Shanghai Part 1

After the New Year, I pretty much relaxed and packed for my trip to Shanghai. I had all of my trains booked for the upcoming month and was so excited to be travelling all around China. My first trip was to Shanghai with Amy and our plan was to stay there for 5 days before we continued travelling separately. We left early on the Saturday for our train to Beijing before we boarded for Shanghai. I wasn’t looking forward to the 12 hour journey but couldn’t wait until I got there. Amy and I arrived in Shanghai in the early afternoon which was great as we could check into our hostel. I felt like I was back in Scotland as it was raining heavily and that the air was a lot clearer. We took a subway to the Captain Hostel before we walked around the city. We made our way to The Bund where we got to see the night-time skyline which looked incredible. One of the most magical moments is when we got to witness all of the buildings next to The Bund light up.  

The following day, we explored some of the street markets before we decided to visit the Shanghai Tower on the other side of the river. It was quite a journey as we had to take a subway and then walk for a while before we reached our destination. Unfortunately the tower was closed for the day, so we ended up visiting the Shanghai World Financial Tower (上海環球金融大廈). We bought our tickets and then took a lift up to the 96th floor. The view of the city was incredible but when we went higher up to the 100th floor, the view was even more mesmerising. We were high enough that the clouds were the same level as the floor we were on. As we were there for a few hours, we got to watch the sunset over the city and see Shanghai light up. It was such an unforgettable experience that I hope that I can visit the tower sometime in the future.

The day after, we agreed to have a relaxed day with the amount of travelling we did the day before. Amy suggested we take a trip to a street which made some of the best coffees in Shanghai. We had brunch in a nice café which made amazing cakes and pastries. I had a coffee and a pastry which was very tasty. After our brunch, we headed back to the hostel to relax before we headed out for dinner. The restaurant we visited for dinner was close to our hostel but had very few customers. We ordered some beef dumplings and wanted to try something new so we ordered sushi.

For our second last day, we visited the Jada Buddha Temple (贾贾达佛寺) and People’s Park (人民公园). As the temple was sacred to the Chinese, we weren’t allowed to take photographs but the place looked wonderful. While walking through the People’s Park, we came across a group of people who were singing Jingle Bells and dancing which I thought was adorable. At night, we visited The Bund one last time to take a few photographs of the Shanghai skyline.

For our last day in Shanghai, we spent our day walking along Nanjing Road (南京路) where it had shopping malls and lots of different restaurants. As time went on, we decided to head to the train station as we were carrying heavy rucksacks and it was raining heavily. Once we got there, Amy and I had our last meal together before saying goodbye to each other. I boarded my train for Tianjin hoping time would fly by but unfortunately it didn’t. I was so glad to get off the train in Tianjin as I wasn’t feeling too well and I was exhausted by only getting a couple hours of sleep. After getting off the crowded subway, I finally got back to my accommodation at 7 in the morning and got some rest.

In the next part of my blog, I’ll be travelling to other cities such as Beijing, Harbin and Xian with my mum. 

Jody x