We went to Shanghai with the purpose of hanging out with Andrew’s long-term friend, Damion Van Brussel, who had moved there around a year ago. In perfect timing we arrived the night before China’s National Day, the celebration of the beginning of the ‘new China’ and a week of holidays for the people, including Damo.
So we were met at the airport by Damo and his girlfriend, Amy, and then taken back to his apartment where we found out that he was generously giving it to us for the duration of our visit, while he would stay with Amy at her parents place. We went for a walk around his area, the beautiful ‘French sector’, had very expensive drinks at a German Beer Haus (all drinks were around $10 including my can of Ginger Ale!!) where we were amused at the Chinese waitresses dressed in German folk attire and then finally got to bed around 2am.
After a well needed sleep-in we headed off to see the city and to eat a whole lot of Shanghai food. After stopping off to get some brunch, noodles, soup & dumplings, we caught the metro into the city and went down to the river. The view was stunning, the typical big city landscape, and being National Day there were people everywhere. It made for quite a festive atmosphere, which I love, and though we couldn’t find a seat it was amazing to walk around.
As the sun began to set we caught the metro back to the other side of the river where we came up to a busy pedestrian mall with buildings so tall and brightly lit on both sides that you come up out of the ground looking up and going ‘WOW’. There’s just something so cool about big cities at night time. We went to another favourite restaurant of Damo & Amy’s and ate their delicious fish in oil and duck tongues, which, after you got over the ‘I’m pashing a duck’ mental image, were actually quite nice.
Then we headed back to the river, though this time on the other side, to look over the newer, bigger, side we had just come from. By that time it was fully dark, the crowds were massive, and it was like the entire Army & Police were out in force keeping the peace and directing the thick traffic. The view was spectacular with the bright neon lights and huge advertisements dancing across the sides of the buildings and glittering off the water.
We walked along the shore and then caught a boat tour to take us up and down the river. And it was there on that boat that Andrew found his first fan. He’d asked a young Chinese girl to take a photo of the four of us and then when he was retrieving the camera the girl asked if she could take a photo with him. Andrew thought that she wanted him to take a photo of her group but no, she wanted a photo WITH him. Andrew, quite surprised but very willing, posed with the biggest smile on his face that we couldn’t wipe off for the rest of the night. The boat trip was also gorgeous.
The next morning saw us getting up seriously early to catch the bus to a small water-town, an hour and a half out of Shanghai, called Zhouzhuang. The bus station itself was interesting in that there was a public dance session going on, but all older people waltzing around together for their morning exercise. It was gorgeous to watch, except for the slick grandpa gigolo who swayed his hips a little too much while looking at me with seductive eyes. But after a breakfast of KFC (it was the only place available!) we sat in the back seat of the bus and headed off.
Zhouzhuang is gorgeous. The Venice of China with little alleys on little canals and tonnes of little shops selling all sorts of handicrafts, clothes & foods. We walked around for hours, squeezed our way through the crowds of Chinese tourists, had a delicious lunch of fish while looking out from the balcony and eventually found ourselves on a boat trip.
Later we climbed a Taoist temple where Andrew had another photo-op, this time with an older couple, and to my delight I was asked to be in it as well! And then it was time to get back on the bus where everyone fell asleep for the drive home. When we got back to Shanghai we caught a taxi outside the bus terminal but the driver wouldn’t take us and kept saying ‘I can’t turn around, I can’t turn around!’ It was so strange, the street wasn’t that busy but we got out, caught another taxi who could turn around and laughed about it the rest of the way home.
The next day Andrew convinced Damo & I to go to Expo 2010. For those who don’t know, Expo is like a Royal Show but instead of farmers showing off their livestock it’s countries showing off their countries. It’s like the ultimate show and everyone who we told we were going to Shanghai asked us if we were going to Expo, so Andrew got it into his head that we were going, so we went. But even just getting in the front gate was a drama. We’d brought our tickets from a China Mobile store and, due to National Day holidays, we had to pay the highest price. Unknown to us the tickets were dated so we were sold tickets for the 6th Oct instead of the 3rd Oct. The officials wouldn’t let us in the front gate so we had to go to the ticket counter to exchange them for the correct tickets that cost us an extra RMB40 each! So we paid the absolute most you can possibly pay for a one day pass to Expo and we’d arrived at 2pm.
