When we came to Shanghai, we first saw what every other tourist would normally see - shiny new skyscrapers, wide streets, modern technology at work. Shanghai did its best over the last decade to come across to any visitor as a modern, global city.
However, there is still a part of Shanghai left, where a completely different life is happening every day. If you want to see the real Shanghai - you should see the Slums. They are rapidly disappearing, and on one hand, it's may be great for the city to a get a clean new start, but on the other hand, the Slums have always been Shanghai's deeply rooted history for centuries, and it's a little sad to see them go.
Anyway, we decided to pay a visit to this famed part of Shanghai and after multiple warning from the taxi-driver not to go in to this chaotic maze of mud/wooden houses and never-ending markets, we dived in after all.
Have to say, that although we had some reservations going in (mostly about security, and the fact that we had an expensive camera with us), we felt very much safe.
Local employment agency, old-schools paper advertisement.
The houses here are really tiny and this is the reason why all sorts of people's stuff is being hanged outside.
People living here are also quite different from what you see in the glamorous city-center.
And as always in Asia, there is one huge market everywhere. Everything imaginable is being sold here.
Just as we were living the area, we saw a scene from our own past. I still remember I had a pioneer's tie just like they do. My mom still keeps it in her memory-draw.
From the Slumps we went to see the financial district on the other side of the river. There were two options we could choose from: either take the taxi over the bridge or take The Bund sightseeing tunnel under the river.
We decided to go for the tunnel. Nothing spectacular, and can easily be skipped.
The financial center has not only banks and financial institutions, but also huge modern shopping malls, seawater aquarium and the largest Apple store in Asia.
In the evening we decided to go to the street stalls to get something to eat.
And we ended up at the shashlyk stall once again :-)
Funny that the old phone-booth are now being used as a WiFi access points.
As it got dark, it also got really cold, and we decided to spent the rest of the evening at the Radisson again.
After dinner we just walked around a bit.
This was the very last evening of an awesome trip. Once again, Asia hasn't disappointed us and we were going home filled with great memories.
And we already made plans for the next trip. In 2015, we will be definitely coming back to see more of China.
