The Whore of the Orient...Paris of the East

The Shanghai Museum's Newest Exhibit

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The exhibit included crafts and costumes from China's 52 minority groups. The Tibetan golden armor-like outfits were beautiful.

Exhibit Shots

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quite lovely

Exhibit Photo

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I'm sorry, it's been months since we went to Shanghai, I've got to get these photos out, which means short changing you on the captions.

I hated it when mom dressed me up too.

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Beautiful. Photo of a photo, by the way, in case you were wondering if there were models strolling around the museum. Nope.

I'd give my right arm

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to be ambidextrous.

A challenge for the camera

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An incredibly intricate design carved into a rich piece of jade.

The Jin Mao Building

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We found the sign "Please do not climb" -- required since the French dare devil - Alain Robert - took advantage of the silver layers of the building....sadly, the guards shooed us away from taking a picture. Sniff.

82nd story glory

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A moment before I dug into my dessert from the buffet. The restaurant on the 82nd *out of 88 floors (8 being an auspicious number in Chinese culture)* was beautifully lit and had a spectacular view of the Pearl TV Tower. Quite romantic, and a bit pricey.

The Jade Buddha Temple

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Just across the Wusong River (Suzhou Creek), while waiting for our train to Hangzhou. Inside this building was a 1.9 m light green Buddha. Spectacular. The Buddha, as the story goes, was originally brough from Myanmar, through Tibet to China by monk Hui Gen.

Tie your red prayer ribbon

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around the old stone statue...if you're a Buddhist....and, ok, the song reference is so dated.

In front of the Lingyin Temple

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"Temple of Inspired Seclusion," or "Temple of the Soul's Retreat." We were too invigorated by the fresh gusts of air while biking, we couldn't stop for too long to head into this temple, but we did stare up for a good few minutes. By the way, we expected the bikes to be about $15 for four hours. When we returned to the convenience store to pay our fee, we found out the rent was actually about $2. HangZhou was well worth the train confusion.

Took our breath away

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We could not go on enough to each other about the peaceful atmosphere. We could not stroll down enough small lakeside paths in the 36 hours of our Hangzhou excursion.

Dragon Mansion Boat

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Not the official title, but these boats were MASSIVE! This picture was taken on our first morning in HangZhou. The previous night we walked around part of the lake admiring the smaller Christmas-light-lit boats and gawking at the speedy restaurant Dragon turbine boats that stormed past.

A parasol beneath the willows

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A piece of the quiet moment stolen by my noisy camera. I felt as though I had stepped into a Sino-Sense and Sensibility.

The Lucky One

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He waited outside the building near our hostel, and reminded me of my Thailand elephants - who hoisted me up on their shoulders without any warning. Thank goodness those domestic trunks weren't tusked.

Boat ride over the original West Lake

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Many lakes in China are nicknamed after the HangZhou *pronounced Hangchou* West Lake. About 5 miles *complete guess based on biking time* circumference, the boat ride across took us a good half an hour - our paddler had incredible energy.

Afternoon nap

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The boat paddlers took a snooze since the pedestrian traffic lightened.