Day 14 - Shanghai to Beijing

Our last day in Shanghai. We tried not to shop. We decided to make our last day at least a little bit cultural and had plans to go to the Urban Planning Centre to see what Shanghai is planned to look like in the future. Unfortunately due to my upset stomach, that didn't happen, so we will just have to come back and see it in the future. We got as far as the Jin Mao Tower. This is currently Shanghai's tallest building at 85 floors. I say currently as there is a taller building under construction just next door, so it will be knocked off it's perch somewhat! I wonder how it's tourism centre will go?? The veiws would be quite spectacular were it not for the dense pollution. There is a view down the centre stairwell of the hotel which is also head spinning. Plenty of things to buy there including an interesting little scam of sorts. For your admission ticket, you get to choose a fresh water pearl, absolutely free. You can watch them take it straight out of the oyster! You can then have a hole drilled into it - absolutely free. Then you can choose a silver chain - absolutely free. The catch? The clasp the attaches the pearl to the chain ranges in price starting from 100RMB. Not a bad scam really, and we enjoyed getting our own pearl necklace made up from oyster to chain.
All packed, we were picked up by Giselle and Peter, who came bearing gifts....lovely, but more packing!!....and went to catch the overnight train to Beijing. It was quite a hike so we were lucky to have a couple of extra hands. I have travelled by train in VietNam before, so had an idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. The trains are much more modern and comfortable. We had booked a soft sleeper to ourselves. This means having to buy 4 beds instead of 2, but if your budget can stretch, I definately recommend it. The cabins come complete with nice quilts and pillows and are airconditioned.
The dining car is quite small for the amount of passengers onboard, but as you walk through the other cars, you can see why they don't bother expanding it. The locals all BYO! We ordered a couple of nice dishes but the last one looked like beef with green beans. WRONG!!! Green peppers. And very very very hot! The night was difficult for me as I wasn't well but it was as comfortable as it could be. Certainly safer than the internal flights.