Left our hotel and turned right up East Beijing Road to find ourselves in amongst hardware stores seling everything from copper tubing to scientific instruments. It was as if we had walked into a road full of Robert Dyas's.
Picking away through the people, undisturbed, we reached the tourist trap pedestrian shopping precinct, East Nanjing Road, whereupon we were accosted by hawkers, who were all equipped wth little sheets picturing their wares. Clearly there is an edict prohibiting street vendors from actually carrying their goods with them - you must accompany them to some backstreet where they may, or may not, come up with the promised Rolex.
Spent the morning in the excellent Shanghai Museum before walking down to the Bund with stunning views across the Huangpu River to the towers of the Pudong new business area.
In the afternoon we went to the Jade Buddha temple which featured not only the Jade Buddha, but also the Laughing Buddha...
...and the Reclining Buddha (bizarrely housed in the shop).
In spite of our protests that we had already been to one, Michael took us to another pearl salesroom, where we all pointedly marched straight to the cafe and ordered coffee.
Our final evening meal was in a restaurant which Michael was quick to point out was very handy for the river cruise. Wonder how much commission he was on. We opted for the cheaper, but no less spectacular, view from the bank.
A final battle with Shanghai's gridlocked traffic got us to the airport and our daylight flight back over Mongolia and Siberia.
12 hours of constantly putting the clock back while watching the inflight movies and eating, what my watch insisted (though my stomach was less clear about) were three lunches, saw us arrive back in Heathrow Terminal 4. It took another hour and a half, and a change of shuttle-train via Terminals 1/2/3, to get to the car, parked in the long stay at Terminal 5. Just in time for the rush hour gridlock on the M4 west. Jenny slept while I drove...
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