New Year's in Shanghai!!

The next week Sean arrived in tow with 3 koreans from Seoul. One of them being his girlfriend Yoonjoon. They arrived just in time for a dinner I booked at an all you can eat/drink Tepanyaki place. So me, Holly, Sean + 3 koreans, and my roommate Lloyd headed over to meet up with what had to be half my school (Telfort teachers) all eating at the same place. After a delicious meal we headed over to the usual spot, the Bulldog for New Year's eve countdown. Which turned out to be quite disappointing... definitely not the same as in in America. Well to end the night me and Holly jumped in a cab back home, which turns out many don't use the meters and we were charged the standard 100 kuai cab ride home (normally 20).

The next day I took them on a day of sightseeing around Shanghai. The usual thing such as the French Concession, the Bund, and Yuyuan gardens. We ended the day at a little known spot on the Bund where you can get an awesome view of the Bund at night and have a few beers. On top of a place called Captain's Hostel.

The last day we had to hit up the other side of the river, Pudong. We took a look at the skyscrapers such as the Pearl Tower, Jin Mao, and the Shanghai World Financial Center (SHWFC).I took them on a hunt to find a bar that I heard about where you don't have to pay to go up.

We found it in the Hyatt hotel where they had some good seats by the window on the 91st floor of the SHWFC. We took in the night with a round of Mojitos as we waited for the skyline to light up. $12 drinks weren't bad for an hour of hanging out on the 91st floor with a fantastic view of the Shanghai skyline... All in all, a good day

Venice of the East...

After our cold trip to Beijing we flew back to Shanghai to catch the bus over to Suzhou, only to find that it was snowing in Shanghai! In Suzhou we had a few interesting experiences. Got off at the wrong stop in Suzhou and took a quite expensive taxi the rest of the way. Our first dinner was at a place where they spoke almost no English despite their English menu. We ended up getting a full set meal served to us, that 'we' thought we hadn't ordered. I guess 'they' thought we had, and resulted in about 15 mins of staring at each other. We ended up getting something that was note very tasty, and wished we had kept what they gave us in the beginning. Well we saw the sights: the old city streets, the canals, and the pagodas. Took in some cheap souvenir shopping and hopped on the train back to Shanghai...

Holly has Arrived! Off to Beijing!!

So after a long 4 months apart, Holly finally arrived in China for a visit during the holidays. We decided to head up the the seemingly Arctic north of China, Beijing. When we arrived the highs were around -12C (10 F), or basically the coldest we've ever been. After taking an hour long taxi ride through traffic we arrived at our Hutong Hostel. The next day we decide to take an excursion to the Forbidden City, but decided it was too cold to spend 2 hours walking around outside and headed around to Wanfujing Shopping street. The next day we took off on our mission to see the Great Wall of China. We bundled up and took the train out to the Great Wall. Here we are with our Christmas spirit. After asking a Chinese tourist to take our photo, it turned into a full on photo session with Holly as the spotlight. They asked to take a photo with her, then called over their friends, who attracted another group of Chinese tourists who wanted to take their photo with Ms. Clause.

After hiking up and down the Great Wall, we took the train back and decided to go and check out the Olympic stadiums. It was dark by the time we got back, and it was for the better, as it was quite the sight to see when the Bird's Nest and Water Cube are all lit up at night. Not to mention the what seemed to be

100 Christmas trees lining the walkway. After a successful day in Beijing we decided

to head back for our free dumpling at our hostel. The next day we took a free walking tour of the hutong area and saw some other local sights, as well as had some Peking duck. It was quite a successful, but cold.... very cold visit to Beijing. Next we were off to Suzhou...