China 2013: Day 5

This is gonna be a photo-filled post, 19 photos to be exact.

During the morning, we went to The Bund, the waterfront area were you could easily the Oriental Pearl Tower and all the modern buildings in one side and on the side we were in, we could see the old sort of "European" style buildings.  The buildings were really pretty and the weather was so nice when we were there, just the right cold to a sunny day.

From there, we walked to Nanjing Rd., which is one of their highlighted shopping areas, with the road closed for pedestrians.  We came back here the next day.  Of course, for the shopping. Hahaha.

After lunch, we headed to a silk showroom.  Obviously the intention of these companies is to sell you something after the "tour" or the discussion, but I just appreciate the information you actually get from them.

Someone had a bit of fun. :)

After the silk showroom, we went to the Yu Garden which we came back to on the day after.  Here, they have all those souvenirs at a cheaper price, I could say, than the one in Beijing.  Our first stop in the stretch of that street was a tea house were a lady showed us the art of tea making.  Pretty cool since I actually enjoy tea. :)

 The souvenirs were outside the garden.  The garden itself was really nice.  There's this zigzag bridge and a lot of bridges actually overlooking a pond.  There were a lot of Koi fish, even a turtle!  The place was so packed though with tourists that we could hardly move in that bridge.  Too bad.

They were also selling these candied fruits and grilled squid and others.  I especially liked their version of the Takoyaki, less veggies, more seafood topped with good sauce and squid flakes. :)  Too bad we didn't get to try that dumpling everybody lined up for, but apparently its the best.
 

Now I'm hungry.  

You may browse my Flickr for higher quality photos. :)

China 2013: Day 4

Day 4 of our China trip was our last day at Beijing.  We checked out of the hotel, Holiday Express Inn (which apparently they have a lot of there), quite early.  We said our good byes to Sherry who even gave the kids panda hats, so sweet of her.

We rode the bullet train to Shanghai, which took about 5 hours.  We didn't mind though since it actually had more leg room than an airplane would!  And we got to see the landscapes of part of China as well.  Their train station looked like an airport too.

We arrived at Shanghai around lunch time.  Our first stop was a short cruise.  Timing was good since we got a glimpse of the sunset.  When we reached the Oriental Pearl Tower which looked like a rocket about to launch, it was evening already.  All the lights were lit up and from above it was really cool, especially in the part were they had glass or crystal flooring. 

Check some of my photos at my Flickr. :)