We woke up to a grey rainy day in Shanghai. We were all a little disappointed in the weather, but were committed to getting out and seeing the city. One of the big things we wanted to do in Shanghai was to go to Yu Gardens. Given that the forecast for today was all rain and tomorrow was all sun, we decided to put off the garden and hit some of the other things we wanted to see in the city.

We started the morning with a quick breakfast at Starbucks. We did not want to spend $30 each for the buffet at the Westin and the Chinese eat noodles and rice for breakfast (along with every other meal) so we took the easy way out and went with what we knew.

We then got our raincoats on and headed out to see the sights. We started by walking down the street to the pedestrian mall at Nanjing Road. This was the same road we emerged at yesterday and we wanted to see it without all of bags. On the way there it started raining even harder, so when we got there we headed inside a 7 story mall and waited out the rain.

Once the rain softened a bit we ket walking and exploring. Shanghai is a very big city and it is not all that remarkable from other cities. We walked and walked with our final destination being the French Concession, which is a little area in the center of town. This was literally a French governmental concession from 1849 to 1943 and was considered the prime area to live in Shanghai. Today it is known more for its quaint streets and small restaurants. We planned on having lunch in this area. The rain was persistent and by the time we made it to the french concession we were all tired, wet and a little grumpy.

We found a very cute little restaurant after a few minutes in the area and decided it looked good enough. We ducked inside and were warmly greeted by the owner and his wife - again no english - but this time we were expecting that - not many people we have encountered speak english here.

The lunch was good. We had Taiwanese noodles, which was kind of an upscale ramen and enjoyed our time out of the rain. Although looking at the beautiful bar, I could have been tempted to waste the afternoon away sipping a bourbon, but it was time to go.

We were all a little sick of walking around in the rain and we had seen most of what we wanted to for the day so we headed back to the hotel for a little break. We were heading to the circus that evening so we knew it was going to be a long night and we did not want to push too hard.

On the way home we decided to drop a sticker on Shanghai. We did this in the metro station on our way up the escalator. There was something worrisome to me about defacing public property in China. I envisioned the four of us in some remote prison cut off from the outside world being interrogated by the Chinese about the meaning of the sticker and who we were working for. So we moved quickly to drop the sticker and go.

Peter thought it was funny that I was barking out orders to hurry up and gave me a salute to mock me as the general. I gave him a salute back which is not pictured, but you can use your imagination.

After the break we headed to dinner. The recommendation from the concierge was to head back to the mall area and have dinner at a restaurant on the top levels of the mall. This was not a particularly appealing option, but we decided to go for the recommendation. Eating at the mall never feels quite right or authentic and I regretted our decision from the moment we made it. The meal we had was fine - not great and the service was ok - although they did have one english speaker on staff who would help when our pointing / hand gestures did not work.

After dinner we headed to the circus. This was not a elephant and clown circus, this was more like Cirque de Soleil type performance of acrobatics, gymnastics and other crazy assorted things. The show was supposed to be one of the best things to do in Shanghai and it did not disappoint. I really cannot begin to describe what we saw other than to say a trip to Shanghai might be worth it just to see this show - it was incredible. The amount of work these people must put in to perform the feats we saw has to be incredible. We were blown away.

After the show we took the long metro ride home and crashed - tired from a long day of being a tourist in a rainy foreign city.

Another travel day, which is getting a bit old, but being this close to home seems to keep everyone in good spirits as we pack our bags yet again for another day long journey. This time we are heading for an unplanned stop in China. Every time we would tell people about our agenda we would typically get the question - Not China? We had read a bunch before booking the trip and most accounts we had of China went like this - "We are glad we went, but it was not great". So when we were planning the trip we decided we would skip it and maybe go back sometime in the future. Plus the visa process is a bit of a pain (like India) so it was just easier to leave it off the list. Fate being what it is, the earthquake in Nepal had now re-routed us to a necessary stop in China and we were all really excited about it.

The trip to the airport was the same slog we had taken in which included some walking plus two trains, but it went smoothly and we were checked in and ready to go with plenty of time. One nice surprise when we boarded the plane was that the flight was only 4:30 instead of the 6:30 I thought it was - so we were all a little relieved.

The flight to Shanghai was smooth and we were on the ground before we knew it and headed to immigration. We were leveraging a 72 hour transit visa for which there is no real process until you get to the passport control. I was a little worried about not having a visa in hand as we were landing in China, but everything I read said it was easy and it really was. The passport control officers were really nice and we were off on our way in about 15 minutes.

We gathered our bags and headed out to the madness of Shanghai. Stacie had done her research on getting into the city and so we headed off to find the train to take us in. It was really easy and we were in the city in no time flat. However, we did no know exactly how to get to the hotel. We received some help from the attendant in the subway station who told us what stop to get off at and we made it to the right place easily, but still needed to find the hotel. When we made it out of the subway station we were engulfed in a sea of people on a pedestrian shopping mall that looked like it could have been in any city in the USA. I tried asking a couple of people where the Wesin was and they had no idea. So we decided to get a taxi and that is where the real fun began. We could not get a single taxi to stop for us. Plenty were available, but they had no interest in giving us a ride - something we would later learn is a real problem in Shanghai.

We just started wandering around hoping we were moving in the right direction. We stopped at two hotels and I asked for directions and neither could really help although they pointed in a general direction. Then as we were walking Lea needed to stop for a slight bag adjustment and we happened to stop in front of a restaurant. The owner was sitting outside and thought we wanted to eat and started speaking to us in Chinese. I tried to tell him we did not want to eat and ask him if he knew where the Westin was, but there was no english to be had. However, after a couple seconds he called inside and his son came out and lo and behold he spoke perfect english AND he knew where the Westin was. He pointed us in the right direction and we were off. About 10 minutes later our sore backs were in the cool comfort of the Westin and then shortly after we were checked into our beautiful rooms.

We were all hungry, so we went to the concierge and asked for a good Chinese restaurant. She pointed us to a restaurant just behind the Westin and told us it was great. We went immediately and when we got there we knew we were in for something interesting. The atmosphere is difficult to describe, but if you could picture something between a shriners hall and a hotel ballroom that might do it justice. The real treat came when absolutely nobody in the restaurant spoke one word of english - like seriously - not one word. Maybe we should have been prepared for this, but after being in SE Asia for almost a month we had become accustom to almost everyone speaking english, so it took us by surprise. The good news is that they had an english menu.

The food was OK, but not great, other than the Dim Sum that Stacie ordered, it was fantastic. After dinner we were all beat and headed right back to the hotel to get some rest. Another long but successful travel day without any major issues. Only one more travel day left.

May 18th, 2015 - Shanghai, China - Day 276

May 17th, 2015 - Travel from Bangkok to Shanghai - Day 275

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