Finding Civilisation

Our last lecture down, some packing, and we were leaving Weihai behind in our drivers rear view mirror. I'm trying to remember, but I think this was my second ever domestic flight without a connecting international flight.

Now, I've been to Morocco, I've seen what Hawker's can do in Marrakech, but even there they weren't yelling over a counter and halfway across a hall to sell us taxis before we even managed to get out of the airport. The people at the tourist information counter however are rather bored to death as the counters left and right are far better at yelling that they know everything much better.

We were curious about trying to take the Maglev train into the city (even if it only goes about half way), but no matter how hard we stared at the signs, we couldn't seem to find it. Eventually we had someone friendly show us on a Shanghai's train map where the maglev track is, and eventually also pointed out that "No, you are not at Pudong airport, you are at this airport on the very other side of the map". Awkward …
Come to think of it, the Chinese don't really seem to have heard of this "You are here" concept for static maps.

Having taken the train with big circular metal things which kept on touching the ground, we discovered that finding a taxi in the rain is impossible as everyone else got to that idea before you.

And we attempted to enjoy the nightlife along the main shopping street and at the Huangpu River (黄浦江) but we got a little less than we bargained for. Plenty of obnoxious hawkers but as the clock was ticking from 22 to 23 o'clock, the lights and the people started disappearing pretty quickly. I guess in Shanghai everyone needs to pay attention to their beddy time.