Tag: Shanghai

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today our China tour comes to an end, with our scheduled departure from Shanghai at 2pm. But that gives us the morning in the city! So, we start with breakfast at the hotel, which has a wonderful buffet. I have been eating small breakfasts of coffee, juk (rice porridge) with pickles, and maybe a dumpling or two. But today I “splurged” and had some beef noodle soup. It was delicious! 😋

Oh, by the way, the hotel has this display which shows the current air pollution level in the city, and the air quality inside the hotel. Pretty cool, but also kind of sad that it is needed. 😒 Speaking of the notorious air-quality in China, I don’t think it has been that bad. Perhaps it’s been due to the time of year (winter is supposed to be the worst for air pollution), but even though it is relatively good, blue skies were rare.

I still needed to do some shopping, so my brother and I headed to the nearby grocery store to stock up on goodies, including Japanese Kewpie in Chinese containers, some hotpot mix, spicy fish mix, durian candy, chocolate, noodle snacks, and curry. A pretty decent haul. I can’t wait to try the hotpot later. 🌶🔥😀

After saying goodbye to most of our tour group who were on an earlier flight, we waited for our own motor coach to take us to the airport. By the way, I’ve been to eight different airports during this trip: Austin, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Shanghai. 😮

The long flight was without incident and we arrived at my parents’ house in Torrance at around 5 pm the same day we left. Pretty cool traveling across the international date line from west to east!

For dinner, we decided to get Mexican food at a nearby restaurant that we hadn’t been to in a few years: Alfredo’s. The deluxe carnitas burrito I had really hit the spot! I’ll indulge in a huge meal before returning to my smaller portions again. 😁

I technically have one more day of vacation (a travel day) but since I’m no longer in China, I consider my trip over. Very sad… 😢

またね～

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This morning we woke up extra-early to depart the ship and head to the airport for our flight from Wuhan to Shanghai, and as a good omen, there was a beautiful sunset to accompany us!

It was a quick trip and by noon we were on the famous Bund waterfront. The skyline on the other side of the river was stunning! What an amazing introduction to Shanghai. 😮

After that, we had lunch, then checked in at our hotel. We didn’t have any other official activities planned (besides dinner at the hotel) but a bunch of us headed over to an underground shopping area to check out the items on sale. This shopping area is famous for its counterfeit goods and there were plenty to choose from! The most popular items were handbags and backpacks, t-shirts, shoes, and watches.

I had a fun little adventure when I was led to the back room of one of the stores to check out their selection of “Rolex” watches. I actually had little intention of buying one, but I wanted to check them out and haggle a bit on prices. Of course, I left without buying a watch, but it was an interesting experience, for sure.

I’m not a hardcore watch enthusiast, but I don’t understand why you’d want to buy a fake Rolex… I mean, do you really intend to fool people? Because you are still paying a lot for a nice fake, but at the end of the day, it’s still a fake. I’d rather pay $1 for a “true” fake and have a laugh showing it to friends than pay $300 for a high-quality fake and keep up the charade. But that’s just me.

That goes for the shirts and backpacks as well. If you look at the quality of these items, you can tell quickly that they aren’t real, but they still cost about $10 after bargaining. And do you really want a backpack to use every day that isn’t that great quality, and whose logo is kind of wonky?

After shopping, it was time to head back to the hotel, but instead of taking a taxi, my brother and I decided to try out the subway system. From purchasing tickets to finding the train and taking it to our destination, it was really easy and efficient. A great way to get around town!

Back at the hotel, we had dinner before heading to The Bund again to check out the skyline at night. There were a ton of people there enjoying the view, which has to be one of the most spectacular cityscapes I’ve ever seen. It was awesome!

Here are a few more pics from the day:

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またね～