| Anyways, my dad took us to see some of the finer parts of Shanghai. The Lightrail, the Metro, and the bus system here is very sophisticated. A ton of people can cram into the Metro which reduces the car traffic (even though we really couldn't tell). We went to Cheng Huang Miao (another temple). It's actually been turned into a shopping center where you can buy almost anything. The actual temple is a small dinky place that cannot be entered without buying a ticket. We had lunch there in one of the food courts. Now, this food court has almost anything!! My sister has been craving Hot and Sour Soup since we arrived in China but no one knows what that is (I believe Hot and Sour Soup is another made-up thing for American Chinese restaurants. See previous note about fortune cookies). So we got a bowl of that, some other stuff, and my dad insisted on trying the snails!! Those of you who went to La Caille (a French restaurant) with me, those snails weren't too bad. All you could taste was the garlic. But these?? You pull them out of the shells, dip them into vinegar, and chew, and chew...and chew...and chew. Well, it didn't taste that bad, except it had a strong seafood flavor. The worst part was if you got one that had baby snails in it!! Once you chew, you can feel the crunch of the baby shells!! That was so gross!! Apparently, this is a delicacy. And some people get their calcium from the baby snails!! I prefer milk, thanks. |
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Nan Jing Lu is a big road only for pedestrians. It wasn't that amazing, but we got to rest a bit and drink some water. If we ever found the heat too much, we would step into a shop and cool off. There's even a McDonald's here!! And other American stores. Compared to the US, the food is cheap. Only 8 yuan for a burger, which is about $1. But that's still considered expensive in China.
| We then went to see the most modern part of Shanghai. Dong Fang Ming Zhu is just like the Space Needle in Seattle or the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. There's this other building that has two globes on each side. The best time to see these is at night because the globe lights up and you can see that it's painted to really look like a globe. This place has some of the tallest buildings. One of the glass buildings looked like it was broken in half at the top or maybe some of the windows are lopsided up there, but that's the way it was built. |
| Ah, the last day we spend in China. Our flight wasn't until the afternoon so my dad took us to Fudan University, one of the best in the country. It was especially cool because my mom attended Fudan University. But our last film roll had only one exposure left, so after taking a picture at the front entrance, we left. I don't think I would like to live in Shanghai during the summer. The temperature is too high and the humidity doesn't help. | 
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Reminder, don't let your visa expire. We didn't realize it, but my sister and my visas had only 30 days on it and we had stayed in China for 45. We were able to go through, but not without a warning. Just our luck, after we boarded the plane and it started speeding to take off, we heard a *clunk*. The airplane slowed back down and we were delayed almost an hour for "technical difficulties." That's always comforting to know that you're trusting your life to an oversized bird with indigestion.
One nice thing about China Eastern is if you miss your next flight because your previous flight was late, they will pay for a hotel room and food. From LAX to Beijing, they were delayed so we got a dinner in the airport, a hotel in Beijing, and breakfast. And after arriving back in Los Angeles, we missed our flight again. The next flight was in the evening, so they got us a hotel to stay in for the day ('cause we were way tired) and enough money for a decent dinner.
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