Shanghai

I’m sick…… the cold that has been creeping up on me for weeks has finally decided to pop up. I feel it’s only to get worse -_- I’m a bad sick person as I mentioned before as I feel sorry for myself and I want no-one near me.

Well it’s only popped up in the last hour so today I was fine and I went to do tourist stuff like take photos and buy gifts (for myself mwhahahaha).

So I slept in today (though my body naturally woke up at 8am god dammit!) I left my hotel and walked to ‘the Bund’. Big mistake in my new sandals! Oh how they rubbed!! I have two blisters to show for it. So I took photos at the bund and took photos for people in exchange for taking mine. Though they didn’t mention my hair looked like something out of ‘There’s something about Mary’.

Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai

I caught the subway back to my hotel (one stop) due to blisters and I the fact that I forgot to put sun cream on. After getting changed (I have never sweat so much! I am sweating from places I didn’t know you could sweat from!) I went to ‘Old town’. I have never got so lost. I was looking at my ipod (thank you lonely planet eBook maps) and nothing was where it was supposed to be. I couldn’t even find the bloody tourist centre. I did happen to just come across 3 places I was looking for by chance. The first was maybe ‘old street…’ , the second was Yu’yuan gardens and the third was a traditional tea shop/café.

Tea house

Old town

I brought so much in old street. I am dreading looking at my bank statement….. It was so busy but in a good way.

In the afternoon I went to Shanghai museum. Some girl wanted to take a picture with me which was weird, so I declined. Instead I offered to take a picture of her and her friends together. I am feeling very big headed here. I have been told three times now that I look twenty! Mwhahaha. In Korean people can tell my age but here I am young. I am seriously considering moving here now haha. Plus no one seems as obsessed with beauty here as they are in Korea. Women seem more relaxed.

I came back to the hotel and decided to treat myself to a foot massage. I even got a foot scrub and they got rid of all the dead skin on the soles of my feet (poor guy though I think he punished me during the massage). The massage was a fiver and the scrub was 2 quid. I will be back for more….

Dinner was awkward as I was the only one in the hotel restaurant. How late to people eat?! It was nearly 6pm!!!!!

Now going to eat chocolate to make myself feel better.

Off to Shanghai....

On Wednesday, I had to travel to Shanghai. I left my hotel really early as I wasn’t sure how long I need to be there before and how confusing the train station would be. Initially Beijing South railway station was confusing but after finding what they called the ‘waiting area’, which actually is where you catch your train, it was easy.

The train is supposed to go 350km an hour, but because of recent accidents involving high speed trains in China, the government has issued safety checks and the train could only go to around 300 km an hour (I’m going to put some of the journey on youtube in the next few days). Catching the train was easier than I expected and it was a direct journey. There was even a direct exit to the front of my hotel at the station.

I had booked a corner room at the park hotel as it was at a discount rate. The park hotel is quite an old hotel compared the modern hotels surrounding it so it comes  across with a 1930s Shanghai feel (just like in the movies). It used to be the tallest building in Shanghai in the 1920s or 30s.

I had only eaten 2 oreos all day by this point and it was 4.30pm so I decided to look up this fried dumpling place I had read on lonely planet as it was close.  When it said 5.5yuan (50p) for a dumpling I thought it meant one and I thought it was cheap so I ordered two. It turned out it was one set so I ended up with 8 big dumplings (I could only eat 4). I’m sure the person who took my order thought I was a pig.

I ended up having a bath (yay!) and watching Alvin and the chipmunks: The sequel………don’t judge me…….

Great Wall of China

OMFG! Was I hot today or what?????!!!!  Today I did a 4 hour hike up the Jinshanling part of the Great Wall of China. I’m pretty sure it was over 30 something degrees and it was humid!!!! I’m surprised everyone didn’t get heat stroke. Plus the bus journey was over 4 hours one way!!! >< 8 hours on a coach isn’t fun trust me. 

Our ‘breakfast’ was a something that tasted like pig burger from McDonalds and a coke. I just ate the bun……. So we didn’t get a lot of energy to start with. I actually brought 2 snickers bars but they melted so I put then in my fridge when I got back to the hotel. I’m actually eating the 2^nd one now mwhwhahahaha.

