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 My Shanghai...

23/4/2015

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When I thought about arriving in Shanghai Images of tea houses, serene bamboo walks and historical architecture sprang to mind, I expected to experience 'real' China here, a taste of old cultural habits....boy was I wrong! 
Shanghai is the largest Chinese City by population boasting an impressive 24 million!! I only actually spent 3 days here but it was less Chinese than your bog standard China Town (for me anyway)

Its was a very modern city, I have never seen so many huge department stores and Haagen Dazs shops (not sure what the ice-cream obsession was?) From forever 21 to Prada there was retail heaven for everyone. 
Crossing the streets in these built up shopping areas was pretty overwhelming, it reminded me of a game we would play at school called bulldog, which consisted of two teams standing opposite each other with linked arms basically running full speed at one another trying to break the chain. They even have people employed to hold back the pedestrians after the green man has gone because people refuse to stop walking, even blindly into the path of cars.


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Crossing the street Shanghai.
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Busy hopping Street, Shanghai Centre

In fact I found Shanghai very beautiful, walking in the warm breeze along the famous bund, by day a stretch of impressive silver wall street type office sky scrapers reflecting of the calm water, by night a futuristic skyline full of dazzling lights. 
One of my best times was sitting on the river at night in a roof top bar sipping over-priced jazzed up melon cocktails watching the lights of the bund twinkle whilst listening to some truly horrific Karaoke rendition of Celine Dion! I know...best nights ever! 


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The Bund, by night

I decided to test out some Shanghai night life action, I was looking for something a bit different, I love electro and Drum'n'Bass so wanted to find somewhere I could dance and discover some Chinese talent. This is where I found Shelter, a nightclub housed in an actual World War 2-era bomb shelter, the interior is entirely carved out of stone. I felt like I was walking into a movie set! I highly recommend everybody going to this place, if you're looking for a subterranean circus experience, this is it! 

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Sadly whist outside I met a group of somewhat dodgy guys trying to sell me drugs, nothing unusual about that outside any club anywhere in the world, but 2 minutes later they took off...and with my Iphone, yes pick pocketed, not a great way to end my night, as travellers may be aware, I didn't just lose a phone, I lost my pictures, my music, my messages and all forms of contact with home, bastards! 
On a positive side I was in China! Apple products are half the price so the next morning I went to apple and got a brand new iPod touch for the cool price of $250, all smiles again! 
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China...Beijing

2/4/2015

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I only had 2 weeks here in China which is by far not enough time to get around to everything, such a vast country and extremely long travel times so plan ahead for this one! I only managed Beijing, Shanghai and Yangshuo.

I got the train from Hong Kong to Beijing, it took 24 hours but it was lovely! We had our own compartment, it was like a little hotel room, and there was a restaurant on board as well as a bar, I also think its a great way to get a feel for the landscape and take everything in. 
After the initial language struggle we made it to our hostel and headed straight to the bar for some large ice cold bottles of Tsingtao (Chinas famous and delicious beer) 

I couldn't wait to head to the night markets and test out some of the weird and wonderful foods associated with Chinese delicacy, and it did not disappoint! I had my pick from sizzling large intestines, blended dog meat, 'secret' sausages, starfish on a stick and an array of deep fried creepy crawly's. I have come to the conclusion that scorpions were a cross between popcorn and pork crackling.

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Appetising right!? I wonder what animal those intestines came from?!



Something that obviously can't be missed is The Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the world, full of history and mystery...ohhhh ahhhh 
The Great Wall of China was build to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups. Several walls were being build as early as the 7th Century. Its a colossal 13,170.69 Miles (21,196.18km) long! Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day so it looks very gloomy and foggy in the pictures.
What I found most intriguing was the toboggan, yes that is correct, you can toboggan down the great wall of china, in fact they grease up your toboggan with cooking oil if you wish to get some speed, which of course I did,  flew down that thing at 40mph and I highly recommend this! 


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The toboggan slide


Right in the centre of Beijing is the Forbidden City. It served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government for almost 500 years, making it off limits, which is where the forbidden part comes from. 
The complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 180 acres...so wear comfortable shoes! 
Its pretty spectacular, the intricacy of the stone work and beautiful bright coloured ceilings. 
We walked around the surrounding parks and came across a lot of action, singing, dancing, painting, ancient water symbol writing and lots of very cute babies (which I couldn't resist getting pictures of!)


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A lovely little boy decked out for a visit to the Forbidden City
If you don't have much time in Beijing then these are all a must do whist visiting! And don't forget to try those secret sausages!.....YUM 
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    About Me:

    I'm a girl in my 20's travelling the globe and sharing the wild side of living...Meow!
    I have an unhealthy obsession with blankets, I always have my toenails painted (even in the jungle), spiced golden rum and amaretto sours are what really gets me going and I love cats, especially homeless ones. xoxo

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