After a lovely nap on the bullet train, we arrived at Shanghai Train Station where our next tour guide Becky was waiting for us. Using the subway system, we travelled to The Phoenix Hostel, located approximately 20 minutes walking distance from the Bund. There are laws in Shanghai which don’t allow men and women to sleep in mixed dorms so this was the first night that Scott and I had been apart since getting married.
Tonight would be our last night spent with everyone on The Dragon Trip. Although the trip we initially booked was 9 days, we cut it slightly short due to great flight prices to Thailand on Monday morning. As a result of this, Scott and I were able to get a bit of money back from The Dragon Trip for the hostels which we wouldn’t be using, every little helps!
We went for a sit down meal with the group at a sea food restaurant, but none of us ordered sea food and it just wasn’t the best really. One of the guys ordered a meal containing chicken, and it came with an unbattered chicken foot. Watching him eat it was just awful. He could barely chew it because it was so rubbery, and it was mostly gristle. The delicacies here are bizzare, but the Chinese love them!
One thing I did learn while I was in China though, was that they eat pretty much every part of an animals body, including animals we in the UK only consider as pets, due to not wanting to be wasteful. Suzie taught me that due to the vast population, they couldn’t possibly only eat chicken breast or thighs. In reality, they are resourceful. Personally, if I have gristle in my food I spit it out, whereas they see that as wasteful. In more rural, poor areas they do eat dogs and other animals, due to lack of other resources.
The optional activity for the first evening in Shanghai was to go on a drunken panda pub crawl costing 180CNY per person which included entry to clubs, some free shots and drinks, plus transport to each location. Scott and I were only going to be in Shanghai for 1 full evening and wanted to make the most of our trip, and so we decided to skip the pub crawl and go for a walk to the Bund, a huge tourist attraction in Shanghai.
The Bund feels like a cross between a small Newyork city skyline on one side of the the river, with London Parliament and Big Ben on the other. It was a spectacular sight, full of lights and thousands of tourists looking to get that perfect Instagram image. I for one am not a photographer, and I can barely use my phone let alone the camera on it!
Oriental Pearl Tower is on the left
(I’d like to say I paid for that to be illuminated on the Bund, but it was just a beautiful coincidence
We had a really lovely evening along the Bund and would highly recommend it. Its totally free and definitely worth going to see if you’re in Shanghai.
Day 2 in Shanghai was actually a ‘free day’ with no planned activities. It was to be our last day in Shanghai and so we got up early to make the most of it. I met Scott downstairs at 8am and we walked to the Yu Gardens. We spent a couple of hours walking around Yu Yuan Old Street, an area full of beautiful architecture, food stalls, shops and the poshest Mcdonalds I’d ever seen (on the outside anyway).
We headed back to the hostel for 11am and met our tour guide Becky and some of the dragons. Scott and I checked out of the hostel, leaving our bags in our friends room. We were taking a long ride out to Zhujiajiou, a water village on the outskirts of Shanghai. There are many old towns around Shanghai which have an entrance fee, but Zhujiajiou is free and only costs 8CNY to get there! The journey there was 70 minutes, plus a short walk (20 minutes) from the train station to get to the water village. Although taxis and tuk tuks were available for a price.
We had 2 hours to explore the village and it was a particularly hot and humid day. As the nickname suggests, the water town did have similarities to Venice although I can confirm it wasn’t as big and was definitely not as beautiful. The waterways were full of boats taking tourists for rides, the narrow streets were crammed full of stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs and interesting food (intestines, heart, feet, you name it they had it).
Throughout China, there was a smell that Scott and I couldn’t put our finger on that came from certain food stalls and restaurants. To this day we still don’t know what that is, but the whole of Zhujiajiou smelt this way and we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat any of the food on offer. So, we headed to the local spa shop and bought a bag of crisps, an iced tea and a Snickers. I should be sponsored by Snickers considering the amount I’ve eaten the past 2 weeks.
Eventually we headed back into Shanghai and showered one last time before dropping our bags at reception. Scott and I went for a lovely meal in the restaurant connected to the Phoenix Hostel where we ate dumplings, rice and some ever so tasty veg.
This meal marked the end of our stay in Shanghai and China, it was time to catch the subway back to Pudong International Airport where it all began. We made it there without a hitch, many hours before we could check in for our flight. We did this so that we could save money on a hostel, as well as a taxi because the subway closes around 11pm. We napped leaning against our rucksacks on the airport floor, and at 4am we checked in for our flight to our next destination.
Scott and I had a fantastic time in Xi’an, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. Looking back and reflecting on the time we had there, it really was an amazing experience. I can’t imagine we will ever go back to China, but we were taught so much by our tour guides and had such a great time we will always have fond memories of the time we spent both on our own, and with The Dragon Trip.
Next stop… Bangkok, Thailand!
Don’t forget, if you like what you’re reading then hit like, follow us, leave a comment and subscribe for more on our adventures. Thanks for reading!
Just winging it 