Shanghai

I always wanted to go to Shanghai (上海), the largest city in China but unfortunately we have been there only for 2 nights and have seen only the Bund by the bank of the Huangpu River and the 'Yuyuan Garden', a traditional garden in the Jiangnan style.
First city atraction we saw after landing in Shanghai airport was 'Yuyuan Garden'. It is really a nice place with all those small shops, little streets around and tea house in the middle, created only for tourists. There was a lot of people from all around the world and for the first time I felt relief because nobody was looking at me! I know this is silly observation but after Shenyang and Jilin where people stop talking when I am entering the restaurant;) it was a good feeling.
Shanghai is huge, fast and of course living in here is very expensive, especially for tourists. All prices are doubled or tripled for foreigners and usualy there is no option for barganing. Good I had support of my chinese husband who could get some presents cheaper;)

Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai

Yuyuan Garden by night

On the second day we went to see 'The Oriental Pearl Tower' which is located in modern Pudong district. We took a boat on Huangpu River to have better look at the Tower and other modern skyscrapers. We had great time even though the weather wasn't good.

By boat on Huangpu River

Pudong district in Shanghai

Chinese market

Shopping is the most adventurous thing here particularly for foreigners.

For me shopping in a food market was the most interesting thing of all! You can find here anything including alive silkworms, frogs and frozen sharks, and other stuff which I don’t even know names of in my mother language.

Buying clothes and shoes is a totally different thing. I was trying to buy nice shoes for winter and it was really hard to get my size (39) in women’s section. Also I had to buy some clothes in size XL which in Europe would be too big for me as I wear size M. But I must say that in China there are so many choices in shops and different cities that I think it will be very hard for me to go back to small Dublin :)

Dawei in a fruit market

Silkworms

There is one catch in here money wise. Be aware of that sellers will charge you double or even triple times for products if you are a foreigner. Thank God you can always bargain and if you are good in that you can get a fair price. Of course I am in very good position as my Chinese husband always can help me out with bargaining. We bought many little presents for my family for much cheaper price and I know that if I was alone I would pay much more for them.

Although when we visited Beijing I was shocked that they wanted me to take a taxi for 100 Yuen from the train station to the hotel that we booked when it should costs only less than 20 Yuen! I guess that a lot of rich tourists from US would pay for it but come on it is like cheating!!! People just don’t realize that. Maybe because of that I hate Beijing. It happened many times there that they wanted me to pay more for things even in a fruit stalls on the street!!! Mentality of Beijiners is so sick in this matter. In Shanghai I didn’t feel as annoyed about this thing as in Beijing.