China - Six in the City

I've just spent six days in the city of Shanghai, over the Chinese New Year, and what a city it is! Shanghai is like a country within a country....with a backdrop to rival New York, consumerism at it's beating heart and Capitalism rivaling Communism, it's almost hard to believe you're in China. But head down a back alley and find rows of washing hung out to dry and meat strung up on coat-hangers and birds tweeting in cages and you remember.....this is the city where old meets new.

We left for China at 5am after 2 hours sleep and drinking 3 bottles of wine. We regretted that. But it's amazing how quickly you can shake off a hangover when you've got a new country to explore (how else would backpackers survive)...so after a quick nap in our new hostel we were off!

We bumbled down to the Bund....the river front hosting Shanghai's tallest, most modern and most impressive architecture. On the other side of the road, the street lined buildings almost perfectly resembled London. Ooooooh. Aaaaaah.

The only problem was that there was no-where to eat, and true to form, I felt starving as soon as I knew there was no food around. After desperation caught hold, I ate the first thing I came across....a somewhat slimy suspicious meat...I'm not going to question what that could have been. Didn't help that it was ball shaped.

After finding some actual food we wandered down the famous East Nanjing Road......only to realise it was desserted. Actually, everywhere was desserted. I thought China was meant to be packed? But of course, today was New Years Eve - the biggest holiday in China - and everyone had left the city to visit their family back home, or were in their houses eating the traditional feasts. So we took advantage of the one day's grace of space and headed to the most obvious tourist points - the Jinmao Tower for views of the city, the Bund Tunnel & the Curious Aquatic Collection. And it was a curious collection.....a mix of live fish, embalmed fish and pickled fish in jars. This one must have been pickled on a sad day.....

It was still early but the city was becoming alive. After feasting, the Chinese people traditonally let off firecrackers outside their home to bring on good luck. And they don't just let off a mere one or two...oh no!...every household lets off hundreds of firecrackers, starting at around 5pm New Years Eve and ending....well, they were still going off 6 days later when we came to leave...so who knows. Every direction had fireworks bursting and bits of red paper falling from the sky. These crazy people were letting off rockets from their hands and throwing firecrackers at our feet, and at midnight, it was hard to know which direction to look in for fear of missing the best displays.

We rounded off the amazing day by going to a terrible nightclub and then headed home. On to tomorrow and the first day of the Year of the Rabbit! A lucky year apparently. I bet they say that every time......