Shangerrrrrrs

Today was filled with classes again which followed pretty much the same structure. Me and a few friends from the course had decided this weekend would be our best time to head out to Shanghai to see the sights. Although this meant we missed the visit to a Chinese family on Saturday we all agreed we couldn’t miss Shanghai when it was only an hour away.

After heading out the previous day to pick up tickets we were confident our journey would be without a hitch. Unfortunately, and most likely due to our poor language skills we managed to get a taxi to the completely wrong station without enough time to get to the right one.  So after some puppy dog eyes at the information desk we managed to be put onto the next train to Shanghai without having to change the tickets.  This train actually ended up getting us there earlier than we had planned so all in all a kind of success.

Train Friend

We made our way up to the hostel we had booked and dumped our bags. We were tired hungry and had zero energy so of course we went straight to a bar. In our room we met a Chinese student on his last day of travelling in Shanghai and somehow managed to persuade him to follow us out even though he had less than 10 hours till he had to board a train home.

I got in touch with Lisa again as she was also in Shanghai with some of her friends as it was there final weekend in China and we found our way to a Bar street. Very quickly we found that Shanghai costs pretty much the same if not more than London UK. After a severe battering of our livers and wallets we managed to find our way home to the hostel and get some sleep. Apart from poor Dennis who had around 2 hours until he had to leave. Dennis was a guy we met in our hostel dormitory from Wuhan, China. When we arrived he was packing bags ready to leave Shanghai the next day, but somehow he was persuaded to come along with us to the bar and only as we left did he tell us he had to be woken up at 7am to leave. The responsibility for making sure this happened fell to me somehow, so my sleep was interrupted midmorning to wake up Dennis. 

Just arrived in Shanghai

Tourists?

Saturday was the day of the family visit which we had missed. But after speaking to everyone that did attend them I was a little annoyed I had missed out. Each family had their own days out planned for the 2/3 students that visited them. Restaurants, lake tours and home cooking dumplings are just a few things that some of them got up to.

We however had only one things on our mind. The famous Shanghai markets. We asked a few of the other people in our hostel where to head for a bargain and we were given a number of possibilities. We made our way to the recommended market, here we found ourselves walking out the metro into several multistory buildings wall to wall in stools and shops. We had a wander around to get a feel of things before we attempted to haggle as we definitely did not feel confident when so outnumbered. Not to mention being followed by 3 different men all trying to take you to shops around the complex and watching what you look at to tempt you with ‘cheaper’ and ‘better quality’ items. This is made even more frustrating by the fact that even when we told them to go away in English and Chinese they laughed and carried on.

So time to haggle, I had found some shoes I liked, problem I had was I didn’t have any idea how much they were actually worth. So I came in with a ridiculously low bid and was laughed out of the shop. 1 - nil market sellers.

Food Hall at the Market

After this confidence-destroying blow I decided to set my sights on something I could perhaps value. Football shirts. A small stall packed to the brim with shirts awaited me and it seemed each teach I wanted a shirt for they did not have. But I finally found myself a Shanghai shirt which I fancied and the bidding began. Starting at a outrageous price around £50 I laughed and went in for around £6. This carried on till the price was around £15 but I wasn’t too happy with that. Luckily my fellow shoppers joined me and bought other things too making the price drop. Finally down to a reasonable price I let my money go. Like a drug though, this was addictive. Stool after stool I got my fix trying to battle down prices with the pro’s. I have no doubt in my mind that I was worse off but it was so much fun I didn’t really worry about it.

Some friends were now joining us back at the hostel after their family visits, so when more people come we just have to party harder. With our group torn about where to go we split with half of us heading out to Bar Rouge, a famous rooftop bar overlooking the bund with outrageous prices and and high class clientele or another bar street and then a club.

As my friend Lisa was heading back soon I met here after a quick glimpse of the bund at a bar street with a couple of friends. We then made our way up to Muse2 (M2). This club did not disappoint, with pretty much all of us having been without a ‘western’ club in so long it was about time things got messy and so we gave it our all. 

Bare Dance Skillz

After many many many beers and many many awkward dance moves we got turfed out in the early hours. Now the tricky part. Finding a way home. After aimless walking for 20 minutes we discovered we had a card directing us to the hostel which was extremely easy to read considering that daylight had now reached us and the ‘Shangers’ businessmen had started to crowd the streets.

...at last

… Sleep.