Yu Gardens

Our last day in Shanghai - we were getting the sleeper train to Hong Kong late afternoon. So for a bit of old Shanghai, (or at least what looks like old Shanghai) we visited the Yu Gardens and Bazaar. Now it is fair to say that we weren't the only ones heading to this tourist mecca. The bazaar was rammed, but the Gardens required a modest entry fee which meant that they were at least slightly less busy.

The Yu Gardens are very attractive. So I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately, poor Thibault was feeling a little off colour. However, I judged that he would prefer to be made a fuss over by Jean than myself, so I did the sensible thing - leave them sat down in the heat and take some more photos. What else? You have to admit the photos were worth it.

After that we felt like some food. Unfortunately, however nice they may be, the restaurants in the vicinity had queues, and that wasn't poor Thibault's idea of fun the way he was feeling. (It was of course, hot and humid as well as crowded, all the things you don't want if feeling a little unwell.) And while Jean had done research and had another restaurant in mind, I just wanted to get my ailing companion sat down somewhere with air-conditioning for a while. So we went back to the Chinese Jade which at least we knew how to find, even if in a shopping centre.

Of course, we were out during the World Cup and football fever hit here too. So outside said shopping centre one could find large statues of world stars. Mr Rooney is made to look suitably Simian.

 Lunch revived Thibault on an almost Lazarus-like scale (one could tell by the recommencement of lewd wisecracks which had been missing all morning), so we pottered on through new "old" buildings, shops and cafes in the area.

 Before heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags for the journey to Hong Kong, we further explored People's Square.

And then it only left fond farewells and Thibault and I to drift off to the station for our 17 hour journey to Hong Kong. Shanghai was certainly an interesting city of contrasts. Definitely easier to get around in than Beijing, and also much easier to get fed well. We really did eat well - no doubt at some cost to my burgeoning waistline.

But if it was easier to get around, that didn't extend to being easier to escape. We were glad we had left plenty of time for the train, as first having gone to the upstairs departure hall we were sent back down. We found signs to a temporary waiting-area for our train, but when we saw everyone drift off and followed them, we got stopped by an official who waived airily at us that we needed to go back somewhere. Luckily a local chap in a suit spoke a little English and kindly went back with us, but even he couldn't understand where we had been pointed to. So he asked one or two further officials on the way, and eventually it became clear we needed to go out of the station altogether and then re-enter through another entrance. The thing was that we had to go through passport control which was in a different hall. Although Hong Kong may have been returned to Chinese sovereignty, it really is a special case. So, one doesn't need a visa for Hong Kong. It also follows therefore that leaving on the train to Hong Kong meant that this was the point we left China, not on the flight back from Hong Kong.

Anyway, eventually all was well. And we got onto what was for me my first experience of a sleeper train.