Shanghai on Foot

The morning of our last full day in China we decided to do one more market visit that included a nice long walk to get there.  On foot is really where you get to see the action in a big city and the mornings always show a different side then the evening.  We spent less then an hour in the market as we really just wanted to see what it was all about in Shanghai.

In the afternoon we toured the Yu Yuan Gardens which translates as Gardens of Happiness.  This was a maze of different little sub-gardens and gazebos.  The girls made the most of this by offering us multiple glamor shots.

Once again, the weather was our friend as it only rained a little bit, just enough to scare the crowds away for a while.  In China you are never really away from the crowds.  With this many people there are always a few million here and there.

Riley loves Tara so much sometimes she just wants to squeeze her.

After the gardens we toured the river-front area called the Bund for a look from Old Shanghai across the river to New Shanghai.  Our guide said that many people from the country save up their money to visit Shanghai and when they do it is like a foreign country to them.  Keep in mind, in the country refers to any city that has less the 5 million as its population.  Being a tourist site, the little caucasian girls were a spectacle and the subject of many a souvenir photo.

At the end of the walk we said goodbye to our Chinese guide Jessie whom we had just for the day.  We also said goodbye to the remainder of our traveling contingent whom the girls had grown very fond of.

Prior to our trip the kids always wanted to go to Asian Chef where their favorite dishes were served and we would practice some of our language skills or lack thereof.  More often than not when I said something in Chinese to our server she would respond with a puzzled look and maybe a grunt?  Chinese print characters are all the same, but they are pronounced differently depending on the region.  For the most part people in China understood me, but when they did not it seemed they were wondering what planet I was from.

I was able to successfully order some Chinese fast food earlier in the trip and even had an extra bowl of rice, bi fon, included for Patti.  That little white box in front of these guys is a chop stick autoclave.

The girls had some fun food experiences and thank God none of us were ever terribly disrupted by gastro intestinal issues. At one bus stop Tara ordered up a nice piece of corn on the cob and upon taking a bite out if it discovered that it was not fully cooked.  She indicated this in her best non-verbal Chinese to the cashier who pointed at the pot to take another one and the promptly tossed Tara's used cob back in, bite marks and all.

We all did get very good at using chopsticks, funny what necessity can do.  The Chinese people eat most things with chopsticks and almost all things without touching their food.  It made me feel like a real slob as I always needed a napkin or 10 to clean myself up.  The handful of Starbucks emblazoned wipes that I acquired in Hong Kong have served me well.

We ended the night by giving the kids some much craved western fast food with just the right proportion of sugar, salt and fat.  We went to the King of Burgers and had it our way as you can see by this receipt.

Images in 2013 Shanghai.