Beijing Bay-bay!

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well. I'm starting to get into crunch time in terms of finals and getting ready to head home. I think the best way to describe my feelings would be an awkward (my specialty) mixture of wanting to stay longer and being incredibly, incredibly excited to go home. This week especially has been rather hellish, we had one class cancelled, but I've since had three make up classes scheduled to fill any voids that could have been filled with the dangerous foreign substance known as "fun." Luckily, I have the memories of my Beijing to get me through, and lemme tell you, I saved my best adventure for last.

This trip was a bit unusual in the fact that I was without any of my usual travel companions ("CashCab" Paul, or Old Man Bryan). Coming up from the reserves with some serious sass was my Chinese friend Mingming, better known as CLI's accountant, and occasionally a Chinese teacher. A few icebreakers to get to know Mingming: 1. She owns a tiny female pug named Meatball (despite the ease in which the name invites Chinese dog meat jokes) and dresses her daily.  2. She has a nearly photographic memory, and therefore is incredibly gifted at math. She told me over the course of the trip she thought math was ridiculously easy because she would just look at the formula sheet and memorize everything in a matter of minutes. 3. She is fluent in Chinese (obviously), English, and has just begun to learn Spanish (keep in mind she's an accountant). 4. She is crazy, gregarious, and the biggest goofball I've met in China. 

In a word, Mingming is great. She can be seen below taking a selfie with Chairman Mao:

Also accompanying us was Abby, an American intern at CLI, and her mother, who met us there and is travelling around China for a few weeks. They chose a few different activities than us, so sometimes the four of us were together, but the majority of my time was spent one on one with Mingming.

I also have yet to tell you, my valued readers, of my latest development in my Chinese language journey. Starting on November 14th (one month before my flight home), I forgot English. Well, clearly not, but, I wasn't getting enough speaking practice since everyone at CLI speaks such good English so I decided to only speak English on a handful of occasions: 1. Writing this blog. 2. When speaking to someone who cannot speak Chinese (kind of defeats the purpose of the practice). 3. When asking the meaning of a word or phrase. 4. When asked a question about English vocabulary or grammar. 5.  In moments when time is of the essence. 

So far it's been going pretty well. I have my off-days to be sure, but I can already tell my speaking ability has greatly improved and it causes me to think a lot more in Chinese, which helps solidify some of the learning. 

The point of the above story is that I spent the better part of 3 days one on one with Mingming, speaking nothing but Chinese, in the huge cosmopolitan capital of China. Cool.

I also have to share with you perhaps the most awkward thing I've done since arriving in China: Mingming and I were standing outside the Forbidden City waiting for Abby and her mother, casually discussing why no police officers or people have guns in China. I looked in my dictionary on my phone to see what the word for shoot and and the word for gun were before plugging them into the grammar structure used to ask if someone has ever done something. So, I asked Mingming if she'd ever fired a gun... or so I thought. She started laughing hysterically and minutes later explained that the two words the dictionary had provided separately, when combined, form a euphemism for male masturbation. Oops. But, hey, now I will never, ever forget how to ask if someone's shot a gun before.

But enough of my ramblings, on to the task at hand. Beijing! Woo! Capital of China! Woo! Simply put, Beijing is awesome. It is, of course, a huge city, but it was much cleaner than Xi'an, and I was pleased to find the public urination was actually frowned upon in Beijing. It is in the north of China, so, it was pretty damn cold. But, if you can fight through the cold and wind, it has some of the coolest historical and cultural sites in the world, serves as the center of power for the government that governs more people than any other, proudly cooks and serves some world-renowned cuisine, and, well, it just kicks ass.

