The train was interesting. I passed tall apartment buildings, polluted rivers, farms, and villages. Each farm is so small compared to what is seen in the USA. It looks like each farmer has a small piece of land and they split that up with a few different crops. I didn’t see any machinery assisting with the farming, but everything appears to be done by hand. For that reason I saw many farmers working in their fields all hours of the day.
When I arrived in Shanghai (11:30AM), I was in for another shock. I have to say Hong Kong is not crowded compared to this city. At the rail station, it appears this is where migrant workers from the countryside go to look for work. I suppose the equivalent to Home Depot for Mexicans in the US. I wanted to buy my next train ticket, but it looked like there were 1000 other people doing the same (I came back at 6:30PM and no lines!). It was raining when I arrived, which made things difficult. It took me a while, but I found an ATM. I don’t think this is the best part of town since I when into a shopping mall and it was mostly abandoned.
I made my way into the subway station. I had to look up some information on where I had to go next, so I pulled out my computer. A person saw this and leaned right into my screen, like 12 inches away, to see what’s going on. I guess he has never seen a computer before? Could be one of the thousands migrants arriving every day. Next I tried to get a Shanghai Public Transportation Card. I try to get in line, but then I notice people are just cutting in front of me. And again this happens. I don’t think there is such thing as a line here, but just fight your way up to the front. At the counter, the employees tried to explain to be the cost of the card, but out of 10 people working there maybe one was confident in his English enough to help me. At this point I realized only English isn’t going to cut it in this country. This was the main subway station and main ticket booth.
In the rain, I made it to a hostel. Much better than the prison cells I had in Hong Kong, but still missing a few things (toilet paper, mattresses are as hard as a sheet of plywood, wireless worked for 15 min and then nothing). The hostel itself seems brand new and clean however. I have a dorm room and there is a lobby, so I can actually meet other people here too. I grouped up with two Canadians and two Dutch people and we went to a “La Mien” (handmade noodles) shop. One of the guys lived in China for two years, so he was able to help order for us. For $1, you can get a meal with fresh, handmade noodles. Excellent value, so much that I went back there later in the day for a plate of Fried Rice. I also stopped by a convenience store and got an ice cream for 13 cents!
The group decided to go up to the observation deck of the Jin Mao Building (88 floors up). This was quite a rip off at $9 though (9 meals worth!), since it was foggy and cloudy and you couldn’t see very far. But if you team up with people, you have to go along. I did see the World Financial Center being built next door and I saw some of the skyscrapers featured in Mission Impossible 3. I only saw 10 or so skyscrapers being built in the immediate vicinity. I thought I’d see a hundred, but most have already been built.
Later at night, street vendors come out stands of pirated DVDs. First time I’ve seen this in China (Hong Kong is good about no counterfeit stuff). For example, they had Die Hard 4 DVDs, and today is July 4, the actual release date of that movie. I’ve heard they are about $1 each.