Shanghai Continued

So, Sunday in Shanghai, we got up late cos we were tired after walking around the whole day on Saturday! Today was Mid Autumn festival in China. It’s like a family event, where people eat Moon Cakes (round sweet cakes with filling inside). The round symbolises the family. We didn’t have any moon cakes at that time. We were to procure them late!

That day we went to the touristy Old Town area. Well, to be honest, it was a bit like the Old Towns in Lijiang and Dali. Just lots of people selling souvenirs and handcrafts! After a wander around there, we went to a Western restaurant and I got my burger and chips, which I had been hankering for, for some time!! We then got our “moon cakes”. Well, they weren’t exactly moon cakes. Mei’s company gave their employees voucher for a Haagen Dazs moon cake box. However the “moon cake” was just a round shaped ice cream covered in chocolate. It was still nice though!! I wasn’t gonna turn my nose up at it!

The next day we made a plan to go outside Shanghai, since there was not much else to do in the city except shopping, which is not one of my favourite things! So, we decided to go to ZhouZhuang (周庄), which is supposed to be the Venice of China! We got a bus out there. D’oh, yet again I find myself in a Chinese tour group. That tour guide talked for about half an hour and I don’t think she even drew one breath!

So, we arrived in ZhouZhuang and visited the old town, which had a main river/canal with lots of boats. We were shown around 2 rich historical guys’ houses and told in Chinese about some of the history. Mei did some translation, which made it more interesting. There was a Japanese guy with us too, who couldn’t speak Chinese, so Mei was helping him s well. Jolly nice of her!

We then ventured on to see a Buddhist Temple. Not dissimilar to others I have seen before, although the water surroundings made it pettier than a lot of them. We decided to abandon the tour and walk around by ourselves instead and went for a cold drink and then some mad bean soup cold drink thing! God for cooling you down in the hot, sweaty weather!


After a stop off in a silk factory-type thing, where they showed us a fashion show and then lured us into a shop full of silk clothes, we headed back to the big city! Got some food in a Chinese restaurant (no burgers today) and retired for the evening.

The next day (Tuesday), Mei was working, so I wandered into town myself to see the spectacular Oriental Pearl TV tower. The tower had an interesting design, based around spheres (pearls). See picture below:


I went to the 263 metre sphere to have a look! There were amazing views of this massive sprawl of a city! You could see all the modern skyscrapers along the river. The city stretched for miles and miles, as you can see:


So, after having lunch with Mei, I headed back on the cool Maglev train to the airport! Bye bye Shanghai! I had a nice surprise at the airport when I found out my flight was delayed for 2 hours. I had to do a lesson plan that night for my Wednesday morning 8am class, so I was getting a bit annoyed! As it turns out, I was checking in a 4:40 and the girl changed me to the 5pm flight! So, it was the Olympic sprint to try and catch the plane. I ended up getting there on time in a sweaty heap! Felt strange to be back in Dalian. The weather was cooler and everything seemed smaller. Dalian makes Dublin look small as well, so I wonder how I’ll feel when I o back to Ireland!