I was a bit nervous flying into Shanghai with very little idea of where to find the ship! I had to be back for duty that night, and I eventually navigated my way via local bus and metro, and about a 20 minute walk. It was honestly great to finally find and see the ship with my own eyes in a new city.

In only had one day in Shanghai and decided to walk around on my own (hence a lot of fotos de mano izquierda). I'm not sure why, but I still had a strong preference to travel alone or with people I could blend in well with (still unpacking that one). Anyway, I did some last minute research and spent the day traveling to "the bund", old Shanghai and the Yuyuan gardens, and made my way across the famous Nanjing Rd before returning to the ship by the day's end.

One somewhat crazy run in happened at the Yuyuan Gardens. There was a huge crowd of people forming outside of the Gardens and I was sitting there eating some noodles on the street. I figured it was some random famous chinese dude and I honestly didn't really give a damn. All of the sudden, the twenty plus security personnel started walking towards me so I jumped out of the way with my noodles, looked up and saw Parvez Musharraf (former president of Pakistan) walking 5 feet from my face as I stuffed it with noodles. It took me a second to realize who I just done seen...

Visiting and doing research on these countries has been so educational. I didn't realize that Shanghai is a more recently developing city of 15 million people and has witness exponential growth in the past 10 years. There was construction going on everywhere and some parts with seemingly old school roads and buildings were soon being built into a bustling metropolis.

It was also very different from Hong Kong in its somewhat noticeable "communist feel". Very little English was spoken there and in retrospect, Hong Kong was relatively diverse compared to Shanghai...actually very diverse in comparison. I was able to learn a little bit about the history of the country too during some our global studies lectures and videos regarding the history of the PRC, the cultural revolution, etc.

We got lucky again and docked right along the Huangpu river directly across from the Pearl Tower (the space needle jounks). It was yet another pretty skyline...another million dollar view right outside our window. Overall, my day and a half in Shanghai was a fast but fun visit. I think I made a good decision to concentrate much of my time w/ Jeff in Hong Kong.

btw1...Beijing & the Great Wall will have to wait. Jeff, let me know when =)
btw2...I didn't realize that I hadn't been to China until I was leaving Hong Kong
btw3...I delivered my 2nd sermon tonight...almost 90 people in attendance!