Ni Hao! I am going to try to write as much as I can about China in the next few hours that I have on the ship but I had eight days there and did A LOT. So, for right now I will make sure I get out Shanghai because that was a pretty uneventful place.
But first! Here is a day-by-day summary of what I did…
Day 1: Arrived in Shanghai. Woke up to watch the sun rise over the skyline. Walked around People’s Square and some markets. Had a fever at night so stayed in to rest up before leaving for Beijing the next day.
Day 2: Shopped in morning. Flew to Beijing in afternoon. Walked around and got dinner in Ho Hai at night in Beijing.
Day 3: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Silk Market, Great Wall (slept and hiked)
Day 4: Great Wall (hiked and ziplined), Olympic Park, hot pot dinner
Day 5: Temple of Earth and Temple of Fire New Years Fair, Hutong rickshaw tour, lunch at a local home, Summer Palace, duck dinner, Acrobatic Show, clubs
Day 6: antique market, hot pot lunch, Temple of Heaven, Pearl Market, business class flight to Hong Kong (all 10 SAS people on my flight were bumped to it!)
Day 7: Family insight tour in the government funding housing district, Jumbo’s Floating Restaurant, Lan Kwai Fong bar street
Day 8: Victoria’s Peak, Modern Toilet restaurant, light show as we departed
Shanghai was a very interesting city. Coming from the very clean and calm country of Japan it was a rude awakening and definitely a culture shock. There was garbage all over the street, people spitting everywhere, and beggars coming at you from all sides trying to sell you stuff. The first thing that we did when we got off the ship was stop at an ATM with half of SAS. There was this whole weird money-scamming attempt with a man that collapsed on the sidewalk next to line of students getting out money. It was weird. We got the security from the building who told him to leave. After we finally got money out, we got into a cab to get to somewhere that according to a friend was seven miles away. Turns out, it wasn’t, but we were taken to somewhere that was about a 10 minute ride away and we could have walked to easier. (My friends went to the place we originally wanted to go to later that night and it was right by the port). Anyway, we ended up at some really cool New Year decorated street with a bunch of restaurants on it, which was perfect since we wanted lunch. The cab ride was less than 2 dollars, but we didn’t realize exactly how cheap China was until we went to lunch. For five of us, we got a 3 course meal, three beers and two cokes for under 10 dollars TOTAL. It was incredible.
We went to People’s Square after lunch and walked around for a while, ran into some SASers and went with them to an underground market which was pretty cool. Finally, we went to a street that has a Times Square-esque block that was a lot of fun. We went to one of the back alley markets and had a lot of fun bargaining. When we went back to Times Square it was dark out and SO AMAZING. Everything was incredibly colorful and beautifully lit up so that was really cool to see. At this point we started to walk to find a cab, and I was incredibly achy, had the chills and really wasn’t feeling great. We got back to the ship and I went to lie down and warm up but was incredibly shaky an hour later so I ended up not going out with my friends. I figured that I was leaving for a LONG Beijing trip the following day and I would rather not be sick for that so I took some medicine and took a nap. My roommate came back about an hour and a half later so I hung out with her and her friend who also weren’t going out. I hadn’t eaten dinner so even though I wasn’t hungry I went to get some food at the snack bar. There ended up being a ton of people staying in that were there so I spent some time with them and felt like I didn’t entirely waste a night. My friends ended up coming back right after they ate dinner so I didn’t miss anything and I was feeling significantly better for the rest of the trip minus a cold that picked up the next morning.
I went to sleep fairly early that night and woke up the next morning to meet up with my friends. We went to one of the streets that is known for its markets and did a LOT of shopping while spending VERY little money. I got an entire winter outfit- uggs, northface coat and spyder gloves (all incredibly cheap but fake). I also got lots of souvenirs. When we walked out of the store, we were going to get some food and then head back to the ship since I had a flight a few hours later. I ran into one girl from SAS that was walking by herself and after talking for a little we realized that we were on the same flight to Beijing. So I ended up joining her on her walk back to the ship and we met up with some people to take a cab to the airport. There were about 45 of us on the flight to Beijing on the trip we were on and we took over the airport… and plane. So, I said goodbye to Shanghai and made my way to Beijing!
That about sums it up. More to come about the many adventures of Beijing and Hong Kong… AND Vietnam and Cambodia in about five to six days when we have an ENTIRE WEEK on the ship!!! BEFORE INDIA!!!!! Tam biet!
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