First couple of days in Shanghai

Sunday was a fairly tame afternoon. We went out to a teppanyaki restaurant and then met up with some of the USC people for an afternoon of haggling at the Xiang Yang market. This place is like a giant swap meet where haggling to one tenth of the originally quoted cost is not uncommon. The vendors here have copies of everything from North Face Jackets to Gucci purses to Samsonite luggage. The only thing I purchased was a couple sets of chopsticks. Some USC people purchased DVDs, PS2 games, and dress shirts. Then Morris and I headed over to the Dongjiadu cloth market, where I was sized up for a custom made suit. We agreed on a price (550 RMB for one suit), and I told them that if I liked the first one I would come back and buy more. I felt like I was getting food poisoning, so I decided to take some medicine and crash early Sunday night.

I felt a lot better Monday morning and walked down to the Ritz Carlton to get on a day tour of Shanghai. It started at the "Temple of the Jade Buddhas", which is a buddhist temple containing several huge Jade Buddha statues. After that we went to the Yu Yuan Gardens ("Pleasure Gardens") which is a beautiful garden in the city with carp ponds, magnolia trees, big walls, and cool rock formations. In fact, the garden used to be some rich guy's house and then it was given to the city for public use. We finished off the morning by walking along the Bund, which is a waterfront along the western edge of the Huangpu river. We had a family-style lunch at a restaurant there which was very good. After lunch we headed over to People's Square and the Shanghai Musuem, which has a bunch of exhibits on Chinese ceramics, calligraphy, furniture, and a bunch of other stuff. After that we went to a Silk Factory where we watched them start with the cocoon and create a huge silk duvet. To end the tour, we went to an art museum that has some really intricate jade carvings.

You can see pictures of my Shanghai Tour.

Morris and I were supposed to go out for dinner, jazz, and foot massages Monday. I laid down to take a nap before dinner, and apparently Morris was completely unable to wake me up. I woke up at 1am, long after he had gone to bed. Apparently I needed the sleep because I feel back asleep until 6am, so we decided to postpone those activities until Tuesday night.

I also signed up for a tour of Hangzhou for Tuesday. More on that later.