The itinearary on the 2nd day of our trip was the Ancient Water Town near Shanghai.
In the morning, we took subway to HongQiao railway station. In the station, after we bought the ticket, we had our breakfast thinking that we had ample time. BUT we underestimate the distance for us to walk to the boarding gate, the station is HUGE! By the time we rushed to the gate, it was closed. We had to change the time to the next train by paying extra $$ and waited for 1 hour....urgh!
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| The driver who sneaked us in. |
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| Bullet train. |
Anyway, we reached Jiashan in 1/2 hour time by high speed train. We were being offered by some transport providers when we walked out of the station. Then we found ourselves in a very old and small van after some bargains. Mum told the driver to drop us at the side entrance so that we could avoid the 100rmb entrance fees (she found that out from someone's blog). The driver told her that all the side entrances are now closed. He then drove us to one of the side entrance to show us. Okay, fine, we saw that it was infact closed. He stopped the van, turned his head to us and said that by paying him half the price, he could bring us in or he would drive us to the main entrance where we had to pay the full price. Pa agreed. He drove us around and stopped somewhere. He told us to follow him quickly and quietly. We walked behind him into a very narrow alley and into a shop and then we were there, inside the ancient town. Wao...what an exciting experience!
We found ourselves in some kind of movie set. Real ancient and original !! The dark buildings, the narrow sunken walkway, the canal, the boat......everything is so old. Well, it's almost a thousand years old.
No, this is not movie set. This is REAL! The platform along the river are paved with ancient stone slab. The wood is all black in color. Even the roof is black and some are already slanting. The surface of the wood pillars are so smooth. The weather was cold and it made the atmosphere seem serene.
We enjoyed our lunch on the second floor of a tiny shop by the river very much.
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| Hearty meal! |
After lunch, we continued to stroll around the place.
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| Amidst the promenade! |
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| Tourist boats. |
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| Mission Impossible 3 was filmed here! |
When it started to drizzle, we walked out of the town and hailed a taxi to the railway station. When we were back to Shanghai, we went to Nanjing shopping road.
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| Pizza Hut in Nanjing Road, Shanghai. |
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Our dinner, Chinese McDonald!
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Nanjing Road is a typical shopping area. The road is full of huge shopping malls. We had dinner at the McDonald. On the way back to our hotel, we had super at a small eatery. Mum liked the vege noodles very much.
