Shanghai Shanghai.

Saturday 29 March, 2014 

¥6.00           Breakfast (Uni Restaurant)
¥13.00         Maccas (Coffee + Hashbrown)
¥73.00         High Speed Train ticket
¥5.00           Shanghai Metro Ticket
¥80.00        Hotel (one night)
¥30.00        Lunch 
¥10.00        Taxi
¥260.00      Forever 21 (Shoes + Camisole)
¥63.00        Dinner (Aniseed in the French Concession)
¥140.00      Jazz Club (Split the cheapest bottle of tequila there ~700RMB)
¥53.00        Perry's Bar (Two Mojitos)
¥50.00        Taxis (equiv. 5 taxi rides)
(¥783.00)

Sunday 30 March, 2014 
¥22.00         Breakfast (Beef rice bowl)
¥10.00         Sanji Drink (1L bubble tea!?)
¥15.00         Mango Juice (I wanted the bottle)
¥20.00         Souvenirs (Old Prints)
¥100.00       Tea
¥187.00        Ikea 
¥27.50        Lunch (Ikea Meatballs and Cheesecake)
¥78.00        High Speed Train Ticket
¥4.50          Dinner (Fujian Restaurant)
¥2.00          Pineapple
(¥466.00)

Total: ¥1249.00 ($224.25)

Weekly Total: ¥1870.40 ($335.80)
Total Spend: ¥17854.70 ($3376.50 AUD)

- - -

Never have I felt more 农村 (rural/country) than when I arrived in Shanghai.

Shanghai is like the older, more outgoing and sociable cousin to little Hangzhou. 

Shanghai currently has 14 metro lines. Hangzhou currently has 1.

At first when I arrived in Shanghai I felt like I had missed out on so much by being in Hangzhou. I had described my adopted city with a tone of disdain; it was nothing compared to Shanghai.

What!? You have international food?

Forever 21? What is that?

We have nothing in Hangzhou, we only have Xī Hú!

Our trip to Shanghai was largely left to chance (or disorganised). We had booked our hotels, but we hadn't prebooked our high speed train tickets so we ended up having to wait an hour for the next available train, and it was also a standing ticket. (Seated and standing tickets are the same price).

The train only took an hour, and we passed time pretty quickly playing charades and other games. 

When we arrived in Shanghai, our group of 9 went on the metro system to get to our hotel. Essentially we had planned to leave at 8, thought that we would arrive by 11, but ended up arriving in our hotel by 1:30pm. The weather was miserable too - it was pouring wet! Definitely wasn't a great start to the trip.

We also had a bit of a dilemma with the hotel as we were a group of 9 and we had booked 2 suites (each with 2 double beds). We were 3 guys and 6 girls, so a guy/girl would have to share (which really isn't a big deal but.. if you had a partner would they feel comfortable with it?) 

Logically I thought the best way to split the rooms would be by interests, as our group is quite different and would come home at different times.

We met up with some other UTS students currently studying in Shanghai to do a bout of shopping. Our group split into 2/5/4, and we were joined with 6 other UTS Shanghai girls, which made for a big group to go shopping with. We walked down Nanjing Lu and went into Zara, Nike, Forever 21.. but since we started at 3pm we really didn't have much time to shop.

I had anticipated throwing a lot of cash at inanimate objects but when I arrived I realised my money wasn't going to leave my wallet. The weather was poor, time was rushed, and I was just not in the mood for shopping. In my mind I filtered out a lot of the clothes through two simple phrases: "Will this look normal in Sydney or is this too China" and "What would COS have"  to make sure I wasn't simply buying things for the sake of it. Also I realised I'm not dressing like a girl anymore; I'm trying to find clothes that will last and don't look cheap and reflect my more "mature" taste.

I ended up buying a pair of heels (since I had intended to go out that Sat night in Shanghai but only brought sneakers) and a camisole, and that was it. 

In the face of such temptation,, I made it out alive!! 

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel and did a quick change before we headed out to the French Concession to have a big group dinner with most of the UTS girls. There was about 20 of us in total. We had some delicious Vietnamese food, which was greatly appreciated as it's definitely true that Hangzhou does not have the kind of variety that Shanghai does.

