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Monthly Archives: November 2013


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Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

I love visiting aquariums and every time I visit one, it’s like I turn 10 again. I had already told my Chinese colleagues about this before coming to Shanghai so when they took us out during the week, the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium was one of the stops. The entrance fee (160 RMB) for the aquarium is quite high considering this is China where a lunch can cost between 10 and 45 RMB. For me, it was definitely worth every penny.

During our visit (Sunday afternoon), there wasn’t many other visitors. At least not to the extent that it felt crowded. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the reasons was the high entrance fee. Bringing your family here would be pretty darn expensive.

The collection of sea-living creatures was quite amazing. I expected to find different sorts of fish but not giant sea turtles, seals and penguins. One of the cooler animals was the pig-nosed turtle that looked like a mix of turtle, pig and penguin. I also very much enjoyed the jellyfish part of the aquarium. There were huge tanks, filled with different sorts of jellyfish, lit up in different colours. To accompany the lovely view, soothing theme songs from Studio Ghibli movies played.

Turtle/Pig/Penguin
The beauty of jellyfishes :)
That’s actually a turtle.


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The traffic flow in China

I was very surprised by the traffic flow here in Shanghai, or perhaps I should say lack thereof. Never have I seen such a deadly traffic chaos on a daily basis. If you want to grow old in this town, you’d better stay far away from the roads.

When my Chinese colleagues visited earlier this autumn, they told me how to cross a street in Shanghai. They said “when you’re a group of at least 5 people, it’s safe to cross the street. Because hitting many people is expensive”. I laughed and thought they were exaggerating. They were not. The signals seem to be viewed only as a recommendation. People actually stand half way out in the street waiting for the light to turn green, or for enough people to show up.

People standing around waiting in the middle of the road.

People standing around waiting in the middle of the road.

The cars are no better. They drive pretty much when they feel like it. Today I saw a bus driving through a red light without even slowing down. But it did sound the car horn. I guess that’s better than nothing… The cars cross the traffic lanes pretty much as they feel like it and completely ignore any solid lines. They also enjoy using the horn and high beam.

This woman obviously believes she's a motor vehicle.

This woman obviously believes she’s a motor vehicle.

But this chaos wouldn’t be complete without the mopeds. Since it’s very expensive and hard to get a car, most people have a bicycle or ride a moped. They’re usually in the lane to the right but when they reach a crossing they’re everywhere! As a pedestrian, you need to look out for the cars, buses, crazy moped riders and other pedestrians.

When I first saw this video I thought the guy was drunk, now I’m not so sure any more.


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Me vs. Great (Fire)wall of China

Before coming to China I already knew of the Great (Fire)wall of China that blocks “unwanted” webpages but naively I didn’t think it would prevent me from blogging. As I write this post, yukiclothing is still accessible from within China but logging onto my WordPress account to actually write something isn’t possible. Now you’re probably thinking, “What are blabbering about woman? You’ve managed to post this, didn’t you?”. That is true, but the reason is that I’m here on business and I finally got my company computer to access the Internet via Sweden.

Now to keep you updated about this awesome trip! It’s a wonder we even made it to Shanghai. First it was the strike and then the airplane that should’ve taken us from London to Shanghai broke down. Luckily they managed to fly in another plane and we were only delayed 2-3h. After passing immigration in Shanghai, we proceeded to the Maglev train that took us closer to the city and the Metro. Before entering the Maglev or Metro, there’s a security check were you should scan your bag. As with many other rules, Chinese people simply ignore them and pass by the security guards like they weren’t even there. And the guards don’t seem to do anything about this either. They just stand there and wave towards the scanner regardless of the people. I wonder if anyone even monitor the scan?

The Maglev train was pretty cool and it reminded me of travelling with the Shinkansen in Japan. In each carriage, there was a gauge that showed the current speed of the train. As its highest it reached 301km/h!