China - Day 2

Day Two was one of the most interesting days thus so far. We decided to travel to a small part of Shanghai called old town. This is what traditional old shanghai looked like; since it was Sunday it was packed with locals praying. We went to the City Temple of Shanghai where there were Buddha’s, incense, and kneeling all over the place. It was about 80 degrees and very humid, it was a little tough to get through the crowds. People in this country feel the need to be right on top of you when there are mass crowds. This can become very trying especially when it gets very hot. Part of old town was Yuyuan Garden; this place was beautiful and went on forever! From there we decided to take a cab to the Shanghai Museum. Cab drivers in Shanghai have the mentality that no one can get in front of them and they have to win the race. This can be a little nerve wracking. My suggesting getting over this would be; never ride in a cab without booze in your system. It makes it easier.

Shanghai museum was UNBEILEVEABLE! It was spilt up into 4 floors. The 4^th floor had galleries on Jade stone, ancient coins, ancient furniture. The coins were absolutely amazing. There were “coins” that looked like little swords from like 4000 years ago. The 3^rd floor had some of the most beautiful paintings and calligraphy I have ever seen. I couldn’t really understand that calligraphy, but it looked pretty cool. The 2^nd floor was devoted to ceramics of china, which was cool, (hard to appreciate), the detail was unreal. The 1^st floor lead out to Peoples Square. Peoples Square was an amazing site. It had people all over it flying kites and just enjoying the Sunday afternoon. In the background were all the skyscrapers, it was a great place to just sit and people watch. Dad, had shown some interest in buying a kite from a women, and she never left us along after that. It was pretty funny!

FOOD, I didn’t touch on this yesterday but the food we have been eating has primarily been western food. Our first night we at a Lawry’s Steak House, prime rib, Fantastic! Day two for dinner, we ate at Luna’s, baby back ribs, also very good! As for Chinese cuisine, haven’t been very interested in it. Ill letcha know when we get to Beijing I bet we will get more into the local food.

Monday, we are leaving Shanghai for Beijing. We are taking an AirChina flight in the morning. Should be quite the interesting trip. Also, me being the Rube that I am, I have woken up at 1am Shanghai time to watch my beloved Vikings beat up the Bears. Let’s hope they can pull another one off.