We arrived in Shanghai at around 8 after a bumpy night on the train. It was drizzly and cold, but I was surprised to see that the city was bustling with people (though I guess that’s what you get in a city of 24 million people). We then proceeded to march a whopping 100 metres to the hotel, where we chilled out and ate breakfast. The original plan was for us to do an adventure race around Shanghai, but everyone was exhausted after our night on the supposedly A-class carriage. Instead, we did a bit of touring around the old sector (I don’t remember exactly what it was called, but it had the gorgeous old style Chinese architecture), went to a super modern shopping centre for lunch (we had western food!!!), then went back to the hotel to chill for a few hours in the afternoon. Dinner was pretty fun; we went to another super modern shopping centre, then split into groups of 4 or 5, and then got to wander around and choose where and what we got to eat. After dinner we caught the world’s fastest elavator (18 metres per second) to the 118th floor of a skyscraper. The view would have been absolutely stunning had the sky not been resembling pea soup (gross and cloudy). Throughout the day, we got to experience Shanghai’s crazy railway stations; they were so crowded, and ridiculously hot (compared to the brisk winds and chilling rain outside). One thing I thought was really interesting was that in the train stations, they had clear walls around the actual track. That way no one would accidentally fall onto the track in rush hour. Overall the day was pretty ‘chill’ which was a nice change from the regular hustle and bustle.
Hayley
We have arrived in Shanghai and are set to explore this exciting city today. We are just finishing breakfast after a ‘rockin’ rollin’ridin’ night on the train…
