We’ll today I fly to Shanghai, this update is actually
being typed in the departure lounge of the airport. It’s a crazily hot one,
whoever created an all glass airport with poor air con should be sacked, especially
as its 28 degrees today!
This morning, I went for one last walk around Xi’an and
on the hunt for a new pair of sunglasses. (The people that travel with me, know
I have a habit of losing sunglasses on every trip I go on).
Being In China, I thought how about get a good quality
fake pair, so I headed back to the Muslim Quarter this morning. I went back in,
and as usual the fake ones were of low quality.
I did read of the better quality sunglasses and watches
to be hidden away, but in this area I could not see where. The one of the stalls
said to me, “we have better quality in the back”. I thought perfect. I walked
inside and there was just bags, then I thought another scam to get a tourist
in. Then the women moved one of the shelves and opened a secret door.
I must admit, at first I did think, am I going to get
killed here, then I walked in and it was the mysterious high quality fakes. I
have never seen such good quality before. Unfortunately I need a specific type
of sunglasses to work on my face, which they didn’t have.
They also showed me the watches they had, again
excellent quality, but as I just got my GPS watch, I didn’t need another.
I went for another wander around the town, and at 1pm I
headed towards back to the hotel, picked up my luggage and headed towards the
airport.
The guide books say the local airports are quite crazy,
so you need to be here very early before your flight (2hrs), well I think that
should be rewritten, I walked in, I went to the, (probably the reason) the
first class section, I had my boarding pass in 2 minutes and went straight
through the private security line.
It’s 15:30 here so just
over an hour to my flight on Hainan Airlines HU7645. So I better get a drink
and relax before the next fight. Enjoy your day guys!
Post Flight:
The flight was very good, a much higher standard than I
expected to travel in China on a domestic flight, even the in flight meal was 5
courses… take a look for yourself!
Upon decent I could get some snaps of Shanghai from the
sky and the busy water traffic
Once landed we taxied into the terminal, and I was
nearly sick on the way in, I saw the Man City plane, disgusting, that thing shouldn't have its air operating licence!
I met with Katrina my cousin and we took the famous
Maglev train into the city, this is the train that is suspended in the air
using magnets, as it doesn’t touch the ground there is no friction and it can
get upto 430km per hour, but in the even it is slowed down to only 300!
We got to the flat, I freshened up and we went out for
dinner, finally some western food. I was in complete and utter shock, after
being in the other parts of China for the last week, I’ve got used to the
“backward” word, then walking into the Shanghai Brewery it seemed like I was in
the Brewery Tap in Peterborough.
First Beer was drank with celebration.
Then we went down to, I can’t believe I’m typing this
about China… Bar Street! Which was absolutely full of westerners, normally when
you see a westerner in other parts of the country, you give each other a nod, as
it is a rare occurrence, it took a while
for the shock to hit me.
We visited a few bars, and finished in the Bearded
Bear, which was it’s opening night and it was a German Beer Bar. We have
happily say these two beers and the last beers sold on their opening night.
Shanghai I can already see, will be a lot different to
the rest of China, so I am looking forward to this adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment