Shanghai Trip

Shanghai is only a two hours flight from Hong Kong. So it's ideal for a weekend trip. We arrived Friday evening and wanted to go for a quick beer. We thought you do that at the BUND but unfortunately we chose the wrong side of the river. The taxi driver brought us to the correct spot but there were no pubs or bars. Meanwhile it was 11 pm and the streets were empty. So we just had a quick glance at the old prunk buildings. Then we got back to our hotel. Not the best start...

On the next day we found out that we should have gone to the other side of the river. The BUND is on the eastern side of the river but the Paulaner is on the Western (Pu Dong) side. Attention! The prices are very exclusive here. A beer (0,5 l) will cost you 70 RMB (around 7 Euro).

The next day we had a better start. We kicked off in the Yuyuan Garden and temple (Pu Xi, western part of the city, old part of Shanghai). It's the old city centre and an oasis in the middle of skyscrapers. The Chinese garden is very beautiful with gold fish pond and rock garden. You might have some difficulties to find it because you have to pass a vivid area stuffed with little stalls and then there is the garden on your right side. But you can also ask for the way as English is quite commonly spoken. Especially in the tourist areas.

Afterwards we went for a long walk to the BUND. You pass the antique market on your way and a few residential areas. Back at the BUND you can have another look at the palaces which were built arond 1900.

http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-india/tales/t-buil01.htm

That was a part of shanghai that I hadn't expected, having in mind that you are in China and not in Europe... Next we took the sightseeing tunnel from the BUND to the other side of the river (underneath the Yangtse). That was China at its best. You have to take a gondola and there is a very bizarre light show guiding the way. You really have to experience it by yourself.
Once arrived on the other side (Pu Dong) you will almost stand in front of the Pearl River Tower.

In the evening we went out for dinner in Xintiandi which is absolutely hip but quite expensive. You can take the subway to get there (Line 1, Huangpi Nan station, and then walk to the south). This quarter could be easily located in Belgium or the Netherlands. There a lots of beautiful bricket houses with tables and chairs in front of them...

On Sunday we visited an old village. Usually you would go to Zhujiajiao but that's relatively far away and so we decided to go to Qibao instead.
Qibao is one of the old villages which still remains in the city of Shanghai. You can also have a look at the canal architecture there like in the other old villages. Similar to Venice or the Netherlands there are small canals which run through the village and are frequented by tourist boats. But don't expect Qibao to be calm and quiet. You can buy souvenirs and food at the many little stalls. But you have to be open minded as you will find duck heads and all sorts of strange food there... But the atmosphere is very nice. A little bit like an open air festival.

Finally our Shanghai trip ended in taking the highspeed Maglev train back to the airport. It operates at 345 km/h and it takes only 20 min to get to the airport like this. As good Germans we had to test our technology at lest once...

The flight back to Hong Kong was again very typical for Shanghai. Due to bad weather conditions all flights to Hong Kong were postponed. After two hours they announced for the first time that the flight would be delayed. Well, we had actually noticed that by then. Three hours later we were allowed to board the aircraft and imagined that we would at least make it to Hong Kong by 2 am in the morning. Then they said that a passenger list was missing. It took them another two hours to get the passenger list and by 1 am we finally took off for Hong Kong. We landed at 3:30 am and had to take the next day off... but it could have come worse as other flights waited for more than 12 hours. But I was told that this chaos is normal for Shanghai's airport.