Holiday in Shanghai

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The chinese national holiday is October 1st. You may have seen the impressive parade in Beijing. I saw it on TV. The next day October 2nd we boarded the plane for Shanghai to start a week holiday.
I will never complain about a plane flight again. To begin with the airplane seats are closer together, some of you may be wondering if this is possible. Trust me it is. My knee was jammed into the back of the seat in front of me for the whole trip. Has anyone ever watched the home shopping network? How about for an hour straight? Did you turn the volume up to the highest level possible? If was in Mandarin Chinese then you know what I am talking about when I say they were selling everything from the Sky Mall catalog in the plane. If you have not, then you know what to be thankful for today. They should list it on ticket:
We have no food service on Spring Airlines, but instead we have a man who will agressively sell you junk in a foreign language.
We arrived safely in Shanghai and took the MAGLEV train into the city. It was after dark so the train stayed around 200 mph. It was amazingly fast and smooth. A quick subway ride and taxi to our hostel and we could relax. Shanghai is an amazing city, in any direction you look you can see a few skyscrapers and many smaller older buildings. It seemed more an international city than one that is distinctly Chinese. In addition to eating a variety of western food and experiencing the night life, I visited 2 buddhist temples, the Shanghai Art Museum, and the Old Town Area of the City. I have included a few pictures. We also visited Suzhou a canal city, kind of like the Chinese Venice, but I will save those pictures for another blog.
I returned home safely and headed back to the classroom on Friday.

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Photos

Shanghai New and Old
This was taken in the Old Town section, but you can see the skyscrapers in the background.

Jade Temple
This was a Buddhist Temple that was home to some of the largest Buddhas in the world.

JingAn Temple
This is another Temple that was near our Hostel. As you can see in the picture there were many visitors over the holiday. The smoke in the picture is incense.

Me in the Museum
How do I look?

Comments

[Tracy]

Pics I want to see
Jon- Where's the pic where you are standing next to Chinese people...towering over them? I've been waiting for that one :) Trace

[Aunt Beth]

sounds great!
you look awesome in the picture. clearly international living suits you. plane ride sounds like something you should film! we can laugh with you about it when next we see you in person!

[Elsa]

Suzhou
I am pretty sure the school the Franks kids went to was Suzhou something international school.

[Suzy]

I call it.. The Kramer
You look pensive...