shanghai day 1

Left Singapore for Shanghai and the flight was from 10am and touched down at Shanghai Pudong Airport at 3.05pm. The Airbus 330 was cramped in the economy section and I couldn’t get any sleep at all. The in-flight entertainment system was useless as they provided earphones but they were not connected to the movie showing on the central screens. So I couldn’t see the film clearly nor could I hear anything at all because the earphones provided were useless. To add on to that, there was a fat guy snoring so loudly that people in the row in front of me turned back to see who was snoring, and there was a baby who kept on crying as the pressure system must have made it very painful for the baby. When we landed, the passenger across the aisle switched on his hand-phone the moment we touched down and all his messages started coming in and with his phone on full volume it just kept on ringing and ringing and ringing. As a whole, I wish that I was not flying the same airline back but I don’t have a choice there. I will at least enjoy the time that I am going to spend here in China. Clearing the customs and health checks were still alright with no signs of temperature taking going on though. All the officials were wearing masks and people with coughs were made to wear masks. Cleared through immigration and met the other two people who would join us on our tour. The driver was late, so we made small talk whilst waiting for the driver to arrive. Reached the hotel Jin Li Hua at around 4.30pm so we arranged to meet each other again at 5pm for dinner and do a bit of exploring around the neighborhood. The temperature was around 20 degrees Celsius and with the wind blowing the temperature dipped even more. Had Bi Fong Tang for dinner as it started drizzling and it was the only place we could see in sight that appeared to have decent food. After dinner, we went out walking and found the night markets selling food, pirated DVDs and clothes. The emporium was a total letdown and we couldn’t find anything that was worth buying. We returned to the hotel at 7.30pm with nothing to do other than shower and try to settle down into bed whilst having the sound of drilling accompanying us to sleep. It is now 8.30pm and the construction drilling is still going on. Will be heading up to Beijing tomorrow on an 8am flight and I’m hoping that there will be breakfast served on board the short two hour flight. Going to try to sleep now and would be waking up at 5am tomorrow. Thus ends the first night in Shanghai.