A Friendly Fellow Indeed

Time change is a killer. Miranda and M.L.I.S. woke up at 1:30 am and were awake until 5ish. (This too would become a recurring theme.) I had a rather lonely and unproductive day in M.L.I.S.'s tote bag, but everyone else had a rather full day of sightseeing. After a hearty breakfast at McDonald's, the family set off with the Driver to visit the Yuyuan Gardens. The kids loved the fish and turtles and everyone had fun dressing up in traditional Chinese clothes for a picture. The Chinese tourists especially had fun taking pictures of our little Canadian friends all decked out like Chinese royalty.
We walked up and down Nanjing Street. This is the shopping street in Shanghai - kind of the Champs-Elysees of China. Lunch was Subway and dessert was Hagen-Daz.

We walked along the Huangpu River. The building across the river here is called Oriental Pearl Tower. You can stand in line and pay to go up it, but we didn't. There were huge boats with Jumbotron screens trolling up and down the river.

A friendly little fellow approached the family and chatted with them a while. He offered to show them the "gardens" down the river - just a 10 minute walk. They finally agreed to walk down to see what there was to see. After what seemed like an hour of walking in the bright, hot sunshine, M.L.I.S. asked our little friend how much further. "Just four more minutes" turned into "Just up to umbrellas" which then turned into "Just across street". Finally the polite Canadians had had enough and M.L.I.S. told our "guide" apologetically that we had to return to our bus. After he tried unsuccessfully to get us to continue, he said, "You give me money?" M.L.I.S. was beside herself with indignation, but she gave him a handful of yuan, to which he whinily replied, "American money?" M.L.I.S. stalked off, muttering, "I'm Canadian, remember? I don't have any American money!"

We had a little excitement when our driver dropped us off at the train station. In an attempt to drop us off as close to the door as possible, he tried to drive his extended roof van into the parkade under the station. After a heated altercation with the parkade police, a valiant but futile attempt to get the 900 taxis behind us to move (so we could back up) and another yelling confrontation with the parkade attendant, we squeaked under and came out the other side. We literally inched out of that parkade as our careful little driver checked our clearance every 5 cm or so.

The Shanghai World Financial Center is the tallest building in China. Check this site for a list of the top ten.

It was late afternoon before I saw the light of day again. While waiting in the train station, M.L.I.S. finally knit my heel flap. But only AFTER playing several (hundred) rounds of Blackjack with her boys. Hmph. The station became very crowded. Euphemistically speaking.

(I'm slightly jealous of this picture, although I must admit, it is adorable.)

My heel was turned on the bullet train from Shanghai to Nanjing. I am giddy with the progress she is making. The train was like an airplane on rails. It goes 200 km/h, but since it was dark, it was hard to get a feel for how fast this really is. It was fairly smooth and quiet. Except for Mr. Hawkaloogie in the seat a few rows up. No one spits like the Chinese.