Night One: Tiananmen

Arriving around dinner time, we grabbed something quick to eat and headed to Tiananmen square. Tiananmen is a (in)famous spot in China, but just the amount of history that has unfolded there is worth the trip. The Chinese government, and the elites, actually work and meet in the buildings lining Tiananmen, and of course, Mao overlooks it all:

Day 1: Tiananmen Part 2 and Forbidden City

Mingming asked me if I wanted to wake up at 530am on Saturday morning. Usually a question like this would receive the biggest scowl I could muster and be quickly dismissed, but, it was for a good reason. Ever since the Revolution in 1949, the Chinese hoist their flag in the center of Tiananmen with the national anthem blasting in the background. It's a very patriotic ceremony and Mingming told me that back in the day, when China's post-revolutionary patriotism was through the roof, people would travel far and wide just to say they saw the flag raised. Nowadays it's not so popular, but people still turn out. We ran a little behind schedule, so literally sprinted from the metro station to watch the ceremony, but it was well worth the effort and the early rise. Afterwards we got breakfast and waited for Abby and her Mother at the Forbidden City (site of the aforementioned "have you ever shot a gun" mishap).

The Forbidden city served as the seat of the Emperor for hundreds of years, but, in the long expanse that is Chinese history, it's not really that old. In fact, the Chinese only moved their capital to Beijing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The reason? Because the newly crowned emperor burned down the previous palace in Nanjing (the previous capitol) with his nephew (the rightful emperor) trapped inside to seize the throne. Since a body was never found, some people in Nanjing weren't entirely convinced this new guy should be running the show, so, in a move to avoid a clearly awkward situation (something I can appreciate) he ordered the Grand Canal rerouted and the government moved to Beijing. 

The Forbidden City is pretty sweet, it serves as one of the borders for Tiananmen Square and attracts huge crowds daily. That being said, it's more or less one giant, very spread out museum. One that takes 4-5 hours to navigate completely. The experience itself was cool, and much of it is well maintained, but some structures and items were lost to time/thieves/etc. All in all, I was a little underwhelmed, but in no way disappointed, if that makes sense.

After the Forbidden city, Mingming and I went and got the ever-famous Beijing Roast Duck. I was a little skeptical at first. I've haven't eaten that many waterfowl over the course of my life, but I had been assured and reassured that this stuff was the real deal. The place we went to was relatively expensive ($25USD/person) and Mingming insisted that she pay for the whole meal. I accepted only when she said that when she comes to America and visits Washington D.C. I'll have to treat her to an equally nice meal. Here's our duck getting sliced and diced:

Once we had eaten our fill (it was amazing), we headed to the Summer Palace, another one of Beijing's historical sites. Mingming checked online and supposedly they stopped selling tickets at 5pm, with all guests leaving the site at 8pm. After running about a half a mile from the metro station, we arrived at the ticket booth at 4:57pm to find it closed and vacant. Oh, China. It's the one spot I didn't get to see, but as Mingming pointed out, it gives me an excuse to come back in the future.

Day 2: THE GREAT WALL

Seeing the Great Wall is one of those things where if you visit China and don't do it, you'll end up kicking yourself. Mingming had been several times, however and warned us that we would probably be disappointed because, and I quote, "IT'S JUST A WALL! THERE'S NOTHING THERE!" Disregarding her warnings we suited up in our warmest apparel and took the train an hour North to the "Badaling" section of the wall. 

The Great Wall, like the Forbidden City, is a Ming dynasty site, so the wall as it stands today isn't that old (again, when considering Chinese history. Generally speaking, it's pretty damn old). The Wall's history isn't something the Chinese really brag about. After the Mongols conquered all of China and ruled for over 150 years, they were eventually pushed back into Mongolia, where they split into rival tribes. Ever fearful of the rise of another Genghis Khan, the Chinese began building a series of walls to prevent the Mongols from sweeping down off the step once more. Notice that it was a series of walls, not one long connected one. For much of Chinese history, they were manhandled and humiliated by their northern, horse-riding, pants-wearing neighbors, and this wall didn't really change that. An emperor of the time was convinced to march north to push the Mongols north, his army was defeated, he was taken prisoner, and then returned to the Chinese a year later. The Mongols didn't even care about ransoming him or anything. More related to the wall's history, a tribe of Mongol's successfully laid siege to Beijing for 5 days, just to get the Chinese to agree to trade (the Chinese were very paranoid at this stage in their history). How'd they do it with this "Great" Wall in their way. They went around. Womp. Anyways, enough history, more pictures:

