road, a popular food street across from People's Park. After our lunch and resting our feet, we treated ourselves to a one hour full body massage for only 68RMB each ($14CDN!!), which replenished our energy before continuing on our walking tour.... next stop was People's Park.

Visit any park in China on a Sunday and you are guaranteed to see one hundred times more people than on any given day. People's Park was no different:

To say it was crowded would be an understatement! A very intriguing sight was the rows of umbrellas with notices on them. We asked some other foreigners there if they knew what they were about, and they informed us that there were people advertising their family members for marriage. More than likely, they were the parents of single men and women seeking a husband or wife for their son or daughter. In China there is still an expectation to marry before the age of 25.

From People's Park we naturally walked into People's Square. This is the site of the City Hall, (or Shanghai Municipal Government Mansion, as it is officially called), and the Shanghai Museum. It's a lovely big open space, a perfect meeting or resting place.

Shanghai Municipal Government Mansion

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (foreground)

Shanghai Museum

From People's Square we walked to the French Concession, an area of shops, restaurants and bars. We had a delicious meal in a Vietnamese restaurant and soaked up the European-style atmosphere. It was an escape from China - one of those times and places when you feel you could be anywhere. Gotta treasure those "escapism" moments, especially when you live in China!

After dinner we hopped in a taxi and scooted back to the Bund where we admired the skyline by night. Spectacular!! These photos really don't do it justice. Click here to see the skyline in action!

 

Then we walked to the 'Bund Sightseeing Tunnel' which the Lonely Planet guide very appropriately called "the weirdest way to get to Pudong." It was the worst 50RMB we spent in Shanghai. A complete waste of money. They made it out to be much more exciting and educational than it really was. We traveled in a train module through the tunnel of tacky light shows and bizarre acoustics and narrative to the Pudong side of the river. Again, pictures don't do it justice, click here to experience the weirdness!

We were all happy to collapse in our respective hotel rooms after this full day of sightseeing!