China Day 6

Once we were in Shanghai, the air was a lot better but that's because it rained pretty much the whole time we were there.

Our first stop was at the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Asia's highest TV tower and the world's third highest.  We went up to see a view of the city.  The tower is 468 meters tall, we went as high as 350 meters to the highest observation deck, but...

(Next door to the tower)

...like I said earlier, it rained a lot so this is what we saw.  We all laughed as soon as we got to the top (don't worry, there was an elevator).

At 263 meters, we went out on the sightseeing floor, glass floor and everything!  The wind had picked up a little and was blowing the clouds away so we were starting to be able to see a bit more.  We had a bit of fun playing with the floor too.

We then went to 90 meters for an outside observation deck.  It was on this floor that we also discovered a small arcade and roller coaster.  We had to stop and laugh at the Engrish instructions.

It was at this point that my camera started telling me that I forgot to charge the battery the night before, so I didn't take as many random pictures.  In the bottom of the tower, there is a wax museum representing the history of Shanghai.  We didn't think it would be all that exciting, but it ended up being really neat.

After the tower, we went to lunch.  At this point int he trip, the meals all started to look and taste the same.

After lunch, we went to walk the Bund.  We explored the waterfront and took in sights of colonial Shanghai and the Huangpu River.

After our quick jaunt on the Bund, we went to a local market.  We first started in a tea shop for another sales pitch and informational introduction like at the jade and pearl stores, but since my brother, his friends, and I don't drink tea, we left and went shopping before the rest of the group.

We practiced bargaining with several vendors and walked away from quite a few "deals" (that's what you have to do in order to really get to the good prices).  At the end, Michael went to look for sunglasses and Dani, Nick, and I got ice cream at Dairy Queen.  The cashier was very excited to use his English with his American customers.  His English was really good but he was also relieved when he realized that Nick could speak Mandarin.  This guy reminded me a lot of a friend of mine, Craig.  Of course, this guy was the Chinese version of Craig.  Nick ended up asking him how old he thought the three of us were.  Apparently I look twelve while I am in China.  Most people that I was just out shopping and traveling with my parents, Nick and Dani.  After that, it made more sense why more vendors didn't try to approach me to sell me things I didn't need.

The end of our evening was at an acrobatics show so the tour also provided dinner for us.  It tasted just like lunch...yum.  I couldn't take any pictures during the acrobatics show, so this is where the photos end.