A colleague in Hong Kong told me that it is not healthy to stay in Hong Kong for a long period of time. You may go crazy! She was right, so I went with a friend to Shanghai for a weekend. Yes, I managed to escape the big city of HK and find my way to another big city. Doesn't make sense, but that's the way I work.
We arrived on Friday morning, were held captive on the plane while Star Wars characters took our temperatures, managed to find the hotel, and spent the day eating vegetarian food and walking around. Most of Saturday was spent in Suzhou, a nearby city, walking through a number of their famous gardens. We had to scalp some train tickets to get there and were delayed by 2 hours on the way back. But the gardens were nice.
On Sunday, we went to Pudong and walked around a bit. Much of Pudong and the area around the river were under construction, as Shanghai is preparing to host the World Expo in 2010. We ended the day at the YuYuan Garden and a brief walk through the Shanghai Museum before returning to the airport. Below is a list of things I learned........
1. Crosswalks mean nothing to vehicles and bicycles. Be careful crossing the street.
2. When you can get a foot massage for 30 RMB (4.40 USD), you should go for it.
3. China knows how to do gardens.
4. Illegal/fake DVDs are way cheaper than the real thing (I didn't buy any).
5. The really slow moving escalators will go faster once you step on them.
6. Air pollution sucks (but I learned this in HK)
Enjoy the pics; they are not in chronological order.
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