The airplane right is an embolism-inducing 17 hours, including the connection in Narita Airpot, Japan. I missed my meal on the Vancouver-Tokyo flight because I was sleeping the whole time, so during my wait at Narita, I'm so hungry and tired I'm basically in a coma state.  I tried to hang out at the magazine stand to pass some time. Finally, on the Tokyo-Shanghai flight, I got my food because I couldn't sleep with the stomach cramp. I love JAL! Their food is so good, and I am in economy! Are you kidding me? Especially the the JAL original cocktail drink, it tastes like a mixture of pomelo and mandarin oranges, but very light and aromatic. You'll have to request it to get this drink, but it's still free.

At Pudong Airport, Shanghai, my cousins came to pick me up. On the drive home Shanghai doesn't feel too exotic, except for the group of middle age men wearing changshan - wow! People wear that casually? I AM in China!

Shanghai overall gave me a standard metropolitan sort of vibe, but there are little details that distinguish it from the rest. It have not totally got rid of the "Old Shanghai" characteristics: glamourous, multi-cultural, vintage waterfront city. It does feel as though they're pushing Shanghai to become ultra-modern, as old buildings are continuously being replaced by the most current architecture. For travellers that prefer more old school things, some rural suburban areas close to Shanghai is very picturesque and worth a visit.

Suzhou is the complete opposite, it remains the placed described by the old saying "Heaven above and Su-Hang on earth" (Su-Hang meaning Suzhou and Hangzhou, two closely related provinces). Famous for its riverside culture and heritage, it's a popular destination for the Chinese people themselves.

The only thing that throw me off is the places that are supposedly beautiful have been abused to a tourist trap. Overall the city still gave me a good impression, and many great memories! I guess tourist traps can't hurt you that much eh?

When you visit china, don't forget to bring a visit to Shanghai, the great metropol on the eastcoast of china. We stayed there for 2 days at the and of our trip in China. On the day we had to leave for the airport, we had have gone by bus, BUT, there is a much more fast and fun way to go to the airport. At Longyang Road Station leaves the Maglev highspeed train to the airport. It runs on Electromagnetic levitation. The train itself is shaped as a airplane from the inside and outside. In 7 minutes it brings you the Shanghai main airport. The train runs about 480 Km/h (fast enough??) before you know your at the airport. It is a great experience to travel that fast but smood. PRICES: Single trip ticket Valid for the Ordinary single trip ticket of the day 50 yuan Round trip ticket Valid for the Ordinary round trip ticket of the same day 80 yuan VIP single trip ticket Valid for the VIP single trip ticket of the day 100 yuan VIP round ticket (of the same day) Valid for the VIP round trip ticket of the same day 160 yuan Single trip ticket by presenting air-ticket of the same day (with the exception of electronic ticket and other vouchers) Favorable Single trip ticket, prices RMB40 / passenger / trip by presenting air-ticket of the same day (with the exception of electronic ticket and other vouchers) 40 yuan Presold Single-trip ticket Can be exchanged to Single-trip ticket at the Long Yang Road Station or Pudong Int’l Airport Station 50 yuan Presold Round ticket Can be exchanged to rounde-trip ticket at the Long Yang Road Station or Pudong Int’l Airport Station 80 yuan Bank of China "Maglev Card" "Maglev Multi-trip" service is a kind of preferential electronic ticket product valid for multiple trips on maglev train using Bank of China RMB credit card as the carrier. More informationHere . 10 trips 10 trips valid for to single trips (ordinary class) on maglev train within one year from the date of purchase 400 yuan 20 trips 20 trips valid for to single trips (ordinary class) on maglev train within one year from the date of purchase 700 yuan 30 trips 30 trips valid for to single trips (ordinary class) on maglev train within one year from the date of purchase 900 yuan

Shanghai, it is right in my face, with all the people, high rises, endless traffic and no wall to wall Olympic advertisements.  the hostel is locate right next to the Marriot, which is built like the tower of Isengard from the Lord of the Rings.  kind of spooky.  in a way, it is more metropolitan than Beijing, with all the street vendors constantly trying to sell you Rolexes and countless neon signs. 

the Bund, which is the river front, has a great view of the Oriental Pearl TV tower and all the European style buildings along the river.  the Yun Garden offers a little tranquility.  still, swamps of people still pass you by at any given moment.  by the end of the third day, i was exhausted from "swimming" in the crowd.  in Korea, only old ladies cut in front of you when getting on the subway train.  here, anyone and anywhere. the constant spitting and other small things adds a special hue to the experience. 

