Shanghai

31st October - 4th November

Taking the Maglev train from Pudong airport, we arrived in downtown Shanghai at speed, 430km/hour to be precise. That's faster than Superman. And Ed wasn't even wearing his tights.

Shanghai has many nicknames - whore of the orient, Paris of the East etc. I'd probably just call it a building site, on a grand scale. The city is evolving and being develped at such a pace that even Lonely Planet make an apology for out of date details. They were right. On our first day the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed for refurbishment, the bookshop and market bulldozed down and the aquarium closed.

The city is very much in two halves; one moment you are walking along the Bund admiring skyscrapers, the next, you're down some dirty side alley back in 'old china'. During one of my walks around the city, I stumbled upon the Bird, Flower and Insect market. Jars of bugs, stick insects and who knows what line the aisles. After about 15 minutes in the place, I had to get out, it gave me the creeps. I left empty handed, despite Ed's approaching birthday.