Day 9 Shanghai
Breakfast was in the beautiful lobby. Very Downton Abby-esque. Tea served in silver with real tea strainers. The server confirmed I wanted English Breakfast tea. Freshly squeezed orange and pineapple juice. It was awesome. I don't know if I've had freshly squeezed pineapple juice outside of Hawaii. Gavin who is normally a fan of pineapple juice wasn't sure what to make of a couple of floating microscopic black particles from the pineapple so he wouldn't touch it. He was cool with the pulpy orange juice though. We ordered blueberry pancakes off the menu and walked up to select a number of tasty pastries which were all amazing - best breakfast on the trip so far.
We headed out to as a group to Fuxing Park to learn sword tai chi and fan tai chi. Both were a lot of fun. I preferred the swords. Other local retirees were doing other exercises such as yo-yo spinning, ball room dancing, etc.
After the Park we went to Yu Gardens which is a traditional Chinese garden hundreds of years old. They had beautiful Chinese buildings, streams, bridges and rock work. Adjacent to the gardens is old Shanghai. Lots of shopping options. Steven recommended an official govt store for the purchasing of jade and jewelry. He offered to go with me to help pick out a jade piece and interpret with the workers who did not speak English. Steven was great about showing me high quality jade versus other pieces and we found something I liked a lot and he helped me buy it. Afterwards we walked around and grabbed a muffin for Gavin to hold him over until our early dinner tonight. We also went to a store where an artist was drawing peoples names with beautiful colorful little animals and shapes in place of letters. For example a letter G might be a dragon and an I might be a tall Mountain. It was really lovely and relatively inexpensive. I still had some time, so I went back into the govt shop and purchased a larger size piece of art on the top floor. It was beautiful and depicted the Li River painted with water colors on rice paper. Kind of impressionistic. They're shipping it to my house. Here's hoping it makes it (fingers crossed).
We then took a drive under the river to the Pudong. Our guides gave us a spontaneous tour of the 21st century city. We were going to go up to an observatory, but it was a bit overcast. The 2nd tallest building in the world is now in Shangahi technically to be completed next year, but it looked pretty close to completion. Several other major buildings of the world are also in Shanghai. We then headed back to the hotel where Gavin and I relaxed before going over to starbucks on the bund for a change of scenery. Picked up a mug.
We went to an early dinner at Din Tai Fung famous for its Dim Sum. It was awesome and indeed was another excellent meal.
ABD is on a roll now. Great, great choice, ABD. I loved everything I ate. After dinner we went to an acrobatic show which aside from seeing the skyline is the top rated activity in Tripadvisor's Sanghai. It was unbelievable. Sort of like Cirque du Soleir but more intimate. Very theatrical with incredible talent. Live music. Each act was truly remarkable. We then made our way back to the hotel. It was a bit late after 10p. I repacked the suitcases quickly (thank goodness for packing cubes), opened the bed side drawer with a plethora of electrical and USB outlets to plug in my phone, pushed a couple bedside buttons to get the lights and curtains set to my pleasing and hit the hay.
