Heads Up

Being the largest city, and also arguably the most happening spot in the country, Shanghai was the main draw of the eastern side of China. Because of it’s history (the small fishing town that existed here was aggrandized into a city by the British, French and other foreign powers), it has a mix of architecture and an atmosphere that’s different to any other city in China.

Before entering the Shanghai metropolis, we spent a couple of uneventful days in Suzhou - one of the most traditionally Chinese looking (in the centre) cities in China, full of gardens and ancient buildings. Emerging from Shanghai’s northern train station, the scene presented to us was as big a contrast to that as you can get in this country. My neck took the first of many strains as I looked up in awe at the size of the skyscrapers.



The size of the city is apparent from the amount of pages taken up by maps in Lonely Planet - most places have a single page - Shanghai has nine. Just picking a region to base ourselves in was a big task. With help from the invaluable (and Irish) hostelworld.com, we picked a hostel that turned out to be arguably the best accommodation of the entire trip.

The communal/bar area was so nice that we didn’t even manage to make it outside the hostel front door on the day we arrived (though the rain outside played a part in that too). It wouldn’t be the first day spent exclusively in the hostel.