Sha Sha Shangahi

I'm not sure why it has taken me this long to post about China?!? The whole time I was there, I kept thinking "I can't wait to blog about this and share this experience with all my friends, family and blog stalkers (I like to think I have some and would hate to leave you guys out) ;) But when I got back, between the horrendous sleep patterns, job applying, job hiring and now working, a weekend trip to Provo, starting crossfit and other tasks that seems to move to the top of the priority list, blogging hasn't been my main focus. Also, I think it's because I don't have all the pictures (my dad has over 1,000) and I have about 850, I don't want to just post the best of my collection and to be honest, it's really exhausting to go through all of them and choose which ones to upload. I'd rather just wait, but then again I don't want to forget any details of the trip that I so desperately want to record..I guess I can just do more posts once I get them...does what I'm saying even make sense??

ANYWAY, after about a long 13 hour flight from Los Angeles, we landed in Shangai at 7 pm Sunday night. We were greeted by Troy, our local tour guide and then loaded our luggage and ourselves into a van for an hour drive to downtown Shangai. He compared Shangahi to the New York City of China and it's also known as the "Paris of the East." It's a very modern city with several sky rise buildings, is extremely business oriented and is considered the fashion capitol. We checked in to our hotel and by that time were exhausted so headed straight for bed. Monday morning we woke up, had breakfast and made our way to a conference room in the hotel to meet our group. There we met Candy, our national escort (meaning she was with us the whole time) and the other 21 people who would be traveling with us. Our family of five were the only Americans, another couple was from the UK and then everyone else was from Australia. Sidenote: Australians have now become my favorite people and I can't wait to visit them next!

From there, we headed straight to the Shanghai history museum. It was huge and had several exhibits that I thought were very interesting. Prior to the trip, I didn't know much about Chinese history and all the dynasties and emperors and such but I've learned so much and it is all so fascinating to me.

wandering around People's Square

Afterwards, we got to take an elevator to the 5th(?) tallest building in the world to have a bird's eye view of the fabulous city.

Then we made our way to the Shanghai Maglev train station to board the bullet train. It cost $1.2 billion to build, is the fastest train in the world and reaches 248 mph..it goes so fast that it actually levitates from the ground. Insane, huh?! Shanghai is such a high tech city. Way more advanced than the U.S. (which is hard for me to say, being the prideful American that I am).

That evening, we had dinner on a dragon boat (literally) and then took a river cruise to enjoy the city views at night.

All of our meals looked a lot like this. At each table, we would have three tables assigned to us and the servers would just bring out plates upon plates upon plates of food for us to eat, all being served family style. Our local guide chose the menu items for us, which although it was all Chinese food (go figure) it allowed for some variety and options. I actually reeealllyyy enjoyed the food there!

Day two in Shanghai started out with a tour of the local silk factory where we watched a demonstration of how a silk comforter is made. The silk expert started with showing us silkworms and explaining the process, in which the silkworm creates its cocoon out of a single silk thread and is continuous for 3,600 feet! Then we watched ladies use the old style machine to produce the silk and then stretch it out to make a quilt. It was seriously fascinating! Then we got to shop around in their HUGE silk store. They had everything from bedding to dresses to robes to ties to make up cases to hats to wine bottle covers, etc. It was fun to play dress up in there!

After that we headed to the river side to see the city views during daylight hours and explore the downtown area.

From there we headed to a local restaurant for lunch and then after walked to the Yuyuan Garden (also meaning the garden of happiness or the peaceful garden) in Old Shanghai. It was created in the 1500's during the Ming Dynasty. It was very large and the layout and grounds were stunning.

We then hit up a street market we explored, browsed, bargained and admired the food vendors..and also where Candy got me & Rachel a straightener that would work in China!!! Such a lifesaver!

I'm in love with the architecture there!!

That night we had dinner and promptly went back to the hotel to get some sleep so we would be ready for our 4:45 a.m. wake up call so we could board a plane and fly to Guilin!! (my favorite city)