Kirsten, Josh and James
Me on People's Square
The gang out for a stroll
View from the Bund
Ji'an Temple - surreal view with skyscrapers in the background
View from People's Square
Playing killers at the hostel 
Me on Chinese New Years eve
Josh on the pose 
Brentley and Adam
The Mongolian and the "Mongolite" 
Herve, the "Mongolite" and a hot Danish girl
Mike (German) and Will (Belgian)Shanghai - Jiangsu province (China)
Est. population - circa 20 million (largest city in China, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world)
Currency - Chinese Yuan Renminbi
Equivalent - see Beijing post for details here
Est. population - circa 20 million (largest city in China, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world)
Currency - Chinese Yuan Renminbi
Equivalent - see Beijing post for details here
When I arrived in Shanghai from Beijing I was wrecked, I don't sleep too well on any mode of transportation, just a light sleeper. However, did have too much difficulty finding the hostel after catching a subway and walking a little. They even let me have the free breakfast! I got there at about 8h20am so that was great. I bumped around the hostel the first day, not willing to go to bed, still fighting off the jet lag and trying to get my body in order.
Met a cool Australian girl and chatted to her a bit. Read some book and played Sudoku as well (great to work on logical reasoning, good form of brain exercise while travelling). Went for a walk around near the hostel, didn't want to venture far on the first day due to fatigue, sight seeing just doesn't appeal to me if I don't have the energy. First impressions weren't great, Shanghai looked grim and the weather didn't help - it was grey and overcast.
Later that night I had a few TsingTao beers, 600ml beer was only 5 RMB at the hostel! Normally they are 10 RMB but as it was Chinese New Year there was a discount. An English guy called Will got us playing killers, it's such a good game for banter. We all put 1 RMB in and the winner took all. After about four hours playing killers I got emotionally bribed into getting out. The club was very swanky but the music was old school and drinks were too expensive (40 RMB). Went back to the hostel and had a few more beers before hitting the hay.
Spent most of Thursday on my own, sometimes your own company can be great and you can chose if you want to hang out with someone, travelling alone that is. I went to the People's square which is the main square in Shanghai. Took the subway with some English girls but I actually hopped out at Jin'an Temple to take some pictures. Interesting backdrop with skyscrapers in the distance behind the Temple. The temple itself looks a little too 20th Century to be honest, still worth a stop off.
Got some lovely food on the street and walked onwards to the People's Square. The Shanghai Museum in People's Square was closed when I got the Square so I took a few pictures and walked down towards the Bund, where the Huangpu River is at. Great view and plenty of interesting architecture. You can also see scars from the English/French rule around 1840s. More beers at the hostel, was reluctant to spend money in bars (for most places alcohol is usually the most expensive for a backpacker) though was tempted to go to bars where it was 99 RMB for all you can drink! (Turned out to be a good move not going, they watered down the beer and put leftovers into Pitchers, how quaint)
On Friday I went to the Shanghai Museum with Will, a really interesting Belgian guy - he had travelled from Turkey to Shanghai using only trains (well, I think there was a boat from Turkey to Ukraine but still, kudos to him). Free admission to the museum so it's all good. Really fascinating works, my favourite of which was the stone sculptures of Buddha and others, early Chinese works of art were heavily influenced by India. The coin section of the museum was intriguing as well. The olden notes were so big! We went for a little walk around Nannjing road but Will had a flight to catch so had to go back to the hostel relatively early.
More pool and banter later in the evening. The pool table was free by the way. Otherwise we wouldn't have played so much! Anyway, the logic behind staying in the hostel so much instead of exploring the bars is because we were holding out for Sunday night ie Chinese New Years! Still stayed up til 7am with Mike (a German dude) and Kirsten (an Aussie girl). The bar closes at 2am so I bought about 8 beers to keep us going. Then we ran out at 5am so Kirsten and myself went to a supermarket still open at that ungodly hour and we got some more. Mike - you're German music really sucked!
