Shanghai

I love Shanghai!

People say that the disadvantage to Shanghai is that it is so modernized. But, after traveling to so many other parts of China, this city was a breath of fresh air. There wasn't quite as much of a culture shock when coming to Shanghai and far more people speak English. When we got on the train, I heard so many people speaking English. It was so weird to me. When we first arrived at 11:20pm, we had to wait in a line for 45 minutes, just to get a taxi. Carly and I didn't actually get to sleep until 2am.

We woke up pretty happy. Our hotel was nice and quiet and warm. We had comfortable beds. We got in a Didi and went right to People's square. It was snowing! It was the first time we had seen snow in China and it made us so happy. People's square is the center of Shanghai.

All the major attractions surround People's square.

We found a nice little restaurant to eat breakfast and then went to Nanjing road. Nanjing road has over 600 businesses and is 5km long. It has multi level shopping malls. We first went into a Children's mall, which was 6 floors tall.

Carly had a blast picking out all of the things she wanted for Christmas. We also went in the M&M store.

We then just took off walking to the rich part of Shanghai. It was a glitzy and contemporary district called Xintiandi and we walked in a super fancy hotel and took a picture by their Christmas tree.

Carly commented that they treated us like queens. There was a chauffeur who held the door open for our taxi and said, "Good Evening Madam" We went into a trendy little bookstore, called Mo Mi cafe and ordered some tea and tiramisu.

There was a wall named, "Mall to Future" where there were 365 small cells on the wall, and each cell stands for 1 day in the year. Everyone can choose a postcard, write down the name and address and then put it into any cell and the postcard will be sent off on that day.

The postcards are designed by the shopkeepers and there are almost 300 different kinds of postcards. I especially loved this part of Shanghai because it had been so long since I had been in a true bookstore and I love postcards. It was so cozy and warm in there. Carly and I had a great time writing postcards.

The last thing that we needed to do before leaving Shanghai was visit, "The Bund" It is a waterfront area. It runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River. The area along the river faces the modern skyscrapers. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai.

The Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower is 468 m high. The Astor House hotel has been described as one of the famous hotels of the world.

It was established in 1846.

When we returned the Beijing, our elf was waiting in our apartment.