It was already my last day in Shanghai and China. I had a bit of a later start than usual, when I walked down to the convenience store at about 8am for an ice-cream based breakfast it was already very muggy and humid. That weather didn't last long though, as by the time I was ready and making the short trip to the subway I got caught in the middle of a massive downpour. Big puddles were popping up everywhere as the rain kept getting heavier. I managed to get undercover and onto a train before becoming too soggy for the rest of the day.
By the time I reached
Middle Huaihai Road the rain had just about stopped. This area is supposedly known as the "French Concession" area so I assumed there would be a lot of nice old shops and houses around, but other than the quite calm tree-lined streets I didn't notice much. I passed a theatre where people were lining up to audition for Chinese Idol 2, if the lines weren't so long I might have been able to stop in and perform William Shatner's Rocket Man for the judges.
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| C-Pop. |
I had to go through
Fuxing Park to get back on to Middle Huaihai Road, it was good but also not particularly French, it didn't really remind of Jardin des Plantes. Back on the main road there was a retail Nike store, I found a Nike Shanghai shirt which had a decent design but amazingly they only had large and above. The Adidas store wasn't so good, just some retro NBA jerseys from the 90's.
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| Fuxing Park. |
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| K11 Art Mall. |
I took the train across the river to the
New Pudong district for the first time, but the rain had started up again during that time. After taking some more umbrella-obstructed photos I took shelter inside the
Super Brand Mall which was a super big mall, there was at least ten floors. The only sports store on the store directory was another one of those crappy collection of mini-stores. A really annoying trend I've found in China is that the staff are trained to behave like stalkers. The second you walk into most stores you have a staff member attach and follow you around - not saying anything or providing any assistance, just silently shadowing you around the store. I'm not sure if they are preventing theft or trying to be helpful and on-hand in case you need help, but it's damn annoying if not disturbing. Whenever I encountered this crap I just walked straight out of the store.
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| Oriental Pearl TV Tower. |
I got a smoothie from DQ for lunch, it wasn't great, I should have got another Blizzard, they are much better and you get it free if they can't demonstrate that it can be held upside down and not fall out - I'm not sure if you have to eat if off the ground if it does fall out though.
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| A whole basement of bakeries ! |
There was still more rain coming down so I walked across the street to...another mall, the
ICF Mall. This one was a lot smaller but did have another Nike and Adidas store. I picked up another stalker from Adidas so I didn't spend a lot of time there.
Finally there was a bit of relief from the rain so I walked down to the
Riverside Promenade. From the river there is a clear view across to the other half of Shanghai, with The Bund in the forefront. There was a lot of wind down by the river so of course my umbrella kept turning inside out - on the second day of use just like I predicted, but it still seemed to be functional afterwards.
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| Huangpu district. |
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| Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center. |
I went back to the hotel to drop off some shopping and get most of my packing done for tomorrow's flight. I checked out the gym facilities, they had one fairly old rower, stepper and treadmill machine for about 20 floors worth of guests - I guess that's an indication of how much use they get.
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| People love their escalators. |
I got another burrito for dinner at Mex Co since I didn't want to waste time again searching for a good place for dinner, then I headed out to
Shanghai Hongkou Football Stadium. There weren't quite as many scalpers as yesterday but still quite a few. Since I had a lot of time I was able to track down the ticket booth, which was still selling tickets for the game. It was quite a strange scenario as the scalpers were operating directly in front of the ticket booth, and there were even police standing around who didn't care at all, even engaging in conversation with them. One of the more enthusiastic scalpers was interrupting people in the middle of buying tickets from the staff at the ticket booth and trying to offer a better deal.
I listened to what one of the sellers had to say, they were claiming to sell a 380 RMB VIP ticket for 100 RMB, but since I couldn't really understand what was printed on the ticket I just bought a 100 RMB ticket from the booth - the lowest category was 80 RMB and I think the highest was about 500 RMB - so even the lowest price here was more than I paid yesterday.
Tonight's game was between
Shanghai Shenhua (also known as Shanghai Greenland) and
Changchun Yatai. It wasn't nearly as hot and humid, but the ground was quite wet and slippery from the rain during the day which caused quite a few skill errors. Shanghai looked like they had gone ahead after six minutes but the player was just offside, then they conceded a goal just before half time to go into the break down 1-0. The people sitting around me weren't great, one guy kept spitting on the ground - which seems to be a pretty common and acceptable practice throughout China - and another guy must have gone through at least five cigarettes before half time. He was also one of those losers who stands up whenever the home team looks like they are about to get a shot on goal, but thankfully it wasn't blocking my line of sight. Despite all of this it was still a better experience than when Amir and I visited the Bernabeu and had people spitting nuts and seeds everywhere and puffing on cigars.
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| The blues fans. |
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| Game time. |
At the half time break I was able to pick a seat away on my own because the attendance was quite low once again, which made the second half more enjoyable. I was thinking about leaving as I had a very early start tomorrow, then Shanghai got a goal to even the match at 1-1. Within five minutes a poor defensive error had them down 2-1 again, and then a couple of minutes another mistake and they were losing 3-1. The away team decided to celebrate in front of the home crowd, resulting in lots of bottles and other objects being through down onto the field.
I left with the score at 3-1, Shanghai did get a late goal afterwards but still lost 3-2. The train back to the hotel was above ground most of the way so I was able to get a bit of a view of what all the flashy buildings along the river looked like at night - pretty cool with all the coloured lights. I finished packing by about 11:00pm and had to be back up and away again at 5:00am...
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| Big city lights. |
- Shanghai Summary
- Good
- Air feels fresher
- Heaps of bakeries
- Subway interchanges slightly better, most of the time
- Would be a nicer city for living in than Beijing
- Bad
- A lot of places were too far away, would take a half or whole day
- Subway platforms not always on the same side
- Weather didn't work out as well
- Missed Out
- Century Park
- Jade Buddha Temple
- Qibao Ancient Town
- Shanghai F1 Circuit
- Sheshan Forest Park
- China Summary
- Good
- Cheap and reliable public transport
- Cheap food and snacks
- Generally organised chaos
- Long hours for restaurants and shops
- Quite different culture
- Bad
- Cars drive on the right hand side of the road
- Drivers have little to no respect for pedestrians
- Language barriers
- People usually don't stay on the right side of escalators
- Spitting in public
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