Shopping shopping and more shopping

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I am back from Shanghai and I really love that city. The Wellings are the nicest people you will ever meet. They took me into there home and were the greatest hosts ever. They took me shopping and fed me western food they are the greatest ever! Shanghai is very different from Beijing. More modern, starbucks on every corner, so many foreigners they don't look at me twice, everything goes up, warmer. It is the fashion capital of China. People dress very well and all the big name brands are being bought. When I got off the plane I was taken to the clothing market where I was fitted for new clothes it was great. I got to pick out my fabric and had pants made that fit me! I then went walking around on Nanjing road I looked in Gucci, Prada and Burberry at all the expensive fashionable clothes then went a couple blocks down and bought the knock of versions for a lot less money. I got to do all the tourist things even though the views were not so great because of the pollution. I could happily live in this city and feel like a was in any modern big city. I flew there but decided to take a train back because I could spend the day in shanghai with Ruth and her parents and return with them that night. It was quite the experience. A couple of days before the Chinese New Year I think all of China must have come to the train station. There were people who were waiting days in line to get tickets. Our room was quite snug but it was comfortable once we all got into our beds and didn't move. So my trip was a great success and I am very glad to have seen at least a little outside of Beijing.

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Photos

night skyline
Everything looks better at night. Shanghai really knows how to do lights.

Clothing market
This is me trying on my pants at the clothing market. The tailor holds up a sheet while you change.This is sort of like if you were standing in aisle of a grocery store except for clothes getting changed. In china privacy does not exitst.

Nanjing
I spent a lot of time walking and shopping on Nanjing Road. Its a main tourist road it connected where my bus dropped me off at the Ritz Carleton with the Bund so it made a very nice walk and at Night it was bursting with life.

Nanjing
The Pearl Tv Tower dominates the skyline along the bund. It really is a strange looking building. Unfortunatly everyday I was there it was very polluted so the view was not so great.

tv tower
Trying to make the best of a polluted view you can see how tall the tower is by the shadow it casts on the surrounding buildings.

tv tower
The hazy view

Megalift train
We took maglev train, the fastest train, in the world traveling at 430 Km/hr KM hour it took only seven minutes to go from downtown to the airport.

Urban planning
The Urban planning museum was really cool. They had an entire floor devoted to a model of Shanghai. You can kind of get an idea of how big the city really is. I couldn't even fit the whole thing in the frame.
Shanghai has a population of 16.7 million people living in an area of 6,340 kilometers according to the 2000 census. The same cesus has Beijing with a population of 12 million in an area of 16,807 kilometers.

museum
I think my favorite thing was the Shanghai museum. It was really well done it really made me think a lot about China and culture and the way societies develop.

French concession
The most dissappointing thing was the French Concession. It was sooo tourist. But hey there was a starbucks and again proving they are takeing over the world.

pig
This is the year of the pig. But not just any pig the golden pig. Its a good year to get married and have children.

Comments

[Alison]

Oh Trisha! This looks like so much fun!! Are you homesick? Or will you miss China? Are you really planning on coming home in 144 days, is it? Pants that fit?1 Oh I think it's hilarious how they put a sheet in front of you as you changed on the street!! I was in target the other day and just didn't feel like going in the dressing room. I wish a nice lady had put a sheet up next to me, then! I probably wouldn't have mind! We miss you, so so much. Come home :)