Hong Konged?!

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Hi all,

Have been busy with packing up etc to post earlier, so I'll try to wrap up Shanghai before moving on to Hong Kong. The second last day we visited the Jinmao Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Pudong (eastern district of Shanghai). We took the elevator up to the 54th floor and found ourselves in the Hyatt hotel lobby - turns out the hotel actually starts on the 54th floor! We enjoyed some coffee, a creme brulee which tasted like Chinese egg custard (!), and Candy had the Shanghainese noodle stir fry (seung hoi choh chow in Cantonese) which was ok. We were there for the view and to gawk at the tourists there as well, and it was fabulous looking down on the city. Unfortunately when we were about to leave we noticed black clouds but thought it wasn't raining because it turned out we were above the clouds! When we stepped out to catch a taxi we found it was in full monsoon mode with rain every which way and wind howling - the two young men monitoring the front of the hotel tried to keep us dry with their umbrellas but it was futile since their umbrella couldn't cover very much. Taxied home eventually and went to bed pooped and slightly drier...

On the last day we finally went to the main tourist strip in Shanghai: The Bund (Wai tan) along the water on the west, older side (Puxi) of the city. The Bund consists of old European-style buildings from all the foreign countries that traded and did business along Asia's equivalent of Wall Street. The Chinese government preserved the buildings and created a walkway between the buildings and a main road and the river between Pudong and Puxi. We were treated to a spectacular view of the new skyscrapers across the water from us, and we also stumbled on another tacky tourist attraction we meant to visit but didn't have time for: the Bund tourist tunel which was basically a ride on tracks which took us back to Pudong through a psychedelic light tunnel. Now I know what being high is like! The last day is basically a writeoff since we flew from Shanghai to Hong Kong - but we DID almost miss the $#@%!f(MISSING)light because we left an hour late (my Dad's fault for not being ready >.< ) and the customs took longer than expected... we had to sprint from customs to gate 27 as they were announcing the final boarding call the second time... I think we were the second last people to enter the plane O_o

Now I'm in HK with relatives, and using their computer so I can't upload any pics yet - will try later. My wallet is already tempted by clothes and cell phones and gadgets... arrgghhh!!!

Oh, and Happy Canada Day from this side of the pond! =)

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