Fun fact: Shanghai means "On" (Shang) "the sea" (Hai). So when you say "I got Shanghai'd", I guess you're saying "I got all up on that sea."

So after an exhausting day in Hangzhou, clearly the best course of action is to travel some more. We caught the early train from Xiaoshan to Shanghai, which honestly can be just as long as the trip to Hangzhou depending on traffic. It's only an hour and some change from the train station, which itself is only ~10 minutes from my place. Cool deal.

Anyway upon arriving we checked into the hotel to ditch our bags. We were immediately faced with a problem. You see, to check into a hotel, buy train/plane tickets, etc, you need an ID. I've always used a photocopy of my passport to avoid carrying the actual one, and there has never been a problem. Today there was a problem. They wanted an actual copy, which only Aaron had. So that means 1 room instead of 2. Yaaaay? Fortunately Yllen came later, and she brought her passport so we could get the 2nd room. Except they raised a fit that she came into the country through Hong Kong instead of China proper. Oh, I'm sorry Shanghai hotel. I wasn't aware this was also the Department of Immigration. Maybe we should stop off at Ellis Island first?

So after ditching our bags, we decided to first get lunch and then mess about. We didn't really have a concrete goal, so we went into the heart of town to see things. And boy did we! As you may (or not) know, Shanghai has only recently become a giant city. Well it would seem the Chinese thought Lord of the Rings was a documentary of a successful society, so they went and built an Eye of Sauron right in the middle of things. BEHOLD IT'S LOOMING GAZE AND DESPAIR.

That's right. An extra large picture for an extra cool looking building. I think it's actually a Hyatt, and they should totally build a room suspended from those pillars.

We also saw a lot of parks. One of those parks and a giant metal fat baby. Here's us reflected in it's tummy and underboob. Never in my life did I think I would say "giant metal fat baby underboob".

One park in particular had quite a find. There were a few carnival rides, and like most public places, had people hocking stuff. I absolutely love street vendors. I don't care if I even need the stuff, I just like to see them reduce their prices 90% after I initially act interested. This fellow was selling movies, of course all pirated. He started out by saying in heavily accented English, "My friend, English movie!". I told him "Bu yao! Wo yao Zhongguo!" (No! I want Chinese!") I shuffled through and picked out two, and then the holy grail of movies was thrust upon me. I could just tell you what it is. I'm not going to though. You have to visually experience it's greatness:

That's right. The famous Chinese movie NUNCHUCKS, which as you can see was only released in theatres a month earlier. The kung fu is awesome, the story completely bizarre, the subtitles horrible, and of course it's one of the greatest movies ever made. If you read the Engrish synopsis and aren't moved to tears by "moving piece big net" and "behold legend of cut stick", you're less of a human than I.

After checking out people trying to catch tadpoles in a pond, we decided to head back for some dinner. Along the way we were stopped in a subway station by someone wanting us to come to their shop and buy purses. I feigned a large degree of excitement and said in Chinese "Reeeally?!", and then proceeded to offer 1 RMB for each item they were selling. He laughed and offered me the paper he was holding. At least he was a good sport, but in retrospect I should have bought the paper. Afterwards I bought a 200 RMB pen for 26 RMB. I love haggling.

So right, dinner. One of my favorite meals of the trip, Lindsay found in her Lonely Planet book a really swanky looking place. It turns out it was very, very Chinese. Dan and I stuck with beer, while Aaron and Lindsay got tea. They continued to be unimpressed by Chinese tea. But the real star was the famous Peking Duck. I've never had Peking Duck before, so without a baseline to compare it with, I will say it was absolutely delicious. Whatever magic they do in the kitchen is totally worth it.




After that we popped off to the train station to meet Yllen. However on the way we passed a promo for the 2nd best movie in China. Coming soon - the hilarious romantic comedy of one man torn between the affections of two women. That's right, its that highly anticipated masterpiece, "Love in the Butt".

After a quick meeting back at the hotel, it was off to the bar. We got some decent beer and margaritas, plus a free shot for name dropping Lucy. (Did I mention how awesome she is?). This continued back to the local convenience store, where we picked up some essentials. There was also a police officer who had left his hat inside. I ran out to return it to him, which he was less enthused by. Granted it might have been because I returned it to him while wearing it. Phew! Day 1 down, 2 to go.