June 23; tour begins - Shanghai to Nanjing

Day 139

It's 5:50 am and we receive our first wake up call. Ugh. 10 minutes later, we get our second wake up call. One bad thing about tours - crazy early start times.  One fantastic thing about tours is the continental buffet breakfasts.

danish, hashbrown+ketchup, noodles, cheese+crackers,
sooo yummy!

The tour is in Mandarin but the tour guide speaks a little bit of English. He doesn't translate everything, only the important instructions, like check in instructions and meeting times. We happily board the bus and go along for the ride. No worrying about missed trains and getting lost!

On the first day the tour took us to:

Yuyuan bazaar with stereotypical Chinese architecture.

tour guide in purple giving instructions.

which way...

True Blood reference!

The Shanghai Museum, in which we had one hour to explore whatever we wanted. I ended up covering 2 of the 4 floors.

one exhibit of the many

I love furniture

and weapons

couldn't find my nationality. 

old money

scrolls

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Everyone is assigned to a table. We share the table with a nice Chinese (duh) family. The meals are preordered and ready for us so we don't waste time.

After lunch, we are en route to our next city, Nanjing - one of the ancient capitals.

We sit at the back of the bus - which makes sense since we don't understand Mandarin...and we're probably the loudest. Thank goodness there's no washroom at the back of this bus.

much needed washroom break. 

UofT advertisement!

Our first destination in Nanjing is the Zhongshan Mountain Scenic Area. Out of the three scenic areas, we go to the main one, the Mausoleum of Sun-Yat. Sun-Yat Sen is the founder of the Republic of China and their first president.

it would probably take half a day at the least to cover all that. One bad thing about tours: they're rushed,

riding on carts to get around.

We stop here so the guide can lecture. The guide tells us to stick together until he tells us otherwise. So we're stuck listening to the Chinese lecture.

fascinating?

after climbing more than a hundred steps, we get this hazy/pretty view.

i like his suspenders and murse.

I love how there's no third wheeling

waiting for everyone to finish up

ugh, what is that? toxic?

Tourists.

oh! coins!

We have dinner at the largest restaurant in Asia: Sunward Fishery Restaurant. The selection was alright. Just because it's the biggest doesn't mean its the best.

Inside the restaurant is a display of jade. We listen to the guide talk about jade before actually going to the restaurant. 

After dinner, we go to the Confucius Night Market to take a quick stroll. There's the famous Confucius Temple that we did not actually go inside, some brand name stores, stalls, and restaurants. The prettiest thing is definitely the lake that's lit up. 

After a fully loaded day of touristy things, we finally get to the Ding Ding hotel for the night. They originally put three people in a two person room, but the guide called and said that they have another room available for the extra person. I had yet to unpack so I venture off to the lonely one person room in the Ding Ding Hotel. To my surprise, I see the exact same room, just with a king sized bed. My executive room:

 

goooood night

June 22; luxury finds us in Shanghai

Day 138

Comparing Beijing to Shanghai:

• fashion. Old/young, fe/male, rich/poor - WHOEVER it is,  Shanghainese dress better than Beijingers hands down. There's less gaudy colour on colour, flashy jewels, tasteless platforms...and tacky.
• subway etiquette. Beijing is full of seat hogs no matter what time it is. These seat hogs come in all variations too, it'll surprise you that the worst are the elders. People in Shanghai do not run for seats. Today, an old lady insisted that we sit on the subway.

One more great thing about this hostel is there is free breakfast.

Cereal and milk, baozi (steamed bun), youtiao (Chinese donut), and "orange juice" Yum!

A few of us go to the mall to do some window shopping/air-conditioning. I don't see anything I particularly like except for the poster below:

hi moshisoyo

We check out of the hostel by 12 and set off to check in at the hotel. Google maps is not as accurate as I thought. After having a bit of trouble finding the place, we finally spot it: The Holiday Inn. Imagine sitting in a five star lobby and watching five young girls (unaccompanied minors?) checking in, three of them with backpackers bags bigger than themselves. We don't exactly fit in, but we could not care less. I sense luxury! For the first time in many years, I check into the 5 star hotel. Kristie and I share a room for the first night and when we enter the room, we have this moment of pure exhilaration. 

When we enter the washroom we have another moment of pure joy and excitement. 

Here's a list of this things I fangirl over:

• soft beds! The beds we have been given over the last 6 months were firm.
• automatic bathroom curtains
• tv with HBO! and hell's kitchen! and movies!
• clean water kettle
• chairs that we probably won't actually use
• nice smelling complimentary soap, body lotion, shampoo
• tea!
• clothing line
• ironing board in the closet
• being able to turn a knob and hear the TV from the washroom

These are more or less ordinary things, but we have been away from these things for so long. It's exciting to have these things back in my life. I forgot what luxury was.

The view from the window - pretty gloomy day.

After soaking it all in, we once again head out to the French concession area in Shanghai where the shopping district had me at hello. The area got its name after the French claimed the area for French settlement back in the mid 1800s. The Chinese got their land back, but the influence of French society in the area remains prevalent despite attempts to rebuild.

Theatre - the Shanghai Film Festival was happening

hot dog truck!

So many brilliant stores, however I didn't end up buying much (only earrings from h&m) because space is scarce in the bag that carries two months worth of stuff... After an hour browsing in h&m, we get huuungry. Tanjin finds a Punjabi restaurant with Chinese Indian food (Hakka food!!)

Veg Manchurian gravy - 38 RMB plus 10% service charge.

Outside of Haagen Dazs waiting for Sig to get her dose of coffee

We get back to the hotel and browse the amenities and I break my 5ish years pool haitus today. We have the whole pool to ourselves. So awesome. After the refreshing late night swim, we go back to the room to snuggle in our big comfy bed while watching TV (documentary on the third sex on National Geographics) and sipping on tea.

Oh luxury, how I've missed you so much.