Abby and I decided (read: I decided) to climb to the highest point of this section of the Great Wall. It's a bit of a hike (our destination is circled in red):

The view from about half way there:

Bonus picture of random Chinese guy power posing on the Great Wall:

When imagining the Great Wall I admittedly pictured it as relatively flat. No no no. This thing gets really steep, really fast. At some points it's at least a 45 degree angle if not more. Made me feel for the guys who had to do patrols on it:

Taking a break mid-climb. Abby is a huge Disney fan and not much of an outdoor enthusiast, so, to motivate her to keep going until the top, I repeatedly asked her, "What would Mulan do?" Which caused here to break out in to song (can't win'em all), but also to keep climbing:

Northern China is cold and windy as is, but on elevated slabs of stone with no protection from the wind, it's a whole different level. Here is one couple using the classic "face-to-face" Eskimo warming technique, excellent form:

The Great Wall was pretty great (sorry, had to). It's definitely a worthwhile experience despite the drawbacks. Thoroughly pleased with our climb and chilled to the bone, we headed back for some well deserved heat and rest.

Final Day: Mausoleum of Mao Zedong/Temple of Heaven/Shopping

So in case you weren't aware, Mao Zedong was, is, and for better or worse, will forever be a big deal to the Chinese. Despite his public policy failings (to put it lightly) he did unite China and threw off the yoke of Western Imperialism, allowing China to emerge into the power it is today. Before he died, he is quoted as having said he wanted to be cremated and turned into fertilizer (not as weird as it sounds, he thought wasting perfectly good land to bury the dead was stupid, and that we owe back to nature what we took out). A bit extreme but I see where he's coming from. Unfortunately for him, he was too important. Instead of cremation, he was instead embalmed and put on display in the center of Tiananmen Square, where he resides today. Seriously. Many are convinced it's a wax structure, but some Chinese, including Mingming, swear that it's really him. I went and saw for myself and, my friends, the jury is still out. You have to be dead silent when walking through the room, and you are ushered through relatively quickly, but you get a good view of the man/sculpture from about 10 feet out. I have no idea if it's really him or not, but that's not what I found interesting. What's interesting is that decades after this man's death, after he mishandled a country so poorly that millions starved, people line up around the corner just for a 5 second glimpse. Flowers are laid at his feet daily. That, my friends, is a Cult of Personality. 

Absolutely no pictures allowed inside, but here's his (humble) abode:

Our last stop was the Temple of Heaven, a historic site/park in downtown Beijing. Locals get in free, but others pay a modest fee and then get to see where the emperors went to do their praying and hold ceremonies. Let me tell you, pretty amazing:

Probably just a couple really bored guys with some finger-paint:

Mingming, striking a pose, Abby looks on:

After seeing all there was to see at the Temple of Heaven (namely, the Temple itself and a few outlying buildings) we were cold, tired, and had entirely too much money. Some serious shopping was in order. I knocked out a few of the VIP's on my holiday shopping list, but since they all read this blog (note the correlation between reading my blog and residing on the VIP section of my holiday shopping list...note it), their gifts cannot be named.

The shopping centers we went to had a reputation as being places of intense negotiation, fierce salespeople, and clueless foreigners paying way, way more than they should for fake items. The place did not disappoint. The haggling was tough, but I got some good deals on the [REDACTED] I'm giving my girlfriend, the [REDACTED] I'm giving my grandma, and of course, the [REDACTED] I'm giving my lovely mother. As an example that I can share, Abby bought her mom a knock off designer purse. Original asking price: 3000RMB. Final sale price: 260RMB. Mingming is a master negotiator, I'll leave it at that.

