The Longest Day...

I am tired.  Update later.  Here are some photos...

OK, I'm back.  Apparently, I am much better at getting back and updating this than I have been in the past.  This day was extremely packed with activities, both the ones on the tour and further adventures after the tour ended...so let's get started.

In the town of Suzhou, there are many Chinese gardens.  In China, a garden isn't just a landscaped area, it's a complex that includes living quarters.  We visited the Master of the Nets garden from the Song dynasty.  Both the person who originally created it, Shi Zhengzhi, and the person who restored and redesigned it almost 650 years later, Song Zongyuan, were not fishermen but worked in government.  They were inspired by the simple life of a fisherman.

This teeny-tiny bridge is Quietude Bridge and can be crossed in just a couple of steps.  It is a favorite photo posing area. 

Don't know what this is, but it was a cool looking corridor that I thought I'd take a shot of.

From the description on the map we were given, I believe this is The Washing Cap-Ribbon Pavillion Over the Water.

This is the Branch Beyond Bamboo Porch and was used for tea ceremonies.

I think this was the Cloud Stairway room as I could not find a good description of any room that sounded like it except for the fact that it contains a collection of ceramics...

We then went to an actual silk factory, which was different than the silk making demonstration I went to last week on the other tour...kind of. Above are the mulberry leaves that feed the silk worms.   This was actually at the factory, but it a little area set aside for tours.  So it was a little more extensive, but not actually watching silk production.  Still, a good overview. 

This is a machine where the silk cocoons are unraveled and spun into thread.  I believe it's 8 actual strands are spun together into silk thread. 

Now double cocoons (two worms in one cocoon) cannot be unraveled as the strands are wrapped together, so they are stretched into the filling for comforters.  Note the two ladies on the right.  I really hit it off with them and made new friends from Australia.  Karen and Jo are lifelong friends who were the comic relief for our group.  Jo's husband was here on business so they were zooming around trying to do as much fun stuff as they could.  Today was Shanghai, tomorrow the Bullet Train to Beijing to take a tour of the Great Wall. 

I actually bought some stuff at the silk factory.  It was probably priced a bit more than I could have gotten elsewhere, but only if I bargained.  This was a government run factory, so the prices are set and there is no bargaining, which I found appealing.  It's just too damn stressful for me. 

After the silk factory we had a crazy delicious lunch in Suzhou:

I debated about posting this photo, but I had to.  This was desert.  A soupy concoction made of red beans with little sticky rice balls.  It was just a little sweet and the sticky rice was a fun, chewy texture.  I enjoyed it and had seconds.  

 After lunch, took a little walk around the canal area there.  The area had been recently restored and renovated to make it more accessible to tourists and locals. 

Originally, the city of Suzhou was surrounded by a wall, most of which has been demolished.  However, the original gate, Pan Gate, still exists.  It had both a land and water gate (the water gate is clearly seen here) and dates back to about 514 BCE. 

The canal has a tall bridge that crosses it, which makes for scenic photos. 

After our walk, we piled into our van and alighted at Zhouzhuang Water Village.  There are many water villages in China, and quite a few around Shanghai.  This is the most famous (and most commercialized).  The large, noisy tour groups did nothing to distract however. 

Many bridges of differing heights cross the canal and low, paddle powered boats ferry tourists around.  This is known as the Venice of China. 

You'll see many of these blue roofed boats everywhere in the water and they go on rain or shine.  I forgot to mention it earlier, we had no rain but it was very chilly and gray.  Again, nothing detracted from this awesome experience.

I got here a little late for all of the spring blossoms.  However, I did spot one flowering tree in full bloom. 

We took a boat ride down the canal in one of the boats.  I was with our guide, Jo, and Karen.  Jo had a traumatic experience on a canoe in New Guinea and was a bit of a nervous sailor.  I finally allowed a photo on our rocking boat. 

We're in the residential area of the town  here.  We tipped the lady paddling our boat so that she would sing for us.  She had a lovely voice and set the scene for the whole experience. 

Here she is.  She was laughing at us the whole time.  Mostly because Jo refused to stand on the boat and was crawling around on all fours...LOL. 

We alighted and walked down a little street that had shops of local crafts.  Here is a cotton spinning and weaving shop.  Most of the cloth is in traditional indigo hues. 

This, I believe is the tea room where the famous painter Wu Guanzhong used to hang out

In another, nearby tea room, folk musicians were performing. 

This was a rice wine producing facility in the town.  

Last image before we leave are the entry/exit gate and the pagoda on the edge of town, which I believe is Quan Pagoda. 

We then had a long ride home, which was a good time to rest.  After a bit of discussion, Jo, Karen, and I opted to be dropped off near The Bund as it was getting dark and it would be a good opportunity to get some night photos of the lights. 

I tried both my regular camera...

