What a day. I woke up hung over to get on a train from Shanghai to Suzhou, only to get there and wander around the streets for an hour trying to find my hostel from their shitty map. Thankfully the train ride was only half an hour, because I had to stand the whole damn time since there were no seats left. Only the good side, the train was one of the high speed kind. Not quite a bullet train, but fast. And damn nice, I've never been in such a modern train, and it was cool. I just wish I could indulge the railroader in me and get a look in the locomotive.
Shanghai was a cool city. Not a great one on my list, but the thing that ranks it is the ease of travel in affords a traveler. Lots of people speak English, and it has a very easily negotiated transportation system in it. I stayed in the Bund, an area where all the tourist and historical stuff is located. It has great views of the skyline from the river. A couple nights ago I went up to the observation deck of the Shanghai World Financial Center (the building looks like a giant bottle opener, just so you know), the second highest building in the world. It was actually quite comical, to get to the observatory on the 100th floor, you're led through a bunch of hallways and various elevators where the overstaffed workers are simply there to push a button for you. The view was pretty crazy. I will complain, however, at the presence of windows in the observatory. So what if there's crazy wind shear at that elevation, or that people could jump off the builidng? I wanted a clear photograph! Not one with window reflections!
All in all, Shanghai was much like Hong Kong, but more boring. Now I'm in Suzhou. My primary reason for coming here was to visit a friend I met in Chengdu, but unfortunately she is busy with work until Monday and I'm running out of time in China, so I'll have to settle for only seeing the Historical Gardens that are here.
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