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2018.04.12 \u2013 Melbourne (AU) – Shanghai (CN) \u2013 As our room was some distance from the hotel reception, the airport shuttle came over at 7am to pick up our luggage and us. The hotel\u2019s courtesy airport shuttle was completely full of guests when it left for the airport. We waited 45mins at China Eastern\u2019s check-in counter as we had arrived a bit early. The check-in was very efficient. We were relieved that we did not encounter any problems checking in our bicycle box as it was not even weighted. After the security check, we had a disappointing breakfast of a fast food chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Although, we felt close to China in Australia, we were surprised by the 10 hour flight time between Melbourne and Shanghai. Upon our exit from Shanghai\u2019s international arrival, we were greeted by Jingyu, Jenny\u2019s younger brother. We had a light late night meal at Jingyu’s place and sleep there for our first night in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2018.04.13 \u2013 Shanghai (CN) \u2013 Jingyu guided us to hair stylish studio where both Jenny and I got haircuts. Later we bought SIM cards for our phones. We visited a very remote Bank of Nanjing office in order to withdraw funds at their ATM. We were led to believe that this particular bank was part of our own bank\u2019s Global network of bank. Unfortunately, our bank debit card did not even get accepted at their ATM machine. Later, we struggled a bit to secure a hotel accommodation as we had to visit a few establishments in order to find one that would accept foreigners. We met up with our Australian friends (Ling and Tanya) for an evening meal at Wan Dao Japanese restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sunflowerit.ca\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-13_18-24-30.avif\" "\\"2018-04-13_18-24-30\\"")
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