Thursday, February 24, 2011
Plane landed at 6.45 pm. Yet another brand new airport in Asia - are there any old, tired airports on this continent? Cleared immigration fairly quickly, grabbed our bags and went to look for the driver we had arranged. We looked through all the names on the various placards being held in the arrivals area and could not find our guy. A helpful lady from one of the other hotels asked if she could help us find our driver. She phoned our hotel and just as she got through, our driver appeared.
The Shanghai Pudong airport is located about 35 to 40 minutes from the city centre and the drive to the hotel was quick on a newly built and well maintained highway. For a city of 20 million people, the infrastructure here is incredible. We checked in to our hotel - the Mansion Hotel - in the French district of the city. The hotel is a house from the 1920’s and 30’s that used to be the home of a prominent gangster! It is very interesting with lots of period artifacts all over the place. Our room is comfortable and spacious and has a door that has to be the biggest hotel door we have ever seen.
Took a quick shower to get cleaned up - the shower certainly qualifies as unusual. Quite a work of art to operate the five shower heads that point down at you! Feeling a little more refreshed, we headed up to the rooftop restaurant for something to eat and a good cup of tea. We snacked on fresh vegetable spring rolls followed by tiramisu and ice cream. After a quick walk outside the hotel to get some fresh air, it was time to get to bed.
Plane landed at 6.45 pm. Yet another brand new airport in Asia - are there any old, tired airports on this continent? Cleared immigration fairly quickly, grabbed our bags and went to look for the driver we had arranged. We looked through all the names on the various placards being held in the arrivals area and could not find our guy. A helpful lady from one of the other hotels asked if she could help us find our driver. She phoned our hotel and just as she got through, our driver appeared.
The Shanghai Pudong airport is located about 35 to 40 minutes from the city centre and the drive to the hotel was quick on a newly built and well maintained highway. For a city of 20 million people, the infrastructure here is incredible. We checked in to our hotel - the Mansion Hotel - in the French district of the city. The hotel is a house from the 1920’s and 30’s that used to be the home of a prominent gangster! It is very interesting with lots of period artifacts all over the place. Our room is comfortable and spacious and has a door that has to be the biggest hotel door we have ever seen.
Took a quick shower to get cleaned up - the shower certainly qualifies as unusual. Quite a work of art to operate the five shower heads that point down at you! Feeling a little more refreshed, we headed up to the rooftop restaurant for something to eat and a good cup of tea. We snacked on fresh vegetable spring rolls followed by tiramisu and ice cream. After a quick walk outside the hotel to get some fresh air, it was time to get to bed.