Our first visitors!

Ok, I'm back after all the Halloween fun to write about what's been happening around here between our amazing trip to Hong Kong (seriously, everyone should try it :) and Halloween.

I am blown away at how much faster time is going right now. Ever since we got back from the U.S. over the summer I have been feeling like every day simply doesn't have enough hours in it. Weeks are flying by, friends here are moving, each day is full and I am happy. The weather has finally started to feel a bit more like fall- only in the 60's during the day now and low 50's at night.

The last week has given us really bad air quality- so bad that Sophia and I developed a cough from it and are having a hard time shaking it. I'll explain a bit more about the awesome air here-
most of the time the air is ok. The US Consulate measures something called the PM2.5- those are the smallest particles in the air and therefore can get the furthest into your airway and cause issues. The particles they are measuring are not always pollutants. Sometimes it's just dust- and there's a lot of that here! Anyway, when the measurement is under 100, it is safe to workout outside, do whatever.  Over 100 and you're actually causing your airways more harm than good by exercising outdoors so they recommend only doing it indoors. When it reaches 150, the kids can't play outside at school. A few times in the past weeks it was in the mid-300s. Yup. Greenish yellow haze was everywhere. You could taste it, smell it, feel it in your lungs just walking around.
We have air purifiers in every room of our house and on those days we don't even go outside, but you can still feel it. Ick. It takes a while to clear it all out of your lungs, but, like I said, it's been ok for the past week or so and hopefully it will stay that way.

Anyway, we had our first visitors here the day after we got home from Hong Kong! Such a busy October. :) Our friends, Doug and Alyscia, are from Seattle. We actually know Doug from when we lived in LA and have been friends for over 10 years. I am sincere when I say I saw more of Shanghai in the few days they were here than in the 10 months I've been here already!

Here are some pics of our adventures-

A night out on The Bund! The air was pretty bad on this night but we still got a pretty good view of the Pudong side of Shanghai.

A view of The Bund

This was gorgeous. All along the river there were thousands of potted flowers and plants in little holes that made up a wall.  It went on for blocks- really pretty! Yes, Doug is a goofball. :)

Another day we headed out to Jinan Temple. An old.active Chinese temple in the middle of a bustling city! This place was full of very ornate carvings and beautiful buildings.

A large...thing in the middle of the courtyard of the temple grounds. People would throw money into it, trying to get it to the highest part possible. The higher up, the better chance your prayers would be heard. Glad I don't have to work it like that. :)

Old meets new

Pretty girl in a pretty temple

One of the beautiful carvings. There were several of these engraved in different walls of the temple.

One of the hallways of the temple-

Another day we headed out to the YuYuan Gardens. This was my 3rd visit there, and will probably go at least twice more with other visitors. :) This is a really old, very pretty ancient garden that used to belong to a high-up official a long time ago. Now it's almost like a museum where they work hard to preserve this part of their past. Again, it's the old within all the new.

Here's my beauty amongst some beauty-

One of the things that I have said time and time again about this place is that China gets away with things that would never fly in the US. One of those  things is the lack of safety measures everywhere. Case in point- here you will see Doug and Sophie checking out a pond in the middle of the YuYuan Gardens. It's a deep pond, no barrier, no rope and crowded with people. It's amazing, though, bc I haven't (yet) seen anything bad happen. It's almost like the Chinese expect people to act sensibly and the U.S. expects people to act foolishly and therefore set up things to keep people safe from themselves. Interesting idea....

Momma smushing on her baby girl.

Oh! This is in here for my mom. All around my neighborhood are these tree/bush type things that are really really fragrant. The became really "smelly" (in a good way) when we came back in Aug and since then. I originally thought the developments were spraying a scent to help disguise the occasional awful air smell. :) But then I found the bushes that were actually making the smell. :) I thought it may be orange blossoms bc the flowers smell citrusy and are white and then orange. I found one at the gardens and the sign describing them says this-

Still don't really know what it is, but I guess at some point I can look into it further. I'd love to have these at home bc they really do smell amazing!

For lunch that day we headed to a restaurant for some "authentic" Chinese food. It was called Din Tai Fung. It was in a mall, though, so it wasn't like it was scary street food or anything.
It amazes me how Sophie can occasionally be really adventurous with eating when other days I can't even get her to eat pizza. :) Here she is trying xiaolongbao (shanghai dumplings). These are dumplings (like thin-skinned ravioli) filled with meat and broth. You put them on a spoon, poke a hole in it, suck out the broth, then dip the rest into a soy-type sauce and then eat it. She LOVED them. Seriously. I don't get it...

