Not only do you get to check in at the train terminal, but you are also allowed to get rid of your checked baggage here and avoid the lines and hassle at the airport. Plus it's only a 24 minute ride! I was loving it. My student budget doesn't normally allow for these kind of luxuries so this train trip was just another perk of mom visiting!
Sticking with tradition I grabbed a McDonalds breakfast at the airport (the sausage and egg Mcmuffins in Asia are 10x better than in the states- one thing they have us beat on). We waited around for a little and made use of the free wifi and last few hours on Facebook before we headed of to China!
All of my time abroad has really racked up my airmiles. Out of boredom and curiosity I thought it would be fun to calculate the number of planes I've actually been on this semester. Granted this will be nothing compared to what I'll be doing if I make it as a consultant, but here's the list...
1. Indy-Chicago 2. Chicago-Beijing 3. Beijing-Hong Kong
4. Hong Kong- Taiwan (Taipei) 5. Taiwan (Taipei)- Hong Kong
6. Hong Kong- Philippines (Cebu) 7. Philippines (Cebu)- Hong Kong
8. Hong Kong- Thailand (Bangkok) 9. Thailand (Bangkok)- Hong Kong
10. Hong Kong- China (Shanghai)
Future Flight...
11. China (Shanghai)- China (Beijing)
12. China (Beijing)- China (Shanghai)
13. China (Shanghai)- Hong Kong
14. Hong Kong- Chicago 15. Chicago- St. Louis
Our short two and a half hour flight to Shanghai was definitely entertaining. I took a short nap (like usual) and then woke up and watched some sappy and predictable chick-flick the rest of the flight. Nothing too unusual about that I know but what was entertaining was the number of pictures a group of old ladies took while in-flight. I imagine they took close to 100 pictures on the plane alone of goodness knows what. Also as soon as the plane touched down in China and the fasten seat belt sign was still on half the plane unbuckled and were up getting their bags! Apparently FAA regulations don't apply to China locals. In all my travel adventures I have never seen a landing quite like this. The people were definitely anxious to get off of the plane that was not yet even at a gate!
We made it out of the madness, avoided getting ripped off by a private taxi company and headed into downtown Shanghai!
Initial Impressions:
1. There are not many tall buildings making everything seem very open
2. There is a haze of pollution
3. The streets are very wide and "American"
4. Some of the buildings are surprisingly Western.
After checking into our hotel we took the short walk towards the Bund in search of a drink and snack.
Shanghai is definitely an interesting city and something like I've never experienced before. It is also very clear that it is a financial/business hub over anything else. Besides the Bund I'm not sure there are many other tourist "attractions". There is definitely a European/Western influence on a lot of the architecture which makes Shanghai different to any other Asian city I have visited, but besides that there wasn't a lot to see.
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| Western looking buildings |
We walked along the riverfront and snapped a few pictures of the Bund. The most amazing site was the width of the Hangpu river that runs through the city. The size of some of the container ships a few hundred feet away from us was unbelievable!
We found some authentic "Shanghai noodles" to eat which were not Fi's favorite and decided to head to Costa Coffee for a more appetizing snack. Tired from travel we went back to the hotel, watched some very repetitive and censored news, and had an early night before a flight to Beijing in the morning.
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