We decided to splurge and booked a room at the Astor House hotel, a historic hotel built in 1846 and has had famous guests such as Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin and Ulysses E Grant. Our room had two giant beds, 15' ceilings and Kohler furnishings in the bathroom. We were so excited about the place we decided to rearrange our schedule and stay an extra night in Shanghai.
Our first dinner was down a shady street with lots of barber poles where we doubt you only get a haircut. Neither of us speak Chinese so we just pointed at the menu and hoped for the best. Evan ended up with a spicy mystery meat and Michelle had an eggplant and potato dish.
Our first stop the next morning was the Old Town and the Yuyuan Gardens. The gardens were what you would imagine traditional Chinese gardens would look like. It was very peaceful walking through and enjoying the flowers, trees, ponds and architecture. Everything was in bloom and it was a beautiful spring day.
We went to lunch in Xintiandi in a neighborhood called the French Concession. Everything was modern with cute boutiques and cafes. We spent the next 4 hours wandering around the French Concession. Evan sent us on a wild goose chase trying to find one particular store. We had the address, and you'd think that would help, but streets change names, no one knows the streets and there are no maps. We enjoyed our walk and finally found his store hours later.
That evening we went to an acrobat show. We had great seats and really enjoyed the show. Here is a picture of some girls balancing on chairs...
And some videos...
The next day we went to the Shanghai museum. It was filled with excellent ceramics, paintings, bronze objects, and costumes with some relics dating back as far as 3000B.C.
We went to the Bund to enjoy the view of Pudong, the neighborhood filled with the new skyscrapers in Shanghai. It was a rainy, windy, cold day and the view wasn't great. We could only see about halfway up the buildings before they disappeared into the clouds/fog/pollution.
We took an overnight train to Xi'an, and we were the only westerners that we saw. We had "hard sleeper" tickets which means that you don't really have a room, more like a cubby with 6 bunks and no door for privacy. There was an older lady who had the bunk under Evan who stared at me for the entire ride. I don't think she had seen someone with blonde hair before. I would look down and smile at her, but didn't get much reaction...she just kept on staring.
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