Shanghai

Joe and I just spent about 2 weeks in China for vacation and to celebrate our anniversary. We went to Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. You can just imagine how many photos we took (I have albums on facebook and http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/ if you want to take a look). I'm going to try to blog about the main attractions we saw while we were there... 3 different posts, one for each city. Then I will end with a China FAQ blog post to share some of our opinions.

Welcome to city #1... Shanghai....

We were surprised by how large Shanghai was - both in area and population. The city has over 16 million people, and we definitely got to experience what it feels like to be in an overpopulated city. It was very overwhelming, claustrophobic, and caused constant stress and anxiety. The city was very large and modern. It was just about impossible to get around without using the subway system. Luckily, we have had plenty of experience getting around in Japan using public transportation, which turned out to really help us navigate our way through Shanghai.

Overall, Shanghai consists of many different districts, each with its own unique feel: the French Concession, The Bund, New World Shanghai, and Old Town. It was surprisingly modern, and cleaner than I had imagined (maybe because the World Expo is there right now?). It is not how you might picture "traditional" or "rural" China.

We started our trip at an area called the French Concession. Surrounded by tree-lined streets, this area is filled with narrow allies leading to cute little retail shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. This was my favorite area of Shanghai - so unique!

Next we ventured on to a neighboring district, called Xintiandi. This area is known for it's international cuisine, bars, and designer shops. We landed at this wine bar and ordered a pitcher of sangria! We were nervous about the ice cubes (since you can't drink the water in China) but turned out to be ok. The sangria was delicious and the bar had a fun & relaxing atmosphere. Next we ventured on to a Chinese restaurant to have my favorite Chinese dish: dim sum (similar to dumplings... round noodles filled with whatever you want! YUM!)

We started our second day off at the Shanghai World Financial Center. It's the world's third-tallest building, measuring 492 meters high. This building has the highest observation deck in the world and as well as the world's highest hotel above ground level. The building is very distinct from the rest of the skyline, and looks like a bottle-opener.

The view from the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center building. The river was pretty brown, and had quite a bit of trash in it.

Next we went to "The Bund" - a famous area along the river bank which separates 'new world' Shanghai from 'old world' Shanghai. This pictures is of 'new world' Shanghai, an area called Pudong.

'Old world' Shanghai at night from "The Bund." Beautiful, old, unique buildings - but incredibly crowded. We found a local brewery down one of the allies called The Bund Brewery - which had good beer and a pub atmosphere, but may have contributed to Joe getting sick the next day... maybe from the water in the draft beer?

Day 3 started out at Yuyuan Gardens. This picture is right outside the entrance, and a very popular sight to see.The teahouse in the picture is one of the most famous teahouses in China, and the "zigzag bridge" is also a popular site to see.

This picture is inside the gardens, although it was very hard to get a good picture to capture the entire feel of Yuyuan Gardens. It was a huge area with tons of beautiful halls, buildings, pavilions, ponds, bridges, small allies, amazing doors/entrances, rock pathways, etc. We have tons of cute pictures from Yuyuan Gardens on shutterfly and facebook.

After fighting the crowds at Yuyuan Gardens and being in 95 degree hot & sunny weather - we decided to try to escape the crowds and heat for a while at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Wow, were we wrong... it was so busy that we couldn't even find a place to sit down (including at the restaurants!). We ended up waiting in line for about 30-minutes just to get a drink and quick snack, then we found a spot on the floor and sat down in the middle of the museum. The museum offers a lot of interacting exhibits, like taking a penalty kick at an electronic goalie, but the wait in line never seemed worth it and was quite disappointing.

We ended our trip at Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant... a fantastic way to end our Shanghai experience! Joe loves Lawry's seasoning (and they even have it on the table!), so it was perfect. The meal was incredible & the atmosphere was excellent.