Shanghai, China – 2011

6-14-11  Yangshou/Guilin/Shanghai

Alas, we are coming to the last leg of my China trip, Shanghai. The city was so modern I almost forgot what country I was in. The plane touched down on another rainy evening. Our car sloshed through the puddles and over to our hotel near the railway station. Stephen and I settled into our gorgeous and nice hotel. After surveying the monsoon outside and our nice living room and hot water maker, we opted to run across the street to pick up some ramen for dinner. Being a vegetarian, I casually threw away the meat containing spice packets and rocked that ramen raw. We curled up for sleep and were ready for the next day.

Old Style Building

6-15-11  Shanghai

We woke up and met our tour guide in the lobby. We headed over to the Shanghai museum to get a nice view of Chinese history and culture in that area. After our speedy walk through the museum, we journeyed over for a foggy view of the Bund. There were so many interesting buildings of varying shapes sticking up into the clouds. After our sojourn down the river in the rain, we headed to the ancient main shopping district in the city. The old style buildings were beautiful with their carvings and pointed roof flourishes. It is quite a pity that style of building is almost non-existent in the city any more giving way to high rises and western buildings. We saw an ancient beautiful palace with carved wood and amazing waterways filled with large goldfish. The market was full of every trinket imaginable and a large amount of delicious food. We headed over to the main modern shopping district where Stephen splurged on his love of clothes. Our tour guide brought us back to our hotel, and we spruced up for our night out. We dressed to the nines for some delicious dinner and clubbing. We took the metro back over to the shopping district we were at earlier and grabbed some dinner. We then walked over to the Bund for a view of it lit up at night. The rain had mostly let up, so we were able to see a lot of the buildings in all their glory. It was quite an intense sight to behold, even for this New Yorker. Stephen and I headed up to Bar Rouge to get our dance on. There was some good beats playing and a small crowd when we walked in. I ordered a vodka ginger ale, he ordered something straight. We took a table towards the back, but with still a good view of the Bund lit up outside. The liquor flowed, the people poured in, the beats kept playing. Stephen and I danced the night away to those sweet techno beats. After clubbing quite late, we grabbed a cab back to our hotel. It had begun to rain again and the metro was closed by that time. We made it back to catch a quick hour or 2 of sleep before it was back up and to the airport.

The Bund

6-16-11  Shanghai/NYC

Stephen and I packed all of our things and headed to the airport on our way out of China. The trip was long, but very satisfying. Even if the government denied me entry into Tibet, I still had fun at the cities I did visit in China. China is such a huge country and I feel like I barely caught a glimpse of all it has to offer. Special thanks also to our tour company, Travel China Guide for a really fantastic and amazing tour. I would recommend them if you ever get the itch to head over to China.

I’m sad to see this chapter in my blog entries to end. I don’t know when or where I’m headed to next, but I’m always thinking of the next adventure. Stick around for some helpful travel tips until the next adventure. As always, live big and travel safe. Peace love unity respect. Until next time.