Travel Forum / Destinations / Asia / July 2005

Shanghai is a HUGE city.  Driving into it last night at around 12 am, I
don't think anyone actually could fathom how big it really is.
Charles accidentally signed two of his traveler's checks in the wrong
place, voiding them.

Shannon and I woke up around six am, made tea, and got breakfast.  The
breakfast at the hotel is kind of "Americanized;" they had fried
eggs as well as stuffed buns.  Even Liz liked the food.

After breakfast, we took a bus ride (in a bus with the words
'motion' and 'gymnastics' written in English all over the
seats) to the Jade Buddha temple in the city.  It was really different
from anything else I've ever seen.  There were beautiful red paper
lanterns all over the place and everything smelled like incense.

Next, we went to the Silk Exhibition, where we learned how silk is
harvested, etc.  A few people bought silk comforters and duvet covers.

Almost everyone in Shanghai speaks English, so it's pretty easy to
get around.  A few times when we were shopping this afternoon, people
came up to us to practice their English.

For lunch, Liz ate two shrimp and didn't break out in hives or
anything.  For dinner and lunch we ate communal-style, with huge bowls
in the middle of the table.  We tried jellyfish for the first time, and
Abraham continually fought over the right to eat fish eyes.  Liz is
convinced that we ate brains somewhere in one of our meals.

Also, we visited the Yu Yuan gardens and the Oriental Pearl
Broadcasting Tower, which is 468 meters tall.

Everyone is a bit tired from only sleeping three hours and we are still
not accustomed to the time change, I think.