Day 6 - 上海 Shanghai

The plane from Beijing brought us to Shanghai around 10 pm in the middle of the pouring rain.  Every kind of travel in China is exhausting, so we were beat as we staggered outside the airport hoping to find a taxi.  What we found was a line of hundreds of people wrapped around the front of the airport, waiting for taxis.  Likewise, there were hundreds of taxis waiting in line for passengers.  Three at a time, taxis would pull forward while a security guard waved passengers to their open doors.  After waiting in line for more than an hour in the rain, we finally made it to the front of the line and had our turn in a taxi.

The first taxi driver shooed us away because he'd never heard of the place we wanted to go.  The second driver didn't know either, but he wasn't about to give up his chances to drive us foreigners to our destination.  So, he put our bags in his trunk, called our hostel, and asked for directions.  Eventually he figured it out, and 45 minutes and a rather expensive fare later, we made it to our hostel.

When we woke up in the morning, our sixth day of traveling, we had a goal that had nothing to do with the city of Shanghai:  laundry.  When we left our home city, we only packed enough clothes as would fit in our backpacks, so by the time we hit Shanghai we were rather dirty.  Our hostel in Shanghai happened to have a washer and dryer.  We brought our clothes down to the laundry room to find the machines were full.  We came back an hour later and put our clothes in.  Another hour passed, and we went back, hoping to switch everything to the dryer.  What we found was that someone had put twice as much clothes as they should have in the dryer, with hours left on the timer.  A few hours later, we finally got to put our clothes in the dryer.  They weren't dry after, you guessed it, hours.  By now it was 4 pm and we were starting to worry that we wouldn't get to do anything in Shanghai.  You see, we had spent the entire day in our pajamas because ALL our clothes were in the wash.  Eventually we decided to take matters into our own hands.  We spent the next hour drying our clothes using an iron and a hair dryer.  Ridiculous?  Yes.  But when you live in a foreign country, ridiculous is relative.  Finally we left the hostel and climbed onto the subway wearing our still-damp jeans.

By now it was dinnertime, so we decided to take advantage of the fact that Shanghai has so much to offer in the way of foreign foods.  We went to a mall and witnessed the most incredible array of American restaurants:  Papa John's, Coldstone Creamery, Subway, Carl's Jr., and Starbucks.  (I’ve included a picture.)  As if that wasn't enough, this mall contained what I considered to be the promised land in China:  an American candy store!!!  Hershey's Kisses, Reese's, Twizzlers, Whoppers, chocolate chips, Symphony bars, Heath bars, peppermint patties, chocolate covered pretzels, Milk Duds, Jolly Ranchers, chocolate syrup, and more.  Considering my near obsession with candy and the fact that in our home city I can only buy M&Ms, Skittles, and Snickers, I almost wept tears of joy.  The only downside was the prices...a bag of chocolate chips for nearly $10?  No thanks.  However, I did indulge in some licorice and Whoppers.

After we had our fill of American goodies, we made our way back to the hostel to get some rest, since we were leaving the next morning.  So, all in all, we did two things in Shanghai:  wash our clothes and eat American food.  And while some travelers would gasp in horror at our lack of effort to experience the real Shanghai, I consider our visit to be a success.