Shanghai Adventures Part Two...

Continued from last post...

Sunday

We decided to take it fairly easy on Sunday (as we only got up at 12.30pm...) so we walked down to People's Square, which was okay, but I don't know whether we actually managed to explore all of it, as there was a main road running through what we thought was the square, and we got confused....after that, we took a trip to the Yuyuan Gardens. Initially we got a bit lost when we emerged from the subway, but we persevered and we finally found it. Unfortunately, it was 4.45pm by the time we got there and as it cost 30 yuan to get into the gardens and they closed at 5pm, we decided not to bother going in. But all around the gardens is a beautiful bazaar, filled with all these kitschy shops where you can buy all these typical Chinese souvenirs, such as fortune cats, or having your name painted in Mandarin on a scroll...it was pretty cool! We ended up having Chinese tea in a tea house which was awesome - the tea was so refreshing – nothing like the herbal tea we have back in England! The only downside was a man hacking up spit every five seconds on the table behind us....I don't know whether I'm ever going to get used to that noise.

Monday

Yesterday, we visited two museums – one was the Former Residence of Zhou Enlai, and the other was the Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen. Brief history lesson for you, folks (although I'm sure you're obviously already clued up about China's history anyway ;)....) - Zhou Enlai was the former Chinese Prime Minister during the 1960s and 70s, and is seen by many as one of China's greatest twentieth century leaders. He was a keen military strategist and was was a key figure in negotiations between the U.S and China in the 1970s. Sun Yat-sen on the other hand is seen as the forerunner of the Chinese democratic revolution, the founder of the Republic of China and a respected contributor to Chinese modern history....but I'm a bit annoyed at him right now, as we had to pay 20 yuan to get into his museum and then the whole bloody thing was in Mandarin. Not cool Sun Yat-sen...

Last night we went back to Hengshan Road, which was good – we weren't quite so late back this time, although the taxi woman we got to take us back to the hostel didn't understand English, so instead of dropping us off at East Nanjing Road, she dropped us off at the very start of Nanjing Road (West)...look it up, and you'll see how far away that is! After about 45 mins of walking, we finally admitted defeat and hailed another taxi, which took us to Shanxi Road, where our hostel is. Although my feet were on fire, it was still something to walk around Shanghai at night, and we saw some interesting sights, such as a security guard shaving his face while he was on duty, and a shop display full of entirely naked mannequins...weird just doesn't sum it up...

So that's all for now! Sorry for the uber-long post, I'll try not to leave ti so long between updates next time! Hopefully I'll be able to let you know I'm alive and well once we reach Harbin :).

Until then,

Zài jiàn!