We arrived at the new Pudong Airport which is impressive and efficient [note: see final day’s report]. The ride to the city, however, took over an hour.
Our hotel, the JC Mandarin, is very central. The first thing my dad ordered me and my sister to do, was to get cheong sams made for ourselves. For colours, my sister chose bright red while I chose a deeper shade with faint floral patterns. I made a mental note to myself to lose more weight because the measurements weren’t very flattering.
But for just about S$100, we got ourselves a silk cheong sam each, and that was an excellent deal because it costs around S$300 back in Singapore. The shop, Silk King, is often visited by world leaders’ wives and daughters – including Chelsea Clinton.
We had dinner at Lulu restaurant which is one of the more famous eating places in town. Dinner for a family of six was about 450 renminbi, which translates to S$96 in total, which is very affordable. We tried the usual Shanghainese specials. The drunken chicken was excellent.
Nearby, we visited Plaza 66 was was recently built. It’s like a brand name haven but hardly anybody was buying anything from them. [We found out where the crowds were, in the days to come.]
Their hot tap water smells like boiled grass. The weather today is tolerably cool. Oh, and one in every four cars is a VW or Audi, and including all taxis.