And my cell phone to see which took the better picture.  Both are pretty good, I think.  The Pearl Tower stays purple, and a message revolves around the top of the Shanghai Tower.  There are more lights and more advertising here than at Times Square, I think!

After a few minutes enjoying the view and the atmosphere, we decided to venture off to find food. 

We ended up on West Nanjing Road, an equally scenic area at night.  We found a restaurant that looked busy and the menu looked ok, so we took a shot. 

It was not so great.  The veggies and rice were fine, and the beef that Jo ordered was pronounced very tasty.  My chicken stew was a mistake (mostly bones and skin) while Karen's Shanghai Duck was horribly overcooked with very little duck and lots of skin and bones.  

After making sure we had each other's contact information, I headed to the Metro and made my way back to the apartment.  I promptly uploaded a bunch of photos here, then collapsed. 

Money and Fishes in the Financial District

My first quest this morning was to restore my cash reserves.  According to the Mastercard app I had downloaded, there was a bank compatible with my debit card within a few blocks of my apartment.  Unfortunately, when I finally located it...I got a message that they had to update their systems and could not fulfill my request...ARGH!

So, back to my apartment and the WiFi so that I could connect to the app again and look some more.  I did have tentative plans to cross the river and go to the observation deck at the Shanghai Tower.  The Shanghai Tower is a big part of the Financial District, so I thought I might have some luck there.  According to the app a HSBC and a Citibank near the tower should be good.  I was happy to see a couple of familiar bank names.

It started to rain as I set out. Surprisingly, the Metro transfer I had to take to get across (or under) the river, required me to exit one station, cross over a shopping district *above ground* and enter another station.  During this time, it began to rain.  Luckily, I had my umbrella in my backpack.

When I got to my destination station, I found that we could exit into a mall and thought I'd have a good chance of finding an ATM in the mall.  Found the mall map and, sure enough, the HSBC had a branch there.  Found the bank, found the ATM and...woooohoooo!! It gave me the money.  Whew!  I was getting worried.

One thing I discovered is that the financial district is very Westernized.  The mall had all sorts of upscale shops and a few things we're used to finding in malls, like food courts (although they're called "food pods" here).  I found a Pret A Manger and dug into a sandwich and a cappuccino like it was my last meal.

Outside, it was pouring and extremely cloudy.

This is the Pearl Tower which I could see from the courtyard of the mall.  Now, the Shanghai Tower is taller than this, so the top of it would also be obscured by clouds.  I decided the observation deck would have to wait for another (sunny) day.  However, I recalled my young friend Ariel extolling the virtues of the aquarium...which happens to be right next to Pearl tower.  What better activity for a rainy day?

It was raining buckets from the sky.  Despite the umbrella, I got more than a little wet on my walk, but there was luckily no line for tickets.  I was thoughtfully provided a plastic bag for my wet umbrella (which later became a bit humorous...they wanted to keep the umbrellas from dripping on the floor, but the roof of the building was leaking in multiple places).

So, I present to you...fishes!

First thing you see are fish native to China, so you get to see lots of carp...lots and lots of very colorful and friendly carp. 

I think I like those lemon yellow ones best. 

We then got to see several species of local sharks.  Unfortunately, I can't remember all the names of the fish and water critters I saw and it was too dark to photograph all of the signs.  So, local shark it is.

Here are some baby sharks.  China is apparently putting a lot of effort into trying to breed sharks to release into the wild.  A lot of types of sharks in Asia have been hunted to the brink of extinction as they are considered to be a delicacy. 

This was kind of cool.  These were live embryonic sharks in their egg casing. The were squirming around in there.

Also in the room with the sharks was a tank with those little spa fish.  You could wash your hands, then dip them in the tank to let them nibble off all the dead skin.  Unfortunately, it's hard to take a photo when fish are eating you...so no photo. 

In the entry area they also appeared to be building a new exhibit.  The only bit in place was a tank with some seahorses...and I managed to get a decent photo...little sucker actually stayed still for me.

I was obsessed with these turtles and have about 20 pictures of them.   Don't worry, I won't force you to look at them all!   They're Pig Nosed Turtles, a freshwater turtle from Australia and New Guinea.

I think you can see the pig nose a little better in this photo...last one!

Here's a handsome fellow...an iguana that has a kissy face for you.

This aquarium had a really good selection of tropical fishes.  Who needs to scuba dive with an expensive underwater camera when you can see this.

Here we are trying to re-create a tropical rain-forest

Here's a pretty purple sea anemone.  The other ones in the tank were all closed up.

I finally got a good photo of a lionfish, although he looks a little peaked...

I kind of wanted this pufferfish to get all scared and upset to show off his spines...but no luck.

Now one thing this aquarium had a lot of that I like is when you can actually walk through a tunnel under the fishes.  There were tons of them here...

Like this very cool escalator one...

