Shanghai

Shanghai has been really cool. Of all the places I have been in Chin so far it is the one I could see myself living in. think this may be because it reminds me of a more western style city with huge skyscrapers, but it truly is cool town none the less.

When we first got here we were bamboozled, and then went to the Bund, which is the scenic river front. This is a really cool place. It's like two lake shore drives on opposite sides of the river. All along both sides are either historical or really nice looking buildings, one of which is the famous Pearl Oriental TV tower (which we later went up). Later that night we kind of just walked around Nanjing Lu, which is the major shopping and late night stop for the locals. Its just this incredibly crowded condensed area, the likes of which don't exist in the states.

Our walk home wasn't without action. Jake having drank a bit too much baijiu (a locally made liquor) at dinner, drunkenly ran into a biker on the rode and knocked her of her bike. He then claimed it to be her fault and that she had a hit out on him.

The following day we headed to the old city of Shanghai. Its a cool area but too refurbished to be the old city. At this point its an area that is designed like it would have been an old city 1500 years a, but is now just full of tourist shops.

We then were walking around and decided to go into a button shop to get mike some buttons for the shorts we bought in Beijing. We went in, but they told us they wouldn't sew it on. So, I did what any sensible man would do. I sewed it on myself. It was strange, but I sewed it on right there in the store while everyone looked at me.

Following this we headed to Ohel Moishe (the former Synagogue of Jewish WWII refugees). On route our taxi drivers car broke down and he had to have us get out. It was odd, but kind of good because we ended up getting half way there for free. Once at the Synagogue we were greeted by people saying "Shabot Shalom" in heavy Chinese accents. It was a nice museum but nothing overly impressive. Apparently today there isn't a single functional Synagogue in all of China, and she estimated the entire Chinese Jewish population to b around 2000, 1000 of which are in Shanghai.

At night we went to the top of the TV tower, which was a really nice view of the city, but kind of boring. However, there was a flight simulator, a roller coaster, and a movie where your seat sakes in the tower that was included in your admission. This was kind of fun and made the whole experience kind of fun. There was also a painfully large exhibit on the history of Shanghai, which was incredibly comprehensive, but may have been too big, because it took us nearly 3 hours to get out of there, and once we did we were exhausted and went to bed.

Today, we headed to an area full of Expats for a good western style breakfast (we are all getting sick of rice and noodles). Afterwards we walked through the ritzy former French Concession. Which is like a very trendy par of town. Almost like our Old Town or some areas of Lincoln Park.

We ended up walking for a few hours after that all the way from the far west side of the city to the Bund. Once there we got in a taxi and headed south to a fabric market. Tailors and fabrics are very cheap here, and we starting laughing about the possibility of the three of us going out in Macao in matching suits. Well, we bought three identical suits and three identical shirts. We are having them all custom made for us to fit perfectly. It should be really funny, hopefully funnier than our matching outfits at the wall. The best part was the price. For the whole get up we ended up paying around $65 each. Which is insanely cheap for custom made suites and a shirt (we'll see what quality we end up with).

Tonight we are attempting, for the first time to go out to a bar or some sort of night life. We took a nap, and got up really late, so I hope we can stay up past 11 tonight.