Saturday's walk

I ventured out at 9am on Saturday. I got back to the house around 9:00pm. It was a very full day of seeing some of downtown. I started at People's Square, where the Shanghai museum and government building is located, and ventured down Nanjing Road which is the most famous shopping street in Shanghai. People's square was cool. I spent a couple hours at the museum checking out the largest display of American art ever in China. It was neat to see some original work of things I've seen only in books/magazines. After dodging a handful of raindrops and shoppers on Nanjing road, I moved to the river and crossed it via the ferry. The ferry is the common method for everyone to cross the river. The cost was 25 cents! It's one of the best deals in Shanghai because the boat's nice with lots of windows and cushy seats. On the other side of the river (Shanghai, east of the river, is called "Pudong". The west side is "Puxi", pronounced poo-shee). I eventually ended up at the Super Brand Mall and caught Spiderman 3 at the large theater on the top floor. Fortunately, the movie was in it's original English with chinese subtitles. Great movie, btw.

Oh, and the highlight of the day was bumping into Yao Ming. The poor guy's a wreck..... though you wouldn't know it given the smile on his face. The giveaway is the fact that he hasn't taken off his stinkin' uniform since the game 7 loss to the Jazz over a week ago. It's really sad. But at least I got a picture!

Another highlight was successfully crossing several streets. I've learned that in China, it's critical to always have at least one person between you and the vehicle's bumper.....and 3 or 4 bodies is preferred.

Pictures:
1. Lots of people, along with this cute girl, feed the pigeons in Renmin (People's) Square
2. Breakfast at a small street side cafe was fried noodles and 5 dumplings
3. Yao Ming is bigger than he looks on TV
4. I don't know if I've ever seen a real phone booth....until Saturday
5. The goodyear blimp was circling the Pearl Tower downtown. Still not sure what the occasion was.

I'll get some pictures of Sunday's adventure posted soon.

RB