Shanghai with cousin Jacky

During the mid-autumn festival many Chinese people have at least 1 day off but because of my schedule I actually had 4 days off - Tuesday to Friday. I was really chuffed as it meant I could meet my cousin Jacky in Shanghai and spend 6 days there with her. She had flown there to see me and discover China as it was her first visit to the homeland. She had arrived on the Sunday in Shanghai so after teaching my morning classes on the Monday morning I  jumped on the bullet train at Nanjing train station to Shanghai. This new train journey started up in July  and is one of the fastest trains in the world reaching over 300kph and only taking 75mins in total between Nanjing and Shanghai. Amazing stuff...a feat unimaginable in the UK. And what's more, the trains run like clockwork in China - usually no delays or cancellations. How refreshing!

So I met cousin Jacky - who I proudly introduced to everyone  as "Wo de jiejie"  i.e. my big sister and together we had a 6 day blast in Shanghai. I was not sure I was going to like it as much as Beijing but I was more than pleasantly surprised and by the end of our stay I didn't want to go back to Nanjing. Shanghai is very much like London - fast-paced, dynamic, dripping with opportunties and wealth. Its not really a place for sightseeing, though there is stuff to see, but rather city where you can hang out in the different neighbourhoods experiencing the delicious food, culture, shopping and busy nightlife.

Lucy and Jacky in Pudong....the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower is behind us

Being a born and bred London girl, I absolutely loved Shanghai and could see myself living there. It is the most costly place in China to live, given all the foreign restaurants, expensive designer shops, glamourous bars and the countless number of activites to choose from. However from what I have gathered, the Shanghainese like to work and play hard and this is why the expats have been flocking in their hundreds. Furthermore, what I did like about Shanghai, is that whenever I spoke a little bit of Mandarin or my Beijinghua, I would be understood by the various taxi drivers, waitresses, passers by. This is not the case in Nanjing where their accent is crude and gruff - you almost have to speak Mandarin like you're barking like a dog.