Shanghai - Day 1
A smooth 10 hour flight with China Eastern into Shanghai's Pudong airport, about 30 mins from the city. The plane was pretty comfortable. We land at 7:30pm local time after gaining 3 hours. By the time we make it to the former French concession it's about 10pm and all plans for exploring will need to wait for tomorrow. The restaurants are closing but we need a quick bite and some bottled water. We have the grossest chicken teriyaki sub from Subway and crash.
We wake up at a reasonable time and get out and about looking for coffee. Nothing on the agenda today until a river cruise tonight, so we take it slow. This area of Shanghai is full of plane tree-lined streets and well kept roads and footpaths. We can understand why Shanghai has been called the Paris of the East.
The exchange rate is about 4.5 Yuan to our dollar. All indications are the food and what-not will be cheap. Everything except the cafe coffees it would seem. Yes, they are fancy cafes around here, but it was still surprising to pay Aussie cost for our flat whites.
Its more like brunch time at this stage, so we are open to any food option that looks good. A hole-in-the-wall looks legit enough to us. We've given up on either google maps or amap (the Chinese equivalent) for reviews.
We head up-stairs. The owner points to the QR code on the table and we figure it out from there (it's all about the QR codes here; China runs on QR codes). We order a beef noodle dish and a set of steamed pork and cabbage dumplings with sides of fried egg, egg boiled in a delicious spice and soy mix and bok choy, plus a bottle of water and iced tea. $14 all up and super tasty. Very full and very happy.
We do a big loop to get home via one of the many parks littered all over Shanghai with mainly retired people sitting around or doing tai chi. We load up on bottled water at a convenience store; we can't drink the water in China.
We duck home before heading out again. Our place is down an alley way and up a few rickety flights of stairs. A one room loft in amongst residential tenants. Across the hall there is a family living, eating their breakfast with the door open. Hard to get a guage on the socio-economic status of the residents but it seems lowish. Interesting that we are a 2 minute walk from a massive Prada shop.
We head vaguely towards the centre of town and the Bund. We go via Fuxing Park. It's massive. Some locals playing a Chinese game I'm still trying to identify. A big statue of Marx and Engles. Seems like a nice hangout spot for retirees.
We head to the People's Park and pop into the Shangai History Museum, the building used to be the Race Club with now-removed balconies overlooking the race track which is now the park.
We take in a few floors of history before heading to the rooftop for the views. The weather is perfect and Shanghai is turning it on.
Not far from here is Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. Effectively like any other open mall in the world but bigger and to be fair, with plenty more little snacky food options. Like the scallion pancake we picked up on the way.
Gambling is illegal in China, but scratchies are allowed. We've seen whole shops dedicated to this and Jeff goes in for $5 worth at a scratchies stall. He turns it into $8 which was great for getting some smaller change!
We end up at the famous Bund and it's definitely impressive. The view across to the other side of the Huangpu river is stunning. It's still broad daylight but already you can get a feel for how futuristic the city is going to look at night. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower stands out.
Tine for another feed. We're worried we are in for something mega touristy given our location but ChatGPT steers us in the right direction and within about a 15 minute walk we are back with the locals and order a couple of dishes (edamame beans and pork, and farmhouse pork with chili and capsicum and a healthy amount of rice) and a TsingTao long neck (about $18 all up). No English was spoken. Although the chef brought out a bowl of chilli (in between puffs on his ciggie) and we mimed a "small amount".
We get the Metro home to get a bit of charge in the phones and the legs. The trip was about 50cents and super easy to navigate.
Back onto the Metro to the Bund for our river cruise. We're running a bit late and struggling to find the entrance to the terminal. Running around like maniacs. We get there in the end. Grab a Pocari Sweat and two massive beers and board the ship.
For $10 each we decide to upgrade and get seats on the roof top with another beer and a 'gift': either a scarf or some Danish biscuits. We choose the latter and settle in.
The city at night is something else. The buildings on the east side of the river are all built within the last 30 years and pretty much all of them are equipped for lights and visuals. Shanghai Tower (the second tallest building in the world) stands out. That side of the river feels like what Blade Runner envisioned for a city of the future.
On the West of the river are the old colonial buildings, lit up beautifully. The waterfront has been designed and implemented so well. Still with green space in places and the walkway is nice and wide. Very well done.
The whole city seems to be a masterclass in urban planning. Not once has it felt like we're in a city with the population of Australia!
We Metro home and have to see what the Maccas soft serve cones are worth. Sadly they are about $1.
26kms clocked up on foot. A decent first crack at Shanghai.
