Sunday 4th July - you wouldn't believe where we are

Shanghai.

Brunch this time was in a food hall of a shopping centre.  All stuff that anyone from England would be happy to eat.  No tails or tongue in sight.

We took a taxi to the Gallery District.  Or a place full of galleries, at the very least.  There were lots of galleries in a small area, some bigger ones on the main 'street', and smaller ones on sidestreets that we still being laid.  The art was mostly by Chinese artists; a lot of it very modern and some more traditional.  A lot of it very interesting and slightly innovate to the Western eye, and of course the requisite amount of pretentious toss.  Like the man who refused to use any colour but black, and one gallery that essentially said 'this is all a waste of time'.  There are clearly a lot of talented artists in China.

It started to rain slightly.  Dogs barked, locals legged it, we were apparently in for a wet time.  We went to the overpriced, overpretentious coffee house at the entrance to the gallery areas, and had an overpriced coffee while reading the English Shanghai papers.  I learned that students in Europe are now on holiday, and lots about China too, though the details escape now now.

Next stop was the riverside.  On one side the huge skyscrapers built since 1990, some of which are pretty cool and distinctively very Asian.  Lots of flashing lights.  The biggest being a the huge bottle opener thing.

On the other side were the Colonial era buildings.  No-one can build buildings like this as well as the British.  With enough cheap labour. 

Dinner was Peking duck.  A bit of a super greasy version of what we're used to through apparently you can get both versions here.  We tried to get other things to go with the duck, so i looked through the menu carefully.  I know it makes no sense that we limit ourselves to only certain parts of certain creatures, but the pictures in the menu made me feel progressively more sick.  tendons, horse, intestines, blah, blah, blah.  Now you know about eating Peking duck in Shanghai.

An early night, for an early start tomorrow.  Actually managed to get to sleep about 3am.