One final anecdote:

Our hostel was very central in Beijing and right next to a long commercial street with many malls. We walked down this street every day to get to the metro and had a few meals there. I saw every day a man selling fried scorpions. I had to try it. How many times do you live, honestly?:

To anyone who knows how picky of an eater I used to be, look how far I've come. The process is cool. You saunter up and boldly state the you want a stick of three scorpions. The Scorpion salesman (there needs to be a specialized word for that occupation) then picks up one of the sticks and runs his hand over the legs of the scorpions, which then scurry. Yup. The scorpions are impaled alive. Then, he fries the scorpions for 3-4 minutes while he chats you up. Finally he slaps on some spicy sauce and garlic powder and hands it over. The final product is much smaller than the picture above, and, I gotta say, pretty damn good. A little crunchy, and the legs get stuck between your teeth, but good. 

All in all Beijing was amazing. It was my last big excursion and I think having that in mind helped me enjoy it that much more. Now, it's time to write two final papers, and prepare for a massive Chinese language final exam. Time to crank up the intensity to unheard of levels, e.g. this young man's gaze/hairstyle:

(insert jokes about how horny he is.....here)

Pee-on Xi'an

Hey everybody! No, I didn't forget about you, I've just been crazy busy running around China. You've been caught up on my Shanghai trip, but two weekends ago I went to Xi'an (pronounced She-On), a city famous for two reasons: because it is very near the burial ground of the first Chinese emperor and his Terra Cotta Soldiers, and, perhaps more importantly, because it's the public urination capital of the world. You read that right. More male Xi'anites(?) freely lower their flies in public per capita than any other city on earth (fake). In fact, Xi'an has very few public bathrooms just for this reason (not true at all). They've even adapted a famous Chinese idiom about returning natures bounty...alright I'll stop. Point is, they have a problem. 

I'm not sure when this trend caught on, but personally I like to believe that in ancient times two famous scholars decided to settle a philosophical argument via drinking contest. The argument was only settled when the victorious scholar challenged the other scholar to a "pissing contest," spawning the phrase as we know it today. The tradition of public urination was then subsequently passed down through the generations, becoming less and less taboo over time until the present day, where it is an established part of the city's culture.

As I said, I like to believe that, but in reality, I have no idea why. Every. Single. Day. I was in Xi'an I saw a man stop, whip out the family jewels, and spray away at the many conveniently placed trees dotting the sidewalks. This happened in broad daylight too, so it wasn't just people getting drunk and having no shame. Furthermore, it wasn't even just a couple of homeless guys, which I could have understood. I saw two sharply dressed businessmen perform the deed, simultaneously, while having a conversation (I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, and probably wouldn't have understood it anyway, but maybe they both said, "Hey, look! Foreigners! Let's piss in front of them and freak'em out!). But perhaps absolutely most egregiously, during our bike ride atop the ancient city wall, I saw a man on his cell phone take a piss ON ONE OF XI'AN'S CULTURAL RELICS. Nothing. I got nothing. I was shocked.

I asked our student coordinator and one of the CLI teachers who tagged along (in addition to myself, Victoria, our history professor, his wife, an older CLI student, and the always cab-fearing Paul) and they didn't really know either. They were less shocked, but they were both from the south of China, and assumed it was just a northern thing (China is approximately the same length North to South as the US, and has just as much diversity between regions, if not more. Just as northerners in the US look down on southerners as hillbillies and southerners look at them as prissy city slickers, the Chinese have their own regional rivalries, but it's mostly based on province and the main North vs. South feud).

Apart from the urine, Xi'an is pretty cool. We hit up a Muslim walking street to find some food and buy some souvenirs. In an unusual reversal, the food was actually rather expensive, whereas the souvenirs were pretty fairly priced. One meal we wanted to have before we left was You-Po-Mian (literally means Oil Dripped Noodles). In Guilin, our my favorite place to eat is a yopomian place, and yopomian originated from Xi'an, so we were all I was excited to try the original. We I shouldn't have been. Xi'an's yopomian was bland, cold, and three times the price of Guilin's. Maybe I'm just biased towards my local mom and pop noodle shop, or maybe it's because our yopomian has enough MSG to kill a small horse in each serving, buuut I didn't like it at all. 

