Day 9:

Can you guess how we started today? That’s right, another bright and early morning.  We had to meet in the lobby this morning at 6:30. This train ride was definitely better than the first one though.  I was able to sit by my two friends Chris and Alec.  I slept a lot and we played games the whole way.  It was a quick 6 hours.  Once we got to Shanghai we took a bus through downtown and went to the Shanghai history museum.  My first sights of downtown Shanghai were beautiful.  It is such a beautiful city.  We got off the bus and finally met up with the kids who got sick in Beijing.  The whole gang was back together.

Shanghai has such a rich history.  There is so much history that gets lost because of the financial juggernaut that Shanghai has become.  The new skyscrapers on the east side of the river have become the face of the city.  In only 30 years the east side has become the face of this great city.  After just one day of looking at I love it already.

After the museum we went to dinner near the waterfront.  We entered a hotel and obviously it was a hotel heavily traveled by American tourists.  Most of the people in the restaurant were of my race.  This was also one of the better dinners I have had on this trip.  They had scallops and shrimp that were to die for.  I wish we had more of these throughout the trip.  Luckily for me not many people at my table wanted shrimp because they did not want to have to peel it.  The lack of drinks really gets me during meals though.  Everyone here basically drinks tea with meals and that is all.  With the 95+ degree heat we have been having, I need some cold drinks with meals.  I have been surviving though.

At night we took a boat cruise on the Haungpu river.  The river splits Shanghai into the old and new half of the city.  It was night time, so all the lights of the downtown skyscrapers were absolutely breathtaking.  I don’t think I will ever forget all the beautiful lights and colors.  I recommend that anyone who comes to Shanghai take this boat tour.  I felt bad for all the Chinese people on the boat though.  We were pretty obnoxious Americans the whole time.  By this I mean we were loud and took so many pictures while taking up a lot of space.  It is hard to not be like this when you have a group of 24 decently tall Americans standing around.

This trip has been so long and so hot that I have been going through clothes left and right.  I don’t know how the people who did not bring a lot of clothes are surviving.  I have been going through 2 outfits a day and have been watching the laundry pile up for a while.  Today I ran out of t-shirts.  To do laundry here you must pay the hotel to do it for you.  My roommate did it the other day and it ended up being 360 Yuen (around 60 USD).  I will not be paying that much so instead I just did it the old fashion way.  I threw some laundry detergent in the tub and threw my clothes in.  I then rang them out and hung them all over the room.  My room is now cluttered with clothes.  I had no choice, I couldn’t go 4 nights in Shanghai in 95+ degree weather without a t-shirt.  I hope the clothes dry over night so at least I have one clean shirt for tomorrow.