Adventures in Asia: Shanghai to Beijing, China

Yesterday morning we caught a high speed, G-class train from Shanghai to Beijing, which took just under six hours to cover over 1,300 kilometers.

We reached a top speed of 304 kmph, and were usually traveling at around 300 kmph.

From Beijing South Station we took the subway to the airport's terminal 2, from whence we walked over to our hotel.  We were there less than ten hours before heading over to terminal 3 this morning for our flight to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Adventures in Asia: Shanghai, China

We began our morning moving from our grungy hotel to the Astor House.  I had reserved a "celebrity" room at the Astor House as a Christmas present for Andrea.  While no longer a top Shanghai hotel, Astor House is Shanghai's most historic accommodation, dating back to the 1840s.  In the case of our room, it was used by Charlie Chaplin on two occasions.  

The hotel itself, while definitely looking and feeling old, had real character.

While the hotel itself is no longer luxurious, our room did feel luxurious in ways.  The furniture seems to mostly be antique, and very, very classy.

We toured the hotel a bit and settled in before heading back to the metro station.

This plaque on the wall made me laugh pretty hard:

It was late morning once we left Astor House, stopped for some street food at a local market, and then caught the subway to the Shanghai Zoo.

My primary interest at the zoo was to see the pandas, so we headed straight there once we arrived.  

The pandas were certainly popular, but I was pleased that we were still able to get up close.

We spent at least ten minutes watching the pandas--probably more time than I have ever spent watching an animal at the zoo.  They were pretty fun to watch: very active, playful, and animated.

Eventually we went off to see what else there was to see.

My favourites were hippos (one of which was a baby); 

giraffes; 

a bactrian camel; 

and many varieties of bear (although, despite being advertised, there did not seem to be a polar bear). 

Something that surprised us was how many people were throwing/dropping garbage into enclosures (the bear pens seemed especially popular for this).  Some of this was simply people trying to feed the animals, but at times it seemed people were intent on harassing the animals for no good reason at all.  It was quite troubling.

We ended up spending over three hours at the zoo, which surprised me; obviously we really enjoyed it.  I was also happy with the fact that the vast majority of the zoo visitors seemed to be local Shanghai families, and not tourists.

After the zoo we took the metro back to Nanjing Road where we ate dinner and then walked down to the Bund for a final time to enjoy the evening view.  We were amazed at how many people were down there.

There were also many couples getting wedding photos taken; mostly the brides were in red dresses, and even the grooms seemed to be donning red--why, we are not sure. 

Adventures in Asia: Shanghai, China

We began our first full day in mainland China with a visit to Nanjing Road, which is apparently one of the busiest shopping streets in the world.

We walked and walked and soaked it all, but honestly it was not all that special (although we didn't do much but window shop, so maybe its better if you're actually shopping).  We did try this somewhat odd pastry:

And passed some interesting retail locations.

Eventually we walked down to Shanghai's famous waterfront known as the Bund.  The Bund technically refers to the embankment that lines the river, but has come to refer to the strip of colonial era buildings (mostly banks and trade related buildings) that are set back behind the embankment.  They are roughly all the same age, built in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and same size, about four storeys or so.  

They face the river, and on the other side is Shanghai's new downtown, Pudong.

Here, we were viewing Pudong from the "front," whereas from by our hotel we were seeing it from "behind."  The clouds can get much heavier than this, even, as we found out later.  The most iconic building in Pudong is the Pearl TV tower, but there's also the "bottle opener," which is simply a skyscraper that resembles a bottle opener due to a "hole" near the top, and a very large, tall building, which vies with Taipei 101 for second tallest in the world.

Ferries continue to cross the Huangpu as they have done for over a century, despite the fact that there are now tunnels carrying metros and traffic.  The ferries are cheap (2 yuan a ride) and offer a good chance to see both Pudong and the Bund and, of course, the river itself.  We took one of these back and forth, making sure to ride on the outdoor portion of the upper deck both ways.

After the ferry, we ate lunch on Nanjing Road, and then went to a "fake" market, where we spent probably about two hours.  I haggled with several stall keepers, and ending up buying a "Superdry" jacket for 150 yuan.  I was hoping to pay 100 or less, so obviously I wasn't entirely happy.  In the end I wanted the jacket more than he wanted the sale.  If it proves to be any good as a jacket I will be pleased; if it is junk but still keeps me warm in Mongolia, I will figure it was not a loss; any less than that and I really got ripped off.

We ate dinner that evening at a dumpling restaurant along West Nanjing Road.  Beside dumplings, we ate green beans and pork, Shanghai noodles, and pork ribs; all were delicious.