Was wrecked on Saturday but Kirsten was banging on my door to get up to go to a sex museum! I did manage to get up and about 8 of us ventured out in search of the sex museum. After getting lost and having some serious banter we decided to abandon our search (Burger King, I know, I'm not proud of that one)..on the subway we saw a guy who looked really really like a dashing Mongolian (clearly a anomaly!), it was so funny I got one of the guys to pose beside him with the Mongolian unaware of what was going on. Couldn't remember the guys name so I adeptly called him the "Mongolite" for the next two days! He loved the banter of it all..
Met a cool Australian girl and chatted to her a bit. Read some book and played Sudoku as well (great to work on logical reasoning, good form of brain exercise while travelling). Went for a walk around near the hostel, didn't want to venture far on the first day due to fatigue, sight seeing just doesn't appeal to me if I don't have the energy. First impressions weren't great, Shanghai looked grim and the weather didn't help - it was grey and overcast.
Later that night I had a few TsingTao beers, 600ml beer was only 5 RMB at the hostel! Normally they are 10 RMB but as it was Chinese New Year there was a discount. An English guy called Will got us playing killers, it's such a good game for banter. We all put 1 RMB in and the winner took all. After about four hours playing killers I got emotionally bribed into getting out. The club was very swanky but the music was old school and drinks were too expensive (40 RMB). Went back to the hostel and had a few more beers before hitting the hay.
Spent most of Thursday on my own, sometimes your own company can be great and you can chose if you want to hang out with someone, travelling alone that is. I went to the People's square which is the main square in Shanghai. Took the subway with some English girls but I actually hopped out at Jin'an Temple to take some pictures. Interesting backdrop with skyscrapers in the distance behind the Temple. The temple itself looks a little too 20th Century to be honest, still worth a stop off.
Got some lovely food on the street and walked onwards to the People's Square. The Shanghai Museum in People's Square was closed when I got the Square so I took a few pictures and walked down towards the Bund, where the Huangpu River is at. Great view and plenty of interesting architecture. You can also see scars from the English/French rule around 1840s. More beers at the hostel, was reluctant to spend money in bars (for most places alcohol is usually the most expensive for a backpacker) though was tempted to go to bars where it was 99 RMB for all you can drink! (Turned out to be a good move not going, they watered down the beer and put leftovers into Pitchers, how quaint)
On Friday I went to the Shanghai Museum with Will, a really interesting Belgian guy - he had travelled from Turkey to Shanghai using only trains (well, I think there was a boat from Turkey to Ukraine but still, kudos to him). Free admission to the museum so it's all good. Really fascinating works, my favourite of which was the stone sculptures of Buddha and others, early Chinese works of art were heavily influenced by India. The coin section of the museum was intriguing as well. The olden notes were so big! We went for a little walk around Nannjing road but Will had a flight to catch so had to go back to the hostel relatively early.
More pool and banter later in the evening. The pool table was free by the way. Otherwise we wouldn't have played so much! Anyway, the logic behind staying in the hostel so much instead of exploring the bars is because we were holding out for Sunday night ie Chinese New Years! Still stayed up til 7am with Mike (a German dude) and Kirsten (an Aussie girl). The bar closes at 2am so I bought about 8 beers to keep us going. Then we ran out at 5am so Kirsten and myself went to a supermarket still open at that ungodly hour and we got some more. Mike - you're German music really sucked!
Was wrecked on Saturday but Kirsten was banging on my door to get up to go to a sex museum! I did manage to get up and about 8 of us ventured out in search of the sex museum. After getting lost and having some serious banter we decided to abandon our search (Burger King, I know, I'm not proud of that one)..on the subway we saw a guy who looked really really like a dashing Mongolian (clearly a anomaly!), it was so funny I got one of the guys to pose beside him with the Mongolian unaware of what was going on. Couldn't remember the guys name so I adeptly called him the "Mongolite" for the next two days! He loved the banter of it all..
