Our day two days off and our shopping trip had arrived. We were both super
excited, although we had to leave at 6.45am!
We walked to the taxi stand and got a taxi into Hangzhou city to the train
station (an hour's taxi journey cost about $15NZD), we then brought our
tickets for the 'G Train' into Shanghai. This cost all of $16NZD for an
hour's journey. The G train is awesome, it travels at 300km and it's a
quick way to see the sights between Hangzhou and Shanghai. Once we arrived
at the Shanghai we walked up two floors to catch the subway a few stops to
the city centre. Once we got there we jumped on a bus tour - for $20NZD we
could take three different routes around Shanghai. It was a double Decker
bus and we got to sit up the top in the uncovered area to take photos while
listening to the commentary.
We went through the French area with tree lined streets and beautiful old
apartments, saw some old temples before changing buses to be taken down to
the bunt. This looks out across to the 'new Shanghai'. The buildings and
skyline are truly breath taking! The reason why it's called this is because
15 years ago this area was swamp land and they have now built a whole new
city on the other side of this massive bridge. We got off here and took so
more photos like true tourists, grabbed and ice cream and make a quick
comfort stop. October is the month for weddings up here so we quiet often
see brides getting photos at prestigious locations like the bunt. What
impressed Ashleigh and I was we saw a bride come out of the toilet fully
dressed in her bridal gown. She had managed to do her business with streams
and streams of fabric and walked out like it wasn't a problem. Ash and I
battle to use the Chinese style toilets at the best of times, let alone with
a flippn wedding dress on. SORRY if that's an over share but I was totally
impressed!
We took the bus around the spiral of the bridge that joined the old Shanghai
and new Shanghai before getting off and making our way back down into the
subway to find the shopping mall - which is within the subway but a few
floors up. The shopping was A-MAZING! We got our bearing and began in the
jewelry section. Diane knows a specific shop so we went in and met Cindy,
they gave us bottle of water and cute little baskets as we made our way
around the shop. Brilliant Marketing FYI! I brought a pressie for my Mumma
and a few earrings and a bracelet which cost me $11NZD!!
We then headed to the clothes section and to the tailor. Peter (another NMIT
lecturer) wanted to get a coat and I ended up looking around the store and
saw a blue suit - blazer and skirt. Before I knew it I had been measured up
and she was going to send me a tailor made suit for a very good price. I
then decided I should get another. So I walked away with a blue suit and a
black suit, tailor made for $260NZD. They will send them to the college
next week once they have been made. Both of mine are cashmere. Stoked! Now I
just have to find the job to wear them too once I graduate! Ha!
I also purchased a north face jacket, a carry on suit case, a new handbag
and pressie for Rog (no not the golf club sorry rog!). By 5pm we were all
stuffed and decided to make the long trek back to Hangzhou. We caught a
packed subway train back to the train station. This train station is one
rugby field wide and four rugby fields long! 24 trains come into this
station carry about 1000 passengers each time. The subway trains also come
into this transport station but on another floor. Its HUGE!
It was an hour back to Hangzhou on the train and then an hour back in the
taxi to our apartments. Was pretty sweet that I brought a carry on cause I
just carried all the shopping in there! Was well worth the three hours
each way to shop though! And the taxi ride was fun back as we were trying
to race the other taxi with Peter and Chris & Di in it. By this time it was
9.30pm but we were still hungry so walked down and got some KFC for
dinner... yum! We got back to the apartment and looked at our purchases
before much needed sleep :-)
Had a good sleep in and today I think I will work on my study and watch some
movies. Might pop down and get some more bread too! It's a half loaf and its
sweeter than New Zealand Bread.
Very happy we have the day off today!
Much love my peeps
Xx
HIGHLIGHTS:
* SHOPPING!
* Sightseeing around Shanghai
* Seeing other westerners in Shanghai! Ha!
* We have some sweet haggling skills now! Ash and I are awesome. You
give them a realistic price and start walking out of the shop if they want
to sell it to you they will chase you or say yes before you leave the shop.
LOWLIGHTS:
* Would have been awesome to spent the night in Shanghai but we don't
have enough time to do so. Doing the sightseeing and shopping in one day
was better than not doing it at all!
INTERESTING:
* The population of Shanghai is the size of Australia!
* You get random smells of sewage in China, you can be walking down a
clean as street but then suddenly there are some fowl smells!
I will upload more pictures when I get back to New Zealand or in Hong Kong
with our five hour wait for the flight home.
P.s I still need another handbag and more shoes before I return home!
X
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