Another Xi'an specialty is Biang-Biang-Mian. Biang is an ancient onomatopoeia for the sound the noodles make when the chef slaps them against the wood to prepare them. The character for Biang is arguably most complicated character in Chinese (in fact, if you ask a typical Chinese person, which I did, they don't know how to write it, it's just a specialty thing):

Unfortunately, due to its fame, BiangBiangMian is expensive, and because of our other experience with Xi'an's noodles, we decided to skip it. 

So far I've been giving Xi'an a pretty bad rap, but it does have it's plus sides. If for nothing else, it is worth the trip just for the history of the place. It served as the capital of several dynasties (called Chang'An back in the good 'ole days) and while the city's dirty sprawl has replaced all of the previous grandeur, the sites just a short bus ride away more than fill the void.

The first we went to was a series of tombs from the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD). They each had their own interesting back stories, including enough court intrigue to make even the biggest Game of Thrones fan's head spin (for example, one of the tombs was the royal prince's. He was killed by his grandmother, an Empress-Dowager for allegedly bad mouthing the emperor's (her) rule. Oh yeah, and by kill I mean beaten to death with blunt wooden sticks. But, because he was royalty, a more proper cause of death was given to the common people, and his tomb bears the same lie.

Descending into the tomb: 

The next spot was the famous burial ground of Wu Zetian, the only female Empress and an all around bad ass in her own right. She consolidated her power by killing her political rivals, even family members, but once she did, she led China through a period of economic growth and territorial expansion, so the Chinese brush that first part under the rug. 

Outside her tomb, the statues of foreign envoys. I'm 82% sure they originally had heads...

Since we spent 3 full days in Xi'an, We got to explore a bit and see the sites. Back in the day, Chang'an was divided into very strictly regulated grids, with walls dividing each sector. The city had a curfew, and when the drums started beating, or bells ringing (it was a complicated system), it meant get your ass home, or face the consequences. This is the famous the Bell tower with some aftermarket neon:

Xi'An also has two very old, very famous pagodas. This is the smaller of the two:

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. What made my journey through Xi'an's piss-laden streets and your journey through my piss-laden words worthwhile: The Terra Cotta Soldiers. I have to admit I wasn't really prepared to see them. I kind of brushed it off. But when I was walking into the huge complex that houses them, my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. We went early in the day, and on a nasty, rainy, cold day at that, but you could still hear the clamor of people inside. My inner History nerd was livin' the dream. Right when you walk in you're hit with this:

(plus a few hundred other people pushing and shoving to get a good picture)

You can walk around and get a 360 view, and the sides were much more manageable. What concerned me though, was the lack of security. You had to pass through metal detectors and get patted down to get in to the complex, but once you were in, a 4 foot high guard rail was the only thing between you and warriors. As a self-acknowledged history nerd it would be unthinkable to mess with something as priceless as the warriors, but all it takes is one jackass. There were only three or four security guards too (which didn't really matter because if you f'd with the warriors you'd get attacked by a thousand very angry (very real) Chinese people-turned-warriors. Anyway, once I worked through my fear of someone being "that guy" I took the time to appreciate it as much as I could:

Obligatory picture with me in it:

So. Damn. Cool. It's one of the few experiences where I've been left thinking knowing, "I will remember this until the day I die."

On our last day we decided to ride bikes atop the city wall. You rent them for an hour and it's a good way to see a good bit of the city. These walls were from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the originals are long gone. As you can see, they are still pretty imposing:

An arrow tower:

Paul enjoyed got duped into the experience of a tandem bike:

Shot from atop the walls. Old and new all in one. I'm artsy, I know:

All in all Xi'an was a good trip. It was the dirtiest city I've visited, with the worst food, but I bought some cool gifts and saw some amazing things, things most people will never in their life see in person. How can I really complain?

