asia - day 13 - shanghai
the wonderful thing about taking the ferry to shanghai is the scenery as you approach the city. huge industrial boats, little fishing boats, the pudong skyline... there is so much variety. it's terribly smoggy though so the water is brown and skyline is hazy. but still, you'd be impressed too after a 48 hour boat ride.
one last look at our room before we lined up to leave the ferry. man, we had to wait a long time to get off the boat. then we had to go through customs. but then finally, we were free!
shanghai is a nightmare when it comes to traffic. i was actually scared to go outside because i didn't know how to cross the street. how does everyone look so calm? it was chaos all around vince and me.
we had to go to the train station to buy our tickets to beijing so we walked over soon after checking into our hotel. we realized we were starving so we bought a couple of bags of chips to munch on as we walked. we purchased, get this, cucumber flavoured and kiwi flavoured lays potato chips! they were actually pretty decent. i really enjoyed the cucumber and vince preferred the kiwi so it was perfect. a marriage made in heaven haha!
after buying our tickets, we realized that we needed more sustenance so we stopped at a restaurant that looked delicious. there was a decent number of people in there (unfortunately some were smokers) and a very poorly translated english menu (but at least there was some english). eventually we ordered sweet and sour spare ribs, some kind of veggie, coca-cola (it came in a biiiig bottle!), and steamed rice. the food looked delicious but we were not used to the, ahem, interesting flavours.
we wandered slowly back to the hotel after lunch. shanghai is an interesting juxtaposition of new and old, rich and poor.
as we walked, we came upon the shanghai postal museum and i vaguely recalled reading a good review about the attraction. i thought i also read that the museum was free but vince looked skeptical. so we tentatively stepped in and looked around. the museum included a large functional post office and a museum at the rear. to our surprise, it was a huge space with an enormous collection. and it was free! my favourite stamps (besides the really really old ones in a climate controlled room) were these... so fun!
the ultimate gem of the postal museum was the rooftop terrace that was nicely landscaped and had a terrific view of the city!
we spent a ton of time on the rooftop terrace - it was probably the highlight of our brief overnight stay in shanghai. we headed downstairs where there was an additional exhibit. the postal employees were all so kind and helpful... i was really impressed with this place.
then it was back to the astor house hotel. if there's one thing i love about shanghai besides the post office, it's this hotel. a gorgeous hotel with a ton of history, GINORMOUS rooms, and inexpensive rates. this room was such a treat after japan. apparently, charlie chaplin, albert einstein, and bertrand russell all stayed at this hotel.
we rested a little and then headed out to do some shopping, sightseeing, and eating. i was a little disappointed with the shopping in shanghai but there was no shortage of things to photograph.
it soon became nightfall so we ate dinner at ajisen ramen (which we now have in toronto... yay) and headed back to the hotel. the pudong skyline was beautiful at night and our hotel was also beautifully lit.
