Shanghai: Finally...

11-10
Took a G-Train to Shanghai today.  Holy Crap--348km/hr.  Thats amazing.  The train was very Star Trek Voyager-ish.  It took like an hour to get to Shanghai.  It was easy to get to the Hostel as the train station also connected to the subway station, which was also very sensible and well marked in English.  My hostel was near East Nanjing road, which is right by an intensly popular tourist shopping street.  This means there are lots of white people.  This also means there are lots of people preying on the wealth of the white people.  Eventually I learned the phrase "Boo Yeoh", the meaning of which I'm not exactly sure, but it stops the seller in their tracks--I think they must assume if you know enough Mandarin to say that, you probably know enough that you won't buy their crap.  I'll take it.

My hostel was ok.  I got a single room but it was so tiny the door couldn't open all the way, but it had all I cared for: bed and a bathroom.  I found some street noodles and called it a night.

11-11-11-15

I spent the next few days in Shanghai but I really lost interest in keeping track of it.  I met up with one of my first friends I made on my adventure back when I was in Seoul, John (Ireland).  He was trying to flee his job from Korea for a job in China but Korea wouldn't let him leave, at least for a few days.  It's a hilarious story, esepcially when he tells it, as he has developed a genuine distaste for certain parts of that country.  Anyway he's now in Shanghai so It was so great to see him.  He took me to a Brittish pub called "The Bulldog" in the French Concession neighborhood.  It easily had the absolute best spicy chicken sandwich I have ever had.  Pretend Wendy's hired a Szechuan chef for the day to grill burgers--thats about what it was like.  

I ran into some friends I had met in Beijing and Xian also.  Alex from Canada, my dumpling banquet friend and Dave from Australia, the guy who took a soup baozi grenade to the chest--what a hero.  

Overall Shanghai doesn't have a lot of touristy things to do.  I did a lot of walking.  One day I just went shopping down the Nanjing Roads.  Another day I took some time to visit a gym.  Overall though, I've just been taking it easy.  I moved to another hostel down the corner from my first one--it has a much larger cafe to hang out in, and usually we spend our nights there drinking and playing pool.  The bars in Shanghai are mostly overpriced and cater to westerners.