Another day starting bright and early as we plan to take a train to Shanghai, our last city of this trip. This time though the train took 6 hours. I slept for most of it and woke up for lunch. I could already feel the specific vibe of the city from just the Shanghai train station. Packed, more foreigners than our past cities, and everyone was so full of energy. We loaded our luggage and ourselves into our new tour bus and listened to our new tour guide give a introduction about Shanghai. Shanghai is the most prosperous and most westernized city in China. It is also the financial and economic center of China. Shanghai also has a bigger population density and and population than Beijing. As our tour guide was talking I noticed that the architecture of Shanghai was very unique and contemporary. There were a lot of interestingly built skyscrapers and business offices. We had thirty minutes of downtime in our (extremely nice) hotel room before heading to the Shanghai History Museum. The museum told the story of how Shanghai has been influenced by foreign powers for hundreds of years. The museum was very interactive, there were life size models of ancient architecture and sets that you could walk through. There was a model of what the bund looked like in the 20th century which I found really cool. Towards the end of the museum there was a photo set where you’d pay 30RMB to dress is traditional Chinese wear and pose in front of a set. Hayley and I had to rendezvous with the others in 20 minutes but we managed to get a pic anyway. We thought it was quite hilarious and vowed to frame it.

We then walked to dinner (it was delicious Shanghai food is bomb) where we had a view of the Shanghai skyline next to the river. I tried frog leg and pork feet!! The frog leg tasted like fish but the pork feet tasted like duck which I was not about. After dinner was our Huangpu Cruise that went around the Bund. The view was amazing and it felt nice to be near a body of water again. Overall an amazing introductory day in Shanghai, I love the energy of the city- it reminds me very much of Tokyo!