June 14-16, 2010 ---- After wandering around in Suzhou, "The City of Gardens," we continued our journey the the most fascinating city of China, Shanghai.
Day 8
Hilton Hotel and The Surrounding Areas
After visiting the Kun Opera Museum in Suzhou, we said goodbye to our local tour guide and went with our main tour guide to Shanghai. The ride took about 2 hours, and we were so tired and just slept most of the way.
We checked in at Hilton Hotel in the late evening. Our schedule was free of activities that night, and we had to get dinner by ourselves. Nathan and I decided to go for a walk and explore the area a little before dinner.
Shanghai was very clean and looked more developed than other cities in China we had visited. People also speak a different dialect, but they can understand and speak Mandarin. Nathan and I found a very peaceful park, Fuxing Park, not too far from the hotel. There was a little shop there selling egg tarts, a popular snack/ dessert in Macau, but they weren't as good as those in Macau.
There were many shopping malls around the hotel as well. They all looked very nice and new. We also found an interesting temple right next to the mall, but we didn't bring cash to pay the entrance fee, so we had to skip this one for the day.
At dinner, I just craved a hamburger after eating only Chinese food for the entire week. Everybody else seemed to still want "real" food, so we ended up at a Chinese restaurant across the street from the hotel. I don't remember its name, but the food was very good.
Day 9
Shanghai Museum
We started our day at the Shanghai Museum. The local tour guide met us at the hotel and took us on a subway to the museum. It was nice to learn our the subway system here because we had a more relaxing itinerary in Shanghai, and if we wanted to go somewhere by ourselves, we could take the subway.
Shanghai Museum was huge. There was a long line to get in the museum. The surrounding area was very beautiful. The tour estimated that we would spend about 3-4 hours there, but we finished a little early because we were tired of walking. I think it's the kind of place that you should come back to multiple times to see all the exhibits.
After the museum, the tour guide took us to have lunch at a Mongolian restaurant. It was pretty good, but I wouldn't say that it's the best Mongolian food I ever have....
The Former Residence of Sun Yat-Sen
After lunch we headed to the Former Residence of Sun Yat-Sen. Sun Yat-Sen is the forerunner of the Chinese democratic revolution and the founder of the Republic of China. He and his wife lived in this European-style house from 1918-1925.
The house was located in a very nice neighborhood. I guess it must be very expensive to live around here.
The Bund
Most people who go to Shanghai would know this most popular place, The Bund. It's a pretty cool place to walk along the waterfront because you can see that one side has western-style architectures and the other side of the river has modern, skyline buildings. It can be very romantic to walk around here at night when all the buildings are lit up with lights.
Our tour itinerary ended at The Bund, and we were free from now on to explore the city on our own.
Jing'an Temple
After strolling along the waterfront at The Bund, we took a subway back to the hotel. Everyone was tired, but Nathan and I still had energy and wanted to see inside of the temple we found the day before.
Jiang'an Temple has a long history, and it was built during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) and was moved to the current location during the Song Dynasty. The temple was burned down to ruins in 1972, and it was under reconstruction for a long time before it opened to public again in 1990.
Nathan and I paid the entrance fee and walked around this interesting temple for about 45 minutes before heading back to the hotel and getting ready to go to Shanghai Expo 2010.
Shanghai Expo 2010
It was our last night in Shanghai and China, and there was the Shanghai Expo going on during our visit. We all decided to go there on our own expense, and our main tour guide decided to join us.
The Shanghai Expo was huge. There were a ton of people there. The ticket price was very expensive too, but it was worth the visit. There were many pavilions from different countries around the world, but we could go in only two countries' pavilions because the lines were too long everywhere.
I found Thailand's pavilion and saw that if you were Thai, you didn't have to wait in line. I was the only Thai in my group, so I talked to a Thai person at the entrance, and he kindly took us all in side of the exhibit hall without waiting. It was pretty impressive for what the Tourism Authority of Thailand presented at the Expo.
We all had a good but exhausting time at the Expo. It was too big to walk in a few hours. I got to see the parade and most of the buildings from many countries. We ate dinner at the Netherlands' pavilion. You probably need at least 3 days to be able to see/do every thing in the Expo.
Day 10
Our last day in China finally came, and we were ready to rest at home after the long 9 days of traveling. Nathan and I took our flight back to Taiwan, and Nathan's family took a different flight to meet us in Taiwan and stay for a few days before heading back to the States.
Overall, we had a great time in every city we visited in China. I love Xi'an and Shanghai the most. Nathan and I want to come back to Shanghai and explore more on our own if we have a chance to be in Asia.
