Alright, it’s been probably more than 2 weeks (or something like that) since my last major travel blog post about China (Wuhan, here by the way if you had missed it: Wandering Around Wuhan (Travel… Blog? Part 2.) But can you blame me? YES. At the time of this post, I’m back in Shanghai again after a week and a bit at Beijing.
Ahh Shanghai, the economic capital of China. The richest and most developed of them all. I felt like it would have been a sin to not go there for a visit, especially since half of my family came from there. Let us begin.
Sunday (won’t count as day 1): Just a flight. Took some pictures from the plane, but I won’t share, as it gets repetitive. But there was something absolutely majestic about flying in the glorious sunset.
Day 1(Monday).
I didn’t do much on Monday as well, instead I visited my Grandfather’s siblings (he has four). Obviously I wouldn’t put pictures otherwise you might use facial recognition to find my identity. One has sadly completely lost her sight the last time I met her. Thankfully she has her husband to take care of her. It was a bittersweet reunion.
Day 2 (Tuesday).
The fun technically begins, but not really. The weather was cold, wet, rainy and overall just pure miserable, so I had the fantastic plan of going to a ocean theme park on the OUTSKIRTS of Shanghai (And I mean OUTSKIRTS, it’s so far away from main Shanghai that the train passed through farms to get to the theme park. Then again it’s a very new one that wasn’t here when I went last time.). It’s English name is “Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park.” (上海海昌海洋公园）
Now, due to the wet and miserable weather, they closed all outdoor rides like rollercoasters. So instead I went to watch the three shows that they offered: A mermaid show, a Dolphin show and an Orca show.
First up with the mermaid show, and in my opinion, I got ABSOLUTELY SCAMMED . For starters, I’m pretty sure that mermaids DIDN’T WEAR GOGGLES whilst they swam (you can argue it’s to protect their eyes, but I’ve seen mermaid shows where they didn’t WEAR GOGGLES).
Secondly, the tails that they wore on their legs were probably DOLLAR STORE QUALITY . In fact, they DIDN’T EVEN WEAR THE TAILS IN THE SECOND HALF, IT WAS JUST SWIMMING. LIKE WTF MAN!? WHAT DID I PAY FOR?
The actresses (Five of them, Three were from RUSSIA and two were from UKRAINE ) were clearly inexperienced in underwater… dancing? (idk), they looked rigid. Still commendable though, because you can NEVER pay ME enough to swim with a bunch of FISH.
I really enjoyed the Dolphin and Orca performances though, they were impressive, but then again it’s really nothing to post because you can just go to your local ocean theme park to watch this. Or just come here yourself. The park was also half aquarium, naturally.
Day 3 (Wednesday).
Shanghai is known for it’s economic prosperity in China. And one of the most iconic buildings ever built in Shanghai has to be the Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠电视塔, literally translated as Eastern Pearl Television Tower, but Oriental Pearl sounds better. I don’t know why the word Pearl though, maybe it’s the design). It (currently) stands at 468m/1,536 feet tall, one of the tallest towers in Shanghai. It is absolutely glorious.
The red words say “Shanghai welcomes you.”
If you may have noticed, the tower has three ‘pearls’ (so to say). After you enter, you take a lift immediately to the top of the first ‘pearl’. This is where you can see all of Shanghai as you walk around the ‘pearl’. There is also a level with a balcony with a glass floor, but as I’m a coward and horribly scared of heights, nah.
This is the view, and if you look very closely, you may have noticed some buildings on the left on the river with . They were built by western colonizers.
After taking some stairs, you get to the second ‘pearl’. This is a rotating buffet with purple stained glass, where you can, again, see Shanghai whilst enjoying quality food made by the chefs. Knowing that I am in China, I started by eating the most Chinese food that I can find: HUNGARIAN (or at least that’s what the sign said. I doubt it’s proper Hungarian made, and that it will anger the Hungarians) CATFISH WITH PORK AND SAUERKRAUT (Yes I mixed Hungarian food with German food to anger the Europeans.)
