Trip Day 7 - Wuhan to Shanghai

Jan 1

Got to sleep in today.

The shower on the boat was above the toilet and very grotty, so we had given it a miss. The hotel was three star, but the bathrooms were clean, the shower large, the water got and plentiful. After so many years of water restrictions, it feels sinful to stand under the shower until your skin wrinkles, but so nice to be clean. The only probelem is we are all running out of clean clothes.

John went out to find a travel agent while tea, biscuits and fruit are once again our only meal.

We took a taxi to the airport and flew to Shanghai. Tom fell asleep almost immediately after take-off and didn't want to wake to wake up. We had the first serious crying since the flight from Melbourne. Not bad as we have been constantly on the go in a foreign country.

We booked a hotel from the airport, then caught the mag-lev train into the city. This train travels at up to 430 km/hr.

The hotel is 4 star and a very good price. Winter discounts are quit generous. We get a single room again as we were told it had 2 double beds. When we arrive at the hotel, the beds turn out to be very small doubles so we get a folding bed as well.

Outside our window the kids see a KFC. As they have been very good about the food, and basically surviving on fruit and biscuits for the last 24 hrs we agree to treat them. We get take away and bring it back to the room, then John and I go down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

The hotel information folder states that the dinning room can hold 1000. It doesn't look that big, may be 3-500, but it is almost full. We stuff ourselves, and it all comes to less than $50, tastes nice and is well presented. It is undoubtably not top level, but pretty good value.

The kids seem to have behaved in our absence so we end the first day of the new year in Shanghai in some style.