Jin Mao Tower

The Jin Mao tower is the 4th tallest building in the world, with 88 floors. Grand Hyatt Shanghai occupies floors 53-87. We spent our final evening in China on the Observatory deck where there was a fabulous view of Shanghai. We timed our visit just before dusk, so we could catch both daytime and evening views. By day the view wasn’t the best, the skyline was just covered with the smog from the polluted city below.
However it was stunning by night when the entire city was lit up. We also spent some time writing and sending postcards to friends and relatives as on the 88th floor resides the worlds tallest post office.
The highlight of our visit has to be the authentic pearl we both were given at the top, watched it being prised open out of a clam and everything. This has to be the best souvenir received from all the countries visited so far.

Oriental Pearl Tower

After going through the bund tunnel, we walked up out of the underground and turned left. There it was the landmark of Shanghai - we walked along near the Oriental Pearl Tower which is a huge tripod looking structure with a big globe sticking out. Not all that by day aside from being tall, but by night when it was illuminated with all kinds of colours really made it look impressive.

Bund Sightseeing Tunnel

At last we visited the famous Bund area. We decided to take the Bund sightseeing tunnel built under the Huangpu River which had been packaged with a few other exhibitions. The tunnel its self wasn’t all that.. And certainly not for those who suffer from epilepsy. It was a regular little cable car that went through a regular tunnel only a poor light show was going on (looked like a bunch of Christmas lights bought from B&Q hardware store). They also had a few puppets being blown around by some kind of fan. Needless to say, we weren't fans of the ride but we did it twice, as we couldn’t be bothered to walk further along to find an alternative route across the Huangpu River.

First exhibition was the Deep Water Sea Exploration (so called). On the photo there was an exotic fish, swimming over the coral reef. When we went in there were a bunch of fish tanks with less than tropical fish inside (found more tropical fish in our local Fish & Chip shop). They did however have some cool looking turtles swimming around. They looked just like the ones in Finding Nemo. They had something going on whereby the locals would throw money on some of the sea life models. There was a live turtle in a tank that had loads of cash on his back. I think he must have been the richest turtle on the planet (soon to be floated on the stock market also I think…get it?…floated!)

Next we went to the Sex & Health Exhibition. Well heck it was paid for so may as well make the most of it. Although we were expecting something odd, this took the biscuit. Had nothing whatsoever to do with health. They had all sorts of phallic sculptures on display. Some warped minds must have created them I tell you. On to the next exhibit!

The next was the Fantastic Sound World Exhibition which to be quite honest…sucked big time. We all went in & sat round a large boardroom table (as if entering a séance), put some earphones on, then lights went out (pitch black) and then the show started (without an introductory to any of this). I think they were aiming to give a sense of spooky atmosphere through sound. It was more like a bunch of people clacking chairs, stirring a spoon in a cup of coffee vigorously & going "Mwaaaahahaha" in your ear (all in Chinese). It was the biggest waste of time since I don't know when.

Metro system in Shanghai officially sucks!

After we were stranded 2 nights in a row. According to the L.Planet guide it runs till 11pm, It was 10.30pm when we got stuck at Shanghai Railway Station and apparently we had also missed the last bus which came to our neck of the woods. And today they took the michael when they decided to stop our line before 10pm while the others were still running.
No alternative route advised either, after I took my frustration out on the Metro Staff, We managed to walk away with a refund and misguided information to an alternative bus route home.. From where we took a cab! Damn their screwed up system. Cant believe everything comes to a close around 10ish and by 11pm the roads are totally deserted (out of city anyway).

The Worlds Largest Coke Bottle.

Going round & round in circles..

We just wanted to watch a simple English movie in a simple English movie showing cinema... of which they have a few here in China.

However, after going on a shopping spree at the Pacific Digital Mall, we thought we would end the day nicely with a movie.. as it was just next door to in Metro City Shopping Centre.
We stepped outside and the Pacific Digital Mall was surrounded with Shopping Centre's but which one was Metro City.. ?
Would help if the names of places and buildings were in English rather than Chinese.. for gods sake you people love neon.. imagine how much each building would stand out when the names are shining in neon in both English and Chinese!

