I just had enough time to squeeze in another quick breakfast at 6:30am before checking out of the hotel and heading for the subway. It wasn't very busy at all at 7:00am like I hoped. When I got to the intercity railway station I assumed I would be able to hand in my subway card for a refund, but apparently they don't do it at that station - it's just the major railway train station after all, it's not as if it would be the final destination for passengers or anything...so I guess I ended up with another souvenir.
I found some cheap fresh fruit which would be the first real fruit I'd really had since I arrived, vegetables are still a forgotten friend. The train to
Shanghai didn't have wifi either, so I just slept for a while as there wasn't really any scenery to look at - lots of fields and occasionally a small town with several identical apartment buildings. The train took a little under five hours at 300 km/h again, arriving at about 2:00pm in the west of Shanghai.
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| Nucular. It's pronounced nucular. |
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| A whole lot of tractors. |
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| A big wheel in the middle on nowhere. |
I had to take two subway lines to get to the city centre and find my hotel, but it was all easy and I made it just as the 3:00pm check-in time was up. I came up with a quick plan for the afternoon and I was on my way.
I set out on foot, across the river to the
Jing'an district. The first place I came across was the
Jing'an Sculpture Park, which is a park with sculptures - but not many. One half of the park had been dug up and there was just a big pile of dirt, so I guess I only got a preview but the few sculptures were alright.
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| An apple sculpture, maybe there is some special meaning to it. |
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| An emu, or an ostrich, however that works. |
I walked down
Nanjing West Road which was full of shops and restaurants, I had to resist the temptation to explore each one otherwise I would have been out all night. I found a Carl's Jr restaurant which is another USA chain, but sadly they have no vegetarian options even in the USA.
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| Actually outside a shopping mall, maybe a reference to The Persistence of Memory ? |
I did make one stop at
Jing'an Park however, it was just a normal park except:
- There was a Donut King at the entrance
- There were cats roaming the park
The cats seemed pretty domesticated, they neither attacked or ran away when you walked up to them. Across the road was
Jing'an Temple, but it was almost closing time so I might come back another day to check it out.
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| Space cataz. |
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| Jing'an Temple. |
A little further along the street I found a deserted food court in the basement of a building. They had a place called Caliburger...which had no veggie burger once again. Across from it was a place called Mex Co which had burritos where you get to select your own ingredients, so I got one with tofu as the base ingredient. Pretty tasty and good value too.
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| Crumbs froyo ! |
I got back to the hotel just as it was starting to get dark, seemed a lot earlier for sunset for compared to Beijing but I may have just imagined that. First thoughts of the hotel:
- Similar to the previous one, since it's also a Holiday Inn
- A few more English channels on the TV, including an ESPN
- I didn't get the free breakfast with my room, probably could already do with a bit of a diet anyway
- A small fridge in the room at least
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