Shanghi

Well currently we are in Shanghi, we are just having a two hour break in this internet cafe before we jump on a train to beijing. Witha bit of luck we will have a net cafe there that is fast and has USB (stuff we have had trouble finding) so we can upload a few photos.

We caught a sleeper train from Luo Yang to SHanghi. It took about 16 hours, but went quickly, was a nice way to travel. We arrived in SHanghi at about 2 on the afternoon and went to the railway hotel whichis really close to the railway. First two things we noticed is that Shanghi is so darn hot. Hotter then any other city we have been in so far, secondly it is very western in most things,thirdly (did I only say two things?) is that it is SOOOO crowded here, more then beijing. There are people everywhere!

First night we had a meal and went for a wander around at the peoples square, which is near the centre of the city. We then went for a wander down to the Bund area which is where the oriental pearl tower is.

The next day we headed out of SHanghi a bit with Di's Uncles friend to a town called zhu jia. it is a small twon that has remained pretty much the same for centuries, I mean pretty much because I am sure that a few hundred years ago they did not sell plastic toy soldiers to other villiage locals. There has been many movies filmed in this town, unfortunaly I have forgotten the names and have not seen any of them :) The town was very nice and had long narrow streets with lots of canals. It was kind of like the venice of china. Later on in the afternoon we went for a gondola ride diwn one of the canals. It was pretty cool. After that we headed back into the city and went looking around an old shopping area. The best purchase we have made so far was this dragon and pheonix picture that is three dimensional that has been made out of coke cans, when we can we will upload a picture, it is really nice, looks like it has been cast in pewter or something. AFter thatwe went out to the Shanghi golf club, we only went out here cause it was on the way and we needed to pee,the toilets were sitty ones, whichis a nice change from having to squat (too much info?) and trust me... I have had to visit some toilets. Did you know some squatty toilets dont even have cubicle walls, you do your business infront of everyone... very hard to get used to :)

ANyway after our loo break we went off to where the China world expo is being held in 2010 (these people are prepared... the place is already built) and bought a kit and two reels for it, the first one was flash, but the second looks like a fishing rod cut down a bit, real nice and a total of about $5 all up :)

We then went for a wander around the base of the oriental pearl towaer again. By this time it was late, so we then went backto the hotel and slept.

this morning we were up and into the city, got some photos of the power lines, sounds boring, but these people have some lines strung up. We then took the Bund tour, which starts on one side of the river, you take this little car/train thing and it goes under the river over tothe oriental pearl tower, then we went up the tower and got a great view of over shanghi. After that we took the metro back, found the internet cafe and are now waiting on our train. We then have two more nights in Beijing and then back to Brisbane.

We will try and upload some pictures in Beijing, we have about 600 or so :) we went nuts :)