Xi Lake, or the west lake, is about 1 hour train ride from Shanghai.  even though it was highly regarded, i was not very impressed by the scenary.  one surprising thing is that Shanghai has a sex museum, which is in extreme contrast with the traditional conservative chinese culture.  the propaganda poster museum was also interesting in the sense that in retropespective, how naive people were (and maybe still are?) and ready to believe anything.  i was wondering if Americans watching CNN are in a similar situation?

It seems there might be two "Captain" hostels in Shanghai...this is the one right on the Bund (Shanghai waterfront). The location is EXCELLENT but the staff are a bit rude. There is a bar upstairs that has a GREAT view of the amazing Shanghai skyline.

The temple is very small in the downtown city. So small that the temple's front gate and that of the heavenly king hall have become one. The treasure of this temple, two jade buddhas are quite nice. I didn't expect the sitting buddha to be that big, 1.95 metre tall and 1.34 metre wide. The smaller reclining buddha is 96 cm in length. These two were well carved and brought back from Myanmar in 1880s. Photography of the two is not allowed, so the photo here is of another big reclining buddha donated by Singaporean in 1989.

If you have ever stayed at a Hilton then you know what to expect. Great rooms, good views of the city (when there is less polution). I have status with them so they upgraded us per usual. Hotel is definately expensive by Chinese standards. Room was immaculate. The shower in the bathroom was great... I love that overhead rain feature. Executive lounge was nice and well stocked. Walking distance to a subway stop as well as plenty of shopping nerby. Hotel has a handy little area map they give you that helped us navigate Shanghai and get to the YuYuan Garden on foot.

I called Missey E at 10:30 a.m. to find out what time should we meet for lunch. E highly recommended a Shanghai style noodle shop “Xiamen House” in her neighbourhood, Xujiahui. We met in front of the restaurant at 12:30 p.m. The waitress seated us in a room with 2 tables. We ordered smoked tea eggs, minced braised tofu & “Manan” green, sauté green veggies, different kinds of soup noodles, and the special noodle set “Xufu Mien” which has a bowl of yellow fish soup and a braised noodles. It took a while for the special noodle set to arrive at the table…worth waiting a bit for the gourmet treat!

After lunch, Mr. X wanted to see some local cheap markets. So we went to Xiang Yang Fashion & Gift Market at Central Huaihai Road. That’s a place where little stalls and shops sell clothes, all kind of accessories and gifts. I had to remind Baby and Mr. X to be aware of pick pockets over there. Baby found some nice ear-rings and Mr. X found a very nice table-runner and cushion covers. We walked for a few blocks and stopped in front of a spa. Right, we want to have 1.5 hours massage. We need to pamper ourselves! We felt like 10 pounds of weight had been taken away after the massage. Baby asked, “What’s next?” Haha…good question! “How about going to the Bund and take the night cruise along the Huangpu River?”

The taxi dropped us off at the taxi stand on Zhongshan Road. The Bund is flanked on one side by the Huangpu River and on the other by the hotels, banks, offices and clubs that were the grandiose symbols of western commercial power. You can find the old colonial buildings are still in place. We walked along the River Promenade which is a wide pavement along the river side of the Bund. We had a clear view of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower over the Pudong which is located on the opposite side of the Huangpu River. We took some pictures of the old architecture of Custom House, Chartered Bank Building, and the famous Peace Hotel.

