Shanghai Day Two

After watching Chinese soap operas last night (which were intentionally hilarious) and sleeping in until 10, Traci and I walked around Shanghai for seven-ish hours today. Our original plan was to find the YanYuan Garden and a famous dumpling joint nearby, the NanXiang Restaurant. We followed street signs around the city, and ended up in a huge market.

There were blocks and blocks of merchants, some high end, some not-so-high end, and per usual, the random "Prada bag" pushers. I've gotten quite good at graciously saying no, usually a little "xie xie" or "dwee bu qi" or a "ting bu doong, xie xie, boo yao, dwee bu qi, xie xie" super combo. Today, however, men were trying to sell us Beijing Summer Games 2008 T-shirts, so I flashed my name-tag/venue pass and said "Thank you, but I work at the Olympics! I don't need a shirt; I'm sorry!" Then one of them claimed he loved me and left us alone. It was fairly funny.

Traci and I circled the area for a few hours in search of the dumpling restaurant, and eventually gave into another dumpling spot, the DND. It was good enough. Just now, we realized the place we were seeking might be tucked inside/behind of the City of God temple, which we passed, but it didn't look like there was anything other than the visible statues, etc., so we may check it out tomorrow before we leave. We finally found the garden by mistake, though.

After, we headed back over the river (on my favorite ferry) to go up in the Oriental Pearl Tower, but it cost $100 yuan, so Traci and I decided to skip it. I didn't particularly enjoy the CN Tower in Toronto (especially the part when they claimed the tower was the tallest in the world even though they count the CN's antenna and not the Sears Tower's, which would clearly make the Sears Tower taller.. bitterness!), so I wasn't too bummed. It was a great view from below, but even better were the rules for entry into the tower posted outside: 

No. 1: "The ragamuffin, drunken people, and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower."

My feet were a little too black with filth, so we figured we might get rejected anyway, based on the rules. My mom always used to call me a ragamuffin, so I was tickled it was used on an official sign.

My flight back to Beijing is at 9 p.m. tomorrow, and I'll be sad to leave Shanghai. I'm glad I came, and I hope to return.