[insert one last urination joke here]

Complimentary picture of our student coordinator Cecily (we wear her out):

Shanghai'd in Shanghai

Growing up my mother taught me to never trust two things: 1. Anything that bleeds for three days and doesn't die and 2. Shanghai Taxi drivers. Okay I lied about both of those, but the point is, Shanghai Taxi drivers are criminals operating a common business as a facade to trap unknowing foreigners and rob them blind. Okay, they probably aren't all that bad, maybe we just weren't lucky, OR, maybe our cab driver was actually trapped in the trunk and replaced by his attacker, a known sociopath who has been eluding Shanghai authorities and harassing the honest people for years. Whatever the case,  as you will see, we got screwed.

Our trip to Shanghai was three days long, starting with a flight on Friday night, and ending with a flight out Monday. We had decided, since Shanghai's Pudong airport was on the far eastern part of the city, fairly well removed from our hostel on the far western side of the city, to split a hotel room for one night and then take off from there. We picked a fairly cheap hotel within 5 minutes of the airport, and only a short ride away from a metro stop, where we would begin seeing Shanghai in earnest the following day. But how to get there...

SO, we get one of the regulated airport cabs (I'm still working out if they were co-conspirators or not, at the very least, they are complicit) and explain to him our destination. He understands and takes off. As we are leaving the airport, we realize he hasn't started his meter, a big no-no for Chinese taxi drivers (we found out later we could have called and reported him, or at least threatened to, for not starting it right away). I used my perfect broken Chinese to say, "Can. Use. This." while pointing to the meter (My Chinese was better than that, but you get the point). He ignores me and then my good buddy Paul, asks the requisite follow-up question, "How much is this gonna cost?" 100 RMB the man says. A cab in China usually costs 7.50 RMB to start, and then 1 additional RMB for every kilometer of 5 kilometers. So our five minute ride would have at most cost us 20 RMB. Paul lost his f'ing mind.

Paul's Chinese is much better than mine, a fact I attribute to his having been born in China, and having lived there for 8 years before emigrating to the States, and subsequently forgetting everything he ever knew about Chinese. Nonetheless, he picks it up faster than I do, and, when he has time, can learn 50 new words and characters a day, something I could never do. Paul began assaulting the driver with question after question, asking him why it was so much, explaining how close it was, and requesting (repeatedly) that he let us out. The guy shouted back, and they argued back and forth. Paul fought valiantly, but we arrived and nothing had been settled, and the price had only been reduced to 60RMB, about three times what it should cost. Exhausted from a long day of classes and travelling, and seeing no plausible avenue of escape except refusing to pay (and who knows what that SOB would've done then), we gave the bastard his dirty money and walked to the hotel defeated, having gained nothing but a life lesson and a clever title for a blog (Eyooooo).

I still taunt Paul by asking him for 60 RMB sometimes, he still doesn't think it's funny. Anyways, our trip was all downhill from there. Shanghai is an amazing city, and one dirty, thieving, cheating, (et cetera, ad infinitum) cabby wasn't going to ruin our impression (only Paul's). We started our first day with a dumpling breakfast. Then, Paul found a man (not an official cabby, which is usually sketchy) who agreed to take us to the subway station for 15RMB. Since unofficial drivers are usually more expensive anyway, we hopped in. Upon arriving, the man asked us for 45RMB. Apparently it was 15RMB per person. As you can imagine, Paul almost had a aneurysm. I calmed him down and told him we didn't have much choice since we didn't ask, and that it really was a little over 2.50USD per person anyway. We paid the man. Paul is still angry. I still taunt him by using the Chinese word for "altogether" as much as possible when discussing money.

