Culture shock in Shanghai

First impressions of China; noise, traffic, humidity, smog, rain, bustle, shouting, spitting, umbwewa umbwewa!? You can't even begin to compare this place to Japan. We arrived at Captains Hostel sweating and exhausted. On the plus side the hostel easily wins the best location award as it sits right on The Bund, a raised walkway which looks over the super futuristic skyline of Pudong. As night falls the dirt and the grime of the city disappears, the roads are almost crossable and the skyline lights up to reveal the full glory of Shanghai. Standing on The Bund looking over to Pudong we can't quite believe we're in China so soon, and despite the initial impressions this place really begins to grow on us.



Highlights of Shanghai include the Shanghai museum, the Science and Technology museum and of course the towers of Pudong. The city doesn't have a huge amount of historic sites or tourist spots you might expect but the scale and buzz of the place soon infects you. What really excited us was the 27p bottles of beer in the store right next to our hostel! However to buy the same drink in one of the bars here would cost you around £6 so we really had to watch the pockets.



If Shanghai taught us one thing, it's that China has completely transformed from what it once was. We expected to find a communist nation under strict rule but instead found a 24/7 culture, plush bars and clubs, chaos at ever turn and Hooters! For photos from Shanghai click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globefest/sets/72157624075322914/