nomadnorrie From Sydney to the formula 1 grand prix in Shanghai, Beijing, South Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine and Europe. Final destination by train is London. Hopping on a flight to Finland, then on to Japan and finally back to Sydney.

I found The Bund today, it's amazing. The skyline on the eastern side of the river looks terribly exotic. The downside, well there were lots of other tourists about and because of that there were lots of touts about too. "Hello, where do you come from?" "How long have you been here?" one guy gave up on me when I told him I have been here for 2 weeks and have been studying Mandarin in Beijing. Another gave up on me when I replied in French. Another guy wanted to sell me a watch so I told him the time in Mandarin. Fortunately they are easy to spot, the locals that spend all day in the sun chasing tourists are the most tanned with very dark skin.

Not too far away from the southern end of The Bund is the old district and there I wandered around for the rest of the afternoon. It was a lot like Shilin markets in Taipei but without the variety, imagine a market with a hundred or so $1 market stalls in the same area. I couldn't resist having something to eat there and had a delicious, sweet veggie pancake fritter. Did I mention it was delicious. After that I had some boiled dumplings. I sat down to eat the dumplings and the woman from the next market stall said "waiguoren" at me. Then again at me. Then again at the dumplings cook. In Mandarin waiguoren means foreigner (lit. outside country person).

Chinese people stare a lot at foreigners. Everywhere I look my eyes meet someone else's. Today on the train I even had a family point with their arms locked straight, they said hey look at him, all of them had a good look at me smiling back at them all. I feel like a freak.