Back on a night train again and currently heading to Xi'an after a whirlwind few days in Shanghai. We absolutely loved Shanghai and it was an amazing cosmopolitan city (so different from the streets of Beijing).
After arriving off the night train after a very restless nights sleep which ended at 7am when the train started to pipe music through the whole cabin, we headed to our hotel for a much-needed shower! After a quick refresh and some dumplings for lunch, we went to the Shanghai museum which is world-famous but to be honest was pretty boring, although you'd never guess it from this picture......
After all of ten minutes in the 'Hall of Currency', we headed to the coffee shop. After this, we went to the hotel for ANOTHER shower (the Shanghai heat is insane) and some food (more dumplings) a quick change, and back out to see something which I had been super-excited for- a Chinese acrobat show! We took the subway to Shanghai Circus World (the name says it all) and arrived at a huge globe
shaped building.
shaped building.
Inside, the theatre was really nicely done and when the show started it was genuinely one of the best things I have ever seen!!! From the 8 girls on 1 bicycle, to the 7 motorbikes going around one giant cage, it was incredibly well put together, the acrobats were insanely talented and we were all sat on the edge of our seats!! Some photos are below but I had to take them sneakily so they aren't great quality!
After the show, a few of us headed to Big Max Sports Bar (totally authentic Chinese of course) but we were exhausted from the previous night and the drinks were ultra-expensive (Shanghai is more expensive than Beijing) so we called it an early night and basically fell into comas when our heads hit the pillow!!!
The next morning, we went for a walking tour around Shanghai to see some of the more famous districts. The first stop was the Bund which is the area where you can see Shanghai's iconic skyline.......
After a walk around, we walked to the Yu Garden area. Yu garden is a picturesque botanic gardens with some lovely views. Around the gardens is a really cool bazaar which sells everything and has a good atmosphere if you can handle the touts!!
After the gardens and a mooch around the stalls, we headed to the newer area of Shanghai- the French concession. This part of the city had obvious European influences and the buildings were cool. We had a wander around the area and went to a communist memorial which was pretty strange.....
Again, the heat was ridiculous so we headed back to get changed for our first proper night out in China. The evening started in a quite sophisticated way with a boat ride along the river to see the Bund at night and we had some great views!
After disembarking, we went onto a Chinese club which was utterly bizarre. For a start, it was 100yuan (about £10) for an open bar (never a good idea). Throughout the night there was a variety of performers including a singer miming to Jay Sean, various dancers and others.....as the night went on this seemed to get increasingly surreal! Finally, the group of us actually seemed to be the main attraction as we all got on stage and danced and the entire club seemed fixated on taking photos of us......very bizarre.
We've already been on this train about 6 hours as we got on much earlier than the last time, so today we only had chance to grab a quick lunch before heading out. Not feeling our freshest we headed to a Canadian diner, and I believe this picture speaks for itself......
Anyway, going to try and grab a few hours sleep now in preparation for seeing the Terracotta Warriors tomorrow. Night all
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