China Adventure 2006 - Shanghai

Since ~85% of the Filipino population is Catholic, the time around Good Friday and Easter is often taken as vacation. Most of the folks take the entire week off. It is just like Thankgiving in the US - as it relates to taking time off of work.

So the Kirley family headed to China. I was in China for the first time back in January on a business trip and wanted to take the family back. In addition, my main travel goal during my expat assignment was to walk on the Great Wall. If I did nothing else, I must go see the Great Wall. I accomplished my goal but not until Day Five.

Day One - We flew non-stop from Manila to Shanghai on Friday. Most of Friday was spent traveling but we were able to get to the Bund. The Bund is the historic section of Shanghai along the Huangpu River. It consists of old European style buildings and to overlooks the PuDong section of Shanghai - with the Pearl of the Orient TV Tower. Just about any shot of Shanghai you see will feature a shot of this TV Tower. We stayed at the PuDong Shangri-la which is on the opposite side of the Bund, but the 'people-mover' tunnel was within walking distance from our hotel.

Day Two - Shopping. We headed to Xiangyang Market. At Xiangyang market, you can pick up just about any type of knock-off clothing, watches, etc. But first - It is truly a small world. Just as we walked into the front of the market we heard someone call out - Amy! Amy!. It was one of Amy's friends - Kim Dallas from her Arizona Moms club. Kim's husband also works for Intel in Chengdu (western China). Kim and her friends came to Shanghai for a girls weekend. It is truly amazing we ran into her. It is hard to find your friends inside the market at a pre-arranged time - let alone a chance meeting. We met up with Kim and her other friends for dinner the following night.

This time I purchased 3 Tommy Bahama shirts for $8.90 each vs. $95 USD in the store. Amy picked up some clothes and a number of small purses.

General Observations about China - First off Maria and Catalina were treated like Rock Stars. Everywhere we went someone wanted to take their picture or touch them.
Parks - One of the things we miss about the US is going to the park. They have parks in the Philippines but they are not so clean. The parks in Shanghai and Beijing were very nice and clean.
People - the people were nice but did not appear to be "happy" unlike in the Philippines where just about everyone is smiling and singing.

Day Three - Shanghai Aguarium - Sunday was somewhat of a lazy day. It rained most of the day. We spent the mid-morning at the aquarium. It was time well spent. It was one of the best aquarium we have ever been too - very nice.