Shanghai

Going back to China, one of the must dos was to go to Shanghai. I don't really like big cities that much but I must admit that Shanghai is my favourite city and I am not sure why. Maybe because when we were living in China it was the place to go and just be one of the crowd. I know where things are that I want and how to get there.What ever the reason, a trip to Shanghai was a must.

We travelled up by train, great way to get around in China, trains are comfortable, run on time and relatively cheap. Less than two hours and we arrived then it was a short trip on the subway, the cards that we bought over two years ago still operated so just a touch of the card opened the gates. Subway trains come every few minutes and our hotel was straight across from the subway station.

Most hotel rooms offer double rooms with two double beds.

We walked from the centre of Shanghai to The Bund checking out the book store on the way. Over the years I had spent a lot of money there, the books used to be reasonably cheap and many times I took a trip to Shanghai with an empty back pack and went back with it full of books. Now though prices had caught up and I didn't see any books under 100RMB ($20) just as well as my luggage probably couldnt have held it. Just for old times sakes we did buy a couple of Beijing Reviews.

 Ahh The Bund and the Shanghai skyline.

The Train Crush

In our briefing for the tennis, there was an announcement that a train would be available after the tennis for patrons and staff to be called up at the end of play. That was good for us as car parking was very limited this year and with the news about the train we didn't request a car park.

The first night we were discussing the train only to discover that the train although called for at the end of play would arrive in one hour from being called, makes for a very long night and then it was only going to the city! no good for us. Change of plans which meant we had to leave no later than 10.45 to catch the last train.

The game finished at approx 10.30 so all well and good but the crush of people heading towards the station put paid to our allowance of time. People were strolling along and chatting, they were probably parked somewhere but we needed to get on that train, its usually a ten minute walk to the station.(when there is no-one in the way)

Warren and I employed tactics that we used in China, ducking and weaving, if we saw an empty space we made for it and passed several groups. Coming up to the stairs to go over the train tracks we noticed that there were only two people waiting for the lift,  I thought that it would be jam packed, Warren called out to me to swing right and we got into the lift. The train was coming into the platform as we were on the bridge as were lots of other people.

Thankfully the railway staff held the train until everyone got on, the staff had had to go down the train and turn on the power and lights before the doors could open. In six carriages we guessimated there were about a thousand people to get on it. It was a lively trip into the city as everyone was joking around, relieved that they had got on that last train. I have been in more crowded trains but never that many before here in Oz.

Racing out of the doors to change platforms a young guard asked if we were going to Caboolture, I called back that yes we were if we could make it. He got on the radio to ask for the train to wait and it was there as we got to the top of the escalator, then we had an hour before our home stop. Figured that we need the earlier time just in case, when we are nearly two hours from home or 70 kms we cant afford to miss that train.