Guilin to Shanghai

Our flight to Shanghai was empty except for one tour group and one group of Chinese men. They were obviously heading home from some kind of junket in Guilin and were so obnoxious. One of the men was spraying perfume around the plane, they all moved to different seats constantly, and in general, acted like peasants who had never been in an airplane before.
Shanghai was unlike any city we’d ever seen. The sprawl was a bit like taking Dallas and Houston and mixing them together. Everywhere you looked, there were skyscrapers and cranes building new skyscrapers. Our hotel was a funky old place just off the Bund It had a feeling of old money, but was run down enough to give you a feeling of mental asylum. The room was huge with hardwood floors, only a few pieces of furniture, high ceilings and CNN. At $35/night in Shanghai, it was a bargain.

We headed to the Jin Jiang Hotel, noted for it’s tourism services and got the info we needed for the next few days, then went up to their rooftop bar/restaurant and got a revolving view of the city.
We had read about a great Indian restaurant, Tandoor, and found our way to it. It was some of the best Indian food we’d ever had and the wait staff and management was all Indian and charming.