We signed up and paid for the Huangpu River evening cruise at the Bund. Then, we walked over to the meet-up point and got on the cruise bus. The bus brought us to the pier located next to the Astor House Hotel (Pujiang Hotel). We sat on the deck and had a drink while the cruise boat was travelling along the river. The boat arrived at the Nanpu Bridge and then turned back. It was such a beautiful scene with those spectacular lights lighting up both sides of the river. The one hour cruise went by really fast.

We decided to check out the Nanjing Lu which is considered to be Shanghai’s foremost shopping street, despite competition from areas such as the chic Huaihai Lu in the French Concession. The pedestrian section of Nanjing Dong Lu between People's Park and the Bund was perpetually busy. Some local young guys tried to hit on “Baby”...Oh yea, a pretty young girl like her definitely would have a lot of attention from guys. We kept taking pictures all the way down to the People Park & Square.

We all wanted to go back to Xintiandi for dinner. We popped in to Luna, a Mediterranean restaurant at the South Square. But the terrible attitude of the waiter drove us away. Who would like to put up with poor service from a 4-5 stars restaurant? Where should we go then? A German bar and restaurant, Paulaner Brauhaus is located right across from Luna. Why don't we give it a try?! The Paulaner Brauhaus has its own brewery in Shanghai and distributes to their restaurants and bars in the area. We ordered some German dishes and wine. The food over there was not bad at all. After dinner we moved to their bar area to have some wine and enjoy the live music. We chatted and danced until 1:30a.m. I started to feel sore all over my feet. Well, it was time to get some sleep!

Shanghai is a big city. It's very crowded. I really love the city except the bad traffic problem.

Shanghai has a powerful transportation system. But she has to take too many people every day. If you wanna have a trip in Shanghai, you'd better begin your day travel after 9:30am (avoid the peak hours for daily workers.) Further, If you want to visit one restaurant, remember to book the seats first. Just do the plan in advance, because of the huge population.

Let me introduce the city structure  first. Broadly, central shanghai is divided into two areas: PuDong (east of the HuangPu river) and PuXi (west of the HuangPu river). On the east side of the HuangPu is Pudong, a special economic zone of banks, skyscrapers and new residential compounds.  

First place I recommend is Chenghuang Temple which is located in PuXi. A saying goes like this: one can’t boast that he had been to shanghai if he did not pay a visit to ChengHuang temple. I quoted some words introducing this place from the travelguide website.

open hours: 8：30am－16：00pm

The ChengHuang temple is a Taoist temple, also called Yi temple, which is composed of many a halls such as the grand hall, middle hall, bedroom palace, star gods hall, YaMa palace, XuZhen god hall and so on. the ChengHuang temple had an area of more than 10,000 square meters including two gardens: west garden (Yu garden) and east garden. the ChengHuang temple has a great influence on the residents
of shanghai. the religious festivals of the temple are considered to be the festivals of all shanghai people. especially when the SanXun festival (a day when the ChengHuang god start to inspect his people) comes, nearly all people will come to the ChengHuang temple to burn incense and worship the ChengHuang god, while all shops inside or near the ChengHuang temple would hang red lanterns to celebrate the festival. in addition, some folk arts, like cockfight, penmanship performance and acrobatics, are fairly attractive.

The Second place is The Bund which is near ChengHuang temple. The Bund is a row of buildings in Shanghai. It is located at the bank of the Huangpu river, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District.The Bund has dozens of historical European colonial buildings lining against the Huangpu river that once housed numerous banks from Britain, France, USA, Russia, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium. Further, you can enjoy the two sides of the Huangpu river from the Bund (located in PuXi) and the Riverside Avenue(located in PuDong). Also, you will find the Paulaner Restraurant in the Riverside Avenue.

The third is Shanghai's night lifves!!

Nanjing Road is the main shopping street of Shanghai and one of the world's busiest shopping streets. It is a pedestrian street  and extends from The Bund to the People's Square. If you could be there at night, you will find the glaring neon sign.

Xintiandi, Shanghai is located near HuaiHai Rd. There are many pubs and bars for young people to get together.

