{"id":619,"date":"2007-11-15T20:13:54","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T12:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mytwogirls.net\/?p=619"},"modified":"2009-12-10T14:55:35","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T06:55:35","slug":"shanghai-2007-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mytwogirls.net\/?p=619","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai 2007 – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2665Oct 30th (Tues)\u2665<\/strong><\/span>
\nAfter all the late night ‘fights’ and ‘quarrels’ Daddy had with Krissflyer, finally we got our flights confirmed.
\nThis time, only Daddy and I were flying, our very first trip away without the kids after Zara was born.<\/p>\n

\u2665Oct 30th (Tues) ~ Nov 1st (Thurs)\u2665<\/strong><\/span>
\nWith China colleagues’ as well as some other friend’s help, managed to find and book suitable accomodations for our trip.
\nPrepping Zara for our trip, telling her China is cold, not suitable for kids, I’m going for work together with Daddy so can’t take care of her etc etc. She got quite upset, but I guess what can she do to stop us from going?<\/p>\n

\u2665Nov 2nd (Fri)\u2665<\/strong><\/span>
\nDaddy picked up MIL from her place. She’s been enlisted to help keep an eye on the maids while we’re away.<\/p>\n

\u2665Nov 3rd (Sat)\u2665<\/strong><\/span>
\nSaid good bye to the girls early morning and left for the airport. Zara’s eyes was a bit wet when I hugged her.<\/p>\n

A long 5hrs transit in Changi, luckily, there is so much to do there.<\/p>\n

Reached Shanghai at 10pm. By the time we got our luggage and\u00a0checked into\u00a0our hotel<\/strike> motel, it was already close to mid night.<\/p>\n

Since kids are not with us, we chose cheap but clean accomodation, we stayed in Motel 168 Jingling Road (\u83ab\u6cf0168\u91d1\u9675\u8def<\/a>). Everything is within walking distant, even the famous Nanjing shopping street (\u5357\u4eac\u8def\u6b65\u884c\u8857). For RMB358, we got a room with a computer. Ha! Room is clean and small, but it stank of cigerrette smoke (from other rooms)!
\nWhen I called the Motel and\u00a0to reserve\u00a0a non-smoking room before the trip, I was told, “All our rooms are non-smoking.” Non-smoking my a***! But for this amount we paid for, I can’t expect Datai’s service<\/a>, can I?<\/p>\n

\u2665Nov 4th (Sun)\u2665<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Arranged to change to a room without a computer which cost RMB40 less.
\nAfter breakfast in the motel, with a map and my guidebook on hand, we started our journey.<\/p>\n

\"Around<\/p>\n

The first few sights I took in after stepping out of the Motel<\/span><\/p>\n

Our destination was Yu Yuan (\u8c6b\u56ed\u00ad). Gosh, there were so many people there!! It’s packed!\u00a0It’s a shopping area for tourists and out-of-town folks, and the prices were of course tourists’ price.
\n\"Around<\/p>\n

Around Yu Yuan Shopping Street (\u8c6b\u56ed): <\/span>
\n\u2665Big red lanterns everywhere\u2665<\/span>\u2665Multilevel Jeweler (do they have really so many different jewelry to sell?)\u2665<\/span>
\n\u2665Famous Xiaolongbao Shop Nanxiang (\u5357\u7fd4) : a 200m queue has formed for take away while we were there\u2665<\/span> \u2665genuine juicy pao<\/a> (so juicy you are given a straw to suck the juice)\u2665<\/span> \u2665a man having his juicy pao\u2665<\/span>
\n\u2665NingPo Rice Ball Shop, wasn’t able to squeeze pass people to enter the shop, don’t know what they were selling\u2665<\/span> \u2665Having a black glutinous corn (which was rather coarse and tasteless)\u2665<\/span> \u2665Good and Cheap Lunch at Xishi Beancurd Shop (\u897f\u65bd\u8c46\u8150)\u2665<\/span><\/p>\n

Note : We are non-pork eaters, so we didn’t try the Nanxiang Xiaoloongbao or the street side juicy pao. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

We visited the Yu Yuan Garden which is a 400yrs old clasical garden. I love the willow trees and the tranquility (just outside the wall, the crowds in the shopping street can be heard).
\n\"Around<\/p>\n

Yu Yuan Garden (\u00e8\u00b1\u00ab\u00e5\u203a\u00ad) : <\/span><\/p>\n

After that it was back to the Motel for a nap, and at 5:30pm (which got dark totally), we went to The Bund (\u5916\u6ee9) for a walk. It was nice, and although extremely crowded, the breeze we got and the view made up for it.<\/p>\n

Dinner was the famous ShaoXin Chicken (\u7ecd\u5174\u767d\u5207\u9e21). It’s just basic steam chicken but the sauce was just so delicious. Daddy didn’t like it, so I was the one who finished the plate of chicken with a bowl of porridge.<\/p>\n

We almost stopped a cab to get us back to the Motel, but spotted our Motel just a few steps away!! Haha.<\/p>\n

Daddy was so knackered he almost wanted to go on strike and stay in the Motel the following day.<\/p>\n

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