After that, the SH girls took us to an amazing Jazz bar, but it was ridiculously expensive. One of the girls had a connection so we were giving a seating space for free, otherwise usually you would have to buy a certain amount of alcohol to secure a space. There was live jazz playing and it was a great atmosphere. My Hangzhou drinking clique and I (5 of us, the others don't drink) decided to split the cheapest Tequila on the menu, which was 700RMB. (Next up was 1000+RMB). It was my first time having Patrón tequila and it was amazing, it tasted velvety and it had no burn - only pure, sweet chocolately goodness as the after taste. Definitely a better option than wine!

Actually now that I looked it up I'm pretty sure we had the Patron XO Cafe which is Coffee Liqueur made with Tequila.. and I'm pretty sure that lime and salt wedge we had it with definitely made it us look more unclassy. Oh man... we are so 农村!

We also got free fruit and french fries and shots on the house, which was nice of them.

After that we took cabs to Perry's Bar, which is the equivalent to a uni bar. We were all definitely way overdressed for that kind of place, which warranted joggers and jeans.  Drinks were incredibly cheap though, the music was great, and we had a huge, long table to fit us all on and we were just having a great time having singing battles/contests between HZ & SH. Us 5 HZ kids definitely had more fun, must've been all that KTV!

After that we went to M2 Club, and somehow got entry into the VIP room (I hear it's because one of the VIP's was hitting on one of the SH girls and was told to invite all of us in there.. anyway we left pretty quickly because it was not very lively there at all. Think TV, small bar, pool table, couch, empty seats and not enough people doing much at all, all while super loud music streams in from the dance floor.

I also finally caught up with a friend who I met in Finland. He's from Estonia and currently studies in Shanghai. It's been two years since I've seen him.. isn't it nice how small the world is!

Not long after, we left and I conked out in bed sandwiched between two girls in a tiny Chinese double bed. (They are truly not the same size as Western ones)

- - -

We woke up at around 9:30am with only 5 hours worth of sleep under our belt, but we were all ready and kicking for our last day in Shanghai. We met up with the group of 4 who didn't go out late last night at brunch. I ordered this giant flavoured tea with sago pearls that was called a Sanji, as in the character from my favourite anime One Piece. Turns out, the 'speciality menu' were all names of characters from the show, and the actual brand was called "New World" tea which is also from One piece. What luck! It was a delicious, and while 10rmb for 1L of drink is super cheap, it was way too much to finish.

After that we went to Tian Zi Fang which was just walking distance from our hotel. It's this amazing Old Shanghai style maze of shops and eateries, a complete tourist hotspot but it still had heaps of charm with all the different things sold there. I ended up buying some postcards and tea, and took a few pictures along the way. 

After that, we went to Ikea, where I met up with my Estonian friend again for just a nice catchup. It was nice to be in a familiar place too - Ikea truly is the same everywhere - but the only difference is the crowds of asian people.

I bought a set of 4 small mirrors to create a full length mirror, and also just a light throw to replace my quilt in Summer.

After that, we caught another high speed train home, again with the standing ticket.

As we were lining up for taxis in Hangzhou, there were heaps of unregistered drivers haggling and shouting prices to get people to hop into their cars. The tunnel where you wait for cabs was dank and it smelt of piss (we came up with the theory that these drivers piss in the tunnel to make it more unbearable, thus making people want to go into their cars instead of standing in line for half an hour). My friend said that once she and her boyf went with them on the agreed price of 30RMB, but it ended up being 30 each, which was a complete rip. We ended up catching a normal taxi.

---

As we were in the taxi, slowly making our way back to our home on traffic-free roads, I realised that Shanghai may be big and busy but it's not the city for me. Shanghai is more expensive (from the starting rates on cabs to food), and with so much activity around it's impossible not to feel compelled to spend, spend, spend.

Hangzhou is a city too, albeit a small one. It may not have busy streets and a myriad of sites and places to explore, but it has Xī Hú, a beautiful lake surrounded by botanical gardens and bamboo forests, with tea fields only a ten minute bike ride away, and Bao Chu Temple where you can climb boulders with the locals. There are parks and greenery where we can have lazy Sunday afternoon picnics and cherry blossoms in full bloom everywhere.

Before I came to China, I was tossing up between Hangzhou and Shanghai. They are two different people.

Shanghai is the older, more outgoing and sociable cousin living the epitome of the city lifestyle.

Hangzhou is the laid back, beautifully carefree child who thrives off nature.

I am so grateful that I am here.