(From our trip in April 2018)

It’s finally time to leave our little bubble of Nanjing and head to the big smoke – Shanghai!!!  And when I say big, Shanghai has 26 million people (2 million more than the whole of Australia).  It truly is a mind boggling stat to wrap my feeble brain around that’s for sure.

Not gonna lie, I was pretty relieved that our friends were escorting us all the way to Shanghai because they too realise we are basically idiots when it comes to being well versed in the public transport situations.  I’ve never been to a train station that was quite so big and bustling so it was awesome to have “handlers”.

In case you don’t know these Fast Trains go – well FAST!!!!  Ours got up to 299km an hour.  Gollllyyyy!!!

The train ride literally went so quickly and soon we were changing over to the subway and disembarking and ready to head to our hotel.  But first, there was something I just had to see….

Marriage Market

Not far from our hotel is a place called People’s Square.  You get to walk through some beautiful gardens, along lovely winding paths which is amazing as it’s like a big park right in the heart of bustling Shanghai.  Husband was feeling very very grumpy at this point because he just wanted to get to the hotel, not wander leisurely through a park towing suitcases but I just had to go see this thing called the Marriage Market.

You guys, I was today years old when I learned you could go to a park and find a husband….

Essentially it’s a place where parents and grandparents go to “advertise” their children for marriage.  I mean these parents don’t give a flying feather about modern day society – they mean business when it comes to offloading their ::left on the shelf:: spawn to anyone who’ll have em.

So everyone has an umbrella and they attach a little sheet of details about their adult child to it so people can wander along and shop til they drop and find themselves a life partner.  I mean……it’s a quarter past crazy right!!!

Listed on the sheets are things about jobs and income and practical stuff more than personal “I like pina coladas and taking walks in the rain” kinda deets.  They don’t usually show a photo and I think we can all agree this straight away is a red flag of fugliness right there but look I’m not one to judge (yes, yes I do judge).  These parents see no flaw with this plan at all but it is a little crazy bah-nay-nay if you ask me.

Not gonna lie, I didn’t come all the way to China not to consider an arranged marriage ya’ll so I confess to chatting to a few people along the way.  I did have questions about the people who had the faded umbrellas with the faded sheet of information…..me thinks their kid is always going to live with the parents hahaha.

Meanwhile fun police husband is sitting nearby scowling and ruining my buzz because he didn’t understand why he had to sit in a park with the suitcases whilst I tried to find his replacement.  He’s sooooo bloody unreasonable! (watch yourself mate, as soon as I learn how to read Chinese your days are numbered).

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on where you feel this Marriage Market system sits on the controlling as f**k scale!!!

Hotel – We are staying at the Guxiang Hotel Shanghai and I’m really happy with it.

Look at this gorgeous foyer – love me some good hotel foyer!!!

Got a killer deal online for this room which had a separate bedroom and loungeroom!

View from our room over Nanjing Road

We dumped bags and headed straight down Nanjing Road (famous shopping street) on our way across to Pudong.

Husband super keen to get his shop on at the Superbrand Mall.  His happy place lol.

But first….food.  Headed to the food hall and had a little teppanyaki goodness for lunch.  What’s not to love about sitting there watching them fling your food around – it’s so extra how they cook.  The food was so yummy for food court food.

I was super excited because right across from the Mall was the gorgeous Disney store and what a store it was.  Thank you Jesus of Disney for this gorgeousness.

I cannot confirm or deny whether my outfit choice today was Minnie inspired it so freaking was.  Just a little excited, not much, just a little.

Pudong Buildings

Just loving these crazy buildings.  I mean it makes no sense why they built such extremely random looking buildings but hey I got my tourist on with the best of them and selfied the shit out of it.

We caught a ferry back across to The Bund which made for some sensational views back over the Pudong area.  It’s pretty freaking fantastic.

We wandered along The Bund which is beautiful enjoying ALL.THE.VIEWS and just having a nice relaxing time.

Lots of laughs and too many selfies, even I was over myself at this point.

I have no idea why we are assaulting this bulls testicles but I suspect it’s because we are immature children.

A little behind the scenes look at how NOT to take a selfie.  The glamour never stops my friends.

Finally it was time for a little break so we headed back to our rooms for a rest and to get ready for dinner and drinks.  I had found this AHHHH-MAZING!!! place online called American Pop Brasserie that claimed to have amazing views and a rooftop bar – they had me at ‘bar’ so husband and I headed their early for some adult bevvies.  It was an easy walk from our hotel and the reviews certainly didn’t lie.

Clearly I am no stranger to an aperol spritz so husband and I settled in and relaxed with a quiet drink and waited for our friends.

On a scale of 1 to Oprah – this is a bloody good view my friends!  I’m feeling a bit spesh just being here and enjoying it.  What a beautiful city Shanghai is!

We then headed into the restaurant and had the most delicious dinner – honestly it was scrummy!!!

There was some mildly inappropriate alcohol and food consumption enjoyed by all and the night was just awesome.

Look at the view behind the boys – stunning!  Not bad looking roosters themselves!

Did I mention the triple shot of goddamn majesticness that were the views!!!!  This was right off the restaurant.

This is where we leave our friends and have to fend for ourselves for the remainder of our China Adventure.  They have set us up so well with tips and tricks and knowledge we could never have learned on our own.  They were soooo generous with their time, friendship and laughs.

Husband and I will be forever grateful to our beautiful friends, The Young’s!!!  xxx

Enough emo for one day…..stay tuned for the next update my loves!