Shanghai, part 1

Okay, so Shanghai is big. Really Really Big. Big enough to be the largest "city proper" in the world, at least according to Wikipedia, and in the top twenty world cities list regardless. So when I say we saw Shanghai for a week, that's like someone spending two days in New York or a weekend in Paris. Enough to get a general idea, but not enough to do more than just scratch the surface. (Especially since we spent three of those days in part going to the Expo, which is another city entirely...)


(Picture: a massively huge room-sized model of the city at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum)

So, lessee, what did we do in Shanghai?


Ate! (What else..?) Shanghai, like most other self-respecting cities of around 20 million, does a pretty good job providing a variety of food, and we tried our best to keep up.


Waded through crowds and stood in lines! (at least at anything resembling a tourist attraction.) Did I mention that Shanghai has around 20 million people? They might have all left town for the summer for all that I know, but there were plenty of other tourists in from other parts of China to see the Expo ready to step up and take their place.


Went shopping. Or kid-herded while others shopped, depending on individual levels of shopping tolerance.


Oh, and went looking for a cheap umbrella stroller. Mistake #1: leaving our old stroller outside our apartment to dry upside-down overnight. (in the same place garbage is collected) Mistake #2: not buying a cheap replacement before leaving town. You can see some non-touristy places of town while looking for strollers, and your Chinese vocabulary will improve somewhat, but unless your idea of a fun start to a vacation is wandering through a foreign Toys R Us, I wouldn't recommend it...