No Blogspot from Shanghai

We just got back from Shanghai.  Perhaps it's because of the Shanghai World Expo that just opened in May, but it seemed like everyone and their grandmother was in Shanghai!

 

 At Xin Tian Di, after dinner stroll

We had dinner on a Thursday evening at a restaurant in a mall beside Xin Tian Di, the famous leisure street. It was quite crowded for a Thursday night-- but it was nothing compared to the crowd the next day at Nanjing road, the pedestrian shopping street. It didn't help that it was also extremely hot at 38 degrees, so it wasn't very comfortable to be walking the streets with the crowd. The only other time I was in Shanghai was in March some 8 years ago, and the weather was much more pleasant than it was now.

Wall-to-wall people at Nanjing road, Friday night at 7 pm.

Oh, and even if our wonderful hotel had free wifi, I couldn't log into Blogspot, hence my online absence! There is no access to Facebook or other social networking sites, and no You Tube either. These are all banned in China (Skype and Wordpress were accessible). Shanghai is at once so modern, and yet so way behind. My teenage niece said she could access Facebook by logging into this portal http://www.heavymist.com, which provides free anonymous internet browsing. From this portal you can access the banned sites.

empty, dimly-lit and relaxing

My only respite from that Nanjing crowd was a sign that said "Foot Massage, 5th floor" on a building I passed on the way back to the hotel. I immediately went into the building and on the fifth floor, was relieved  to see a big, nicely-designed, dimly-lit and almost-empty spa. For 88RMB (U$13.00), I had the best and most relaxing foot massage in a long time.With no one beside me!

On the business card, which is all in Chinese, I can make out the name FAIRYLAND and the phone numbers 6322-6883 and 6351-6822, and it's open from 11 am to 2 am. I would've gone back again and again, if I found myself on Nanjing Rd.

Shanghai is only 3.5 hours from Manila

I need to decompress a bit more before I post on the World Expo and other Shanghai experiences.