We got cable cars to the Great wall which took 18 minutes (it seemed longer) and FYI I hate cable cars!!!! >< Jinshanling is quite old compared to parts that have been re-done. The steps are broken and steep (plus there are many). Some parts don’t have steps and the parts that do are very steep. For someone with short legs like me it’s hard work. Everyone was sweating even the people trying to sell stuff who are used to it. I have seriously never sweated so much in my life and I live in Korea!!!!

I ended up falling over on the way down, as going down is harder for me as the stairs are steep and I have no grip on my trainers. I got a nasty scratch so no dresses for me for a while.

I wouldn’t recommend this tour as it’s badly organised and our tour guides English was very low so no-one could understand her.  Plus there were loads of us and I prefer the small group tours.

New and old Beijing

Did I mention how crazy drivers are here?! They make Korean drivers look safe!!!! Trying to cross a road is a nightmare.

Today is my third day in China. I booked another tour to see other sites in Beijing. First we went to the panda house in Beijing zoo. There were some baby pandas that are so cute! They were play fighting! I’ll upload my video to you tube account asap. We then rode over to the birds nest aka the Olympic stadium. Opposite the stadium is a 7 star hotel!! I never knew you could get that many stars haha.

Birds nest

7 star hotel

After we went and looked around the Lama temple. See pictures

Lama temple

We went to a Tea house to try the different traditional Chinese teas. I ended up buying some as I’m British so I naturally love tea.  We also got a free pee pee boy. You use him to test if your water is hot enough. If it’s hot, it pees, if not …well it doesn’t (I think that’s the right way round).

Just before lunch we got to go in to the hutongs around the old part of Beijing and have lunch in a Chinese home cooked by the family. The food was so delicious. We all wanted cooking lessons. Finally we looked around a china factory before heading back to our hotels.

After an hours break I went to watch the kung fu show. It was really good. I think it’s good for both men and women, as it has a story but it also has awesome kung fu moves, and which guy doesn’t secretly wish he was a kung fu master . All the guys were monks and I felt like I was watching a live action movie.

If you want to book any tours in Beijing I went with www.tour-beijing.com which was a good price for what you get for your money. I think most money is made on commission but I don’t mind as everything is cheap.

Beijing day 1

For my second day I went on my first tour of the week. We first saw the Tian’anmen square (from afar) then went in to the Forbidden city. I really didn’t think it was that huge!! We spent 3 hours looking around and didn’t see everything. Our tour guide told us it was called the Forbidden City as in the days of the Emperor, people weren’t allowed in and people weren’t allowed out.  She also told us the emperor had about 200 beautiful women in the palace (he makes Henry 8^th look like a good boy). Other males who lived in the palace had to have their pee pees cut off :O

Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Forbidden City



Forbidden City

Forbidden City

We went to a Chinese medicine place where doctors could tell our health conditions by checking out heart beat etc. I was okay luckily as some of the herbs were expensive.

Next was the temple of heaven ^^

Temple of heaven

We had lunch at a restaurant. I was expected rice or sandwiches so I was shocked we had a buffet.  It tasted soooo good! After, we went to the temple of heaven. See pictures ^^ I started getting worn out by then.

We popped in to a spring water pearl factory. Of course they always try to sell you stuff on tours. I ended up buying some jewellery for 650yuan and some pearl cream for 200. I thought since it’s so cheap I should treat myself ^^

Lastly we went to the summer palace. Boy was it busy. It seemed this part of the tour was rushed and we didn’t get to see inside the palace. We went on a boat across the lake for 20yuan though which was nice. I actually didn’t like the tour guide on this tour.

so busy!

Summer palace

I then went to have Peking duck with some tour group members in the evening as we all were in nearby hotels. It was so tasty. The restaurant is quite famous so it was a bit dearer than my previous night’s meal (25yuan) at 300 yuan each but was worth the experience of having proper Beijing Peking duck.

Prices in Beijing-

Water 2-3yuan

Subway – around 2yuan

Airport subway- 25yuan

Street food – around 5+ yuan