shanghai

here I am in shanghai, ahving turned up at shanghai railway station with no hostel booking, and just a drunk sketch map copied off someone's lonely planet to get me to what Ihoped was a reasonable hostel that would take me.fortunately they did, so here I am!
I've walked along the bund a bit, which is half a block away from the hostel. a chinese boy wanted to get his family to take a picture of him standing next to me - very excited by foreigners they are here.
this place is more like Japan then Beijing - they use coins, it doesn't stink of shit apart from down alleyways, they sell the dsame drinks from the same chain convenience stores as in Japan, there are flatscreens everywhere showing all sorts of adverts and bits of information. it is however still chinese - man on the subway station platform with a whistle and loudhailer to shout at people who bundle through the train doors even after they have tried to close them, and peddlars in the street selling postcards and touristy crap at negotiable prices.
internet here is 5 yuan for 15 minutes, almost 10 times what I was paying in Xi'an at the local internet club. grr.
if you have read empire of the sun, or perhaps seen the film, this is where he lives at the very beginning, in the international settlement. perhaps my presence near jg ballards childhood home will turn me into some kind of cynical pervert?
yesterday purchased some trousers; today purchased some flip flops. also some toilet paper and some lots of japanese soft drinks (pocari sweat-u!)