Joan had offered to get her Dad to take me to the Captain's Hostel in Shanghai were I planned on staying, she was annoyed I did not visit her hometown for longer than a few hours and giving how kind the people I met there had been I wish I had been more than just passing through.
With the madness that is Shanghai train station at noon I was so glad to be chauffeured to my hostel where Joan's Dad was so concerned they would not have a room for me he was already inside inquiring on my behalf while I got my pack back out of the car.
The hostel is pretty good with a unique maritime like theme running through it as if I had not spent enough time in a seafaring atmosphere lately. The main plus for me at this point though was having the best shower I'd had all week and finally getting a load of laundry done - trust me it was a close one!
I headed out on the hunt for somewhere to check my e-mail that was less pricey than the hostel (20 CNY per hour) to get in contact with the outside world again.
Shanghai is definitely the most western feeling place I've been to so far in China and in many respects maybe more western than some actual western cities with more than enough McDonald's, KFC (the Chinese absolutely love KFC which out numbers even McD's here) and Starbucks to keep the capitalist bean counters happy no doubt.
No longer being the only foreigner around the attention has waned a lot here with many English speaking Chinese similar to Hong Kong, a city Shanghai desperately wants to trump.
Having a gander at The Bund, Shanghai's river front promenade, although impressive with it's heritage architecture and modern high rises across the river including the garish Oriental Tower (wonder what the approval board for that was drinking the day it got the go ahead), it still doesn't stand above Hong Kong for sheer wow factor or international presence despite having the city having a really good vibe about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment