Trip Day 8 - Around Shanghai

Jan 2

A business associate of a friend of John's, who has a business in Melbourne but comes from Shanghai, insisted on showing us around today.

He picked us up with car and driver and took us to a shopping district, which is a collection of shops in the Ming style of building. Interesting but very touristy. With William along Jack was able to get some Gameboy games at 1/4 the price originally quoted.

This was followed by the local source for $2 shops to get gloves for Tom. It was much colder than I had expected.

We had a nice lunch with William's wife and friends in a local restaurant, then were taken for a stroll along the river in the Bund district. This qa the first place we encountered beggars in any number and aggressive vendors.

We then went across the river to Pudong and the Oriental Pearl Tower. We went to the top observation level for a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately a group of about 200 soldiers (they appeared to be recent recruits) were doing the same so it was very crowded.

We returned to the hotel for a rest, then William picked us up for dinner. We went to the Golden Jaguar buffet - a large establishment but good food with lots of fresh dishes (mostly seafood) in local and Japanese style with a few western dishes. Both kids found plenty to like and we ate way more than necessary trying to sample everything.