Just before our trip we heard that there would be a total eclipse in the vicinity of Shanghai on the 22nd of July, the day before we were suppose to arrive in the city. We decided to change our plans and go a day early in hopes of seeing the eclipse. The weather forecast was dismal and we heard there were big crowds expected in Shanghai, so we opted for a smaller city nearby called Suzhou. We took the overnight train from Beijing and made it in plenty of time to see the 9:30am eclipse. We went to one of the city gardens and hoped the clouds and rain would hold out. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible and we couldn't see the sun at all. But, it was still cool because it went from a morning light to complete darkness for a full 6 minutes. We sat out in the rain anyways. These are some pictures in the garden, which was awesome in it's self. We had a bit of time to waste until the eclipse because our train arrived really early, so we had a picnic and photo shoot in the rain.
After spending most of the day in Suzhou walking around and visiting a couple of gardens and becoming completely soaked (especially Michelle who had forgotten her umbrella!!), we took an evening train to Shanghai. Shanghai is the largest city in China with over 20 million people, just in case you were wondering! but still smaller than Seoul. On our first day there we took a city tour that our hostel offered. It took us to all the big attractions. We first went to the top of the Oriental Pearl tower to get an overview of the city. Then we went to the Jade Buddha Temple. Our guide told us a lot about the meanings of the different kinds of Buddhas. There were also lots of people worshiping with incense and bows. Another one of the things on the tour was to go to a pearl outlet. They were trying really hard to get us to buy some pearls so they even did a little show for us. They showed us how they get fresh water pearls by opening an oyster right in front of us. The last stop on the tour was to Yuyuan market. It was a huge, crowded market with all the shops overflowing into the streets. I got a few gifts from here!! But the architecture alone was a sight.
The following day we took ourselves around the city to take a look at the few things we didn't see. We strolled along Nanjing road, Shanghai's most popular shopping street, with all of it's millions of shops and people, to end up at The Bund. The Bund is a famous area in Shanghai known for it's European style architecture. The area stretches along the coast of the Huangpu River and I can only imagine how nice of an area it would be. However, unfortunately for us, it was under renovation so most things were closed, had scaffolding, or were fenced off.
That night we went to an acrobatic show. WOW!! It was so amazing. The stuff these people could do was unreal. They did all kind of ridiculous contortionist stuff, over the top stunts, balancing acts. I sat with my mouth wide opened the whole time.
The following day we did a bit more exploring and shopping. We had to get ready for our 20 hour train ride to Hong Kong that evening, so of course we bought lots of food to keep us busy. When I found out that the the train was 20 hours long, I was a little discouraged, but honestly, it went by quite quickly. We slept for about 8 hours of it, ate for probably 2, read books, did crosswords, took 2 naps, and of course chatted. It so happened that in our bunk room were 2 British guys, so we shared our stories and they shared theirs. Not bad at all!
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