ShangHai Stories Part I

Luckily, Josh needed to go to ShangHai for a conference, so we were able to make sure that we did not miss this key city. According to the internet, ShangHai is the largest Chinese city by population and has the largest city proper. I feel a bit acclimated to life here when I say that I don't think that you could really tell. Yes, it was big, but when you are comparing 24 million to 20 million, it all starts to feel the same. The city has a fantastic infrastructure; making it possible to get around without extreme stress. There are adequate subway lines (14, I think) and buses and taxis. We were there for several days and traveled back to Wuhan on Thanksgiving.

Hudson liked the street markets. He is so enamored with little trinkets, so the large displays of jade caused him to take pause.

On our first half day, we were all together, and we treated ourselves and Josh's Chinese co-worker to some good ole American fare. We found a TGIFs right near the river and had a fantastic meal. Then we walked around and were just in total awe of the skyscrapers. This particular TV tower was really cool. I think I photographed it at every possible time of day. It is still a working tower and transmits signals so that everyone riding the buses has access to television.

So, this was our first night. We are on "our side" of town, Pudong. This is looking across the river to The Bund. The river was a constant stream of huge boats, tourist and cruise ships, flatbed barges carrying anything you can imagine. Our weather was really lovely, nice and mild. It was a fun evening. Even as acclimated as I get, I still have these moments when taking pictures like this one where I am thinking, "I am in ShangHai?!?! How crazy is this?"

The next day I had booked an all day tour which would give us a half day in one of the local water towns and then a half day showcasing areas of ShangHai that I had requested.  You kind of never know how these tours are going to go, but with this one, the company did a fantastic job! We saw so, so, so much. I could really bore you with images of a life very far from your own, but that is for another time.

Money does not hold much meaning for me. And of course I understand that it is not essential to a happy life, but I was quite aghast at the living conditions that we saw that day. It makes me feel really blessed just to have a safe shelter for my kids here and at home in the USA. This town was literally right on the water. I would be a nervous wreck with my kids running around there all the time. 

The inner channels throughout the town allowed for people to use the water as transport and also as a means for washing clothes, bathing, and such. You can see steps down to the water every hundred feet or so.

We returned to ShangHai for a late dim sum lunch. Hairy crab is in season, so we had to have some of that! Because of the climate, ShangHai can get two seasons of rice out of their fields. So, unlike Wuhan where noodles are much more prevalent, rice is on all the menus and sold from the street food carts. The fried rice we had for lunch was the best we have had in China.

Our afternoon was more touring of the Puxi side of the river. We went through the area of the French Concessions area (beautiful), Old Town Markets (crowded), and to see the architecture of The Bund (amazing).

We did this entire day in the rain. Considering the boys both were jumping in puddles at 10 a.m., everyone got a nice hot bath that night and we were all beat. It was a great start to our adventures in ShangHai!

View from The Bund in the rain back towards Pudong.
You can't even see the huge skyscrapers because of the clouds.