CHINA: Shanghai day 1

Today I landed in Shanghai!! It was my first solo trip overseas which was both exciting and terrifying! Months ago Sherry invited me to go to China to play. She was going back for a long holiday to see her parents, so we decided to go to Shanghai and Huangshan together. 

I had to transit at Changi airport in Singapore and had one hour, which in reality was like 40 mins. I had to go from A14 to B5 which in my naive mind would take a max of 10 mins walk. I totally underestimated how big Changi airport was and it felt like I was walking FOREVER to get to my gate. I was wearing a jacket as well, and by the end of my walk I was so hot and sweaty. I overheard some Australians joke about how far they walked, they commented that it felt like they had walked 3km and I internally nodded in agreement. Anyway my flights all went super smoothly thank God! I arrived in Pudong Airport, Shanghai on time :D 

Sherry's only instruction to me was to "whatever happens, you must connect to wifi!". I arrived in the morning and had a few hours to kill before Sherry arrived from Thailand. During that time I was soooo stressed because I couldn't connect to wifi. Something was wrong with my phone and I asked SO MANY PEOPLE for help and they were all useless. Many people told me I'd be fine in Shanghai because young people speak English...but they were all terrible at it.
At the help desk the lady said I needed a local number to connect to wifi, so I gave up and went to Starbucks for a break.

Since young, one of my biggest fears is being alone in a foreign place. I've always been highly attached to my mum and I refused to be left in any public place by myself, regardless of how well I knew the shopping centre or car park. So here in Shanghai I totally freaked out and had a cry in the toilet before picking myself back up. I waited in Starbucks where I finally asked one more stranger who was a foreigner. He THANKFULLY helped me so much. He literally spent 40 mins with me trying to work something out. In the end he helped me buy a local sim card and I calmed down. I was like, thank you Lord for sending this kind stranger T_T!! 

Then Sherry landed and after a bit of a struggle found me :) We went to our hotel and rested a bit before going out for lunch in Yunnan Rd. Btw all my favourite social media and Google apps weren't working, so we had to rely on Sherry's Chinese version of GPS. 

I was super shocked by traffic in Shanghai. It was terrible and we felt so scared crossing the road. When I walked into Yunnan rd, I saw this granny in a wheelchair just chilling there. I thought somebody abandoned her and my healthcare training instinctively told me to push her to a safer area (LIKE THE FREAKING FOOTPATH), but Sherry told me it was fine and to leave her. So i took a photo instead. 

Yunnan rd had a strip of restaurants that a friend recommended. We ate in a restaurant that had a replica of the terra cotta warriors in the floor! It was pretty cool :) 

We ate Biang biang noodles and white cold chicken. A friend said to eat the chicken, and we just randomly chose the biang noodles because it was advertised. Both of them were pretty nice :) 

Engrish #1: "bad edamame" ohh you bad bad edamame. 

When we walked out of the restaurant Sherrry and I saw a foreigner eating a fried bao and WE WANTED ONE TOO. He saw us coveting his food and so I quickly introduced myself and asked him where he got it. He pointed to a window which we didn't notice and bought one. I was so glad we didn't miss this precious bao!

When we bought it the man saw us and laughed/waved from down the street hahahaha! It was so delicious ompho. Then we walked some more and got milk tea. This drink store was cool because it was decorated with Mahjong tiles.  I love how cheap milk tea is here T^T

I was amazed by this man deep frying pork/chicken on the street. It smelled so good but I was too full :/ 

In the afternoon we went to the Shanghai Museum for freeee
I thought it was going to be boring, but it was actually really good! There were so many things to see, we ended up spending a lot of time there. This was an old musical instrument :O

I liked this statue because the warrior guy had a cat peeking out of his armor. Sorry for the blur haha. 

I also liked how the Chinese incorporated animals in their designs. I loved their home ware and vases, it was really beautiful.  

The paintings and calligraphy was really nice as well. I realized that the Chinese "immortals" loved to ride mystical animals hahaha

After the museum we went to this cultural market area. I really loved it. There was a lot of new things to see :) This was the name of the street. 

Sherry and I stopped at this paper cutting shop. The guy was famous for his skills and made us each a portrait :) It only took him 5 mins each to make one with scissors and he even framed it, I was amazed! He put our names on our chest as well. Mine says "Li" because my Chinese name is Ju Li. 

I had to suppress the urge to buy more. All of pictures behind me were hand cut. I seriously thought it was done with a machine, some of the complex ones were incredible.  

At night we went to walk around the famous Nanjing road. It was a really busy street, full of life and colour. We decided to eat xiao long bao on Nanjing rd. There was a really good piece of engrish on the restaurant wall, but I didn't take a photo. 

After dinner we walked around and discovered an M&M's world! 

There was also this massive food stall area, so we went to buy snacks/ breakfast for the next day ^^ 

On the way home I got cultured shocked again. When Sherry and I headed up some stairs we reached the top and found this little puppy in the middle of the pathway. There were so many people passing through the area, I was desperate to find it's owner as the dog looked super confused and scared. It was so small and could barely walk, I almost picked it up to put it to the side of the path. However just as I was walking towards it, Sherry realized it was a way of advertising and a man was actually selling the puppy. Some lady had actually stopped to play with it and the seller emerged.  I was horrified and actually still feel so upset about the blatant animal cruelty. This would never happen in Australia, we love our animals >_<"

Anyway Sherry and I went back to our hotel because I was super tired from all my flights and morning stress. I slept like a log that night.