Day 2 in Shanghai, Aquarium

After a very restful sleep in ye ol' Captain's sailor bunk, we got ready and began our day. We started it off by walking to the Bund and taking the underground Tourist Sightseeing Tunnel. I initially thought it was just a tunnel you could walk through to get to the other side of the Huangpu River, however I was mistaken. You have to pay to take this pod on tracks through a tunnel that was like something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was nuts! I was pretty much giggley the entire time, it was such a tourist trap but I loved it. It has cheesy narrations and crazy lights, it was like a rave on wheels without the music.

Once at the other side we decided to go to the Aquarium. I have a thing for Aquariums and like to go to them whenever I am in a city that has one. It is said that the Shanghai Aquarium has the longest underwater tunnel in Asia, so I had to see it. The Aquarium was definitely an experience. It was more like a theme park than an aquarium. There were different sections based on country or region and strangely enough Africa only had one very small room, not sure if it's because they are racist or not. Maybe there are not many fish in Africa? For each area there were places to take photos and the Chinese people there took photos everywhere they could. Unfortunately when looking at the fish many of them looked dead. The worst was this frog that had part of it's mouth and part of it's eye missing, it was quite morbid. Another thing we noticed was that the seaweed and surrounding environments in the tanks looked like plastic. The worst being a tank with neon fish in it in which they tried to match the coral to the fish. I have seen some crazy colors of coral, but not neon blues, greens and pinks like they had in this tank, they were definitely painted to match the fish. The coolest part of the Aquarium was definitely the underwater viewing tunnels. The fish were not that exciting, but it was still fun to see them all and take photos in the tunnel.

We went back to Nanjing Donglu for lunch and had some super tasty dumplings that are specific to Shanghai. I have never had anything like them in the states, but they are amazing. The dough part is much more bread like than pasta. Super tasty. Nanjing was much more packed when we went back on Saturday than on Friday. There were areas where cars are supposed to be able to drive through and the people make it near impossible. Everyone was dodging cars and trying to cut through, I would hate to have to drive through that.

After going through the touristy stuff we decided to walk in another direction and see what was around. We crossed the creek that goes into the Huangpu and ended up in an area that I doubt many tourists go to. The area was similar to Hutongs in Beijing but the buildings were a bit taller (three stories instead of one). We walked down one street that was all little shops with mannequins in rows. Each store had slightly different mannequins and most of them were only wearing tops and no pants. It was kind of creepy, I wish I could have found a way to get a photos of the entire street. We continued on walking down this one street that was pretty much empty except for one parked van. We heard a crash and looked and saw a guy on a moped had driven right into the van. I don't know how he did it because there was plenty of room to avoid the van and there were no cars coming in either direction. It also does not surprise me though because even while walking down streets we will see a guy on a moped or bicycle look at us, then look away while his moped/bicycle starts to veer towards us.

We walked down by the Astor Hotel which we initially were hoping to stay at when planning our trip. It had a hostel at one time but when Alex called to book a room they said the hostel was cancelled. It is a building with many firsts in China, such as: first modern hotel in China, first electric lamps in China, first phonecall in Shanghai . . . We used their internet and their bathrooms and then crossed over back to our side of the river.

We met up with Alex's friends again for dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant called Simply Thai. After hanging out there we looked for something to do after and ended up at the skybar in the Radisson Hotel again. It was pretty lame and there was a lounge band playing. One guy was playing what looked like a really skinny upright bass and the singer was a Chinese woman singing songs mostly in English. It was weird though how she looked like she was being dubbed. I am quite sure she was actually singing but her mouth did not look like it was making the same motions as the words she was saying.

That night I was hoping to take photos of all the lit up streets but did not realize that they turn off the lights around 11 PM! I thought for sure they would be on until at least 1 or 2 AM on a weekend night. I totally missed taking photos of nighttime in Shanghai, so I guess I will have to go back and take more next time.