{Exploring Shanghai}

We were so pooped last night so we went to bed early. Unfortunately we were back up at 4 a.m. :(

We were able to talk to the girls again, then I took a bath & relaxed a bit before heading to breakfast. The buffet is not near as good here as it was in Changsha but it will work. We ate some Chinese fried noodles, bacon, croissants & watermelon.

After breakfast we headed out to explore. I have no idea how far we walked but I now we walked non-stop for almost 3 hours. We found the pedestrian street which has a ton of stores. We found Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC & Haagen Das. We were able to watch some Chinese women exercise. Then we walked down some of the back roads, off the beaten path a bit. It was really cool to see the many little shops, fruit markets, women hanging laundry out the window…just everyday life here in Shanghai.

After getting up so early I needed a nap, so we went back to the room for a bit. I never nap, but jet lag was kicking my butt. I slept for 1.5 hours then we headed back out. One of the things I really wanted to do was visit the Bund. It’s a famous walkway along the Huangpu River. A beautiful view of the different parts of Shanghai, old & new. We walked about a couple hours then decided it was dinner time so we headed back to Pizza Hut. It was definitely not like the Pizza Huts in the US! They served steak, Chinese noodles, lots of bubble teas & smoothies. We decided on just a pizza…which was delicious…better than the US! I’m betting we’ll eat there again & try something else.

After dinner and a stop to get a scoop of ice cream (Haagen Das is super expensive here…about $5 for a scoop!) we headed back to the room. We are still pooped! After a nice long bath, in which I felt myself dozing off a few times, it was off to bed. More exploring tomorrow.