James & Heather Travelogues

After Hong Kong, we flew directly to Shanghai arriving there on 2 May.

Unfortunately, when planning our holiday we didn't bother to research public holidays and it turns out that May Day is a public holiday in China that that lasts all week. As such, Shanghai was teeming with local tourists that had travelled in to the big city for what is known as Golden week. The population had swelled (according to the only English language TV channel in China - CCTV9) by an additional 7million people, and all of them seemed intent on getting in my way...

Our activities in Shanghai were therefore quite limited to catching up with a friend of Heather's from University and only checking out a couple of tourist destinations. One was a temple that was built in the Qing (pronounced Ching) dynasty and is just about the only surviving one in Shanghai as everything else has been pulled down to make way for skyscrapers and checking out a bank along the Bund.

Now, it may seem bizarre to have a bank as tourist destination but it is actually a bank from Colonial times and is therefore oppulently decorated. The rules stated that no photos could be taken, and I was going to be a rebel and take one anyway. One look at the security gaurds with their assorted armoury and with faces that made them look sadistic put any ideas like that out of my head pretty damn quick I can tell you.

We only stopped in Shanghai for a couple of days, so really there is nothing much else to tell (also my memory has faded).