The breezes in old Shanghai

Our journey to pick up Lily started yesterday, 10 hours to Tokyo and 3 hours to Shanghai. The flights were very crowded and uncomfortable, but we made it safely. We arrived in Shanghai late in the evening and endured a long and harried taxi ride to our hotel. In China, there don't seem to be traffic laws and there are no seat belts, a scary combination.

Today we wandered to the famous shopping district only to discover that today was a national holiday. The streets were jammed with seemingly millions of people celebrating the equivalant of our Memorial Day by visiting the shops and enjoying the warm day. But it was a people-watching paradise. As one can imagine, we received a lot of stares-- two blonds and one taller than almost everyone. And the Chinese can really stare! A little intimidating.

After doing some shopping for Lily, we made it back to our hotel and decided to try out a well-known Russion restaurant called The Flying Elephant. As with all dining experiences we've had in China in our two trips here, we were surprised. Do they really eat that much tongue in Russia? Fortunately the stroganof was tasty.

Tomorrow is off for site-seeing to China's historic water cities built on canals much like Venice.

Lily is four days and counting.




Poultry selections at a traditional food store.

Hisoric hutongs (old neighborhoods) in among the skyscrapers.