Pouring with rain this morning but we really wanted to spend a little more time out and about in Shanghai before catching an afternoon train to Hangzhou. We headed out for a light breakfast and stroll around the well know Nanjing road shopping district. V found her China souvenirs – a pair a ebony chopsticks with silver and sea shell top ends – they are quite beautiful. Next time we see a hardware store we’ll get a piece of PVC piping so we don’t break them.

Nanjing road is packed with all the top brand shops from around the world and as we walked in the pouring rain we were approached by hawkers offering ‘watches, handbags and iPhones’. Showing just a wallet of pictures of the items we assumed they are selling knock-offs. So China. Just outside the Longines shop on an immaculate street you can go down a dark, dilapidated back alley and buy all the fakes you want.

We had no trouble with the 2hr train to Hangzhou – I guess we are getting used to the apparent chaos of Chinese train stations. – but getting to the hostel was another matter ! Tourist Information at the train station had a notebook full of English descriptions on how to get places which was very useful and a short walk to the ‘tall building’ described and we were on track and looking for a Y7 bus. Lots of K busses and a few numbered buses with Chinese symbols passed by but no Ys. We ended up walking all over looking for bus stops servicing the Ys, no luck. Getting hot and frustrated I insited we get a taxi – shift change meant we had to walk almost all the way back to the train station. When we finally flagged one down and showed him the address in my email he nodded and we were off. In showing him the address I/he (for sure wasn’t me) accidentally deleted the email (Note to self: When you delete a locally stored email on an iPhone that was synced from gMail via IMAP, it is gone until you get back online) – so now we had no way to re-examine the address. I was boiling. V, ever so calmly, got us out of the taxi when she thought we were nearby the hostel and she was within 300m of it (although it took a little wandering around to find it) – genius – I was picturing hours of walking in circles.

As soon as we stepped in to the hostel (Emerald Hostel) my mood brightened – amazing staff, great room, excellent dinner and all at a very reasonable price. With Grace (the wonderful) working on our train tickets, bellies full of excellent beef and peppers and an extra night here secure the frustrations of the day melted away.

What happened to the Y’s ? Well… they only operate until 17h and we started looking at 16h45. And the numbered busses with Chinese charaters are Y busses ! On the back they say Y7 etc – just in time for you to see them driving off.

[Pictures: Shanghai South train station – looks more like and airport, V at the misty Emerald hostel]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi