Brandon O'Brien

Monday, December 15, 2014 @ 2:30 AM in 2014 Asia

Since we were out pretty late drinking last night we slept in and took today easy. Neither one of us were really feeling 100% so we went out and got lunch at Pizza Hut. There was a line and it seemed like the lady taking reservations was screaming at everyone. Eventually we got in and the place was packed full of people and while we were eating, a group of older ladies started screaming at the waitress for no reason. The argument seemed to go on for about 15 minutes.

After eating we went back to the hotel for a little while before heading out and walking around. We went back to Nanjing road to try and find the fake market, which was supposed to be full of all kinds of fake products but we couldn't find it. We ended up walking all the way down to the riverfront and took some photos of the skyline at night.

Both of us were pretty ready to head back home so we just wrapped up the night with some work and emails. Tomorrow we head to the airport and on our way back to the states!

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Tags: china, shanghai, travels2014

Posted from: China

Sunday, December 14, 2014 @ 8:37 AM in 2014 Asia

Today was another day of exploring Shanghai. The first thing we did was visit the Jade Buddha temple. It was in the middle of some really rundown parts of town but the buddha itself was pretty cool. There were a lot of people worshiping which made it a little awkward to walk around taking photos though.

Next we went over to the Jing'an Temple which is smack in the middle of a big shopping area. It looked pretty neat from the outside but we couldn't figure out how to get in. Instead of dealing with the masses of people we walked some of the big shopping streets to a bar called Windows Garage where they were having buy-one get-one specials on half liter beers. We hung out there for a while before going downtown to try and have a drink at the top of the Jin Mao tower.

We got to the tower but they wanted us to spend at least 125 Yuan each which seemed really pricey. The view was nice but it was just after sunset and it was a little hazy out so the views weren't worth the price. We ended up leaving without a drink and came back to the hotel for a little bit.

Our friend on the ground here made us a reservation at a Turkish place so we walked over there for dinner. The food was good but we felt like it was a little pricey for the portions they gave out. Afterwards we walked to a different area of town that was full of little bars and ducked into one that had a good happy hour. After that we made our way to a place called Dean's Bottle Shop where they had a really impressive selection of beers for really good prices.

We met up with Nate at a place called Dr. Beer before heading over to Liquid Laundry again. We had a beer there then went to some weird indoor batting cage / bar that was full of American dudes. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we had a beer then caught a cab back to the hotel.

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Tags: china, shanghai, travels2014

Posted from: China

Saturday, December 13, 2014 @ 4:51 AM in 2014 Asia

Since we didn't have any real plans we were able to sleep in a little bit which was nice. The first thing we did was head into Yuyuan Gardens which was right by our hotel. It's one of the older parts of the city dating back around 1,000 years. We grabbed some breakfast there and then walked to the riverfront to see the skyline of Shanghai.

The air quality has been a lot better here than it was in Beijing which was a nice change. The skyline view was really impressive. After spending some time there we walked down Nanjing Rd for a while which was full of shopping and people trying to sell us fake rolexes and massages. We found a place for lunch in one of the malls but were kinda let down since we didn't actually get what we thought we were ordering.

We took the metro across the river and into the financial district to walk around some of the big skyscrapers. Shanghai has some nice elevated pedestrian pathways that made it easy to get around. We heard about a bar being at the top of one of the buildings so we went over there to get some good views but found out the bar didn't open until 5 (three hours from when we got there).

Instead of sticking around we came back to the hotel where we relaxed for a little bit before heading out for some drinks and dinner. We found a place that had a huge list of imported beers and had a few there around 8:30pm. The streets were pretty empty for a Friday night which was strange. Once we finished our beers we headed out for food but everything seemed to be closed or empty which wasn't a good sign. We walked around for a little while looking for something good but had to settle on McDonalds since it was the only thing open. I was at least able to try one of the local specialties which was a hamburger with some sausage links on top. It wasn't very good and I'd probably never get it again, haha.

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Tags: china, shanghai, travels2014

Posted from: China

Thursday, December 11, 2014 @ 10:24 AM in 2014 Asia

We got up early this morning so we could see Mao before catching the high speed train to Shanghai. We packed up our bags before heading out to see the Mao Mausoleum which opened at 8am. The line went pretty fast and they shuffled everyone through the mausoleum pretty fast. He looked like a pretty bad wax sculpture but all the locals seemed to be loving it. We got out by 8:15 and headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and catch a cab to the train station.

The process of getting into the train station and getting our tickets went pretty smoothly. We grabbed a few snacks and got on the train. The train took off and averaged over 300kph for most of the 4 hour ride. We passed through a lot of towns that had some crazy construction projects going on. There were towns in the middle of nowhere that had about 20-30 skyrise style apartment buildings going up. I had heard about the Chinese ghost towns before and it definitely looked like they were building more.

Once we got into Shanghai we got another taxi to the hotel. It's actually a pretty nice one although it smells like someone is smoking nearby. We made plans with some acquaintances of Mike's for dinner here in Shanghai and met up with them at a restaurant called Sichuan Citizen. There were 11 of us and we ordered a bunch of food family style, all of which was really good.

Afterwards we went to a microbrewery called Liquid Laundry where I tried one of their IPA's. After we all called it a night Mike and I had a little trouble catching a cab back to the hotel but finally got one and made it back to the hotel. We got a list of stuff to do for the next few days here but we're going to take it pretty easy tomorrow morning so we can sleep in for the first day in a while.

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Tags: china, beijing, shanghai, travels2014

Posted from: China