Shanghai!

The week is in full swing. Sounds like things will go full force from here until Christmas. Abigail's homework has begun and James has 2 projects due. I am subbing 2 classes in the coming weeks (step classes) which should be fun. The weather has cooled down quite a bit so I am really nervous about when our shipment will come as it contains all our cold weather clothes! We are now hearing maybe Friday if all goes well.
Anyway, I promised a blog about Shanghai. We boarded the train from Suzhou to Shanghai in the morning on Chinese National day (Oct.1). We paid a little extra for "soft seat" tickets which meant that we could bypass the crowd outside the train station and sit in a quiet, smoke-free waiting area. The train to Shanghai was a little under 1 hour.
Once we arrived we checked into the Zhao An Hotel. A 3 star hotel that was recommended by some teachers mostly for its location because it is right next to the subway (or rather on top of the subway). Unfortunately the duplex suite I reserved had one large bed and that was it (woops). We headed for the Superbrand Mall which I had learned via the internet was a large shopping center with a Toys R Us and many western stores including a good book store. Abigail was given money for her birthday so it was first on our list.
Saying the subway was packed does not do the situation justice and that's all I'm going to say. Abigail had a successful shopping trip, James was given some new lego and I found english magazines!! So from there we headed to People's Square which was another trip on the subway right into downtown Shanghai. The park was quite crowded so we walked around a bit and then hid from the staring crowds of people on the roof garden of starbucks where we had dinner. The picture above is James and Mark enjoying a much needed rest.
We decided since we were so close we would head to Nanjing Road, a pedestrian shopping street. Something I've learned since arriving in Suzhou is most Chinese cities have what they call a "walking street". This is a street of shops that is (mostly) blocked off from vehicle traffic. So obviously the bigger the city, the bigger the walking street and we decided to see what Shanghai had to offer. Here are a couple of pictures I took at dusk...We did manage to make a few purchases but did not stay long and walked back to the hotel in order to avoid the subway
The next morning we ate a very strange buffet breakfast at the hotel and headed for the Shanghai Aquarium which is supposed to be one of the best in the world. Again the crowds were unbelievable but we enjoyed the exhibits. The best part was an underwater tunnel that you can view from a moving sidewalk, we all commented that this was an excellent way to set up viewing because you are right next to the glass and no one can cut in between you and the fish. The pictures don't do it justice but I'll post a few anyway...After the aquarium we headed for the Shanghai Sculpture Park, another place I had found online before our trip. Unfortunately, due to a language barrier with our taxi driver, we were dropped off at the Shanghai Sculpture "Space". Oh well, we'll save it for our next trip. Here's a picture of Mark with his favorite sculpture, and the one good thing I can say about the Sculpture space is: it wasn't crowded, we were the only ones there.We finished our time in Shanghai with some shopping in the french concession and then boarded the "fast train" back to Suzhou, which was feeling like home after being in Shanghai.
We will go back to Shanghai but not for awhile and definitely not during a chinese holiday!
It was an adventure and all part of the experience that is China!