Seductive Shanghai

My goodness, it's already Monday. In only a week and two days we'll be on our way from Beijing (currently 36 degrees) to fly home to Seattle (currently 41 degrees-balmy!). We've definitely moved into the final stretch.

Saturday morning we woke up to people in the house. There was Ben's housekeeper and her delightful son, Jeffrey. Jeffrey was with his mom because he was out of school. He was supposed to be practicing his English at which he's already pretty good. Nancy helped him with that but also thought he might enjoy "Angry Birds". Bingo!

Ok, enough of that. Time to get back to the homework.

Ben's daughter, Amy, was supposed to have arrived on Friday, the same as we, but had a major luggage meltdown and so came on Saturday instead. Once she arrived, we said good bye to Ben, who had been watching all this angry birds activity with some bemusement,

and took off for brunch and sightseeing.

You see very little of this these days, at least in downtown Shanghai, so I thought I'd take a photo of the exception that proves the rule.

Interestingly to me, a majority of the bikes and scooters are electric. Shanghai is flat and so is perfect for electric two wheeled vehicles.

Nancy, Amy, and I met Max, Amy's friend, at a busy dim sum place. Sorry I didn't get food photos. They had wonderful dumplings of all sorts. Max comes from Belgium, speaks several languages including Chinese, is from a wealthy family of antique art gallery owners, and is passionate about raising the level of Chinese cultural appreciation. He's a man with a mission.

We then walked through Xin Tian Di, here are some daylight photos,

and then took a cab to the Bund. The word "Bund" refers to an embankment. This particular embankment lies along the Huangpu River, just north of the old walled city of Shanghai. The Bund is the site of all the old banks and other buildings relating to Shanghai's storied commercial past. Now, it's still that, plus a major tourist destination. An elevated walk, crowded with tourists and sightseers, runs for a mile along the river.

We made a couple of stops first. An art gallery run by Amy's friend,

and the newly refurbished Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Then on to the views. Here are all those imposing buildings seen from street level.

And here they are, viewed from the walk along the Bund.

The most amazing view, however, is the view across the river.

According to Amy, ten years ago none of the buildings in these photos were there.

We were duly impressed.

At the north end of the Bund is Huangpu Park,

with its Monument to the People's Heros.

We decided to end our walk here although there were certainly more interesting buildings across the creek we'd come to.

Instead, we turned away from the river and began our trek home. There was still some very interesting architecture,

and other good things. We stopped at the lovely Peace Hotel

for some very special treats

before grabbing a cab for the final leg back.

That night, after meeting Ben at DR, Amy invited Nancy and me to go with her and her friend Elizabeth for dinner, which was fabulous once they got the cab driver to understand where we were going. Fortunately, Amy and Elizabeth are both fluent in Chinese. They know each other from traveling in North Korea and other such places. After dinner we went to a "molecular" bar. I think that's what they called it. It was a place of very unusual drinks. Here you see Nancy pouring the CO2 smoke into my drink,

and here you see the Aperol cotton candy on hers. Hmm.

We left the young folks at the bar. It had been a great day, but was definitely time for the old folks to get some sleep!