So, the rest of my trip wasn't really all that exciting. By now I was ready to go home, but I was still stuck until my flight. Fortunately, I had two more friends yet to meet in Shanghai. One didn't ever actually meet up, but the other did.
Interesting font and use of emoticon at the hostel.
The hostel apparently didn't have a dryer (I guess they are more of an American thing), and this was their solution, just tons of clothing hanging outside. If this were Japan, the female underwear wouldn't have survived the night.
Apparently Digimon sneak into the rooms if you leave the windows open.
Minimal effort was put into cleaning.
I went back to my friend's hotel to meet up with him. It gave me a chance to take a few pictures of the temple-like building.
More cats.
Metal rhino.
Strangely anatomically correct metal rhino.
We decided to grab some donuts before setting out.
They had awesome human-shaped ones we used to recreate Attack on Titan. And this. Also, when I was selecting them, the worker referred to it as a "she/her".
Finally found milk!
I kind of peeked into the temple, but decided against entering.
Their bus stations are superior to our own.
Also they have bus hammers.
We were supposed to meet my other friend, but she, as always, was rather late. So we waited near where she was supposed to be, near some kind of simulated beach.
We got bored of waiting outside the place, so we wandered around the area.
Pan-Asian food is not something I expected to see in Asia.
Oh great, more Angry Birds.
Hundreds of cookie-cutter skyscrapers in a row.
Apparently the beach wasn't free. (Also alcohol wasn't allowed in, but everyone snuck some in and did a terrible job hiding it, but it didn't matter.)
I got to see the random restaurant boat upclose.
We ended up spending a lot of time on the beach. My friend had brought her friends, or friends of her friend I guess - Germans studying Chinese at the university. Apparently I knew one already, but I didn't remember him. We mostly just talked and then played flunkyball.
Then we got a taxi to go to some restaurant. The taxi came with touchscreens with games. We never figured out how to play them correctly.
We arrived at the restaurant. It was themed after something in China's history or something. The waiters(resses) wore weird train uniforms.
Also weird art.
I counted on my friend to order, and we ended up with a bunch of weird food. Including one themed after the four seasons I guess.
Then one of them took the guitar in the restaurant and tried to play us some music.
My friend also tried his hand at it.
The next day, after having failed to get a glimpse into the strangeness of a sex shop in a country that bans pornography, I managed to actually get photos of the place.
It seemed rather male-orientated.
I ended up finding another down the road further. Censorship laws are weird.
A U-Turn light, complete with all the colors. I guess I did manage to get a picture of it.
Shanghai also let me run a negative balance on my train pass.
I managed to find the Shanghai main train station.
Again, there wasn't much to see really.
At least it was cleaner, less busy, and I think you could even actually enter the place.
I didn't really have anything to do, so I just wandered around again.
I found more vomit drinks for sale.
And this height-o-meter.
One last photo of the train station.
I didn't really see all that many various vending machines in Japan, but at least China has this.
More kittens.
I couldn't really read / didn't trust Chinese food, so I just started going to the convenience stores and ate in my room.
The ramen came with this cool deployable fork.
One Piece!
I like the symmetry. I wonder if you can turn right on red or if it's like Japan.
Heaven.
In my quest to rid the world of plastic bags, I was shown this awesome alternative by Lawson.
Like Taiwan, but with full-fledged bikes.
Germany!
So, in the middle of some back alley was apparently a cultural heritage.
Truly a masterpiece.
So, it turns out that not only does China have coins, but they have divisions of coins. The 1/2 cent and 1/10th cent pieces exist. They also exist in bill form apparently. The non-Mao Bucks were apparently not full dollars or even full cents. The 1 and 5 Bucks also exist in coin form as well. I ended up, as I always do, taking a bunch of pictures of all the money.
I don't know how to flip pictures on Blogger, so you get what you get.
I began to just spend time in my hostel room. I didn't really want to see anything, and my friends were busy, so I just watched a ton of Fist of the North Star (thus finishing it finally [only took an entire year]) for a few days. I basically only left my room to get food.
More evidence against the Chinese not liking Oreos theory.
Mysterious happiness flavor or something.
Stop, Angry Birds, stop.
I finally got a picture of the bagcheck that every subway entrance has. I often saw guards asleep or playing with their nametags.
My friend was apparently working a Metallica concert on my last night, so I went out to meet my German friend and see the place at least. We also hoped that maybe she could get us in (she couldn't).
It was kind of dark for pictures, but I tried none-the-less. I also wanted to capture the many colors.
There were a bunch more light up buildings in the immediate vicinity as well. We couldn't get in, so we wandered around.
Some people were playing with a toy that looked like a UFO in the dark.
UFO!
Apparently this mysterious ban on railroads is actually a ban on stacking. Stacking railroads probably.
You don't have to tell me twice!
My friend spotted a model inside a building, but we thought it wasn't open to the public. I went inside anyway, and the guy inside said it was cool to look around. It was a few models of the concert hall area.
It had buttons and light up and everything.
There were people outside selling rip-off Metallica shirts, so I decided to get one as a souvenir. They came in plastic bags, so I asked if I could try it on to make sure the size was right. The guy said sure and opened the bag and tossed it into the wind. As I instinctively chased after it, he tried to stop me and said it was okay to let it go. I said it wasn't and gave it back to him. He thought it was pretty funny.
We then got some whatever dessert this is. It was pretty alright. Looks good though.
Random mini-Godzillas?
Always so much trash thrown about.
The whole area was built for some kind of expo, as evidenced by their sewer lids (and what people had told me).
"Big World"!
The next day was time to go home. Apparently my friend did succeed in getting everyone else tickets to Metallica that day.
I was a bit worried about getting to the airport on time (as usual). It also didn't help that I had all my luggage again.
The train line towards the airport had some kind of special transfer indicator that I didn't figure out, even when everyone got off. The train then reversed direction and brought me back a station.
I then tried getting off the train at the random maglev station, only to discover it ran like once an hour and cost a ton extra and didn't even get me there all that faster (and because of the time offset, actually later than the regular train).
What a terrifying mascot.
I did eventually make it. I got my ticket and I was all set to fly home, and then fly to my old home.
Also, hurray, charging points! Why aren't there more of these?
And with that, I finally left China after two whole weeks. I saw friends, I made friends, and I got a transforming Thomas the Train engine! All goals were met.
No comments:
Post a Comment