I went to Nanjing, although it’s not as big as Shanghai, still it has a population of 8 million. I don’t think there are many cities in China with a population of less than a couple of millions and they’re considered small cities in comparison to the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing. Nanjing was at one point the capital city of China.
Taking the High Speed at over 300km/h train was an amazing experience, it’s very similar to the one I took in Taiwan, and this is not the fastest high speed train in China. There was one that goes from shanghai to Beijing at a speed of more than 400KM/h, which was reduced after an accident couple of months ago. The train station in Shanghai was huge, and it looks more like an airport. I sat next to some locals and they spoke some English, they were complaining about the inflation, which I also read about almost daily in the newspaper. The locals are saying that the prices have been rising very quickly over the past few months. Not only the prices of the real states that have been skyrocketing but also food; they were saying the prices have almost doubled since the beginning of this year. I was surprised when I first arrived to find everything expensive, I was under the impression that since almost everything we buy these days at a bargain price is made in China, it must very affordable to travel here. I was wrong, I found China very expensive, and sometimes I pay for things like eating in a restaurant (it’s double or triple what you would pay for in Taiwan, Malaysia or Indonesia). Coffee shops are more expensive than Canada; a tea cup is between $4 and $5. I also went to check out some stores at the mall, and many of their prices are similar to Canada’s. There are still ways to score some bargains but you end up with bad quality items. The only thing I find very affordable is the transportation excluding the air flights.
