Chinese New Years!!! (Part 4: Leaving Beijing and Entering Shanghai)

Tuesday we took the 5 hour train to Shanghai, banking that it will be a little warmer there. We first stopped at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing before our train left. It was pretty nice, just more temples and Asian styled buildings. They put on a cool show about some emperor while we were there so that was fun to watch Asians dressed up in wigs marching along.

Train ride through the countryside. Actually pretty boring terrain and depressing view of the housing.

So we get to Shanghai in the evening and check in to our first hotel. We found a five star hotel (Swissotel) for one night for about the same price as the Holiday Inn Express. So HOLLAH. It was ballin. We just hung there for the evening and enjoyed making cappuccinos in our espresso machines. So fabulous.

Wednesday we went out to explore. Pretty much Shanghai is all designer shopping and five star insane hotels. Not too much to do. We just wandered, found a sweet Donut King (we thought it would be like Dunkins) but it was a sweet lounge with real coffee. Way more people speak English here than in Beijing, but still not as nice as Hong Kong. And it is at least 10 degrees warmer than Shanghai too. Such a plus.

(This about sums up Shanghai...trying to make Burger King look good)...

(Way too fancy metro stop)

(Liquor bottle as a vase..??)

(Some sort of fancy shopping mall)

(Closest thing I will get to Dunkin Donuts...)

(Not a BCP...)

(This sums up China in one picture)

I spent the evening not feeling well and sleeping in my room.

Which includes all of Thursday as well. Sweet vacation, eh?

Fun Facts about Shanghai Asians:

1. All Asians love bendy straws. And I do too.

2. Most of the Asians in Shanghai are tourists, so I can’t really say too much about them specifically.

3. They are so intent on tourist shopping that one of their old Buddhist temples they added shopping all round the first level of it. Kinda sickening.

We left Friday morning and took a 20 hour train ride to Shenzhen, which is right over the Chinese border from Hong Kong. Didn't get any sleep because the woman next to me an her infant don't understand the concept of personal space, the chairs don't recline and were rock hard, and the guy across from me was eating about 6 lbs of sunflower seeds in the loudest manner possible. To top it off, every asian who answers their phone on the train has to scream into them. So to summarize that trip, I wanted to kill myself. The second I got off the train, I hopped the border and Metro-ed to my dorm. Never thought I would be longing for the comfort of my insanely uncomfortable bed...