SHANGHAI, CHINA, DAY ONE!

It was officially “layer up” day in Shanghai, China!  Cool, (unless you were me, then COLD) and overcast—but we were in CHINA!  These were our first glimpses of Shanghai!  (Visualize blue skies and sunshine!)

We met up with all the folks on the TOUR SHANGHAI WITH A LOCAL and boarded our bus for the day!  Dave and Michelle opted to skip the tour and browse the markets as Michelle was on a quest for pearls!

We met our tour guide, Stacy, who handed out audio boxes (yes!) and told us our first stop would be FUXING PARK.  The park was beautiful, even though their winter was just now drawing to a close.  People were in the park dancing, singing, playing instruments, playing badminton, and doing Tai Chi Fighting.  You name it, there were people in the park doing it!

Can you even imagine this park in the summer?  Our tour guide told us it is a mass of humanity every single day!  (Perhaps it was best we were there on a crisp end of winter day!)

We had a potty stop before getting back on the bus.  (UH OH!)  Oh great, not only a squatter but no toilet paper!

Loved seeing this little Chinaman hosting his very own farmer’s market right outside the park!  He was adorable and so friendly!

We hopped on the bus (oh, the sights we saw from that bus),

and headed to our next stop which a LOCAL RESTAURANT FOR DUMPLINGS, WONTON SOUP,  etc.  Can you say “Absolutely delicious?  Every single thing they brought out for us to eat was oh soooo good!

Stacy showed us the proper way to eat the dumplings!  (John was an expert!)

With full bellies, we all walked from the restaurant past many street vendors.  Everything they were selling looked so fresh!

And some of the things looked a little questionable!  (😳)

We arrived at our next stop, the WET MARKET, and WOW!  Everywhere you looked were the freshest vegetables we have ever seen!  (And we had no clue what many of them were!)

Our next stop was a local grocery store (the one where Stacy shops) that was three floors under ground in a shopping mall!  Just look at that seafood!  You want something—just grab a net and catch your pick! 😳

Our next to last stop of the tour was walking through a LOCAL RESIDENTIAL AREA.  It was cool to see how many locals live.  

And finally, we walked to an area nearby where the government had taken old and decaying apartments, had them torn down and had a vibrant shopping area built in their place.

We laughed when we saw this,

and were relieved to see that the Colonel is actually alive and well in China!

We were given time to walk around the area where we searched for a local coffee shop.  And, would you believe, no store around would accept our American-based credit cards or Apple Pay!  SAY WHAT?  (We had tried to get cash from a local ATM machine, to no avail!)

The tour bus dropped us off at the boat, but we opted to walk around and find an American coffee shop where we could get a proper coffee and actually pay for it!  We found a close by mall,

with a Starbucks that accepted our credit card!  (Success!) The Starbucks was HUGE and was three stories tall!

We saw flower pots all along the streets of Shanghai.  (They must know something I don’t know about keeping flowers looking so good in the cold winter weather!)

Before boarding the boat we took a photo of the infamous Oriental Pearl Tower, commonly referred to as Dongfang Mingzhu Ta.  (I much prefer to call it the Oriental Pearl Tower!)  

Back at the room, one of us spent time playing with ChatGPT, and one of us did not! 

ChatGPT invisioned the Oriental Pearl Tower exactly how I would have liked to have seen it! 

Later, we grabbed a quick dinner with Dave and Michelle (she had a successful pearl shopping day) and hopped a bus to the waterfront for a night time river cruise!  To be perfectly honest, we ALMOST cancelled the trip.  It was cold and damp (it has never actually rained on this trip) and really overcast.  We considered hunkering down in a warm spot on the ship for the evening.  But were we ever glad we didn’t cancel!  The weather improved and the lights along the river were bright!  Shanghai at night was AMAZING!

It was a GREAT day in Shanghai!  And guess what?  We get to see more of it tomorrow!  Good night!