And this is what it looked like when you were completely below the surface of the water.

But there was a lot more...

There were these weird tiny little eels that were anchored in the sea floor.  Some were stripey, some not.

My favorite part I think is when I turned the corner to find a room of jellyfish.  Mom loved jellyfish and she would have loved this aquarium.

Especially the giant tank with the phosphorescent jellyfish.  They had a color changing light in this tank, so you'd go through the entire rainbow.  This one is blue

This was the purple light.

There were several tanks with many different types of jellyfish.  I found these the most terrifying.  By the way, this image is flipped.  They were swimming down toward the bottom of the tank...it just looked weird.

These bitty little green mushroomy looking guys looked fine swimming normally.

Nearby, there were more seahorses, which were much more active and harder to photograph.  However, I wanted to show you the daddies who are obviously carrying some eggs.  See a few with the distended white bellies?  I just love the role reversal in the seahorse world!

Speaking of hard to photograph, they had some seals, which were very active!  Suckers wouldn't hold still for a good photo.

The penguins were much more cooperative with their fake ice floes and painted fake Antarctica.

Now, the last part of the aquarium is entirely an underwater tunnel.  you get on a people mover and it takes you on an underwater journey.

There was one tank with a super shiny fish school that darted everywhere.  They were being fed by a diver in the tank with them...I think that dark bit in the middle is them, covered in hungry fish.

There were rays, and tuna and other bigger ocean fishes...

Some really cool sea turtles too..

And SHARKS!

With many, many sharp looking teeth.

One last walk through a tropical fish tank and the journey is done.  All in all, a pretty decent aquarium.  Even if there were a bunch of buckets in several of the rooms as it was raining pretty hard and it looks like there were some leaky bits of the roof.  

Gift shop was OK.  Lots of kids stuff, mostly stuffed toys.  A few general city souvenirs,  but nothing super special.  I headed back out into the rain...

Snapped this with my phone from under the umbrella.  The three tallest buildings in China chopped in half by clouds.  

I found an area with an overhang and took a few photos of the clouds moving around up there...

They look like black and white photos, but the world was just very gray today.  

Got back to the mall and decided I needed a snack so I chanced a fresh juice.  And a donut.  The juice was more of a chance as they probably washed the fruit and veg in local water and didn't peel them.  Apples, carrots and ginger...and my tummy is ok.  Since it was an eatery in a super upscale mall, they may have put the food through an ozone or uv sanitizer.  

I spent a couple of hours in the IFC (International Finance Center) mall. Prada and Dior and Tiffany's OH MY!  Yeah, I just looked and kind of laughed at how ridiculous some designer stuff is. 

When I decided to head back, it was rush hour...oops!  Still, I survived, but arrived back soaking wet. Not going grocery shopping tonight...nope!

Tomorrow I have a tour of Suzhou Garden and Zhouzhuang Water Village.  10 hours...sounds like it will be a full day. 

More Shopping and Dumplings!

I  woke up with a half-baked plan...just do some general sightseeing on foot.  Stroll along The Bund, peek in shop windows, go back and wander Old Shanghai.  Nothing big, just poke around and experience the city.

I was up early, got on the computer and plotted my course.  In the middle of my path, I saw something interesting...a fabric market.  I had to check that out.  I wrote down my walking directions in my phone because google maps is notoriously awful here.

As the cash reserves are getting low, I decide to visit the cash machine.  I locked myself in the little room and found that it was down for maintenance.  No worries, there's another bank next door...and it won't give me money.  I start to worry...but get on the subway and head toward The Bund.  I get out at Nanjing Road and head away from the shopping Hell.  I find another ATM that will not give me cash.  This is starting to get worrisome...

I set that aside, decide to harass my bank again when I get back to my room, and I walk toward the river. I am accosted my a little girl in a school uniform who asks me if she can tell me about Shanghai.  The adult in charge of her explains she'd like to practice her English on me.  I'm game and I get a long speech from little Ariel about the Shanghai Aquarium.  It has all kinds of colorful fish and sharks and I won't believe how close I can get to them!  When she finished (or ran out of breath) I praised her for a job well done and she presented me with a tourist guidebook that I'm fairly certain she got from the nearby tourist information center.  She was so cute I wanted to pack her up and bring her home!

Well, her homework was done, so she headed off with her grownup.   I soon began to notice other Chinese schoolchildren approaching Western tourists to grace them with their own particular tourism speech.

I located my starting point from earlier in the week...

The Monument to the People's Heroes at the north end of the Bund .  Apparently, it's the site of early morning Tai Chi here in Shanghai.  I don't think I'll get here early enough to watch though.

I set off toward the cruise ship docks down at the south end, but I soon started to feel the sun.  Still not completely recovered from my sunburn, I headed down to the tree shaded sidewalk area below.  I actually had written myself pretty good directions headed away from the Bund at the right street.

