To catch our train to Shanghai, we had to get up at about 6 to get breakfast and then leave the hotel at 6:30. Once again it was another 6-hour train ride to Shanghai, but this trip didn’t seem as long as the one to Xian. When we got off the train, it was stifling outside. It was hot and humid. Apparently, it’s supposed to be almost 100 degrees everyday that we are in Shanghai, so that will be fun.

From there we took a bus over to the Shanghai History Museum. On the ride there, our new tour guide, Alex, told us about the European influences in Shanghai. The section that our hotel is in was at one time the French area of the city. You can kind of see it in some of the buildings’ architecture. Once we reached the museum, we finally reunited with the seven left behind in Beijing, plus Liliana and Gabby. It was weird having 24 people again instead of 17. Our group now felt too big. After reunification, we walked over to the museum, where we were given about an hour to walk through. Personally, I was tired from waking up early to catch the train and the heat drains the energy out of you, so I was not too excited to walk around and read plaques about Shanghai. So, I went at a nice, moderate pace through the museum, reading a few things. Overall, it reminded me a little of a Disney World ride because the entire museum was basically little displays with very life like wax figures. These displays even had sound effects, and the one herb shop even had an authentic smell to go along with the display. It took me about 40 minutes to walk through the entire thing.

After that, we waited outside the museum entrance in this food court type area as everyone filtered out. While we were waiting, a group of monks from a very rural province came up to a group of us and took what must have been ten or fifteen photos. Apparently, they had never seen people like us before, and they didn’t even speak Mandarin. They spoke some other dialect, so they had a translator that was traveling around with them. It was a very strange, very hilarious situation. I think it will be strange once we go back to the United States and we will no longer have everyone staring at us. From the museum, we went to dinner and had local Shanghai specialty dishes. There was more fish included in this meal than many of the others, and also more vegetables. Noodles are just a pain to work with when you have to use chop sticks. You either have to keep pulling them until they break free or cut them with your chop sticks. Often someone else has to pitch in and help the effort. I think, for noodles at least, a fork and knife should be acceptable utensils. Then after dinner, we walked to where we got on the cruise that took us through Shanghai. It was very cool because when you are on the boat, the city is on both sides of you and everything is lit up.