Made it to China, aka the great firewall!
The land of WeChat, AliPay, and sensored Google, Facebook, Instagram and 99% of the things that the rest of the world use on a daily basis!

Getting out of the airport and riding the metro to my hostel made it extremely clear that I was no longer in civilized Asia... I have now entered a new world of screaming and pushing... Can't wait to see what a month here will be like!!!

My hostel welcomed me by having a designated smoking area right at the entrance and having to go through a cloud of smoke to check-in!

I dropped my bags off and since it was already 8pm I set off to find some food! The street food looked unappealing and to be honest it was very intimidating to not know what they were selling and had no way to communicate with anybody to find out if the food was vegetarian (probably not!)

I think I would rather go hungry!

At the end I ended up going to a westernized supermarket and buying some fruit and snacks. The trip to the grocery store was... interesting! When they tell you that Chinese don't speak english... believe them! Finding bread took 7 people and me making a fool of my self playing charades!
At one point I had a jar of peanut butter and needed bread (which was nowhere to be found) so I asked for help. I put my left palm up, held the peanut butter with my right hand, put peanut butter back in basket, pretended 2 fingers were a knife and did a round motion like grabbing some peanut butter and proceeded to spread it on the bread (my palm). Then, I pointed to my palm, trying to tell them what I needed was bread... the grocery worker started walking! Phew! So glad he understood me! But... he took me to an aisle and gave me ketchup!!! ... Really?!?! what part of my charade game hinted to ketchup? Is it because I'm a foreigner and ALL foreigner like ketchup?!?! Oh my... This will be fun! An hour and 77yuans later I walked back to the hostel!

The next day was my exploring Shanghai day and since I didn't do any research I had no idea what to do so decided to go check out People Square.

It was fun to walk around the park and see people doing TaiChi, playing games, and dancing.







From People Square I walked down Nanjing Road, their big shopping street! I strolled down the street and realized why all Chinese people have selfie sticks... They are sold pretty much in every corner for 10yuans ($1.30!)


I made it to The Bund, the waterfront overlooking the iconic Shanghai Skyline!

Me not impressed with Shanghai!

From there I walked back to People's square to meet up with a new friend, Kate,  who I met in a facebook group I belong to and headed to one of the many water towns in Shanghai, Zhujiajiao.

First we had to find the local bus to take us there; it took a little but of walking (including some entertainment from a lady who was screaming to her husband for many blocks! It was really crazy, she was really mad and the husband just kept walking fast ahead of her as if it wasn't with him!)

I am so glad I was with Kate because she knew where to go and I just had to follow!
We finally arrived in Zhujiajiao around 3 pm and it couldn't have been better timing! By that time many of the tour groups had left and the town was pretty empty, allowing us to walk around with ease.


These little water towns are considered the Venice of China!


Here's Kate being a model!
It was very funny to see so many people being sneaky taking picture of her and many people ask us to take a picture with them!


 ... Walking the peaceful streets, looking at the shops.


Isn't this peaceful and beautiful?
The reflection of the town in the water is just so beautiful!!!



From peaceful sometimes we would go to busy streets with bikes that honk non stop!

We also were able to see the town at night.... so so so beautiful!


From the water town we decided to go back to Shanghai and go out for a drink at Bar Rouge, a bar located by the bund that has an amazing view of Shanghai.
We got there at around 9:30 to take advantage of the free cocktails and enjoy the view. When we entered I immediately loved the view and the lights and told Kate I wanted to go take a picture, she said we should get a free drink first. Right at the entrance we met one of the guys who manages the place and he was speaking in French, we started talking and he told me he was from Belgium which lead to a the game "Guess where I am from and if you don't I get a free drink" (after the free cocktails hour.) I am not a drinker but I know never to turn down a $15 drink coupon so why not? He has 5 guesses and failed to guess El Salvador (of course!) so I got my coupon and we moved on to get the free cocktail.

When we went to the terrace I looked and said to Kate: "Oh! The lights are off, do they come on and off?" and she said "I forgot the turn them off at 10pm!" I literally missed the lights by 2 minutes... all for a free drink! So sad! I think Kate felt bad about it all night! :(


Shanghai is a town of foreigner so of course all we saw at the bar where people from all over the world either working or studying for a couple of month in Shanghai. This town is so international! We met a girl from France, a guy from Dubai, a bunch of guys from Senegal, some boys from Germany, and I forgot the rest! I had a blast talking to so so so many people!



We left the bar somewhat early since Kate got some free tickets for Disneyland for the next day!!!

Now... Disneyland Shanghai! I didn't even know they had a Disneyland but it is the newest addition to the Disney parks and opened just 6 months ago!

That day I woke up early and took the metro, at arrival I saw people going crazy at 7Eleven! I later found out that people take all the food they need inside the park (and anywhere they go in China) so people were just making sure they had enough for the day, there were no lines, whoever put the things on the counter first was next! What a mess!

I had a fun day but it was hard to cope with people cutting lines and spitting every where!
The lines were simply huge and the whole day we only managed to go on 3 big rides.

One of my favorite rides is Pirates of the Caribbean, specially the part where the dog is outside the prison cell and the inmates are trying to get the keys from it but this Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't have that! It is a brand new mostly all digitalized ride! It is amazing and fun but for me it was missing the charm of the old fashion ride.



Look at that castle!!!

Of course I needed a picture with Mickey Mouse... He spoke Chinese! haha
 The Alice in Wonderland Maze

The park looked so beautiful at night!!!


The light and fire work show was just amazing and, if I remember well, way better than the one in California!



It was all good fun in Shanghai... now off to Huangshan!