5:30 rolled around early this morning and we were out the door by 6:30 to the Beijing South Railway Station to head for Shanghai. As expected, the trains run on an impeccable schedule, and was impeccably clean and new. In fact, I was completely amazed by the technology; the mag-lev “bullet” train that we were on was going about 190 mph and it hardly felt like we were on train tracks at all! The journey took about 4 and a half hours, and when we disembarked, we headed right into the subway. The subway in Shanghai isn’t nearly as modernized or nice as the Beijing subway, but it still puts most other major cities to shame as far as speed and extensiveness.
Unfortunately, the directions that I had gotten us took us to the wrong Holiday Inn, so we had to jump back in a cab after getting off the subway. When we finally made it, we quickly left our bags, and devised a plan to head back out. Ben and I were intent on buying tailored suits here, but we wanted to make it to the market before it closed at 6:00. We couldn’t make it in time because of a closed subway line and a long detour, but we ended up on Nanjing Lu (the famous street of shopping for both high-end and knockoff goods).
We searched for a famous dumpling restaurant, but never found it, so we ended up ‘settling’ for another fried dumpling restaurant, which was actually outstanding (and incredibly cheap!). Afterwards, we ventured back out onto Nanjing Lu, to the pedestrian-only throughway. We spotted the same Bread Talk that I’d remembered from the last trip, and I wanted to check out Uni Qlo, a Japanese store that has a flagship in Shanghai, and one that I’d missed in NYC a few months ago. It was a pretty cool store, and we found some very cheap, but nice clothes.
Later, we ventured just off the pedestrian way and found a shop that we remembered from before where we could find discount wares and, well, shall I say, less than legitimate items. We actually went back to a lady who we’d met on the previous trip, and she was still in the same shop! After getting a few things, we headed back to Nanjing Lu and did some walking.
This street epitomizes the progress and economic development of this region – it makes you think you’re in the middle of Times Square with the LED signs and lights, and on Rodeo Drive with the ultra-high-end shoppes and accommodations.
Right now I’m looking at a panoramic of fireworks from our 19th floor room. To say this is anything like the Fourth of July fireworks displays would be a complete understatement. Fireworks in every direction and of every variety are being set off endlessly. There are always fireworks when I look out…I am going to attempt to post a video, but the file size may be too large. You need to see it, because I can’t adequately describe how insane (and — quite literally — awesome) it is!
-
- Chad spotted a HOBY poster in a random window while we were walking down the street. It’s a small world after all!
-
- View from the Peoples’ Park end of Nanjing Lu
-
- Best fried dumplings, just off Nanjing Lu at “Mr. Yang’s”