As the restaurant was circular, the food was located in the middle, and separated into halves. One half was western food (Please, don’t eat Chinese cooked western food) with beverages, unless you absolutely want to try) and the other was East Asian. When I say Western, I mean American and European. (IT HAD FRENCH SNAILS . But there was no way that I would eat snails unless I go to France myself. That day will come, I’ll make sure of it. I HAVE to go to France one day.)
Originally I was going to post the image of the view from the buffet, but then I saw my own face in it’s reflection (I care about privacy a lot), so if you want to see, you’ll have to go there yourself. Trust me, images from my phone is nothing compared to actually being there and having experiencing it yourself.
The third ‘pearl’ (the smallest one on the top, maybe hidden in the photo) was a space exhibition, and although I LOVE sci-fi, I felt scammed when I got there. Don’t pay and go to the third ‘pearl’, it’s not worth it.
Day 4, (Thursday).
How on Earth could I go to Shanghai, without visiting Disneyland? It’s not my first time going to Disneyland (with my first being in Los Angeles when I went to the states, more appropriately, only California and Nevada 8 years ago with my family where I forgot almost everything)
I spent the entire day there. First off, I had to take the subway/metro all the way to the terminal station (the Disneyland station), if you will. Even though it was THURSDAY and everyone should be WORKING, there was still a gosh darn lot of people. Waiting over 45 minutes or even an hour for a ride was considered NORMAL (Not normal for my Australian side).
But why was there so many people there? It’s China.
Anyhow my Arcane Odyssey instincts told me to go immediately to the “Pirates of the Caribbean”…exhibition? Area? Place? I don’t really know. For starters, it was next to this MASSIVE lake. Floating nearby was a caravel where you could board called “The Siren’s Revenge” (It might not be a caravel, cuz I never actually watched the movie. I will).
There was a show I watched, called “Teatro Fantiago” (don’t really know what that means, if it has a meaning at all). I recorded the entire darn thing. Won’t post it, but to give a brief summary: a villain (Jack Sparrow) and his crew stole the dropped galleons of a Grand Navy (British) Admiral and the Gravy Admiral and his crew fights and chases him all the way to the dark sea where they fight in a storm and later a tornado to which the Admiral gets calvus’ed. Oh how I loved watching Chinese actors/actresses try and fail to pronounce Spanish and other names. Yes the actors/actresses were all Chinese.
Anyways the ride (to which I ALSO RECORDED THE ENTIRE THING) is much more fun. Here: Disneyland Shanghai: Pirates of the Caribbean Ride (Battle for the Sunken Treasure)
I also bought a Cutlass, so y’all better shiver in your timbers before I tiger rush you lot.
I love rollercoasters, so Tron (a rollercoaster on a bikes inspired by the movie. The course and bikes were also designed by Chevrolet) was my favourite
However the reason why Disneyland was ABSOLUTELY CRAMMED on a THURSDAY, was that on Wednesday, the exhibition of Zootopia just opened. Now, I’m not too sure about you, but I’m pretty sure that the film released YEARS AGO. The ride and the surrounding cities were filled with animatronics by the way (boy I better not stay there for five nights). The place would have been a dream for furries. And there are so many people there.
I ended the night with a bang (literally) as I watched fireworks. It was magical (in Disney terms). Come to Shanghai and watch it yourself. Disneyland was filled with Christmas decorations as well, considering the time. No fireworks in this photo, just the castle. (All characters spoke Chinese, btw, so only Mulan was lore-accurate. Most characters only appeared as dressed up people on a parade.)
Overall, Disneyland was absolutely a blast, and I WILL go back again.
Day 5 (Friday).
Mostly rested, but I visited ONE OF my cousins as well as my family (only one of my cousins lives in Australia as well, the rest in China. I have so many relatives and cousins that it would take forever to draw). He’s a part of the Shanghai Police Department and works for the Financial Crime Sector. I asked him about VPNs and he confirms that they only target the company, not the user.
After eating dinner with them, I took a stroll on “The Bund” or ‘外滩’ at night. It oversaw the Huangpu River, which is the river that splits East and West Shanghai (Originally, Shanghai was just West Shanghai and the only part that was economically prosperous, and East was poor before reforms).
