Our Great China Adventure, Part IV: SHANGHAI

SHANGHAI:

May 14th-
On this day we arrived in the bustling city of Shanghai. We met our tour guide Wendy, who took us to our hotel and got us checked in...and then the rest of the day was ours. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at KFC, we did a little exploring on our own. After visiting Qi Bao Old Street and not really being too impressed, we decided to wander over to the infamous Hengshan Road (a popular street for dining, drinking and clubbing) for some drinks and dinner. Unfortunately, we underestimated how far Qi Bao Old Street was from our hotel and we ended up being in a taxi cab for nearly 45 minutes before we arrived there! But...FORTUNATELY...cabs are CHEAP in Shanghai (and in China, in general), and so although the ride was really long, we didn't mind too much because it only cost about $5!!!

May 15th-
This was our big tour day here in Shanghai. Wendy picked us up early on this day, and we immediately began to see the sights. We started with The People's Square, then had a coffee in the Old French Concession Area (also known as Xintiandi), and then we visited the Jade Buddha Temple. After all that, we had lunch, then headed to the Yu Yuan Garden. This was a really cool area as it had a lot of history, but also a lot of shops, games, and things to do along the street. Afterwards, we went to the Bund and walked along the water. The skyline of Shanghai was very futuristic-looking and quite a sight to see, but we were a little disappointed in how polluted the air was here!

After Danny bought some wheel-contraption to turn his sneakers into roller skates, we all decided to take a ferry along the river. This ride was nice as it really showed us all of the fascinating architecture that Shanghai had to offer, but unfortunately again, the pollution was overwhelming. When the ferry ride had ended, we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and drinks. This night we went back to the Bund on the river, so that we could see it all lit up at night, as well as take some pictures. It was a little hard to get some clear pictures between the rain and air pollution, but I think we ended up getting a few!

May 16th-
This day was another one of my favorites, as we had the whole day free to SHOP! Here we went to another huge market, similar to the Silk Market in Beijing, where we went through floors of vendors selling anything you could have possibly imagined. Here, we felt the prices were a little higher than in Beijing, but since we were "China shopping pros" at this point in our trip, we did alright. Danny got a sweet deal on sunglasses here too....as he got the man to go down to 15 RMB (which is about the equivalent of $2 US dollars!) So, of course, we all had to buy some more!

After spending most of the morning and afternoon here, only briefly stopping to have some McDonald's for lunch, we decided we should move on to other areas. Our next destination was Nanjing Road - China's LONGEST shopping street! We walked here from the market, only stopping to grab some snacks on the way. Once again, we had shopped for an entire day!! As it got dark, Danny talked us into taking the "Bund Sightseeing Tunnel" to get to the area known as "New Shanghai" across the river. It wasn't much to write home about, but the neon, flashing lights made Danny happy, so we were happy too! Once in New Shanghai, we went up to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower. Again, the view was amazing and we got some really pretty pictures too. Before calling it a night we went back to the area known as Xintiandi for a late dinner and some drinks. This night we also got massages at our hotel, but they were lame...not nearly as incredible as the ones we got in Guilin.

May 17th-
This was our last day in Shanghai (and in China), and so we had to make the most of our morning. We decided to go back to the market and get a few more hours of shopping in, since that seemed to be our favorite thing to do on this trip!

By mid-afternoon, we were back at the airport and ready for our short plane ride back to Korea. We were sad to leave, but also very exhausted and ready to get back to our daily grind. Surprisingly (to us anyway), all of our new luggage and purchases almost didn't fit in our little Kia when we got back, but we finally found a way to squeeze it all in!

All in all, what a great trip!

We hope you all enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you...

Love,
Larry & Melanie (& Danny too!)

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