The Pearl

Me, Laura, and Emma woke up early to go see the Oriental Pearl tower, so we would miss all the queuing. There was still a que but we ended up acting like the chinese do and walked to the front of the line. Everyone stared but we couldn't work out whether it was just because we were foreigners, or because we were pushing in front of them all... never mind, maybe a bit of both?

When we got there the smog was covering the top, even so it was well worth going up! The top levels were foggy and we couldn't see too much, but the level with the see-through floor was fine.  

When someone paps you... you pap them back!! (this is my new rule, they never like it done back to them!)

Me trying to hold a straight face while being pretty scared that there was nothing between me and the ground apart from a bit of glass!!

So we found a roller coaster inside the pearl! I am a big scardycat though and think I made myself more scared than I should have before the ride.. it did take ages until they set off though as they were waiting for more people to come on the ride. Don't think Emma was too pleased with me squeezing her finger till it nearly dropped off though! 

We also heard there was a history museum in the pearl as well, though it was worth a quick look...

Afterwards we got a taxi to Yu Gardens, it was the most packed place we had been yet. All I could see was a sea of black hair! We didn't stay for too long as we were getting harassed by lodes of people, but decided to hoard our way through the crowds to get a photo on the bridge, It is May day for people here so there are zillions of chinese tourists.

ok.. so we are getting slightly fed up of rude randomers taking photos now!!! haahaa

We met up with Kate, Caroline and Tong Tong and decided to visit an area of Shanghai very similar to Lao Waitan in Ningbo. I think everyone wanted to chill for a bit as were very tired and feet were aching so coffee and cake were in order. The others seemed very tired and considered getting an earlier bus back to Ningbo, but me and Laura wanted to stay to see more. Tong Tong got the bus back with them as she was very tired too and we decided to visit the art gallery and fabric market. As we got in the taxi and travelled for a few minutes we noticed the Antiques market (DongTai Road) to our left, so we jumped out. I was shocked we hadn't considered going here earlier, we loved it!

Lots of 'old treasures' in here!

    

After the antiques market we went and retrieved our bags from the hotel and walked to the bund for some photos of the lights in the evening. Me and Laura were so glad we had stayed for this as it was stunning...

My annoying umbrella that wouldn't go down had to be binned!

I am so happy with my gorgeous pictures.. I think they really capture the beauty of the city. After taking these is was time to go back to the coach station.. we were shattered!