Shanghai

(Shanghai literally means "by the water")...
After a 06.40 bus from Huang Shan, we arrived in Shanghai at about 1.30 in the afternoon. From the long distance bus station, we took our first ride on the metro system to the centre of town.
To be fair, it was a Saturday, it was July, and the Shanghai world expo was on! We would have booked, but we didn't know when we were going to arrive, and were a day ahead of schedule anyway!
FINALLY....Shanghai, we are ready! Hotel, check....not moving for 3 nights....absolutely! We walked along the Bund, took a crazy train across to Pudong district where we went up the worlds 3rd tallest building and viewed Shanghai from the 100th floor - very impressive, if a little smoggy. We explored the French concession area which was very nice with its wide tree-lined streets and calmer nature! After much walking we rewarded ourselves with a Peking duck dinner, even though we were not in Beijing, it was still as tasty! Another scorcher of a day in Shanghai and we visited the Shanghai Museum with an impressive collection of all things Chinese. Outside we enjoyed the beautiful weather and blue skies in the park before walking to Old town to visit YuYuan gardens, a beautiful traditional Chinese garden and rockery complete with pond and coy carp. We had the traditional "xiao long bao" for lunch which are famous shanghainese dumplings, and after explored the rest of Old town...which is actually quite new looking but has been made to look traditional. Under the ornate buildings there is still a Starbucks! There are some bustling side streets if you explore a bit though! We went back to the bund, to another park, and the people's monument before watching the sun go down and the lights of Pudong sparkle once more.
The self service machine provided much confusion so we got in line for the counter, and I had a good conversation in Chinese with the sales person, and could tell her what time we needed our train because tomorrow was our day trip to Suzhou....