The French Concession

On entering Xiangyang Market we were confronted by a god awful stench of 1000 butchers butcher shops. We kept walking anyway as we'd heard about all the knock off gear you could get there. As we walked it got worse and worse. It started tame, with fish being gutted, then it got to slaughtered pigs and their ribs, then the little pig trotters for people to buy. At this point Bobbi started to feel ill. We kept walking in a panic before she was really ill, as we walked there were these huge frogs (and I mean huge). There was also this vat of fish, one of which was flipping up in the air time and time again, bashing it's brains all over as it did so. If you are a little ill from reading this you probably know how Bobbi felt. Anyways we got out of the dead animal section… and on to the bargains!

As you pass each stall here you are never at peace. They see tourists and they hound them to come into their stalls. They will even follow you around the market. No matter where you go…they will find you. They were all selling their knock off bags, watches and DVD's. They are all about 10 times too expensive but after real bargaining they will come down to 10% of the original price.

As you walk around the streets outside there are people selling bags cheaper again, from little fold away stalls. Although we did notice how quickly those little stalls fold away when a police officer walks by
- One minute he was there, the next he was gone!

Winners don't take drugs....

.......even in China I(Paul) get offered drugs..
We were walking around minding our own business along Nanjing Road and some guy pulled me over to ask if I was interested in buying some drugs. This was a major surprise to me as drug trafficking still holds the death penalty here. This guy didn't seem to care who he asked or who heard him do so.

Crazy Taxi.

We've just arrived in Shanghai and we embark on the usual nightmare journey from airport to hotel.
So far everything is ok, we have found a bus that takes us to the Shanghai Railway Station where we can get on a metro train to a stop near our hotel.
....One and a half hours later we get into a cab (believing as usual that the cab driver knows where he is going).
As it happened he didn't, neither could he speak English, nor read our address we had printed, nor understand the address when we told him. After quite a lot of driving we still were non the wiser. We stopped at the nearby university and got out (hopeless cabbie, if he didn't know where he was going, why did he accept our fare?)
Anyways, by chance there was this random student there who could speak a little English. He not only translated for us but also got into the cab and took us to our hotel. What a life saving young chap! Scary though, we would never have got home otherwise.

Huaqing Pool - Hot Springs

- A photie of the Black Horse Mountain from a distance

This place had the most beautiful setting & such a romantic feel to it, Its' situated at the foot of a Mountain called Black Horse.

Water from the hot springs used to feed this bath house, which had numerous pools back in the Palace back in the Tang dynasty days. There are just remains of these pools here now, but you can still experience the hot water flowing in from the springs today...

The museum has an impressive model of the complex complete with the mountain springs feeding the bath houses (that you can see us modelling here). Along with various rooms which tell a story of the royals who used to live there, with some interesting artifacts, for you ancient lovers out there.



So pretty!!!

We couldnt resist doing a 007 here.

The Egyptian Pyramids

Dunno what these were as we spotted them on our way back from visiting the The Army of Terracotta Warriors, manged to get a quick photie of them from the coach.






At a closer look it appears that China has its very own Egyptian Pyramids.

Army of Terracotta Warriors

The vaults of the Terracotta Army were discovered in 1974 by a local farmer and was regarded one of the greatest discoveries in archaeological history. It was also named the eighth wonder of the world (the Army not the farmer).

Greeting us at the main gate there was a giant sculpture. Following that there was a long walk to the main grounds. These grounds looked impressively well maintained and well decorated. It was all so clean and picturesque, surrounded by mountain views. There were three separate vaults/ sites for the army. Number Two, although huge, was a bit pants. It had hardly anything inside, no soldiers, nothing. We walked into vault number one which was surrounded by people having photos taken. As we managed to push past there was a sea of soldier sculptures. They all looked so unique. Vault three was a little smaller but had a bunch of horses there also.

We also checked out the museum which had loads of little trinkets and weapons from such times. There was also a large horse and cart sculpture inside. There were also more warriors that had been separated from the main vaults. All in all we were very much impressed with our tour and would recommend it to anyone visiting China.