Once we finally made it to the subway we headed into downtown Shanghai. It's a huge city, and divided down the middle by a big, dirty river. On the eastern portion are the skyscrapers, some famous, some still under construction. But the scene when you step out from the metro is pretty cool:

Our first stop was the Pearl of The Orient tower:

You pay a pretty handsome fee to go to the top and to see the museum in the basement. The trend of me enjoying museums and my companions patiently waiting for me to enjoy museums started here:

View from the top, the one skyscraper is still under construction, but already dwarfs every other building in Shanghai:

Sorry mom, but I once again trusted a Chinese glass walkway, this time from even further up:

Since Paul and I had enjoyed the ferry in Hong Kong so much we decided to take the one in Shanghai to cross the river (there isn't much to do on the East side). Bad choice. The one in Shanghai is hard to find, crowded, and not much of a ride. It took us about half an hour to find it. If you ever go, just take the subway. We did stop to take some pictures with the Bund (the strip of European style buildings along the water) in the background though:

Once we made it across we walked the Bund and took in the architecture. You know what they say, when in Rome...[insert cliche here]...sometimes you have to grab the bull by the horns:

ha-HA!

*eh-hem* Where was I? Ah yes, some of the exquisitely juxtaposed European styling of the Bund:

From there we hit the famous shopping street of Nanjing Lu. It had every designer store you could think of and then some. Even the locally owned places catered to the wealthy. The people were many, the prices were high, so we breezed through it fairly quickly and headed back to the hostel for the night.

The next day, we went to my favorite stop of the whole trip, the Shanghai Propaganda Museum. Oh man. My inner Political Science and History nerd was out in force. It's a private museum in the basement of an apartment building, but it has the best collection of Cultural Revolution era posters and memorabilia. I could have stayed there all day. And, the kicker: They had a gift shop where they sold authentic Cultural Revolution artifacts. I don't know if you think that's as cool as I do (my companions surely didn't) and I don't care. It was the coolest thing I've ever spent money on, and boy did I spend. No regrets. Sorry, no pictures allowed.

(For those interested: http://www.shanghaipropagandaart.com/ )

From there, we toured the French concession, an upper class era where the French used to hang. It's a nice change of pace from downtown Shanghai, as it's quiet, and a bit more spread out. We walked all the way down the main street, mostly due to Paul's sudden aversion to anything that even looked like a taxi, but also because the area itself is just plain nice. Nothing stood out as particularly photo-worthy, but you just felt comfortable there. I liked it. Way to go France:

We then headed to an area called Old Town. Our guidebook said there were tons of awesome small shops and souvenir stops, and to look out for pickpockets. I don't know if the guidebook was yanking our collective chain or if Shanghai had changed entirely since the thing was written, but we ended up in a very dodgy end of Shanghai (at least the pickpocket warning was useful). We could have just taken a cab to get out but....Sorry Paul. We finally managed to make it the Bazaar, another well known tourist spot. It had the usual overpriced crap, and then some, but among the suspiciously similar goods and exceedingly high prices were a few good finds:

As night rolled in we headed back to the Bund to take in Pudong (the West side of Shanghai) at night. It didn't disappoint: 

With one day left, and much of the city covered, we slept in a bit, and then headed towards the Shanghai History Museum, or the Chinese Smithsonian, as I like to think of it. The area it was in was gorgeous:

And the building itself was no slouch either:

Inside were four floors of exhibits highlighting every aspect of Chinese history. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I soaked it all in for about two and a half hours. Paul and Victoria enjoyed it as much as they could and then patiently waited for me (thank you!). Some of my favorites:

1000 Buddha Stone:

Get it Girl:

After I had exhausted the museum we headed back to the Bazaar for some last minute shopping and rest before heading back to the airport. We stopped by the Tower one last time on our way out:

All in all Shanghai was my favorite Chinese city thus far. Probably because I'm such a history dork, but still, it had a lot to commend it. If the French Concession wasn't so expensive I'd think about retiring there, and the general atmosphere was good all around...

Except for those damn Cabbies. 

Oh, and the hostel had bed bugs. (shout out to Old man Bryan for the recommendation)