Pizon

On my first full day in Shanghai I took the subway to the Shanghai Museum. The museum is located near People's Square station and People's Park.

The park is small by Chinese standards. Surprisingly, the park was not as crowded as I would have expected during the holiday.

People's Square from David Pizon.

Century Park is a good place to gather for a game of Xiangqi, or "Chinese chess".

Xiangqi from David Pizon.

We stopped by the Stone Cold Creamery near the Oriental Pearl Tower. I've never been to one before so I didn't know what to expect. The employees really enjoy what they do.

Alice, the young woman behind the counter, told me there were more than 20 locations in Shanghai. I later learned the franchise has only been in China for less than a year with plans to open over 100 locations in mainland China over the next seven years.

This just might take off. I wish them sweet success.

Stone Cold Creamery from David Pizon.

Cathline took me to the famous Shanghai Bund. Although it was extremely crowded, the view of the waterfront was amazing.

Decoratively illuminated tour boats made their lazy way along the Huangpu River while a fireworks display glittered near the Oriental Pearl Tower.

The Bund from David Pizon.

I just got into the JinJian Inn Century Park at 10:50 local time.

In order to attempt to adjust to the local time zone I tried to sleep during as much of the early flights and stay awake during as much of the later flights as possible. Unfortunately this meant forcing myself to sit through the in-flight movie to Narita International (Tokyo). The film being shown was "Speed Racer".

I specifically chose a window seat from Narita to Shanghai so I could get a view of the skyline even though it was at night.

Before reaching the city, I could see a sparsely scattered field of single lights twinkling through the cloud cover. It was as if we were flying above the stars. As we began our decent it became apparent that these "stars" were actually the piloting lights from an unending field of freight ships heading out of the country.

Immigration in Shanghai went as smoothly as anyone could hope for and 郭菊华 ("Cathline") picked me up.

Tomorrow we're going to the Shanghai Museum. It's not her favorite thing to do but she planned for it because she knew I would dig it. Later this week we'll be meeting up with Maya and Chenya as well.

Until next time... 再见