Today we were on a treasure hunt. Sarah who we met in Huàngshàn had kindly invited us to stay with her Shanghai. Sarah would be working when we arrived so she had sent us detailed directions to find her apartment.

Firstly we had to get to Shanghai, our transport would be on the trailer of Steven’s e bike to the bus station. This was hilarious, us and our bag packs in the trailer while Steven over took cars and shouted at taxi drivers to get out the way. The bus station was much easier than our last encounter, Steven showed us the bus departure gate.

Boarding the bus we realised we had the naughty seats- the back row. They were fine until the wee boy next to John got sick. We used the hand sanitisers up the nostrils trick- thanks for that Joey!

Off the bus we headed for the metro, the directions were clear line 10 to stop a. 1 line change and we got to the station. There were 4 exists and no indication which 1 to use but to stand with good old Macdonalds behind us so we went on search on the Golden Arches. Clue 1 complete, next we had to walk along the main road passing a fruit shop and the train ticket office, we saw these then moved onto clue 3: look for a big building – Sarah had sent us a photo. We stood outside comparing the photo to the building, looking good. Now it was time to find the keys, which were left with the guard. A quick ni hao and charades we had a set of keys. Next was to find the apartment block and take the lift to the 10th floor.

Artist’s Impression

We won the prize…the key turned in the door and we entered Sarah’s lovely home. We had clear instructions, our room had the chicks curtains. What a cute, clean room it was too. It was fantastic to have a place which felt like home for the next 5 days.

Sarah had sent us more details on where to find a good spot for food. We were needing a bit of westernisation so we flagged a cab like locals and showed the address in Chinese- thanks Sarah. The cab pulled up at our destination and we walked down train street- complete with a huge train. Our destination was Shanghai Brewery, found, food and drinks ordered. Karen celebrated with a rare glass of wine.

It had been a fun day of a treasure hunt and we had certainly found the prize, Sarah’s washing machine 😉.

The next few days were great, staying with a local meant we knew where to go and what not to do. It was fun meeting up with our new friends: Danielle and Sarah for the infamous basil drops cocktails and some tasty Chinese food in the French concession while getting great tips to plan the rest of our trip.