A trip to Shanghai

Sunday, Day 1 – The Chinese delegation welcomed us at the hotel when we arrived at about 8.15 a.m. Later, we proceeded to have breakfast before joining the city tour that they have arranged for us.

Firstly, we visited the Water Town: Zhujiajiao. It took us about 1 hour to get there.

Zhujiajiao, Known as “the Venice of Shanghai”, is a well-preserved ancient town in water country in Shanghai typical of southeast China.

We had lunch at the Water Town. One of the meals included a tortoise.. Eeewwww!

After that, we were allowed some time to buy souveniers. At about 3 p.m., we left the town and headed to the Yuyuan Garden.

The garden is believed to be built in the Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago. Built in traditional Chinese style.

It was a nice and peaceful place.. with the sound of the birds chirping and water flowing into the pond.

After having dinner in a restaurant within the Bazaar, we headed to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower .

Towering high up in the Pudong New Area, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower has been the landmark of Shanghai.

I was a great view from up there. But it was really crowded.. The lifts were very packed. There was no control of how many people could be up there at one time. We were just imagining what would happen if there were an emergency!

A tiring 1st day.. We started at 9.00 a.m. and we only arrived back at our hotel around 9.30 p.m. Wow! About 12 hours on our feet.. On top of that, I didn’t sleep during the 5 hour night flight to Shanghai. I badly needed some rest!

Monday, Day 2 – Our meeting started at 9.30 a.m. and ended about 6.00 p.m. We had a welcome dinner hosted by the Chinese delegation at the hotel itself. During the earlier meals, we did notice that they were toasting their drinks to each other quite a number of times. Only that night, did we realize that it is customary to them. They love their dinners to be exciting and noisy. We joined in too..

If we couldn’t reach over to the person at the other end of the table, we could tap the center rotating glass piece with our glasses and toast. Cool eh!

After dinner, we still had the energy to go for a walk! We walked all the way to the Bund.

Shanghai’s world-renowned Bund has been the epitome of elegance throughout its 100-year history.

We could feel the breeze getting stronger as we were approaching the Bund. The place was really crowded. However, we managed to find a spot to snap some photos. After a short rest, we went back to the hotel.

Tuesday, Day 3 – We decided to go out for dinner. We wanted to try out the vegetarian restaurant at Nanjing Road .

After dinner, we had to walk along the Nanjing Road. Managed to do a little shopping ;)

Nanjing Road is one of the most important commercial and tourist streets in Shanghai.

The street was really busy and crowded.. even till late!

Wednesday, Day 4 –Most of the delegates wanted to finish the meeting a day earlier. So, we had to push ourselves to work harder. So much of work.. Later, our company hosted a dinner at the Vegetarian restaurant (we had yesterday) at Nanjing Road. We noticed that the Chinese didn’t really prefer vegetarian food.. We should have guessed ;) But we had a Muslim colleague and a vegetarian colleague.. so, we thought this was a good change for the Chinese counterparts :)

Again, after dinner, we had to walk along the Nanjing Road. Managed to do a little bit more shopping ;)

Thursday, Day 5 –Most of the delegates wanted to finish the meeting a day earlier.. today! We tried our best. Unfortunately, the meeting went on and on until we signed off at 5.30 a.m!

Friday, Day 6 – Phew! We were so tired. But, to cheer us up, we had the whole day off. We decided to take a nap before went out on our adventure. Apparently, we slept off and even off our alarm and slept till 11.30 a.m.

Immediately, we got up, showered and left the hotel. We cannot waste any time sleeping! Hehehehe..


We went back to the bazaar around the Yuyuan Garden. There, we were able to get more souveniers. We hated to bargain for the price though. We were not sure how much to quote and we would even end up at another stall quoting us lesser price. Arrgghh!

Some of the stall owners did scold us for not buying their stuff after they reduced the price, or making them go through the trouble to see if the have another size or colour! They were very aggressive and compelling, which we didn’t like.

We wanted to look around and shop more :P But with our hands full with shopping bags and our body sticky with sweat and dirt, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. Within 15 minutes, we were out again.. to Nanjing Road. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. After a short walk, our feet were already killing.. cannot walk anymore. We had coffee at Starbucks and headed back to our hotel around 11.00 p.m.

It was time to pack.. so fun. I love packing to go home to the boys and apps. Especially with the gifts I have bought them :)

Saturday, Day 7 – Not enough. We went back to Nanjing Road. Another colleague wanting to get something for himself. We didn’t mind.. at least we could have a last look around before we left Shanghai.

We check-out the hotel at 12.30 p.m. and boarded the taxi to the Shanghai Maglev Train Station. We had to try the World’s fastest train! It’s speed reaches up to 430 km/h.

At 3.35 p.m., we boarded the plane to head back home to our families. Although I had fun abroad, I still looked forward to coming home.. to my 3 boys!

More Shanghai pictures here.