Golden Week Tales

Having just returned from my first ever experience of a "golden week" its been difficult to get back into the flow of things, especially the habit of blogging, something I wasn't so good about even before golden week.

During the golden week, the rich head to Europe, Egypt, anywhere far, far away (or do the smart thing and stay at home), the middle class heads to south or southeast Asia, and everyone else travels around China (or does the smart thing and stays at home).

After originally planning on just taking it easy and exploring some nearby sites in the countryside, hoping for a bit of piece and quiet, I did the exact opposite and headed to the packed metropolis that is Shanghai. Shanghai, a city that is crowded enough when the entire country isn't on holiday, was insane during the holiday. On top of the insanity that was golden week, Shanghai's calender was chock full of interesting events, including: the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics (and all the international and Chinese celebs that came to town for that), Yue Festival and Talib Kweli's debut performance in Shanghai, and the F1 race that could have been the crowning of Lewis Hamilton.

That said, I was still able to have a wonderful time in the city (that I hate) and of course got some good street shots. The worst part of the trip was leaving out of Pudong, Shanghai's beautiful and still relatively new international airport. While the upstairs part of the terminal is all glistening and nice, the downstairs area where my flight was boarding out of resembled a run down old Chinese train station, with the amenities and (lack of) seats to go along with it. It was a startling end to what was otherwise an overall great trip to a place I don't usually enjoy going to.