Julia and I walked all over Shanghai today... up Nanjing Road to the Bund, and then after a taxi ride under the river, all around New Shanghai (Pudong). During our travels we met two English students (Linda and Qian Qian), who were excited to practice their English with us. We joined them for some rather expensive but fun tea experience. I didn't know tea could have such exciting flavors. We had one type of tea that was mixed with fruit, giving it a very sweet taste. It was so sweat, I could have sworn they dumped a spoonful of sugar in there. We also learned all kinds of history and drinking techniques during the "tea performance." For 6 different types of teas (with several re-tastes each), it cost us 750 Yuan. While expensive, I thought it was a great experience. We then walked up Nanjing road, where we did some window shopping and I haggled several shop keepers. However, since we are trying to reduce the stuff we carry until we get to Beijing (mostly due to all the climbing we are doing and the limited size of our packs), I only bought an iPhone cover and charger. However, I learned that you can buy a 175 dollar North Face Windstopper jacket for about 15 US dollars... that will come in handy for some presents...

For lunch we had a few dumplings and a few other little snack things. We then made our way to the Bund area (which apparently in german means along the sea), where we tried to walk to the Pudong area. However, due to the omnipotent construction, we failed to find the ferry that crossed the river. Feeling defeated, we grabbed a cab to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We wanted to make our way to the top and get a view of Shanghai's skyline. However, it was 150 Yuan (20 dollars) each to go to the top. That was a bit steep for us, so we took a very round about way (unintentionally due to the construction) to walk the half mile between the TV tower and the Jin Mao Building (which looks like a Chinese temple turned into a skyscraper) by instead getting lost amongst the construction and instead walking 2 miles. After exploring the Jin Mao building (and catching the sites), we grabbed some mystery meat from a local street vendor. This guy was legit. He was making his "mystery meat" off the side of his moped. We then headed back to Nanjing Road, where we found the wonderful "Yang Sfry Dumpling" shop. There was a huge line and nary a seat to be found. It cost us only $15 Yuan (2 dollars) for 8 dumplings and hot and sour soup. It was SOOOOO good!

I'll post about our first full day hopefully tomorrow (today was our 2nd full day). Tomorrow evening we catch the sleeper train to the Yellow Mountain for some climbing :O

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Scott