Chinese National Holiday week 国庆节

 Chinese National Day   Oct 1st  ( 国庆节）

On Thursday afternoon the four of us commenced our week long travel by first taking the fast train to Shanghai.  The train trip is only about 40 minutes , but it takes us more than one hour to arrive at Hangzhou train station from our apartment. On arrival in Shanghai ,during peak period)  it will take us a further 30 minutes on the subway to reach People square station ( the closest stop to our hotel.)

  

After settling into our rooms  ( about 7.30pm) we go for a quick stroll down Nanjing Road .. the main shopping area in central Shanghai... where all tourist go !! . After a brief glance into shops we head down to the Bund , a river front boadwalk that serves to primarily keep the river out of the city but also allows fantastic views of Pudong district.

 Nanjing Road at 7.00am ,, almost deserted !! a much different story at 7.00pm

Typical overpass  system in Shanghai.

Shanghai Bund at night


Friday morning starts with a hour long walk to YuYuan  ( Yu gardens)  ,  in the old part of Shanghai  , mainly converted to shops selling cheap and not so cheap souvenirs.  We could spend more time , perhaps on our next visit.  We have plans to see Shanghai acrobatics that night ,  So busy!!.

Yuyuan  with World Finance Centre building in background.We visited these buildings and tried the skywalk at 435 metres, looking out the window we were suprised to see snow falling in October ( it very quickly melted as it fell away from us)

 

Ten yeas of visiting Shanghai has seen many changes , not the least of which is the now less common sight of bikes and more common sight of flash cars.

Away from the touristy street one finds the real Shanghai.

On our way to Ningbo/Yuyao, Christine playing games while waiting at the Shanghai long distance bus station along with about 1 million local tourist, all returning home  for the national week holiday.

ATM transaction Shanghai style.