Still cold in Shanghai

It was still very cold on Saturday morning, but the sun was shining. We went to visit Yu Garden. It was a garden built by a Mr. Yu on a two acre plot for his parents to spend their declining years. (Hint to my children. Mr. Yu's father died before the garden was finished so it is probably time to get going on one for your aging parents.) It was built in the late 1500's and this part of town became the center of town.

Later the downtown moved to the Bund.

The government has conserved this garden and the buildings of that period around the garden and has built more buildings in the same style and it is now a tourist area - many shops.

A Cold Day in Shanghai

Bob brought his laptop and there is an internet hookup in our room.

We left Nanjing this morning on the 8:00 a.m. train and arrived in Shanghai well before noon when we were supposed to meet our group. However, there had been snow further north and it caused some of the planes to be late, so we didn't get going until 1:30 p.m.

We went for dinner and then we went to the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower. We first went up to the observation level halfway up and then we went down to the museum that is in the building.

These flags were waving outside the building - advertising the 2010 Expo to be held in Shanghai.

This is a view from the observation tower looking down on the Huangpu river.

Another view from the obervation deck.

This is the International Trade center. There is a globe at each end of the building.

In the museum there was a display of cars.

We then went to stroll along the Bund, but there was a cool breeze and everyone was happy to get back to the bus after only a few minutes.

This was a police boat on the River. Apparently they hauled someone out of the river, but we didn't have any details.

We had a quick supper at McDonalds and are happy to be back in our warm room with English TV.

Spring Festival

We leave early on Friday morning for our vacation. We will visit Shanghai, Hainan Island, Hong Kong, Southern China, Viet Nam and Cambodia and will be away until 3rd February. It is possible that we will be out of computer contact for that time.

New Year's Eve in Shanghai

The past week just whirled by. We went to Shanghai on New Year's Eve. We went right from the train station to the airport and ate and then no-one wanted to go back into Shanghai to see what was going on so we spent our time exploring the airport, visiting and getting to bed early.

Terminal two where the international flights come and go is very modern, clean and attractive.

This morning we saw Darwin, Amber, Caden, Chloe and Owen off - at least into the security area. It was sad to watch them go.

The airport was fairly quiet - at least in the international area, but we took a bus to the train station and it was a madhouse. There were so many people they had policemen or security people allowing only a certain number of people in the station at one time. The Nanjing train station likewise was crowded and the subway was the most crowded we have seen, but we arrived back at our apartment safely.

New Year's is a holiday from school and work here in China.

The Shanghai airport from our hotel window.

Good-bye Darwin, Amber and children.
We loved having you here.

Our Day today

This morning Amber and I set out to visit the fabric shops. We went to Bu Bu Bu and that was enough for Amber. They had some very lovely fabric but Amber didn't like the pushy salespeople - and they weren't very pushy at all.

We had lunch at Babela's Italian restaurant and then left the children with our neighbour and visited the Presidential Palace. (Bob and I had visited there in September and posted some pictures then.)

It looks like a warm day, but although the sun was shining it was cold.



In the evening we went out for Chinese Food. We chose a restaurant that is known for making Chinese food that is like North American Chinese food. The meat wasn't cleavered up and didn't have pieces of bone in it. The food was quite good and Caden really liked the french fries.

Campus Art

Confucius Temple & Fuzi Miao Market

This morning we took the subway to the Confucius Temple area. It was raining lightly and there was a cool breeze.

The children were mobbed by Chinese people wanting to take their picture.


Chloe liked the Chinese Lanterns.