SHANGHAI: Nihao China!

7th October. My big mission for this year was definitely my trip to China! A few things need to be checked first, before you fly in, such as vaccinations like Hepatitis A and then I also got a jab for Tetanus, Diptheria and Polio all together, just to be on the safe side. Next, I had to apply for a visa which did not take too long. I got mine within 4 days, after I filled in the forms and paid around £50.

And last but not least, get some cash cos not everywhere takes cards, an adaptor and tissues/wipes... you will see during my diary why! We flew over with China Eastern which has a very good service and offers straight flights. It took us about 12 hours to get there, a very long flight, but luckily they had some great films to watch.

6pm, Shanghai. We arrived at the airport and used the impressive Maglev to get to Longyang Road and get the usual metro from there. Maglev stands for a magnetic train which reaches up to 431 km/h. This is ridiculously fast. I could not believe it either. After 250 km/h your body and mind start realising how fast it is actually going and your eyes just stare at the sign which shows the speed.

The subway is actually the same as everywhere else and pretty easy to get along with. What catches your mind is the bag controls at every single subway entrance which makes you feel safe. I haven't seen that in any other country before.

Next we went to see my friend Martin for dinner at YuYuan Garden which is very pretty in the evening.

We had delicious dumplings which contain mainly pork and are cooked in pork oil. One of my favourite desserts is fresh and warm soga with coconut milk. The Chinese love red beans in their desserts. Watch out for an ice cream and beans tower. It sounds horrible, but it is actually very tasty!

YuYuan Garden also has nice little markets where you can buy souvenirs for friends and family.

The streets are generally very poorly lit, I found. Another thing you recognise is that people hardly care about traffic lights. They just start walking even though they see cars coming towards them. This is why they place now and again traffic guides at the streets who give signs to the cars when they are allowed to drive.

One of the things they're always using is the horn on their scooter or car and that's one of the reasons why it seemed so loud, especially as not that many people were in the city because of the National Day which took place from October 1-7.