The view is absolutely beautiful, is it not? Experience it yourself.
Offices of European colonizers (this is only a small part, these buildings are along the entire road. Colonizers included the Americans).
This is the China that I wished people could see, not the poor, demonic, imperialist threat that some of western media paints (Not propaganda I swear).
Day 6 (Saturday).
The only thing I did today after visiting MORE RELATIVES was casually go to the largest bookstore in Shanghai (and maybe China). Fittingly, it’s called Shanghai’s City of Books (上海书城).
It has practically all the books that you look for, as the building is split into seven levels (From the bottom to the top labelled on the store’s directory it’s: 风向, 文学, 人文, 少儿, 文化, 艺术, 科学. Although it doesn’t have an English translation of what they are, I’ll translate it.
Respectively it’s: Trending, Literature, Humanities, Children, Culture, Arts (drawing, music, etc), and Science and Technologies. Politics is placed in the humanities level. But I can’t read too well especially since political words in Chinese is the most complex stuff I have read.)
Being me, I went to the sixth floor to buy a book on how to draw. Turns out that there was a bundle of four books that only sold for 148 RMB, which at the time of this post is $31.48 Australian Dollars or $20.84 United States Dollars. I don’t care what you tell me, but for FOUR books on how to draw for JUST $31.48 in my home currency, that is some CHEAP STUFF. TAKE MY MONEY.
(From left to right: How to draw Manga, people, doodling and items or something.)
And these books, for such a low price, is pretty good as well, with detailed explanations. But after a while, I realized, I wasn’t learning how to draw. I was learning how to translate an entire damn Chinese novel. (Each guide book is around 180 pages long).
Now, something I MUST let you know. I DID NOT want to buy this book. I HAD to. In Australia (or my old school at least), art is mandatory, and on my last art assessment, I ALMOST FAILED. I was ONE PERCENT away from failing (NOT LYING). Even though I’m not a big fan of Manga/Anime, I’m teaching myself the Manga only, as drawing realistic humans and items is WAY too complex. And the school which I start this year is takes Art (along with its other subject as it’s the most prestigious) EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY. So if I don’t learn how to draw before my school starts this year, I’M SCREWED.
For English speakers, fret not. Opposite of the book store is a store that is ENTIRELY DEDICATED to foreign pieces of Literature. Such as English, French, German, etc. The top level (I think there was 5) is completely dedicated to Manga. Why? Because Shanghai has the largest amount of Japanese people, mostly because of economic investment and opportunities. Naturally this influence carried itself over.
The Australian Education curriculum makes attending Second Language classes is also mandatory. So all (high) schools have AT LEAST two language options to choose from. (The options that schools may have a variety, from two to four options are: French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), and EITHER Spanish or Italian. One or the other I can’t remember).
My old school only had the options of Chinese or German. And since I already spoke Chinese, I chose German. However recently my German has become even more crusty than it already is. I do actively learn German with a passion (unlike most students that hate second language classes). So I bought a few books to pick up and improve myself further. (I’m continuing my German at my new school this year). A1 and A2 level books and a phrasebook. (GERMANY I WILL VISIT YOU ONE DAY LIKE I MENTIONED WITH FRANCE. MARK MY WORDS.)
Day 7 (Sunday).
Visited MORE relatives. Yeah that’s it. Packed for a flight to Beijing that departed on Monday.
Overall: Shanghai is my favourite city of them all. It’s so vibrant and enchanting. Shanghai’s locals are also the most civilized and most hospital of the Chinese, and I absolutely loved the food. Weather was clear mostly. In total of my trip, I’ll be spending THREE WEEKS here because of how great it is. It is so great that this topic might be the longest one I have ever written.
I won’t put a rating out of ten just yet. I want to experience Shanghai to its fullest before putting a final rating on my overview when I get back to Australia.
Do I recommend it. ABSOLUTELY, you DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING.
As always, stay tuned for my next major blog, which will be about Beijing (and at my current pace, won’t be posted for a week or two, we’ll see). I’ll see you guyyyssss, next timeeeeee.
Like tragic power point levels of museum boredom, or just a slide show of space history?
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