Now let me show you the historical town near Shanghai.

Hey, there.  I suppose the best way to travel around in Shanghai city center is the subway!  Shanghai's subway doesn't offer the day or week travel ticket package. Just buy the ticklet as you want!

Someone at the hostel gave me a good tip. The urban planning museum. My train leaves in the evening and I don't want to wait all day and do nothing. The museum is about all the plans that Shanghai has for it's city, building wise. But because they are building so fast, you really see what's allready there:-)

On the 2nd floor there is a big maquette of the city. Very big. In 2010 they will host the World expo and they show you what buildings they are constructing and all there plans.

There is also information about the relocating of people. To get them out of there old houses, where the plumming, heating and electricity is not very good and in to appartment buildings. I'm not sure if that's the way to go. So much of the Chineses life outside. That's were they meet friends, have a talk, play a game, eat and socialize. That's so much more difficult living in a big appartment building. But he, you don't have much of a choice here.

After the museum I go to the big Shopping center near the hostel. I get some food to take on the train(dark bread and peanut butter!!), have a drink at Starbucks and a look at some of the shops.

In the afternoon I make my way to the train station. Man, it's busy there! I just show people my ticket and finally I end up on the train. Haven't spoken a word. My compartment has 4 beds and looks pretty comfortable. There is one man and a mother with her daughter. I just say 'hi', but they are not in for a talk. I read, look out of the window(China is very green) and listen to some music. I don't sleep much, but it's nice to lie down.

It was not easy getting out of bed this morning. But I wanted to see Shanghai: so of I go. It's really, really warm and the sun is burning on my skin. Now I understand why all the women are walking with umbrella's.  I take the subway in to the city and plan to do a walk from the Lonely Planet. Where would I be without it:-) It's a really nice walk and I get to see different living places of the Chinese. In this area they live in 'lilong'. These are small appartment buildings maybe 4 stories high and there are some side streets. The whole area is guarded by a gate and a guard. The houses don't look very comfortable but old and very small, but the cars in front of them are shiny and big.

Next stop is the Jung'an temple. It's a  buddhist temple. And a lot of people are burning incense. It's a nice and quiet place. Outside on the streets it's all very busy, so this gives me a good rest.

Just a little bit further down the road is a nice place for some lunch.(Element fresh) It's clear that this is where the modern Shanghai Chinese eats. It's almost cold inside, but I really like that right now.

Than I visit the former house of Mao Zedong. There are pictures of all the places he visited and the other houses he lived in during his visits to the city. There is a chair he used and a pair of pyjamapants. By now you could think that he spent years living here, but at the end of the exibit I read that he was only here a copple of months!!

I end my afternoon at the Starbucks on Renmin square. I decide to go the the Jinmao tower at Pudong. From the subway stop it's still a long walk, but I pass a nice park and get a good view of all the high buildings in Pudong new area. They are not very beautiful, but put together like this it's really nice. The Jinmao tower is one of the highest buildings, 420m. The observatory is on the 88th floor, 340m above the ground. The view is amazing. You can see the river, the Bund and the Pudong area. In the centre of the tower you can watch down on to the lobby of the Grand Hyatt that's located there. It's over 30 stories lower. Really nice!

All excited about this day I find my way back to the hostel.

*I know I'm slow...in progress! Be patient*

It was started by my close friend Mr. X...he told me that had 10 days of vacation leave and he wanted to visit Shanghai. He called me from Mumbai and begged me on to go to Shanghai with him. It was happened that I had 2 weeks of vacation leave during that period of time. Mr. X and I have the same birthday and our personalities are so much alike. Alright, I think that would be super fun to go travelling with him!!! I planned to go to Beijing first and then came back to Hong Kong for few days before I headed to Shanghai with him. I called my travel agent for information on travel packages to both places. That is the best way to travel Asia. I e-mailed Missey E that we were planning to visit. That would be great to see my best friend again! Another lovely girl friend "Baby" got back from the U.K. a couple months ago. She just graduated and was not in a hurry to find a job, so I invited her to join us. The more, the merrier! Lots of phone calls and e-mails between Hong Kong, Mumbai (Bombay), and Shanghai, I put the plans together. Yeah!

