ShangHello --Tyler Creed

Holy crap, Shanghai is awesome!  There are over 23 million people in Shanghai, and therefore, loads of skyscrapers.  Shanghai alone has about 1/15th the population of America.  Similar to America, Shanghai's earliest history takes place about 200 years ago.  It is by far the biggest city I've ever seen.  

In Shanghai, there is a noticeable European influence.  This is because of the somewhat recent --at least compared to other Chinese history --British Empire's occupation of the city.  There is a British quarter, and a French quarter, in addition to the contemporary and traditional Asian-style quarter.  It is apparent in the artwork, and architecture.  Before 1990, there were no skyscrapers.  It is amazing how many buildings came to be in just 23 years.

Sights we visited included the Jade Buddha temple, which had a real live sleeping cat in it; the Silk Exhibition Hall, where we learned about the process of making (and selling) silk; the YuYuan Gardens; and a really neat Bazaar.  We didn't get to walk around at the Bund, which I was disappointed about, but we kind of drove by it.  It was awesome to see!

The Bund

The bazaar outside the YuYuan Gardens

Outside of the concert hall was a group of Chinese boys playing basketball.  With the help of our tour guides, we asked to join them.  We played 4 vs 4 with each team having 2 Americans and 2 Chinese.  The next game was USA vs. China.  I'm not really sure who won either game, but I made a last-second shot!  That was pretty cool.  The Chinese players thought I look like Dirk Nowitsky (I think that's his name), a 7 foot tall basketball player from America.