Saturday night in Shanghai

Wow, what a whirlwind. We're now in Shanghai, having flown on Shanghai Airlines from Beijing yesterday afternoon. The flight was uneventful -- the airline experience here is almost identical to the one you would get on United or Delta in the US ... including the bad airline food!

Shanghai is amazing ... it's huge, it's very busy, and there are skyscrapers everywhere. It's also much more westernized than the rest of China -- very reminiscent of major world cities in Europe or North America ... except that all the signs are in Chinese. ;-)

The other major exception is that no one yields to anyone. Buses don't yield to cars, cars don't yield to bicycles, and no one yields to pedestrians. NO ONE. If you are expecting a car to stop or even slow down as you try to cross the street, forget it. Reportedly they won't actually run you over, but I'm not sure I believe it. A motorcycle actually clipped my backpack yesterday as we were trying to get from one side of the street to the other. It's an adventure! On the other hand, the Chinese are very skilled physically, and I have yet to see anyone actually get nailed by a car or bicycle, or to see a fender bender, which is amazing considering the mass chaos. (By the way, Beijing is exactly the same way, if not worse ...)

But not to worry -- we are being ve-e-e-ry careful! I got clipped only because I was standing in the middle of the street attempting to stop traffic. (And I was eventually successful!)

Today we took a 3-hour bus ride south to Hangzhou, which is home to West Lake and about 300 billion Chinese tourists. The lake is supposed to be very calm, very peaceful, very zen-like ... but it's hard to find tranquility when the entire population of eastern China is sharing the lake with you. On the other hand, we took a boat ride across the lake, and it was VERY nice. We also saw some ancient stone carvings, including a number of Buddhas. After lunch (superb, as usual!) we visited a tea plantation, and learned about how the Chinese make green tea. We sampled the wares, including a very expensive tea that is reportedly the best in China. It was a lot of fun, and very educational!

We came back to Shanghai for dinner at what is certainly the most interesting and festive Thai restaurant I've ever been to. It had a huge room, and a stage from which various Thai musicians and dancers performed. Dan joined the Thai 'Conga line' and paraded through the room as we all photographed him. Really cool.

Tomorrow we take a 2-hour bus ride to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang, which are river cities complete with canals (Suzhou is called the "Venice of China"). We will have lunch at a local restaurant in Zhouzhuang, and then visit a silk factory in Suzhou, where we will see how they make silk ... complete with silk worms!

We are in Shanghai until Wednesday. So far so good!

Finally, it looks as though photos might be a problem here as well, again because the computers in the internet cafe are somewhat old. But I'll see what I can do. Devon has found a wireless network in the hotel, so I might be able to go that route. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, regardless of the lack of photographic evidence, I can assure you that everyone is having a great time, and we haven't lost anyone yet!