A slow boat to Shanghai .........first impressions

I went to Shanghai on a business trip recently, having been the first time I have ever been there as well as the fact that I was travelling on my own I was slightly apprehensive, OK really apprehensive if truth be told, I have travelled internationally myself before, but that was to a country I had been to previously and was also an English speaking country.  Here I was now waiting to board a flight that would take me from Johannesburg to Hong Kong with a two hour stop over then a second flight through to Shanghai.  I took a deep breath and told myself that I could do this.
I flew Cathay Pacific, what a brilliant airline, their service was superb, food was great & the cabin crew were friendly.  I upgraded to premium economy, check out the leg room I had, what a treat.  There also was only two of us in this row so we had a seat empty between us which all helps for a more pleasant flight.
Meals offered on board were both western & eastern choices.  I went with the western option, not quite ready to venture out too much and it was really tasty.

 

When I arrived in Hong Kong, I was absolutely parched so went on the hunt for some bottled water (tap water is not drinkable in Hong Kong, nor China)  I found this cafe where I paid R 96 for a SMALL bottle of water (most expensive water I have ever had) but what do you expect when they were charging R 156 for scrambled eggs & salmon on toast

I arrived at Pudong International on Sunday at 9:05 am, and no jokes between getting through security/customs, collecting my suitcase, finding the driver and taking a one hour drive to the hotel in Shanghai, I found myself checked in and in my room by 11:15am.  So slick, the entire process, no unnecessary delays.  My first experience was trying to chat to the driver of the car that the hotel sent to collect me and all I got was "No English".
I stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in the Hong Kou District of Shanghai, and let me tell you this hotel room was magnificent, they spared no expense, I had a room on the 30th floor, it had 42” flat screen television with international satellite channels, an in-room laptop safe with charger, and a clock radio with iPhone/iPod docking. A couch and a sizable work desk with high speed Internet access.
The bed is worth a huge mention, I had heard about the famous Sheraton Sweet Sleeper™ Bed, featuring a big pillow-top mattress, cozy duvet, and goose down blanket before I left, but thought nothing of it until on night one, extremely jet lagged, I climbed into this bed and seriously had the best nights sleep in my entire life.  They guarantee a fabulous night’s sleep and they delivered (I loved this bed so much I googled whither you could buy one and yes you can but the price unfortunately is out of my price range, as I would have to ship it from the States to South Africa, pity, huge pity). Glass walls separate the bedroom from the exquisite marble bathroom, which features a deep-soaking bathtub, a shower with a six-jet rain forest shower head, a central floating wash basin, and a variety of bath amenities.  It was heavenly.

This was my view from my window, of Shanghai.

I unpacked, cleaned myself up and had a chat with myself, something around,"well you can stay here and luxuriate in this room until tomorrow, or you can take the bull by the horns and go out their into Shanghai and explore".  I opted for the latter, not knowing how much free time I would have I thought I better make use of this open afternoon.  Now Shanghai has a very good transport system with trains, trams, buses & taxi's so getting around shouldn't be much of a problem, however it is known that most taxi drivers do not speak a word of English, making this challenging, so to get around this fact what the norm is to show the taxi driver the address (in Mandarin) and they nod then take you their.  The Sheraton actually has a card that has not only their address but also the address of all the main tourist sites, so you would just tick where you wanted to go, hand it to the driver and off you went.
I made a decision to go to Nanjing Road which has enormous department stores (I mean humongous, 12 stories high and vast, vast, vast) I am a pretty good shopper, in fact I would say I am really good at it, these stores however scared me to death, I felt so overwhelmed as I have never seen anything this size before and it wasn't one but what seemed like streets full of hundreds of stores this size (picture something probably double the size of Harrods, and that would equate to one of these department stores), it was all just too much to take in that I actually couldn't buy a thing.  In fact I found myself fleeing out into the street again and went in search of a Starbucks (the weather was quite nippy and I felt like something warm to drink and I had seen some on the drive into Nanjing Road).
I crossed the road to People's Park, which was full of people as well as lovely Chinese sculptures on plinths, I was wondering around when a very friendly Chinese couple stopped me to ask me if I wouldn't mind taking their picture, after doing this, they asked me where I was from, so I told them South Africa and they started chatting away, anyhoo, they then asked me if I would like to join them for tea as they were going to a Chinese tea house.  I declined politely and told them I was off to Starbucks for a coffee, now I will never know if they were trying to do this, but prior to going I had read up on scams that happen to tourists, whereby they are convinced to join young Chinese couples for a Chinese tea ceremony and long story short end up having to pay an extortionate bill.  So either I declined a very friendly young couples innocent offer to join them or I narrowly escaped being conned out of loads of money.  I eventually found my Starbucks and had a salted caramel latte and went and sat in People's Park just to do some people watching, pinching myself that here I was actually in China on my own, very surreal.  I then had another wonder around Nanjing Road where I found a wine shop, so after sorting through many many bottles of wine until I found something that resembled what I drink at home, I bought a bottle and then decided to make my way back to the Hotel, flagged down a taxi, gave the hotel card to the driver and off I went again.  I ordered room service for dinner, which was a hamburger and chips, sat down to some of the purchased wine to enjoy with was was to be the last western meal that I had on the trip.  I lost the battle with Jet lag and fell fast asleep.
More to follow
Till next time
xoxo