I almost passed the Shiliupu Material Market, but I found the front door.  This place was a crazy maze of rolls of silk, wool, linen, jersey...you name it.  You can also have any piece of clothing you want made specifically for you.

These dresses are gorgeous, but I think I will have to put my dream aside of owning my own.  For a plain silk one (no embroidery) I couldn't negotiate anyone down below 1100 yuan ($175), which is a bit much for a dress I won't get a lot of use out of. 

However, they can make ANYTHING here, you just have to provide a pattern.  I was wearing my linen harem pants today and I'm thinking about going back to have them whip up a couple copies in different colors (those things are actually pretty expensive).

So, I headed out of the fabric market, which abuts Old Shanghai...

It was pretty bustling as it is a weekend (I figured out that Sundays are the busy days and Saturdays are usually the time that businesses close).  Keep in mind that this is not a pedestrian street, although not much automobile traffic went on...lots of bikes, scooters, and motorcycles though.

I soon found the Tourist Market.

I spent a ton of time in here just poking around, looking in the shops.  

At one point, a couple of German ladies asked me (in English) if I knew where the McDonalds was...LOL

I then realized that I was hungry and I had promised myself that I would try xiaolongbao or soup dumplings.  They are made with either crab or pork (guess which I was going to try) and are a specialty here in Shanghai.

I got a steamer basket of 6 of these little beauties and they were quite the challenge.  I did end up wearing some in the end, but I did not burn my mouth.  I wish I had gotten the hugenormous version, which is about the size of all 6 of these rolled into one.  It's served on a plate with a straw and you punch a hole in the top and drink it through the straw.  I saw several people wandering about the market with one of these, happily sipping away (they are amazingly delicious).  Next time!

I got sucked into a indoor mart full of tourist goods and bought two watercolors.  Honestly, they may be prints, but they were pretty cheap and I'm just happy with the pretty pictures.  The woman there gave me another bottle of water while I shopped, which was appreciated (I figured out they do that a lot here...water, soda, or beer).

I was totally beat at this point and needed to head back to the Bund to hop on the Metro.  It was hot, I was sweaty and sticky and gross and desired another shower.

I just thought this was a cool shot coming out of Old Shanghai.

I walked past a "wholesale" jewelry mart and felt the pull.  Guess who bought some jade?  Not really good jade, but decent jade..so I didn't spend a lot of money and I love my new Buddha necklace.

Ok so I was running on empty now...  I spotted the tallest building in Shanghai (the Shanghai Tower and the second tallest building in the World) and headed in that direction.  Eventually, I ran into the Bund.

Since it was late in the day, and the sun was no longer overhead, I went back up to the walkway instead of using the sidewalk.

So, here is the skyline from a different angle, around the bend of the river, now near the south end.  In case you didn't guess, that REALLY tall building is the Shanghai Tower.  If I hadn't been so beat, I would have hung out and waited for it to get dark so I could take a photo of it at night...but...nope.

I eventually found my way back to the Metro station and didn't get at all turned around getting back.  When I got back to my neighborhood, I actually remembered to bust into my now dwindling supply of cash to pick up a gallon of water at the corner store.

I got online, logged into my bank account and sent a message asking why I had trouble getting cash when I had alerted them early that I would be visiting China.  Also the constantly having to do 2 factor over and over was getting on my nerves....

I then figured out for myself that I have to find an ATM that will take Mastercard...oy veh.

Museum tomorrow, I think...there is a bank that accepts Mastercard at the atm near there according to their website.  If I have time, Natural History Museum as well...

I Got Nuthin....

I believe I did say that today I would take the day off..and I did.  Couple of reasons for this:

1. I really wore myself out over the last few days.  Not only was Disney killer, but I did the shopping street the day before and the whirlwind tour before that.  I needed a day off.

2. Sunburn.  Not much to do indoors on a weekend here (I had been forewarned that the museum is a mob scene on weekends by the tour guide earlier this week).  The back of my neck is burned pretty badly. 

3. I think I may be catching something.  Post nasal drip and the start of a sore throat.  I've started on the Advil and chicken flavor pot noodle counts as chicken soup, right?

Most of the day I spent on the computer.  Annoyed at my intermittent VPN, cursing at my bank...  I get that my bank knows I'm on a VPN/out of the country.  Because of my job, I have a basic understanding of why I am setting off their bells and whistles...but geez, do you have to EVERY time ask me for a code?  Then, take so long to get the code to me that my partial login times out and I am eventually locked out of my account.

Trust tags people...trust tags...

I have to call them in a few minutes (although its night here, it's morning in the US) and make sure I can get back in there.

Anyway, exciting laundry, computer stress, and pot noodle.  That's my day.

Oh, and the landlady dropped off a new wok that is rust free and only a little crusty ::sigh::