tourists in Shanghai

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You know how when people live somewhere with a huge tourist attraction they tend not to go do that touristy stuff? Well, so it goes with many of the tourist attractions in Shanghai. We hit a few landmarks when we first moved here, but since then have been living here and behaving less like tourists. I'm not sure why, since no matter what you do here, it's quite difficult to avoid the crowds.

Sunday we intended to try another somewhat spontaneous train trip. This time to Suzhou--a water town I've been eager to visit. We packed the backpacks, went to brunch, then headed to the train station and lined up for tickets. Sadly, though we arrived in time for 3 possible departure trains, we learned the time we wanted was not available and there were no return tickets available. We could have gone and figured out a way back, but it seemed to be more trouble than we wanted to take on that day, so we had a family huddle and came up with our plan B. I was the least go with the flowish--but only for like 5 minutes--okay maybe 15. I really wanted to go to Suzhou. But, with Mark's fine example, we all agreed to go to Pudong and and hit a few tourist spots. We will try to buy our tickets in advance next time.

First stop--the Aquarium. Mark and I also wanted to go to the Aquarium because we bought a family membership back in August and had yet to return to pick up our card. The reason we bought the membership was that if we returned just 1 more time, the card would pay for itself...but then we didn't go back. We arrived at the Aquarium and found that it was surprisingly not crowded. We were able to move about the exhibits comfortably and had a good time seeing the multitude of aquatic species. Our favorites were these freakishly large fish.

Next, we decided to go to the 100th floor of the tallest building in Shanghai--The World Financial Center. We walked there from the Aquarium and stopped at a nice park. We enjoyed looking at the pretty grass--the grass that is not to be walked upon but merely admired--and then went on to the observation deck.

I got a little dizzy after looking down through the see-through sections of the floor. Not for the weak stomached. The tickets to get to the top were expensive. We noticed that almost all the visitors were non-Chinese. This is likely due to the fact that a) who goes to such things when they live in a city (see above) but more importantly and more likely b) tickets are too expensive for most local people to afford entry. Fast facts about the building: Height: 492 meters / 1,600 feet and 101 stories. The observation deck is on the 100th floor. Our ears popped going up in the elevators. The building had all sorts of modern art incorporated into the lobby areas and elevators.

We finished the tour de tourist with some dumplings, noodles, and shopping in Yu Gardens. So pretty at night with all the twinkling lights. Shanghai is in full Christmas splendor. Every mall, store, building has lights and signs in English declaring "Merry Christmas." It's a purely commercial holiday here--but people seem to really get into it, even if "it" is all about spirit of shopping. Our family participated in a program called The Giving Tree through school (similar to adopt-a-family but this program focuses on kids in need. We bought gifts for an 8 year old Chinese boy --new shoes, some clothes and a few toys. The kids and I went shopping together one afternoon and it was a good experience for all of us.

In other news, I finished my language classes--for now. I had a great last 2 days where I felt like my time has been well spent. I liked my teachers a lot and may return to the school next year. My goal is to study while we are on our break or I'm afraid I'll lose my momentum. One of my classmates brought treats for my "last day". So nice. I had a private lesson yesterday and today it was 1/2 private before another classmate finally showed up. I got a lot out of the solo time, and am thinking about doing some private lessons and venturing into the world of Hanzi -- written Chinese. Oooh aaaaah.

Both kids wowed us with their school holiday performances. Last week, Emily was in a show where she sang and danced. Then tonight, Nathan had his concert. It was pretty amazing to see these very large groups of students perform with such coordinated effort. This is only 3 months into the music program and Nathan participated in a full string orchestra. The teacher had this great approach. Instead of having them perform based on skill level, he put them all together and gave them skill-level based parts. So Nathan, a beginner violin player, played the same few notes repetitively and did a bit of string plucking, while other more advanced students did more complex playing. I loved it. Emily's music performance was singing and some dancing. The kids sounded great and were having so much fun. Hilarious PC moment tonight when the song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" became "We Wish you a Swingin' Holiday".I had a good laugh since that could be interpreted in a less than wholesome way. Not what they meant, I realize. But still. Funny.

The weather has warmed up again. I feel bad even writing that since those of you in the colder areas are suffering through some bitter cold. We'll be joining that fun soon enough. The kids are giddy with excitement about our trip to Chicago next week. I am too. Except for the extreme weather. Not super excited about that.

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Comments

[Linda]

Christmas in Shanghai
I'm surprised and yet somehow not surprised by the colored lights in the photo. That's a good way to put it...commercial purpose only...but I still wonder how Christmas themes show up in Shanghai. Loved reading about the school holiday programs, especially the music teacher's approach. What an amazing experience for Nathan, to be part of a full-string orchestra!