track our trek

we reached beijing at 6am and headed for the youth hostel we'd spotted across from the train station to see if we could consult w/ their tourism people...they let us wait in the lobby for the hour and a half until the office opened and we debated our options....spend another day in beijing seeing some things we'd missed and take another 13 hour night train to shanghai, or book a 2 hour flight and just head for shanghai. it cost 450yuan for the soft sleeper train and 600yuan to fly...we opted to fly for the extra $20 apiece, booked our tickets on china eastern w/ the woman at the hostel, and hopped on the airport shuttle. when we landed in shanghai, we intended to follow the lp directions to our hostel...take the 725A bus to city center...so we waited at the stop for a few minutes until the 725 bus came...unsure of whether the 725 was the same as the 725A, we hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask the bus driver...the bus came to a rolling stop, let about 6 passengers on and took off! the poor old man who got on in front of me nearly fell out the open door and lost his bag as the bus pulled off! we weren't feeling up for a running jump at the next bus, so we turned on our heels and headed for the taxi queue. lol! we arrived and checked into our hostel & jumped right in the shower!...the first in weeks that didn't flood the entire bathroom...curious that in a 5000 year history of incredible civilization and engineering feats, we haven't found a bathroom yet in china that's got proper drainage or plumbing! we briefly considered downgrading from our double room to a mixed dorm for the second night to save some $$, but quickly dismissed the idea after a tour through the dorm floor and the common bathrooms. we hit the streets of shanghai anxious to see what this sprawling, more westernized city has to offer. the air is noticeably cleaner than in beijing... starbucks and citibanks are plentiful, but shanghai definitely lacks the historic architecture and charm of beijing. (i hope beijing won't lose too much of that historic fabric to development for the 2008 olympics.)