Shanghai, China

We went on two tours the first day and 1/2 day tour the second day. Shanghai has some of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen. One of those buildings is called the Oriental Pearl TV and Radio Tower. It is the fifth-tallest structure in the world and has become a symbol of the city. Almost all of the buildings have been built since 1990. Before that it was farmland and rice paddies. Next we went to the Yuyuan Garden. There were so many people there. Our guide told us that this was a light day. Most days you would not be able to hardly move. We had a wonderful Chinese lunch at a four star hotel. They served it Chinese style with the lazy susan in the middle of the table. The plates of food just kept on coming and coming. It was so good!!!

After lunch we went to visit the Shanghai Museum. It had a lot of interesting exhibits.

We returned from our all day tour just twenty minutes before we had to get back on another bus for the evening performance of Chinese acrobatics. Most of the show was just amazing. We couldn't believe how they could bend their bodies and the tumbling was good too.


Although we were very tired the next morning, we got ourselves ready for our next tour. We went to the Jade Buddha Temple. This temple is the most famous and busiest working Buddhist temple in China. People were lighting incense to help send their prayers to heaven. Sometimes the smoke of the incense was so strong that we could hardly breath.


In one of the buildings the monks were doing their chants and it was very interesting. We were not allowed to take pictures of the two jade Buddhas but a marble copy of the reclining Buddha was available for pictures.


Our last stop was to the Arts and Crafts Research Institute. This is the only center in Shanghai that focus on the traditional Chinese folk arts and crafts. They teach woolen needlepoint work, silk embroidery, knitting, boxwood carving, jade carving, ivory carving, fancy lantern making and much more. We had such a beautiful site as we pulled out of the port leaving China.