Ken and I took the 9am ferry to Busan on Thursday, March 1st. It had to be one of the roughest rides I have had yet - I kept my eyes closed most of the way so that I wouldn't see the ferry go up and down and side to side. It had been quite windy the day before - I could see whitecaps in the harbor from my apartment. T.Y., the ever present (thankfully) agent was at the ferry to pick us up. I don't think I commented on this before, but it is funny - he always drives his car down onto the dock to pick us up. You feel important being whisked off the ferry right into a waiting car. Ha!Ha!
My memory of the airport at Busan was a sleepy one from 2 months previous. We walked into a maze of people and lines. Our flight was at 12:40 and we had plenty of time but I was starting to wonder when we got in line for security check. Come to find out - it was the first day of this airport screening liquids. So they were very intent on making sure everyone had their liquids in baggies. This was slowing everything up big time. It turns out it didn't matter because our flight left about 45 minutes late. While we were waiting, I "chatted" with a Korean woman and her son that were heading to London for him to spend 3 months there studying English. She said her husband would meet them there - he had been working in Dubai. She said he travels alot and has been in 50 countries. Which sparked Ken to list all the countries he has been in. I think it was 36 or something, if you counted being in an airport as being in the country!
The flight to Shanghai is only 1 1/2 hours. We found out that you can't escape kimchi. Our lunch had a little packet of it - I though about saving it to take a picture but didn't want to risk it breaking and everything I had smelling like garlic and such. I also felt alittle weird taking a picture of it on the plane.
After arriving, we headed for the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train that would take us toward town. I read somewhere that this train was finished in 2003 and cost Shanghai at least 1 billion dollars to build. It only goes 20 miles at this time and you have to catch a cab to go the rest of the way. Ken had taken it before and wanted to show me just how fast the thing goes.
The taxi then took us to the Westin Shanghai at the Bund Center. This turned out to be a great place to stay because of the central location to what we wanted to do. It was great for me too, because we had a suite with sliding pocket doors that closed off the bedroom. That way, I wasn't constantly woken up at 4am or so with Ken roaming around, as we all know he does!
It had been a full day so far but we were ready to explore. We walked up 5 blocks and turned left to go down the Nanjing Lu Pedestrian Mall, basically a pedestrian only (if you don't count bikes and scooters) street with restaurants and stores.
Before I continue, I forgot to talk about the architecture of the city. Even when we were on the outskirts of the city, I told Ken that the houses reminded me more of Europe than what I would picture China to look like. And except for the tall skyscrapers, alot of the older buildings looked that way also. I guess if I had read other chapters in my Shanghai guidebook besides "Shopping A to Z", I would have realized more history of the city and some of its earlier inhabitants were French, British and American. More about architecture later.
Anyway, Ken was dying for an American hamburger since he didn't get one at the Busan McDonald's last weekend, so of course that ended up being our first meal in Shanghai.
In case you are wondering, he ate 2 Big Mac's, fries and a drink. So ended our first day in China.
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