Shanghai, the city of 30 million

Shanghai, China (ok, so it has a lot of skyscrapers, I get it).

We had heard mixed reviews on Shanghai before deciding to visit, but we wanted to see the tallest building in China and were going to make it happen.
Shanghai turned out terrifically! We had a wonderful time, 5 days in a city with 25,000,000+ other folks  It wasn’t nearly as bad as we had anticipated. It was busy, but no-where near as congested as Beijing (in our opinion), and we thought the City Center Area, The Bund Area, and many public places were finely designed and wisely planned. Traffic flowed easily and walking, taxis, and the subway were super easy.
I’ll have to admit, Christina booked a solid hotel, which sometimes can really make the difference in your enjoyment of where you are. It’s not always fun to come back after 6 hours walking, hot and sweaty, and plop down on a questionable bed, lukewarm shower or visibly see the grit. This hotel was good, basically a budget business hotel (instead of a guesthouse or hostel). $30 a night ain’t so bad when you wake up completely refreshed and clean.
Shanghai highlights would include: Having dinner on top of The Pearl Orient Tower in a rotating restaurant and pigging out on a full gourmet buffet. Seeing the tallest building in China and where they are building the “next tallest building in the world”. Walking down on The Bund and taking pictures of the Shanghai cityscape. The Bund is a historical area on the riverfront that has been turned into posh designer shops and luxury brand offices, banks, etc. The Historical on one side of the river, the Modern skyscraper side on the other makes for a unique view. Going out on the town with some young girls and guys (19-20yrs) that stayed in our hotel, being treated to food, drinks, laughs and odd conversation obstructed by a massive language barrier (great fun!) They were all so nice and fun and having their first visit to Shanghai themselves. Shanghai was clean, modern, good food, cold beer, world-class shopping, beautiful sky-line and easy, I’d recommend at least 3-4 days here for anyone, there’s so much to see. The spitting is slightly less here as well, which is a positive, but there are no qualms about smoking in any restaurant and flicking ashes right on the floor it appears.
We are headed to Nanjing now, a town about 3 hours by bullet train, just an intermediate stop on the long journey to Xian (17 hours by hard sleeper train) pronounced (Shee-an) where we will see the very famous Terracotta Warriors and a few other famous sites.

Qingdao and Beer Street!

China- Qindao (Ching-dao)

China- Qingdao (5 days with a great family)
It’s official, that’s definitely the fastest train we’ve ever rode. Speeds above 300 km/h (maybe 220 miles an hour). The country-side was whipping by. Not as fast as a plane, but modern, comfortable, clean, much more spacious, cheap, smooth, a nice view, and did I mention fast? Why these aren’t in the States boggles me. You could realistically live in Owensboro and commute to Cincinnati, Indy, or St. Louis for a normal work day and then back, the economic benefit would be un-measurable, plus the effects on tourism.
We would call Qingdao home for the next week as we “couch-surfed” with Connor and Jen, a married couple living in Qingdao and their 3 year old son Liam, originally from Illinois and Pennsylvania. They are teaching classes and running a new English Language Bookstore in Qingdao, a city of 8 million + and just out in the world carving their own unique path that works for them.
Their 3 year old son Liam is fluent in Mandarin and English already (well as far as a 3 year old can talk), but it was really something to see. Cool little guy.
Qingdao (pronounced Ching-Dao), was actually a German settled port-town on the South China Sea. It has gone through several iterations over the years, but has retained its famous Qingdao Brewery. The Brewery produces the famously well-known Tsingtao Beer which is consumed secondly only to tea here in China and well-exported throughout the world, of which we have sampled many many bottles to ensure its’ quality . And let me comment, there’s plenty of beer drinking over here, my cousins and brother would really have enjoyed the October-fest Beer Street atmosphere we were witness to one evening. Christina kicked it up a notched and chugged some glasses with a very vocal and fun table of Chinese Locals, just out eating and partying. It’s a bit like being witness to a college fraternity again, everyone is egging on or harassing the next guy to chug chug chug, except mostly grown adults, it was a riot.
We shopped the local farmer’s market for fresh fruits several times, enjoyed hours of truly great and informed conversation with Connor and Jen (such bright people), and rode the bus around town hopping from tourist spot to tourist spot. Qingdao’s weather was not bad, a little breeze usually came through and the temperature was good and warm but not overly hot or humid. Our host couple had a great little apartment and really made our time enjoyable as well as a learning experience. We kept them up too late several nights just talking into the evening about politics, businesses, culture, etc. Jen cooked several nice meals and we were even treated to home-made peach cobbler one night (mmmmm), and sticky-rice with Mangos another evening (soooo delicious). We are looking forward to staying in touch with Connor and Jen in the future and sharing more. We hope one day, they’ll pay us a visit at home for a long weekend on the river.
Shanghai next, one of the largest cities in the world.