China, Frances’ Trip Part 4 – Doing Shanghai and Finding a Bag

June 6th – 20th 2016:  Part 4

Doing Shanghai

 I have been trying to remember as much as I can and oddly the end of my stay is proving harder to recall, is this senility! Our hotel in Shanghai was only one Metro stop away from Peoples Square and all the shops. So we spent time walking down through the main shopping precinct; I imagine we only touched the surface there.

You could take a seat in a small train like vehicle that travelled all the way down the mall which was closed to road traffic, saving yourself from walking the blocks and blocks of shops. Thomas met us and showed us the way down to The Bund. This is on the river estuary, and a popular walk alongside and surrounded by all the amazing high rise.

The river hosted lots of large commercial shipping and a smaller tourist craft and was quite busy. The day was another nice one even if it did come on and drizzle late in the day. And so we sat and watched the craft pass by and we walked and walked and walked again.

Towards evening the high buildings on the other bank began to light up, their windows playing moving coloured arrangements. I imagine later when it was very dark they would look quite spectacular. Rachel and her friend met up with us after and we all went for a meal. She took us to a very popular restaurant at the top of a shopping centre; people were queuing to get in. There was a large seating area at the front and we had to wait for our number to be called. We toured back down the mall, the shops staying open quite late like they were at Lu’an. And then back to the hotel for my final night.

Last Day and Finding a Bag in a Morning

 Well here we were, I’d finally reached my last day. I felt my holiday had really gone fairly slowly which was a surprise and this aspect really pleased me. I felt as though I’d not wasted any time. But here we were with only the morning left to make the most of. It was here I spoilt it a bit as I’d mis-remembered my departure time, for some reason I thought we had to be at the airport for a 4pm flight. And that didn’t leave us a whole lot of day left to do Shanghai.

So we got up and out early and Renee and I thought we’d head over to the shopping centre close to the hotel to see if I could find a cheap suitcase. We traversed our way across the major roundabout, lights affair, making it alive to find we were too early; the centre didn’t open til 10am. We were also hungry having saved ourselves for breakfast. Nothing was open, not even a street stall, 8:30/9am and nothing. So Renee used her magic IPhone to locate us the best dumpling house in Shanghai, in which we could kill time travelling to. We took the Metro back to Peoples Square and followed the map to the dumpling house. And finally breakfast. The fried dumplings were ok but a bit stodgy; perhaps for lunch or tea they would have left a better impression on me. And were a very messy meal to eat; picking them up with chopsticks was one thing but the juice inside sprayed out everywhere when you bit into them! Anyhow we finished up with Renee saying she couldn’t bear listening to the man opposite slurp his soup any longer so we headed back to the shops, perhaps viewing mother spraying herself with greasy pork juice was another reason. We spent a while looking for the shop that we’d seen suitcases in, and we just couldn’t find it, up and down we went. We both had a good idea where we’d seen them but no, and time was getting away from us. Eventually we found a small shop and right at the last minute before our morning timed out, that sold cases amongst other things and I finally had bag, with wheels on it!

Thomas and Rachel met up with us in time to head back to the hotel to pick up my things and for me to check out. Renee was staying on hoping to attend the World Yoga event supposedly but not held the following day there in Shanghai and to spend more time with Thomas. But here I was finally repacking my stuff into the new case, all good.

This time the Metro trip back to the airport took us about 40min and cost us only about $7. There were 2 train changes to make and the first train was so full we couldn’t get on. We also never got a seat until the final leg. But we did make it well in time…..

This was when I looked at my tickets and I realised we only had to be at the airport by 4pm for a 6pm flight! Is this a major senior moment? So we were stuck at the airport with more hours to kill than anyone in their right mind would want. And it was annoying to think that we could have actually had time to see more things in the city than looking for a bag shop!

Well it was OK really, I may have been nervously awaiting a return flight but I was happy to say goodbye to Thomas and Rachel and Renee then, I didn’t want to see them hang around with me with nothing to do, and neither did they.  So they found me a cafe to sit in and drink coffee until it was time. Bloody expensive $10 cup of coffee, airport prices are the same everywhere.

So they saw me off and we said our goodbyes.

I went through into the waiting lounge eventually and spent a few Yuan that I had left and then of course got on the plane.

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