People's Democratic Republic of China (or something) - Part 4 - Shanghai - Day 3 AM
Another day - another Chinese TV morning session. Today's "high lights" included a 10 minute Magician skit on CCTV (it looked like David Copperfield with a big mullet from the 80s) and a Chinese Pop Star doing a dance routine with a mop and bucket... We have also dubbed our hotel the "Ting Tong International Hotel" - I don't know why - Ant did - but it is named after that Thai lady boy from Little Britain... (Mr Dudley!)
We had a cheapo bakery breakfast again - but I attempted to be more adventurous and have some strange looking stuff - I probably should have stuck to just the stale crossiants....
We strolled down to "The Bund" which is the colonial broadwalk alongside the Huangpu River that has a tonne of old colonial style buildings... It was a part of the old International Concession (when Shanghai was semi-colonised before the Opium Wars)... We even walked inside the HSBC Bank House and it had a grand old lobby - which wouldn't look out of place in Europe.
We took a stroll along the promenade (which was on the other side of the road) and was pretty much ignored by all touts (strange!)... We checked out a very communistic sculpture at the end of the promenade where there was some guy trying to get us to come inside his "Museum"... Ant (being the total sucker that he is) followed the tout into the so called "Museum"... I had no choice but to follow them inside the "Museum" - where it was in fact, surprise surprise, a shop full of paintings for you to buy.... It was truely scary - as the "Museum" was a circular corridor underground whilst the tout was chasing us down the corridor... Ant and I were basically running by the end of it to try and escape from the "Museum" of doom...
We made a quick pitstop at the hotel - and then caught the metro to the Oriental Pearl Tower. You would swear that the Oriental Pearl Tower was straight out of the 60's Tommorrow Land at Disneyland - but you would probably be shocked to discover that it is only 10 years old... (I tell you - going to China is like going through a time machine)... It is very Tommorrow Land tacky and pretty ugly in its brutal concrete architecture style... We forked out $12 AUD for a ticket to the mid-station ball thingy (expensive for China) and tried to enjoy the view but the thick smog sort of put a dampner on events... I found it very hard not to laugh when the elevator attendant was saying some really strange chinenglish in the lift on the way down...
To be continued.....
Another day - another Chinese TV morning session. Today's "high lights" included a 10 minute Magician skit on CCTV (it looked like David Copperfield with a big mullet from the 80s) and a Chinese Pop Star doing a dance routine with a mop and bucket... We have also dubbed our hotel the "Ting Tong International Hotel" - I don't know why - Ant did - but it is named after that Thai lady boy from Little Britain... (Mr Dudley!)
We had a cheapo bakery breakfast again - but I attempted to be more adventurous and have some strange looking stuff - I probably should have stuck to just the stale crossiants....
We strolled down to "The Bund" which is the colonial broadwalk alongside the Huangpu River that has a tonne of old colonial style buildings... It was a part of the old International Concession (when Shanghai was semi-colonised before the Opium Wars)... We even walked inside the HSBC Bank House and it had a grand old lobby - which wouldn't look out of place in Europe.
We took a stroll along the promenade (which was on the other side of the road) and was pretty much ignored by all touts (strange!)... We checked out a very communistic sculpture at the end of the promenade where there was some guy trying to get us to come inside his "Museum"... Ant (being the total sucker that he is) followed the tout into the so called "Museum"... I had no choice but to follow them inside the "Museum" - where it was in fact, surprise surprise, a shop full of paintings for you to buy.... It was truely scary - as the "Museum" was a circular corridor underground whilst the tout was chasing us down the corridor... Ant and I were basically running by the end of it to try and escape from the "Museum" of doom...
We made a quick pitstop at the hotel - and then caught the metro to the Oriental Pearl Tower. You would swear that the Oriental Pearl Tower was straight out of the 60's Tommorrow Land at Disneyland - but you would probably be shocked to discover that it is only 10 years old... (I tell you - going to China is like going through a time machine)... It is very Tommorrow Land tacky and pretty ugly in its brutal concrete architecture style... We forked out $12 AUD for a ticket to the mid-station ball thingy (expensive for China) and tried to enjoy the view but the thick smog sort of put a dampner on events... I found it very hard not to laugh when the elevator attendant was saying some really strange chinenglish in the lift on the way down...
To be continued.....
posted by NicknAnt @ 5:10 AM
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