The Bund

A great day all around I think. Rose early and went for a walk to get breakfast, and successfully updated my blog from my iPad in China! Had to pack everything up to change rooms, so I cloaked it all and crossed my fingers.

The plan was to spend the day with Ju Xie, an IBM employee who I have been mentoring for most of the year, and she turned up in the lobby with her husband just as arranged. Unfortunately she'd left her toddler who I have heard much about at home, but it was a fair call I guess as he would have been very bored. We took a taxi down to the Yu Gardens, which are an ancient temple and garden, and spent the morning exploring it all. Lovely old wooden buildings and architecture, very reminiscent of the Forbidden City with carved roofs and ornate furnishings. It turned out to be a Taoist temple, and I turned out to be born in the year of the chicken, which meant I was supposed to pray to the statue with a rooster on his head.

Lots of incongruous sights. Take for example the teenage girls in particularly short skirts repeatedly genuflecting before the God of Wealth, but pausing in the middle of it all to take a mobile phone call before starting up again. I suppose the God of Wealth is patient, and doesn't mind her priorities.

By lunch time it was just one seething crush. On our fourth try we finally found a spare table for lunch on the third floor of a nearby restaurant. The restaurant employed a person whose sole job was to stand on the stairs and yell at people who attempted to come up with food purchased elsewhere. I wasn't keen on the pig's tongue, but the rest of the food was nice.

After lunch we walked down to the Bund, the main avenue along the river which brought the world's commerce to China. Walked along the Bund for an hour or so admiring the tall buildings while trying to avoid being crushed to death. Lost count of the number of foreign tour groups, but the Polish group was a bit of a surprise.

Finally got to the end, and for fun decided to walk up the main (expensive, boutique) shopping road - think Orchard Road on steroids. Most touts were wanting to sell watches, or wheels you fit on the bottom of your shoes to turn them into skates. Only got propositioned once, and I was slightly miffed when she didn't seem particularly disappointed that I refused. It's the Moon Festival public holiday tomorrow so I was duly presented with two moon cakes for tea.

Finally got all the way through town up to the People's Square. I expected it to be an open concrete square like Beijing, but it turned out to be a lush park with amusement rides. Late in the afternoon we finally parted ways, and I left them to navigate an hour or so of Metro trains home.

Got back to the hostel to find that I really did have a single room, and so did my late night friend - I hadn't been that confident to be honest. I've got to say that people in Shanghai are patient, tolerant, friendly, helpful and smiling. Apart from the ever present crush, it's a great city. Whilst all red traffic lights are completely optional, neither drivers or pedestrians seem to have any malice. Everybody just peacefully inches along. It's also comparatively cheap. The Big Mac Index is only $3.60 which is as cheap as anywhere I've been, and you can get brewed coffee for $1.

After tea I walked back down to the Bund to check out the lightshow on the buildings and boats. It was really lovely, and very crowded, though my feet didn't appreciate another 4km.