Mr. X, "Baby" and I met at the airport on Monday morning at 7 a.m. We had breakfast before boarding the plane. It was a 3-hour flight and we chatted all the way to Shanghai. Mr. X and I shared a room at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and "Baby" stayed with Missey E. We checked in the room and then X pulled out a silk shirt out from his suitcase. That was a gift...Oh My God! It was a great surprise! Thanks X! I called Miss E and decided on a meet-up point.

We took the taxi to Yu Yuan. We met the girls in front of the garden. We visited Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazaar. Yu Yuan was built in 1557 as a private garden in the Ming Dynasty. The garden is divided into 6 areas by walls, which makes it feel like a maze and seem larger than it really is. We had lunch in the food court of the Bazaar, and then checked out the souvenir shops. I suggested to go to Xin Tian Di which is located in a neighbourhood of old Shikumen (a type of tenement found only in Shanghai). It has been saved by restoration, and that turned the old stone buildings into boutiques, clubs and restaurants. Xin Tian Di is not only China's finest historical redevelopment project, but also a model for Asia. Ironically, this historic district's rebirth as a hotspot of bourgeoisie splendors is all because of Chairman Mao. We jumped into a taxi, and headed to Tai-cang Road. It was about 10-15 minutes away. I know Mr. X and Baby love hip places.

We started to walk around from the North Block (Beili) towards South Block (Nanli). An interesting bar/restaurant named TMSK (short form of Tou Ming Si Kao) caught our eyes. The colourful glass liuli bar, lantern stools the deco over the beams and walls, that made you feel like inside an art gallery. TMSK is part of the mother company, Liuli Gongfang which is China’s only contemporary glass studio devoted to artistic Chinese glassware. It was founded in 1987 by Taiwanese actress Loretta Yang and director Chang Yi. There were not many customers in the bar area and non-smoking area. We sat at a table next to the glass orchid pool. Mr. X was so impressed with the fascinating modern Chinese deco and the tranquillizing music and lights. They had a good selection of wine and liqueur.  We ordered a bottle of white wine and then a bottle of champagne. Oh yea, we were drinking in the afternoon!!! All I can say we enjoyed the company! The restaurant is located on the first floor (i.e. second floor in U.S.) which serves fusion Italian-Chinese cuisine. We didn’t stay there for dinner because we wanted to try local Shanghai cuisine instead. Before we left, we took some pictures at the bar.

We headed over to the Jade Garden at Maoming Nan Lu. When we arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, we noticed that the Spanish style deco did not incorporate well with the traditional Shanghai cuisine. Well, we came for the food. We didn't care about the deco when we were hungry! We ordered some appetizers, fish, shrimps, pork and vegetable dishes. The waiter was very attentive and the food was great! We were stuffed! It costs us RMB$400 (around US$51) for our food and tips. That was a great bargain!

After dinner, we decided to call it a night. Mr. X and I went back to the hotel. We would meet the girls the next day for lunch.

With reviews in the Lonely Planet guide that said this would leave visitors amazed and perplexed, I absolutely had to try it. I ran into it when we were trying to find the subway, it is located underground in an area full of games and people selling corn on the cob. My father and I got the two trip ticket which turns out a lot cheaper than a one way. We got into a car with a couple other people. The ride goes slowly so you don't need to even sit down. Through a series of flickering lights and spectrum color changes, a man with a deep voice kept saying very odd words. "hot magma, space twirls" I still can't make any sense out of it. The good thing is that it is very convenient, the entrance is right by the bund and it leaves you just a block away from the oriental pearl tower. At the exit there was a sign saying "Shanghai tourist tunnel, first in our country!" yes... please make more. The ride back was even worse (or better?)it's one of those things that is so cheesy and nonsensical that it's great.