We decided to head back to the hostel for beers. My logic to the gang was, hey, "lets not get too wasted tonight, tomorrow is New Year!". A quiet night was planned but we were drinking til past 2am again (the beer in China isn't that strong, the 5 RMB beer is only 3.10% so you can drink a bunch of them). Mike (the German guy) and myself kept on bringing out in song in the name of banter: "I love you baby..and if quite alright I need you baby..". Was truly hilarious. More pool, more banter, then bed. Before bed though, James (American dude) and myself managed to get a little something to smoke. That kept me up a little longer..good times.. :)
Sunday, Chinese New Year's eve, a day off sight seeing. How can you sight see when it is new year?? I had a baileys coffee with Vanessa and Brentley (both Canadian, teaching English in China) at about noon. First beers kicked off at about 13h30. The day was confined within the four walls of the hostel bar: pool, banter, some guitar playing - that sort of jazz. I started off buying rounds of about 8 beers (only 40 RMB) for the group and sure enough that was the beginning of a pattern!
A big group of us left to head down towards the People's square and onwards to the Bund. We split into two groups, one was to acquire fireworks and the other went on to the spot we would vendez-vous. The fireworks the guys managed to muster up were fantastic, we let them off in a park - no worries with police, everyone was doing it being new years blah de blah de blah. We had a little smoke or two which made the fireworks even more special.
We bought some more communal beer down at the Bund (the river front, with a great view of the city on the other side of the water). Vanessa and myself made up this kind of - almost American football like - shuffle. It was so funny. Left arm, right arm, left elbow, right elbow and chest (involves two people, both doing the same thing at the same time). We had quite the Chinese audience at one point! I dragged a few locals into the equation as well, all good natured stuff. We got a lantern and tried to get it flying in the sky, "The Beach" movie style. We eventually got it up there. It was so magical to look up into the sky and see all the lanterns. You are suppose to make a wish for the New Year when you set it free (check out the video I posted above, funny as hell: "We are the champions of the world..").
Sunday, Chinese New Year's eve, a day off sight seeing. How can you sight see when it is new year?? I had a baileys coffee with Vanessa and Brentley (both Canadian, teaching English in China) at about noon. First beers kicked off at about 13h30. The day was confined within the four walls of the hostel bar: pool, banter, some guitar playing - that sort of jazz. I started off buying rounds of about 8 beers (only 40 RMB) for the group and sure enough that was the beginning of a pattern!
A big group of us left to head down towards the People's square and onwards to the Bund. We split into two groups, one was to acquire fireworks and the other went on to the spot we would vendez-vous. The fireworks the guys managed to muster up were fantastic, we let them off in a park - no worries with police, everyone was doing it being new years blah de blah de blah. We had a little smoke or two which made the fireworks even more special.
We bought some more communal beer down at the Bund (the river front, with a great view of the city on the other side of the water). Vanessa and myself made up this kind of - almost American football like - shuffle. It was so funny. Left arm, right arm, left elbow, right elbow and chest (involves two people, both doing the same thing at the same time). We had quite the Chinese audience at one point! I dragged a few locals into the equation as well, all good natured stuff. We got a lantern and tried to get it flying in the sky, "The Beach" movie style. We eventually got it up there. It was so magical to look up into the sky and see all the lanterns. You are suppose to make a wish for the New Year when you set it free (check out the video I posted above, funny as hell: "We are the champions of the world..").
Actually didn't stay out that long after the New Year happened, was pretty tired. Next day I was like, "yeah, my train is leaving at 14h30". Wrong. That was actually the arrival time! The departure time was at 11h14 but I only figured that out at 12h10! Only cost me another 78 RMB, wasn't the most costly mistake I've ever made, that's for sure.
At the time of writing this post I'm in Hong Kong having a great time but it is so much more expensive than Shanghai or Ningbo, where I went after Shanghai. I'm a little behind but hoping to post my Ningbo post within the next three days.
For anyone interested out there I passed my exams!!!!!!!!!! CFA Level I in the bag. Glad I got through them, will help my CV when I look for a job in New Zealand this July. However, now I'm thinking that if I can't get a job in NZ within about 6 weeks I'm gonna hop up to South Korea and teach English. Just an idea at the moment, who really knows where they will be on life's journey? Structured living isn't really for me...
All the best,
Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit
