Shanghai Noon

1/5th of the world's cranes are in Shanghai making it one big construction site...2 years ago there were something like 60 skyscrapers...now there are hundreds...each one slightly closer to touching heaven...soon it will overtake Hong Kong as THE finanial centre of China and THE city to be for culture, shopping and the odd cocktail...already the city sparkles.

Now that we are hitting city after city with our tour group of partiers...including a troop of particularly interesting dancers in the form of Matt, Doug and Andy...we have hit our stride when it comes to the Chinese nightlife and we are showing them just how it's done in the west...heading out on our first night in Shanghai after drinking a bottle of barcardi, a bottle of smirnoff and a bottle of soy sauce between the 6 of us, we stumbled into 'soho', a club of white sofas, sparkling chandeliars and random tunes - anything from britney to jamiraqui had us bouncing on the dance floor, chatting to the locals and beating the pro dancers to the stage...outdone only by a group of breakdancers who almost put our boys to shame...but not quite...we tend to draw a crowd...the Chinese party elite adore us...and we adore being adored...

Waking up the next morning we stumbled down the Bund with it's beautiful skyline, river views towards 'Higher Ground'...a sunny restaurant offering steak and chips (yes please) where we met up with Caitlin and Alex and their little boy Jonty, old friends from Aus who just happened to be in Shanghai at the same time. A good old catch up and some chocolate cake later we all flew up the elevator to the top of the 'bottle opener', a fancy-smancy financial building offering views of the city from over 400 meters above the ground - the highest observitory in the world at the moment (till they do their thing in Dubai at least...)...

Meeting back up with our party people again we gave the beer a miss that night in respect for our hangovers and went instead to watch the Shanghai Acrobats...how, pray tell, does one realise that one's talent is to swing a hula hoop well enough to do it for a crowd? or to ride a motorbike with no hands round 'the ball of death'...or to balance 30 wine glasses on one's foot whilst upside down and twisted in half?? amazing stuff...though of course i could do it all....

We've seen gardens and shops and eaten and been drunken in the shanghai noon...and it's time to move on...one last train ride (oh thank goodness) and one last tub of instant noodles...and one last city. Beijing is the ultimate...the last hurrah before we return to a life of nine to five...at least for now....watch out beijing.

Stay tuned. xx