Oh Shang-HAI

6/16/2018

Dragon boat festival, only means one thing, a long weekend!! To try and explore a bit more of China the Broad/Slaters and Brophy’s were off to Shanghai. To be fair, the flights were the same price as going somewhere like Thailand - why we would head off out of China a lot of the time…

Day 1 - The Bund, Pudong, Peoples Park

We were staying in Pudong side at The Renaissance Hotel which was near the big park, Century Park. On Saturday we metro-ed it to the Peoples Park to make our way towards the infamous skyline. The water lilies were beautiful and made a lovely view in the park.

More interesting however was Chinese Tinder going on… there were umbrellas lining the paths with posters all in Chinese with date of birth, age, height, phone numbers and some with photos. At first I thought it was missing people being searched for… oh so wrong. The parents of single Chinese sons/daughters were sat there setting up their loved ones with dates!! Like a marriage market or Chinder…

We walked through a big shopping area and high street trying some local treats - including liquid nitrogen which was the strangest thing but you did blow out a lot of smoke like a dragon- so that is in keeping with the festival yeh?!

And our lonely planet book map did us well (thanks Denica & Adie!) as we finished at the end of the road being greeted with The Bund and the Shanghai skyline.

The Bund is really lovely with the modern city on one side and the older, historic buildings (which are beautiful and quite colonial) on the other. A long stretch worth a wander but maybe when there are less crowds and tourists. We ended up going to the opposite end and got a much better view and found a Japenese roof terrace to enjoy a drink and some sunshine and the view of course.

We took the Tunnel which goes across to the Pudong side to get a better look at the tower and it was the strangest thing I have ever done as a tourist. It is a little bubble capsule which goes along a track with random lights and models and music… a quick and different way to get to the other side. Not sure the chicken would have been that impressed.

Once there we explored this area and found ourselves at the bar on the 88th floor in the Grand Hyatt hotel, enjoying the view and some strawberry daiquiris.
I think this is the best way to enjoy a skyline. It is 150RMB to go to the bar but this is is used to spend on your drinks, so it is a win win. We watched the sunset and the skyscrapers sparkle as day turned to night.