A Trip to Shanghai

Char and I were up early so we could be out by 7:30 a.m. to catch a cab to the train station. It is not as easy as it sounds. The cab drivers don't like to pick up foreigners because we usually can't communicate with them - which we couldn't. Fortunately, and very nice older gentleman stopped to help us. He hailed a cab and told the driver to take us to the South Railroad Station where we arrived at in plenty of time to catch the high-speed train to Shanghai.

 It is a great way to travel. By 3:00 p.m. we were checked into a beautiful room at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel on the Pudong side of the city. 

It was a shabby view out our hotel window, but somebody had to take the room. We decided we would suffer so no one else would have to. 

We hadn't had much to eat all day so the first thing we looked for was a place to get some food.  We found a restaurant in the mall close to our hotel and then began ordering.  We ordered a beef steak dish, sweet and sour spareribs, rice, spinach, egg rolls, and pot stickers. Our table was covered with food. They also brought us some kind of sweet rolls that we did not order. We tried to explain that we didn't want them, but they just smiled and brought us some boxes to take them home. Not able to communicate, we paid for the rolls and made our way out of the restaurant - actually rolled out. (Pun intended.)

For the evening activity, we decided to visit the Bund which is a beautiful walk along the river across from Pudong.  My camera doesn't take the best pictures in the dark, but everything around us was lit up and beautiful. We strolled along with many other people, and enjoyed the scenery around us.

These two pictures are of the Bund.

This is looking across to the Pudong side - where our hotel was.

Sights down one of the main streets of Shanghai.  You can see it was a busy night.

A few of the neighborhood women dancing and enjoying the evening. 

We made our way home about eleven o'clock and dropped into bed for a good night's sleep.

We awakened the next morning to an overcast and rainy day.  When we only had  three days to see a Shanghai, we weren't going to let a little rain stop us.  Armed with our trusty umbrellas we set out upon the day's adventure. First we explored the places close to our hotel in the Pudong area.

This is the Pearl Tower building - one of Shanghai' most famous landmarks. 

These arrangements were all created with living plants.

A daylight view of Pudong.

I don't think you can tell, but this building is decorated for Christmas.  It even said Merry Christmas on it.

Next we took a cable car through a tunnel to the other side of the river.  It didn't take very long and would have been cheaper to take the subway. But it was the touristy thing to do, and there was a light show all the way across.

Once we made it across the river, we hurried back to see the Bund again in the daylight. I am sure it wasn't as beautiful as it would have been on a sunshiny day, but it was still fun walking down the streets again. It almost felt like we were in a European city.

I may have told you this before in another post, but the Chinese love to pose for pictures. You very seldom see them just standing straight and reserved when someone is snapping their picture.  At first it seemed a little strange.  The more I watched them pose, the more I thought it was a great idea. A good pose adds a little life to a picture.  I find myself doing it more and more.  I will probably go back to the boring American stance when I return home, but for now I am enjoying following the Chinese way.