Day 4 - April 25 - city from above

Today we decided to head into the city for another day of touristy sightseeing, as we had a second consecutive day of sunny weather. First we went to brunch at a place called Wagas, where I had a spinach egg and feta wrap, then split a pumpkin and chocolate muffin for dessert. We walked around Xu Jai Hui, including popping into a Best Buy to compare prices with its western counterparts.


Onward to a nearby park where we wandered among the crowds of families out enjoying the Sunday morning. We saw a bride getting her picture taken, and we ourselves posed with a large ceramic sculpture of HaiBao, the mascot of the Shanghai World Expo that's opening next week. He kind of looks like Gumbi.

Back on the metro to Century Ave, a long avenue that stretches along all of the financial towers on the PuDong (which is west of where we were walking yesterday). We decided to splurge and bought tickets to go up to the observation deck on the Shanghai World Financial Center. Our tickets took us to the 97th floor first, where we took many many pictures of the city, and also where we watched window washers strap themselves into a bucket and get lowered over the side of the 492m building. Then we headed up to the 100th level, which had a glass floor that we could walk on and see the city below us. It was freaky and cool all at the same time.

After stopping for a snack at Costa Coffee, we headed back to the Puxi (poo-shi) side of the river. Jeff went home and Carrie and I headed south to brave the Fabric Market. This is a warehouse type building with three floors devoted to various merchants selling fabric and hand-made clothing. Anything you could imagine being hand-tailored, they were selling. We admired shirts, skirts, dresses, even underclothes. But I wanted a winter coat and so we wandered around to a few stalls before finding two women that were willing to make the coat design that I wanted at a reasonable price. The coat is a chocolate brown with a round collar and assymetrical buttons - very unique and fun for my first China purchase! I'll pick it up next week and will post pictures (assuming it fits).

Now Carrie and I are back home after another long day. She's making dinner and I'm lounging around. We might go on a way around the neighborhood later tonight for a late-night snack, or I may crash early - it's been a busy few days! Tomorrow I plan to head to a park and maybe a walking tour of the French Concession...a neighborhood that has retained its roots of French colonialism for the last few centuries. And I hope to upload some pictures soon too!