Tuesday 4th September 2007 

 

Arrived in Shanghai at around 3.30 pm, however my luggage didn’t.  Because my connection from Edinburgh was around 4 hours late I missed the flight to Shanghai, so BA put me onto an Eastern China Airways flight at 9.20 pm.

 

After being met by Michelle and spending 3 hours trying to sort out my luggage, we eventually headed into downtown by bus.  This took about an hour due to the rush hour.  I got to the flat where I met Alex, our BC link officer, he gave me info about the flat and my first months allowance in cash.

 

Ten minutes or so later, Rupert and Elliot returned from Carefour after buying necessary items, eg bedding, cutlery etc.

 

We were then surprised by a visit from Daniel, who showed us some more necessary items about the flat, and helped us sort out our water problem.  We also went out for a meal with him, which cost 30 rmb (£2) and had the best egg-fried rice!

 

 

Wednesday 5th September 2007

 

We were met this morning by Alex who then took us on our first metro trip.  We took the bus two stops down to Jing’an Metro then 4 stops across to Pudong.  Here, we met Rebecca Yu (HSBC PR) who took us to the Dynasty restaurant for lunch.  Unfortunately HSBC’s CEO for China was busy so the Head of PR joined us.

 

After lunch we returned home, got some shopping, and sat down to our first meal cooked by Ayi.

 

 

Thursday 6th September 2007

 

The morning was occupied by a meeting at the Consulate with the Vice-Consul General, this consisted of a briefing about dos and don’ts in China, a briefing about what the consulate can do to help us and information about contacts in case of emergency.

 

On the way to lunch we had photo’s taken for our Residents Permit and other ID documents we would be receiving soon.

 

In the afternoon we had our first lecture, with Jessica, who works part-time at FESCO, our University.  She had studied in Newcastle and spoke perfect English, this lecture was very informal and we discussed life in Shanghai: ranging from where to go out to how to do a simple task like find out where the next bus is going.

 

After returning home, some of us went out and explored the surrounding area (this consisted of not getting lost but going the wrong way several times!!!)  This evening, we ate in one of the four in our apartment complex (it’s more like a little town in itself consisting of over 4000 apartments in total!)  We had spicy stir-fried Ostrich, a dish from Sichuan, which is a province famous for spicy food.

 

Friday 7th September 2007

 

Today was by far our busiest and best day so far.  We reluctantly got up for 9 am, having being told we would have a long day ahead of us with jetlag kicking in!  However, we were met by our guide who was unusually happy considering what time it was.  We were taken in a mini-bus to Shanghai Planning Centre and on the way we were told about our tour.

 

Our guide used Emma as her English name because she was a big fan of (I quote) “the Spicy Girls!” She explained to us that we were on the no. 1 tour, so-called because we were going to visit the highest building in China, the best planning centre in the world, eating the best cuisine, and getting the best view in Shanghai all accompanied by the best guide in Shanghai – according to her!

 

First stop was People’s Square the biggest park in Shanghai, where we visited the Shanghai Planning Centre, which is one of very few actual planning centres in the world.  Here we visited exhibitions about the history of the Bund (a colonial area in the city), World Expo 2010 (going to be held in Shanghai) as well as a 360° CGI virtual tour of the city.  However, the highlight of this stop was the largest model town in the world.  There was a scale model of central Shanghai, which covered over 600m², on it we could even find our own apartment block, this is not just a tourist attraction, in fact the Chinese Government use it to plan where they are going to develop next.

 

After this we took a short walk to Nanjing Rd East, this is the main shopping street in Shanghai and is packed with tourists.  We were warned by our guide that this is the only place in Shanghai where you have to watch your pockets.  We stayed there for about an hour and then went to lunch.

 

The Yu Gardens was next on our agenda, this is a small old town originally built in the Ming Dynasty – it is a tranquil and quiet place far away from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding Puxi district.

 

At lunch, Emma said we could go to see Shanghai Circus perform, although we would have to pay for this ourselves as it was not included in the package HSBC had paid for.  I though 150 rmb (£10) considering our allowance was slightly pricey, however it was without doubt worth every penny! Shanghai Circus are regarded as the best in China and even the world.  They performed balancing acts, rope work, drama, as well as fitting 5 people in a cupboard and sticking swords through it.  We were amazed by the flexibility, skill, strength and dedication of these athletes – they put my gym work to shame!  The show’s climax was called the steel ball (this was used on BBC1 Scotland – as a filler between shows).  It consisted of a steel ball cage around 4 meters high: we were amazed when one person on a motorbike was riding round and then slowly four more got in and they were all driving around the cage (including the roof!) at the same time without crashing!

 

We also visited the Jin Mao Tower, the highest building in China (I’m safer not mentioning the highest building in the world in case it this is censored by the CCP) , standing at 88 stories high, which makes it over 1000 ft high.  It is soon to be in the shadow (literally and metaphorically) by the Shanghai Financial Centre, which is currently under construction next to it, which will stand at 101 stories and over 1500 ft high.  At the top of the Jin Mao Tower there is a viewing floor with various touristy stalls, one of which hands out a free pearl to everyone who takes the fastest lift (9 m/s) in the world to the top of this tower.  I, however, received not one but three free pearls, let’s just say my good looks and charm got my mum a cheap Christmas present!!!  After going to the highest toilet in the world, we went for dinner.

 

Dinner was followed by a night cruise along the Yuanpu River, this was magnificent as the East Bank’s new Pudong area was lit up by several thousand neon lights, while the Colonial West Bank’s Bund was tactfully lit.

 

We were dropped off at People’s square, in hope of finding a bar that would be showing the Rugby World Cup. We stumbled upon Malone’s, an American sports bar, unfortunately for us the game didn’t start until 3 am and the bar had to shut at 2 am.  This was not a waste, as a great live band were playing and a good time was had by all.

 

 

Saturday 9th September 2007

 

This morning, (well this afternoon if I’m honest) I went in search of the Hockey club after breakfast (lunchtime really).  Fortunately for me, this is only a 15 minute walk away – this may seem far but considering their old pitch was a 2 hour tube ride away I’m very lucky.  Tomorrow is my first training session at 1 pm – 3 pm (better set the alarm!)  I’m slightly worried considering it was around 30C today and 80% humidity, consequently I’m having to drink around 4 litres of water on a normal day.

 

After this I went with the others to one of the many Starbucks in Shanghai, conveniently this one is opposite our apartment.  It is now said there are more Starbucks in Shanghai than in New York.  I picked up some shopping on the way back at Carrefour, to be met back at our flat by Daniel, one of the Scholars from last year who has decided to stay here as he has been offered an ex-pat package.  That is me now up-to-date as I sit here on the balcony just after 10 pm in a very comfortable 26C looking at our rather magnificent view – I’ll post some photo's later.

Please visit: http://davidinchina.myphotoalbum.com to view my photo's.