What started out as an overnight stop in Shanghai to position us for our trip to Guilin turned into a two night/one and a half day sightseeing trip. Six of us flew out of Dalian at 10:00 pm Saturday after a rare weekend day of classes. We arrived after midnight and were told it was two hours to the hotel. Fortunately, probably due to the late hour, it took less than an hour to get to the hotel, check in and crash for the night.

Shanghai

Because we hadn't expected to see anything in Shanghai, anything we saw was a bonus. We like our Western breakfasts so, with Shannon's trusty subway map downloaded from the internet, the group headed off to find the nearest Element Fresh.

The subway

The subway in Shanghai opened in 1995 and has grown rapidly. The 12 lines whisk you just about anywhere you want to go. When one of the places is on the other side of the Huangpu River, the subway is just the ticket. Click here to get an idea of the extent of the system. Tickets usually cost 3 kuai (about 50 cents) per trip for all the trips we wanted to take in the city. If you have to change lines, you can be faced with quite a walk but the stations are bright and clean. The ticket machines are modern (touch screens), have an English option and accept both coin and paper money. The only problem was that many ticket machines were Not In Service.

Expo 2010

Because Expo 2010 was starting the next week, there were volunteers everywhere. Most of the volunteers looked like college students who had a pretty good command of English. One of our group is Chinese and started to speak to them in Chinese. Dianne teased her and said that she had to talk English to them to help them develop their English skills! Once a teacher...

I am sure it was in preparation for Expo that the street cleaners were out in force. If you even thought about throwing something on the ground there was a person standing there waiting to sweep it up. Perhaps I exaggerate a bit but there were lots of them.

We stayed away from anything to do with Expo because we didn't have time to wait in lines. We read afterwards that they had been doing some "dry runs" of Expo with thousands of people being given tickets to various events. The line-ups were huge and the pavilions were not all open. We were pressed for time so we just went to places where we could get a taste of the city. Like Starbucks! One thing we have found in Chinese cities is lots of coffee shops. Cappuccinos can be enjoyed all over the place.

Shanghai Museum

After breakfast we hit the Shanghai Museum. We only had a couple of hours so it was a quick visit. The Museum was free! Bonus! We were pleased to discover there were two special exhibits. One was about Matteo Ricci, a 1500s Jesuit priest who was a great favourite of the Emperor of his day, and also one from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. We had been reading up on Fr. Ricci because of our visit to Beijing at Christmas and had visited the Uffizi gallery in Italy. Indeed it is a small world. The ¡°free¡± gallery actually cost me over $80CDN as I bought four books in the Gift Shop!

Yu Gardens

Next stop was the Yu Gardens (or Yuyuan Gardens in some books). We expected to see some greenery but it was mostly new buildings made to look like old buildings housing a lot of tourist traps. We saw the famous(?) zig-zag bridge that protects the teahouse (because evil spirits can't turn corners) but didn't get to cross it. To see a professional picture of Haibao, the EXPO 2010 mascot at the zig-zag bridge, click here. Apparently there are some green spaces but we will have to see them next time. We had a late lunch at a Chinese version of a cafeteria. Interesting.

The Bund

I had heard for many years of The Bund but was never sure what it actually was. In the old days, the street lining the Huangpu River was the first sight that visitors to Shanghai would see. Most of the buildings there now date from the 1920/30 era and are extremely well lit at night. A stroll down the river promenade or a river cruise gives a pretty good view of these magnificent buildings. We had to pay a visit to the Bank of China which now occupies one of these buildings. The banking
Interesting Architecture
You don't see buildings like this in North America. floor was incredible. The sophistication of the customer service area was impressive. One can imagine the grandeur when the Bund was "The Place to Be" for foreign businesses.

End of Day One

For a bit of a change, we had dinner at a Cantonese restaurant. It was a beautiful evening so three of us decided to take a stroll down Nanjing Rd, a long pedestrian-only shopping street. It was great to be walking at night and still be warm. And what better way to end a great day than to stop for a cappuccino. Lots of choices!

Day Two

The next day we had even less time as we had a flight at 2:30¡­. One of the group wanted to visit Best Buy (we still have to live here so mall shopping is sometimes required). The store was across the river where we had been the day before but hadn't taken time to visit. Examining the map, four of us set off for the Mall. We realized there was a "sightseeing tunnel" under the river. Now that was something we had to see! We expected a tunnel we could walk through and see something, but what? Turned out it was a small subway with cars like gondolas in the mountains. For 40 kuai they whisked you to the other side through a tunnel filled with flashing lights and some spooky music. While it was fast, we decided to take the more traditional subway home for 3 kuai. There were other sites down in the bowels under the river you could visit (hence the sightseeing tunnel name) but they cost even more. Pass.

We never did go to the Best Buy but had another great breakfast at Element Fresh! When we came out it was raining and we weren't exactly sure how to get back on the subway so thought we should spend our remaining time actually getting home. Turned out to be a good decision. While we had no trouble finding the subway, we discovered many of the entrances and exits are closed during the day and when you come out you aren't necessarily sure where you are. Finding the hotel when you come out on a strange street can be interesting. Some signs are in pinyin but most are in Chinese characters that we have yet to master.

The Airport

Getting to the airport by cab during the day can be very time consuming so that option was discarded. There is a subway station three blocks from the hotel. One stop on the first line and a few more on the second allows you to transfer to the MagLev train (Magnetic Levitation) that literally shoots you out to the airport. This train hits 400 kmh at one point. Since the trip is only 8 minutes, most of the trip is spent speeding up and slowing down. The speedometer in the car is fun to watch. The trip is smooth and there is little sensation of speed until you pass a train going 400 kmh the other way. This train costs 50 kuai but you could have stayed on the regular subway and got to the airport that way for about 10. The MagLev was worth doing, at least once.

So now we are back at the Shanghai airport, ready to start our holiday. What was supposed to be a positioning overnight stay turned out to be a great trip in itself. It certainly whetted our appetite for coming back to Shanghai next year, after Expo. One really surprising thing about the Shanghai airport was the absence of stores once you passed through security. There were only two small restaurants which were quite expensive (it is an airport) in a huge complex. Strange.

Next stop?

Guilin and the karst mountains¡­.