The Jade Temple market:
These kids were really funny. They just had to have me buy something from their shop, even though they did not like the price I gave them for a carved wooden little Buddha. They kept saying how much money they were losing, and tried to even give me back the wrong change, begging me to do the higher price. It was pretty funny and they were really persistent---Especially the girl. This market was pretty pressuring too.

When we arrived at about 4:30 or so in the afternoon, we were told that the markets and the Jade Buddha temple were closed, but we were very happy to see the market area still open. Jared and I joked about how different China was to Japan. In Japan, they close even if there are still potential paying customers in their shops, and they seemed bugged about it too. Here in China, they do not close until the last customer is gone...happy to get the business. I was especially impressed with all of the Chinese architecture. Even though it was a market place/shopping area. It was so beautiful!
In this picture above, there is a little stand that sold little Chinese dragon/lion puppets. If you enlarge the picture, you can see them hanging in all colors. They were the cutest things and very detailed! But by then, we had run out of money. I am still mad that we didn't get one. But what ended up making my decision was, I could not for the life of me figure out what I would do with it at home....I could not think of where to display it or hang it, so why spend the money for something to sit in a box??



Our hotel is in the distance in the very left hand side of this picture. I would meet Jared every day for lunch at about 12 or 1:00, and I would walk around the corner from our hotel, and at about this spot, be confronted with about 20 people trying to take me to their "commissioned" shops....all in about a city block. Very irritating...it got to the point where I would just take a cheap taxi for the block and a half just to avoid the harrassers.
The first day, we were asking anyone for a supermarket type store. We finally found one, and it was just around the corner from our hotel. This Parkson's was really nice being so close!!
The photo above and below are both directions on Huaihai road, while I was walking back from the K'Wah building (the Micron site). This was a very pretty shoppy area, so that is where all the harrassers hang out waiting. I even had to shoo one away to get these pictures....:(

It is down this street that the main knock off market is too. We went there almost every day.

Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai China

On February 28th, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower overlooking the Huangpu River. It is even larger than the Eiffel tower, but really did not seem that way because the huge spire on the top made it that way. It is 1,536 feet, and has 3 levels that you could choose how far you wanted to go up, like the Eiffel Tower. Jared and his co-worker Steve wanted to go all the way up to the highest part. Since I am pretty scared of heights, I did not know quite what to think, but once we got up there, since it was all enclosed, it was not too bad....
Not only was the tower itself all lit up at night, with lots of changing LED lights, but when you were up at the very top, all of the buildings around were all lit up too, so it was like looking at Las Vegas from way up high. We could see the Bund all along the river bank all lit up too. It was simply beautiful. I am glad that we went at night, I do not think that it would have been quite as impressive in the day.
Not only is it a must see tourist attraction, but we read on the way in a magazine that Mission Impossible 3 was filmed in China, mainly Shanghai, with scenes using the Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Huangpu River as backdrops.



These steps were constantly changing in pretty light patterns. You can see Jared about halfway up...
Some of the views from above....The golden building in the picture above (lower right) used to be where the old Micron site was until it moved to the newer site.

You can get a little bit of a glimpse of the beautiful lit up city-scape that we were able to see in the background behind us. It was this lit up in every direction, with skyscrapers as far as you could see. In the very lower part of the picture, you can see the Bund all lit up along the Huangpu riverbank.

After going up into the tower, at the base of it in the lobby, there was the Shanghai Museum...the history of Shanghai. We thought it would be interesting, and it was included in our Tower ticket, so we did it. Wow! What a museum. Not only was it a very interesting and detailed museum, but it just went on and on. We were surprised they could fit such an elaborate history museum into this tower exhibit. We were all really impressed with it. I would have taken pictures, but was not sure it was allowed. Being in a communist country, I did not want to run the risk of having anything confiscated......

Our hotel in Shanghai

The view from our room was really cool, especially at night---everything was all lit up!

Our room was alot bigger than our japanese hotel rooms (not counting the Mira Costa at Disneyland). These rooms were actually normal sized! It was a good thing too, because we were here for 6 nights.

Upgraded to Business class on China Eastern Airlines

But if this is business class, you can have it!! I about died when they brought us this traditional japanese food. I really get an appetite when the head of the prawn is left on--and they do this all the time. I thought it was pretty funny, so I started playing with my food. Could not and did not want to eat a single bite. It all smelt so bad!! (of course I hate seafood, and it was all seafood---did not help that it was mostly all raw either.)


As Napoleon Dynamite would say, "GROSS!" I found myself saying this alot in Japan.....:(

Senso-jii Temple and Asakusa

The Asakusa area
A shrine at the temple. Some people stopped and prayed at this one as well.


So many people use bicycles as transportation here. Many people have baskets both in the front and the back of their bikes for their children or other things. This bike had a little girl in the basket, and even had a little windshield to block the wind.


Senso-jii temple

A huge lantern at the entrance to the temple.
Their were 2 of these "guardians" at the entrance into the temple area.
At the temple, you could choose a fortune out of little boxes, and then if it were a bad fortune, you could pay to get rid of them and then tie these "bad fortunes" onto this thing. Looks like alot of people had bad fortunes for the day.....
Alot of people were throwing money into this little well and praying.

The architecture of the buildings were very elaborate and pretty.



Another little shrine.

More Tokyo Disney pictures....

The castle at Tokyo Disneyland is exactly like the castle at Disney World. Very big, and beautiful.

Inside the castle there was a mosiac of the Cinderella story just like inside the castle of Disney World.



These ducks were pretty brave. I really loved feeding them some popcorn....they came right up to me. I think they were used to people feeding them.
Space Mountain
Tokyo Disneyland had beautiful landscaping!

Main street was covered by a huge glass ceiling. Probably for the rainy season...it gave a totally different look. I forgot that at Tokyo Disneyland, it is called World Bazaar.


Disney Galleries was presenting the animals of animation. This was a cute little display window they had set up. It just mainly showed the animation dogs and cats of Disney through the years.

More of the covered World Bazaar (Main Street).