Visiting Shanghai

Shou, Tony and I took a bullet train to visit Shanghai from Hangzhou. We then took the first class subway too our hotel. The subway was cleaner and smelled better than NYC’s metro. An automated voice told us the upcoming stop and which side to get out on (“the lefta side” in an English accent male’s voice). The signs were in Chinese and English and it was very easy to understand how to use the system.

Our small hotel room had two beds and WiFI!! The beds were very hard, which turned out to be the norm in the rest of the hotels in China and even in Japan.  They gave us tooth brushes, which I haven’t seen in US hotels. We met an American whose name was Dean and was nearing the end of a 50 day tour of China. He was heading back to Shanghai for the last few days before returning to US and starting an MBA program. We agreed to meet up with him later.

We headed out to explore Shanghai and went to their version of Times Square. We walked with more people than I can remember being around to the Bund. The Bund is a huge lighted tower. There Tony was asked to pose in pictures with two separate sets teen age girls. He was very popular! We met up with Deen and walked around the city for a while. Then we all headed back to our hotels to rest.

The next day we went to the Shanghai Museum and Tony met his new best friend who called the Shanghai Museum the “Museum of Pots.” There were a lot of pots including bronzes and porcelains. Tony’s new friend was from Australia and had the same car as Tony: Subaru. We all went to lunch and it was very delicious.  After lunch Shou left us. He had to go back to Hangzhou for his Japanese test. Later that day we were inside a UNIQLO store and in walked Sonic, the young man we met on the tour bus the day before. We had tried to call him, but got no response. We randomly ran into him in Shanghai. He couldn’t believe it and neither could we. We went for tea with him. We all hung out for a while then went our separate ways.

Tony and I wandered the town and had dinner. Then went to a dance club called Muse2. It was pretty fun and could have been anywhere. Mostly it was filled with Americans. After about an hour we left and took a cab back to our hotel. The next day we took the bullet train back to Hangzhou.

Here are the pictures from Shangahai.