Day 3 - April 24 - whirlwind tourist Shanghai

Miracle of miracles, I slept the whole night through and woke feeling quite rested around 9am. Carrie and I both cleaned up and got ready for the day while Jeff was at a volleyball tournament. First, Carrie took me to their school's security office to register me as a guest at the school for the week. Then we walked through their neighborhood for an early morning treat of a baoza - a steamed dumpling type thing filled with tofu and greens. Delicious. Next we walked by some local shops and headed to a wet market, where locals sell fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Carrie and I walked the aisles and even received free cucumbers from one of the merchants she buys from often - quite a treat! From there we headed to the Trust Mart, the Chinese version of Wal-Mart. We got a milk tea from a local cafe, then bought a sim card for my cell phone so I can call Carrie and Jeff on days when they're working.

We headed back to the school to meet Jeff. We decided to head out again for lunch at a noodle shop around the corner from their campus. Carrie and I shared a noodle dish and watched them make the noodles right in front of us - very cool. From there we hopped on the metro and rode to People's square. We headed immediately to Nanjing Road and walked along this famous shopping street, stopping to watch a full choir and orchestra sing songs about the World Expo, which starts here in Shanghai on May 1. We bought ice cream cones as we walked toward the Bund, a stretch of road that parallels the Huang Pu river with classic and colonial style buildings. The sidewalk along the river was open after having been under construction the last few months, and since it was a gorgeous day there were tons of people out taking pictures of the skyline in PuDong, where all the tall skyscrapers are.

We walked along the riverwalk to Yuyuan, or Old Town. The streets are narrow and all the shops have roofs like pagodas. We walked through the famous tea house and stopped for another snack. From here we took a taxi to a neighborhood called Tai Kang Lu, another area with winding narrow streets and many unique shops. We had dinner in TaiKang Lu, including a local Chinese beer, Tsingtao.


From Tai Kang Lu we walked to Xintiandi street, which was another shopping district. We admired the fancier boutiques and people dressed for the evening, and stopped at a French patisserie for sweet snacks before catching a cab back to school. Public transportation is widespread and very cheap here, but the cabs are also very reasonable and since we had been walking all day we decided to splurge on the ride home.

Now we are settling in for the evening so we can be ready for another busy day tomorrow! I'll try to post some pictures soon. In the meantime you can check Carrie and Jeff's blog for updates: http://hsinchina.blogspot.com.