China Trip Part 2

Ok, so I know I am the worst at updating...

So we arrived in Shanghai in the early evening/late afternoon, it was drizzling and COLD (for us anyways!) Our tour guide was waiting for us with a sign that said Kane A. Brehm! We got our luggage went right through customs/immigration (I was so worried about actually entering China and it was easier than leaving Japan!!) We got in our van and started to drive to our hotel, I was so surprised by how much traffic there was and how much honking was going on!

Our hotel in Shanghai was really an apartment, it was really nice. Our first night there we had no plans so we needed to find dinner on our own. We left the hotel went to a Family Mart (or was it a Lawson's) and bought 2 umbarellas. It was getting dark so we decided not to venture too far from the hotel since we had the kids. We found this place where men were cutting fresh meat on the street in front of a restaurant, it smelled good and it was busy (full of locals) so we hopped right in. Ordering was a little confusing but the older woman working there spoke enough English that it made our lives easier. We ordered beef and chicken.They brought us a plate of raw meat and a steamy bowl of broth some dipping sauces and some rice. They put the bowl on a hot plate and it started bubbling, after looking around we decided to drop the raw meat in and let it cook for a bit... it was YUMMY. We couldn't get it going fast enough to feed our little T-rex (kane). Korbin liked it too but not with sauce and Katara liked it with the sauce, Kane didn't care and probably would've eaten it raw if we had let him! The sauce tasted like it was made with soy "peanut butter" , maybe some coco, and soy sauce and something else that was super yummy!

Our first day of our tour of Shanghai we went to see the Pearl TV Tower, it was neat but the cloud cover was so heavy we got to the top and couldn't see anything. We quickly got down and left. We also went for a walk around The Bund. The Bund is like the "board walk" area there, from it you can see the cities growth and large buildings that hold banks and other vital corporations. This day we also did a cruise boat around the harbor to look at everything around (Kane said ANOTHER BOAT!!!!!) While in Shanghai we went to a silk factory (which was super neat to see!) We also went to an acrobat show, too bad for us the show was late at night and Kane & Katara slept through it! The highlight of our Shanghai trip was going to The Water Village.

The Water Village is a real ancient village that people still live and work in today, however it is mainly for tourist. We saw lots of artisans, got to ride in a boat (they guy paddling it sang to us like in the Pepe La Pew cartoons I saw when I was little!) It was just really neat! We also got to go to a museum that I would have enjoyed a lot more if I didn't have Katara strapped to my back! Shanghai is known as the gallery of architecture, they had all sorts of buildings and it was cool to see so many different styles all in the same area.