On the street and making the rounds

Shanghai is huge, but completely different from most large cities in China. Where Beijing is planned on a massive scale and is spread out along 6 ring roads, Shanghai is dense compact and is the more preferable travel city for foot-traffic. Due to the old district by the Bund and the close courtyards of most Chinese buildings, the new Shanghai has some really compelling sights to see just by walking around. 

Aside from the Bund, the other must see district of this city is Nanjing Rd. Nope, it is not Nanjing the city, but just a road. Apparently, every city here includes every other city in China as a street name. Nanjing Rd. is a Pedestrian only thoroughfare and is home to the tourist/upscale/glitzy part of the city. That means that there are plenty of stores to visit and quite a lot to do. It is about a Kilometer long, but is definitely worth multiple trips down the street. 

In addition to the tourist parts of the city their were also just normal alleyways that housed millions of Shanghai citizens. While the tourists are doing their thing, these guys are just going about their daily lives like it is no big deal. Actually I kind of prefer these simple alleyways to all of the lights of Nanjing Rd. 

This revamped old Chinese courtyard (?) was also a large tourist destination in the city. It had everything including multiple Dairy Queens, McD's and Starbucks. It was definitely for the tourist crowd as the prices were astronomical for the normal Chinese citizen, but it was fun to walk around. 

We randomly ran into these "Marine" street perfomers on Nanjing road. I don't know what they were doing in China with all of their instruments, but they drew quite a crowd of chinese tourists. They were pretty good and had a thing for old jazz and funk. go figure.  

So Nanjing Rd. at night is a different experience all together. All of the storefronts are lit up and the streets are  way crowded. It is probably the best time to walk around because for some unknown reason it is really easy to get caught up in the feel of the night. But, I found it really annoying because of the hawkers. That is to say that if you go walking on Nanjing Rd. and look like a westerners dozens of hawkers will come up to you asking you to buy whatever they have like shoes, fake-handbags, and gimmicky toys. It is cool for the first five times, and then after that you want to start practicing your really rude mandarin accent. Ha!

We stayed in Blue Mountain hostel right in the middle of the city. It was pretty cheap, $8 a night, and was in good shape as far as I was concerned. This was our lounge area. 

And finally the train station. This is were we left for our next two cities. I will say this: if you are traveling in China. Be sure to take the trains, they are amazing.