Some more of our delicacies- black fungus (cold weird mushrooms in balsamic vinegar- gross!), fried rice and these weird green sticks of yuck. The dumplings were in the round brown case.

We walked from the mall to the Pearl Tower. It's a short walk and it was a gorgeous, warm day. Here's a view of downtown Shanghai on the Pudong side- pretty city!

We had rented a car for the day of sight-seeing and we were getting short on time when we approached the Pearl Tower. We really wanted to go up to the top but were afraid we'd get stuck and miss our ride home. Ben popped in and the lady said it'd only take an hour total. No problem, right? Why do I never learn?!?!?!?!?? We bought tickets (not cheap) and then headed inside. Oh man. We sat in line for over an hour and a half bc there is only one ONE elevator that goes to the top. ONE!!! For all of China, for crying out loud. It fits about 10 people, too. I could go on with that one for a while so I better just move on.

Anyway, here is a pic of us in line. The elevator is inside the green tube.

While waiting in line Ben was feverishly texting back and forth with our driver explaining our situation. He was nice enough to agree to stay and wait for us. Thank goodness!!
Once we finally got to the top, though, it was so amazing! The air was pretty bad that day so we couldn't see really far, but what we could see really showed the size of Shanghai. It just goes on forever!
Here is a pic showing the curve of the river. It looks across the river to the Puxi side (where The Bund is).

A view looking down the Pudong side. That's the World Financial Center (also known as The Bottleopener). It's the 4th tallest building in the world at the moment. Shanghai is in the process of building what will be the 2nd tallest building in the world. It's there on the right with cranes on the top.

Sophie at the top-

This view is actually the other side of the tower as the earlier one. The Pearl Tower sits on a point of the Huang Pu River. Part of the river is just to the right of the bottleopener and then it curves around in front of it and continues down this side here.
Hmm, does that make sense? I should have put the photos in sequence. Oh well. :)

Down a few floors was a part of the tower that had a glass floor. It was still some 300 or so feet above the ground and it's amazing how the mind feels the need to preserve itself. It took a lot of getting used to to walk on that floor! Case in point- here's Cooper and I gingerly strolling along...

Finally I just dove in and trusted the sketchy Chinese construction and went for it. Yes, it is really gross that I am laying on this floor, but I had to just do it. :)

Autism is an interesting thing at times. Cooper had absolutely no fear of this glass floor and the 300 feet he could potentially fall. He found it fascinating. He wouldn't stop looking down, watching the people and cars move below, trying to figure out what was going on. It was cute. :)

A look down. Makes me dizzy...

Sophie, on the other hand, totally understood the fear. Here I am trying to bribe her with cookies to step out onto the glass. She just couldn't get herself to do it. All she could do was look down in fear. That girl has some great self-preservation skills. :)

Almost got it...allllmooossstttt.......got a foot onto the glass... :)

 

 

Anyway, she did finally get onto the glass when I held her. It was also cute. :)

 

Some other adventures we had with our visitors I didn't get pictures of. On Monday, Doug, Alyscia and I went out to Zhujiajiao. Yes, that watertown that I had previously gone to and loathed. I went back, took one for the team to help show our friends around. Oh man. You think I'd learn!!!

Getting there was fine, the town itself was fine. I actually got to see so much more of it this time than last time. We tried stinky tofu (do not, under any circumstances, ever try this. Ever.), and then decided we were not going to do lunch there. Then came the finding a taxi to get us home disaster. Being that is was a Monday and not a holiday there were absolutely no taxis anywhere. After figuring out how to ask someone to call for one in Chinese, we were told, no, they don't do that. So there we stood for over an hour, hoping a taxi would come by. Nothing. Then came the men with cars. Fake taxis or illegal taxis, they're called. Basically just people with a car who will give you a ride for the right price. I do not like illegal taxis. I have never had a bad experience with one, and I've ridden in more than I care to say, but this seemed so sketchy. We were in the middle of nowhere, we were out of options. Oy. My self-preservation skills were ringing every bell in my mind and body but I didn't see another way to get home. We took an illegal taxi and, once again, it was fine. I don't think I'll ever get used to it, though. I think I've seen one too many "get in the car and are never heard from again" movies or something. :)

 

It was great having people here, having others see how and where we live, experiencing all the things I talk about first hand. I wish you all could!