West Lake in Hanzhou
So that didn’t really make much difference other than the sheer size of the lake. We went on a boat tour (the first of many) and the sun was unkind to the Hong Kong older ladies as they all pulled out their umbrellas to shield them away from the sun.
Shanghai was pretty special though since it is supposed to take over Hong Kong as China’s main financial district within 10 to 20 years. As we travelled either by foot or in the coach bus, we can see that there are construction sites everywhere for not only office buildings but also condominiums. Everywhere there are lands, there are cranes in place. These buildings also are growing taller as they all try to reach for the tallest thing around. The most famous of the buildings is the Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We witness this in the boat tour (the third and final one) to watch as the Shanghai skyline light up as the sky darkened.
Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower
As for the Tower, at first we didn’t want to go on it because it seemed like it wasn’t worth it as the admission now both cover going up and the museum, but since we weren’t going to come back to Shanghai any time soon, we decided to go for it. The view is pretty nice up at 241 feet but the best part was a few feet under in the level under. It was another platform that just opened May 1, where there are glass floors as the extension so you get a chance to stand on the glass and look down. Holy that was a different view. Pictures to come later because they ended up on the other camera as I forgot to charge my camera’s battery. (Grumbles)
But as I have guessed, 90% of the places in my trip had ‘hole in the ground’ for toilets. This is everywhere other than the hotels (room and lobby) and some places in Shanghai where the buildings are newer. It’s still pretty nasty, especially when some people don’t flush. Ugh, so I ended up holding my breath and kept my wandering eyes ahead and nowhere else.
Right now my parents and uncle/aunt are outside playing MahJong as usual, much like they did yesterday. And I’m totally having trouble changing the keyboard back to English instead of typing in Chinese, even though I pressed the EN key on the taskbar. Hmph. I wonder when they’re going to end because it’s already 10pm and they have work/school tomorrow while we don’t. And this isn’t Saturday back home where they end up playing until 4 in the morning!
That’s all for now. Hope to travel to Macau soon! I haven’t been there since I was about 4 years old.
