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Category: China

Tags: travel sharkfin shanghai, china song, westin shanghai jellyfish, shopping in shanghai, sojourn, shanghai, china, trip, slideshow, tripwow, tripadvisor, photo

Preview of Jessicaho's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicaho/1/1226453160/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Shanghai, China Entry Title: "Sojourn to Shanghai" Entry: "Last week, for the National Holiday, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Shanghai... Getting there...and back. Buying train tickets is an adventure in itself. Interestingly enough, you can only buy one way tickets - the return ticket had to be bought in Shanghai. And since most of China was travelling during the holiday, I was more than nervous that return tickets would be sold out by the time we arrived in Shanghai. We took a "soft sleeper" train to Shanghai. The beds definitely were not soft, but the train was in new condition and reminded me a lot of the sleeper trains I have taken in Europe. The fuwuyuan (servicewoman) was demonstrably annoyed with us because we could not understand her Chinese. In return, to annoy us, she came in several times in the middle of the night and even loudly woke us up to tell us that we were not allowed to use the extra set of pillows and blanket in our room (we had an extra set because one of our friends who was supposed to be in our car decided not to come). We reluctantly give the extra linens to her, but then she came back in the middle of the night and left the blanket and pillows in our car when we were asleep! When we arrived in Shanghai, we were pleasantly surprised by the orderly, calm lines that were formed by the train ticket booths. Maybe pushing and cutting in line is just a Beijing custom? When we reached the ticket window, we were told that there were no return tickets to Beijing until the following Wednesday, which was three days after the day that we wanted to get back and which would have meant we would miss three days of class. Moreover, my roomate lost her passport on the train, which meant flying back to Beijing was out of the question. Luckily, we stayed at the Westin and our concierge helped us secure tickets with a travel agency. We still did not make it back until Monday morning at 7 am, but we took a taxi directly to our classroom and I was only 5 minutes late for my 8 am class! The Westin. We stayed at a hotel that was rated as one of the top 10 in Asia. Not only did we use the concierge service every day to help us plan our days, but we also got to go swimming. The Westin here is also famous for it's 240 RMB (a little less than $40) breakfasts. Luckily, we didn't understand the paying procedure, so we ended up just sitting at a table unnoticed and each got a free breakfast! This breakfast buffet was AMAZING. It had both Western and Chinese options and they made noodles, omlettes, crepes, pancakes, and waffles fresh for you. The room was about $300/night, but it was well worth the experience. The Food. The food in Shanghai was incredible. On the first day, we ate at a place called NanXiang Steamed Dumplings. Because it was National Day, the wait for this restaurant was two hours long. However, we were told that, if each person spent 150 RMB (about $25) worth of food, we could skip over the ENTIRE line. Needless to say, we ate like pigs at that lunch. We had pork xiaolongbaos (steamed dumplings), shrimp ones, spicy meat ones, vegetable ones, two types of crab ones, and a shark fin one! The following day, we went to a place where there are no wait lines - you just have to pick a table and stand over the people, watching them like a hawk until they finish their meal and you can take their seats. The restaurant was famous for its wonton soup, but we also ordered a lot of other dishes. In fact, we ordered so many dishes that we ended up taking over the entire table, even though there were only 3 of us and the table could sit six. The wontons were extremely tasty. One night, we went to a local restaurant that served fried steamed dumplings with sesame seeds on the bottom. We stood with the locals in line outside as they were served at an outdoors counter. Finally, Shanghai ..." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jessicaho/1/1226453160/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Hallway of the Train Car" 2. "The Westin's Bakery" 3. "Hotel Lobby" 4. "Xiao Long Bao" 5. "Making the Steamed Dumpling" 6. "I have never seen so many Chinese people!" 7. "The Westin (the flower tower)" 8. "Lord of the Rings?" 9. "On a boat ride." 10. "At night." 11. "An ad on the water." 12. "Another view of our hotel." 13. "Heavenly Comfort Bed." 14. "Bathtub." 15. "Our bathroom." 16. "Street Market in the French Concession" 17. "Barbie." 18. "A mix of modern and traditional." 19. "Shanghai...

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