Once inside Andrew was determined to get into the China pavilion but found that the line, which was ridiculously long, was actually only for people who’d pre-booked! So there was absolutely no way we were getting into that one. We kept walking, passed many pavilions and were shocked at the queues, and eventually found Brunei with no one waiting. So we went inside and had a quick look around to get the ball rolling. Then we made a plan and headed to Poland that had a pavilion that looked like a lace tablecloth. We waited in line for an hour and then walked around inside reading about how great the country is. The key feature though was an absolutely brilliant animated video showing the history of Poland. It made Andrew quite proud and gave me a new respect for my adopted country.
Next up and we headed to Australia. In the line we were again the centre of attention. I even had one guy take a photo of me on his phone as we weaved around the rows. Once inside we were met with the most beautiful display. And then in the middle was a theatre with a very impressive feature about how great it is to live in Australia. I felt a little homesick watching it, the first time since we’ve been away and walked out quite patriotic.
Expo at night took on a new feel but unfortunately we didn't have time to hang around, though Andrew made sure there was time to take a few more photos of his beloved China pavilion.
We headed home, happy but tired, met up with Amy, who’d spent the day hanging out with friends, and went out to a really nice Japanese restaurant where the chef cooks the food in front of you. It was delicious, the freshest food ever, and we met a man who amazingly knew Adelaide and also Poznan, Poland where Andrew is from. Random, as most people only know Sydney & Melbourne when you say you’re from Australia!
Being our last night we decided to go to Karaoke! We had a lot of fun though the hour we’d given ourselves flew past. There was a default song called ‘Shy, Shy’ by an Asian boy band that we nicknamed the ‘Rickshaw Boys’. Andrew loved it so he chose it as one of his songs to sing. We were all in hysterics when he tried to sing the Chinese bits. I whipped out the local favourite ‘My Heart Will Go On’ though I was interrupted a number of times by the ushers once the ten minute mark came. So we had a really fun night.
The next morning and the drama began. We were flying Air Asia out of Shanghai to KL to make a connection to Vietnam. The flight was to leave at 2:10pm so we had to be at the airport before the counter closed at 1:10pm. The only problem was that when we confirmed the airport with Damo we found out that actually the airport wasn’t IN Shanghai, it just serviced Shanghai but was in a city 2.5hrs away named Hangzhou!! So we got up early, slightly panicked, and headed to the train station to find that the only train that could get us there on time was booked out. Amy then told us that there was a bus station downstairs, so we raced down to see if we could possibly get one. Fortunately there were two tickets left on a bus that left Shanghai at 10:25am getting to Hangzhou around 12:30pm leaving us 40 minutes to get to the airport.
We said our goodbyes, thanked them both for giving us such a great time in Shanghai, and boarded the bus. When 12:30pm came we were in the outskirts of the city and Andrew & I started getting a little concerned. When the bus stopped at 12:45pm we ran to the taxi’s, found one and jumped inside. The driver sat there trying to communicate to us in Chinese while we got more and more anxious, so we put on our seatbelts as we figured out he was asking and then he wanted to know if we had enough money so Andrew pulled out his wallet and yelled, ‘YES I have money, now GO GO GO!!!’ He got the message and he went, driving like a madman in a massive hurry spurred on by the tension in the backseat!
Only thing is we now had another problem. The airport was a lot further away from the bus station than anticipated, so we went on, and so did the meter. We kept one eye on the time and one eye on the meter! Andrew had RMB59 left and as we approached the airport at 1:10pm it went past that and kept going. I had a few coins that we had put aside to keep in my purse so in the end we made it with RMB1 left over. We had arrived… at 1:13pm. The counter should have been closed.
We raced inside to find the counter was, in fact, still open!! So we checked in, though as one more little nervous point we found our luggage was 3kg’s overweight, which on a previous trip we had had to take out the offending kilo’s, but the lady let it pass. We breezed through immigration & security and sat at the gate thanking God over and over that we had made it.
As the plane took off and we broke through the smog layer we sat back exhausted and laughed. We had had a ball in Shanghai, a city I’m absolutely certain we will return too, and we were incredibly happy to be heading toward Kuala Lumper on our way to Vietnam.
As a final note we would like to say a HUGE thank you to Damo & Amy for being the most amazing and generous hosts. We had such a great time hanging out with you both, loved the laughter and the food, and enjoyed the Ye Shanghai!
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