Still one night in Shanghai (then Hangzhou, Nanjing, perhaps something else and finally Guilin which you can see on the picture)

Hello!

This city is my favorite so far. It's very easy to orientate here cause on every street corner there are street signs. Almost on every building you can also find the building number - a luxury thing that you could only dream of in Beijing. They also say that this place isn't a pedestrian's dream but I disagree. Of course you need to mind the scooters and bikers but otherswise it's relatively easy to cross the streets. The drivers respect the lights and there are traffic wards on the biggest cross roads.

Before comign here I had two things on my mind I wanted to by: chopsticks and silk shoes. I got them both. A good quality chopstick shop you can find at East Nanjing Rd 387, Yunhong chopsticks shop. Hand made shoes, bags, clothes you can find at Fuzhou Rd, room 101, Suzhou Cobblers. The boutique was relatively cheap to other shops I explored, and the quality is much better in the shop I visited.

If you ever visit Shanghai don't take the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. Waste of money! They say it's a trip to the center of the earth. It's a tunnel that takes you to the other side of the river, you sit in a small car that doesn't go too fast and you see different coloured lights - even the Helsinki city subway is more exciting. After getting bored in the Tunnel we visited the Shanghai's Chinese Sex Culture Museum. 4000 pieces of statues, pictures and other things we're interesting enough to make us more alive again.

Me and Tiina spent our yest eve at opera. 2 hours 15 minutes of singing, talking, performing - and we have no clue about the "plot". We know that there was a happy ending and men and women got each other. The experience itself was very different from the normal western opera I'm used to. About the public. It was allowed to take picture, and everybody were photographing. The people were walking around, coming late to their seats, talking, the staff was watching tv. The opera was fascinating: the masks, the clothing, acrobatical things. And you should once hear Chinese type of opera. (check youtube). The tones and notes the men and women were singing - incredible. How can men get so high? We were wearing earpluggs - I higly recommend!

Today we had a walk to Old City. It was a an area with a bazar and buildings from the Ming dynasty. We didn't get in to the actual old area but only wandered around in the bazar watching the newly built Ming type of buildings.

On our way to Old Town we had an interesting tea "ceremony" moment in one tea shop. We spent perhaps an hour in the shops tasting all different kinds of tea: flower tea, fruit tea, black tea, green tea and oolong tea. We had tiny cups and the girl was pouring us one cup after another. Even Tiina who dislikes tea was drinking it. She was trying to refuse but the girl insested and just poured more for Tiina when she had the possibility. In the end we bought little something.

At eve I still had a walk alone at the Bund. It's a road/area by the river, on the old side. I was watching the old buildings from the 30's and also the new sky scrapers on the new side. The new modern buildings had the lights on and also the cruise boats that were sailing on the river. Though my feet hurt now after three hours of walking (only at eve) it's nicer to walk cause you see so much. As walking back to hotel I passed by dozens of instrument shops. People were testing guitars and pianos inside the shops - me just walking easily and enjoying.

Tomorrow we change for a hostel for one night. Then we head to Huangzhou which is 2 hours south from here. Two night there. Then to Nanjing which is three hours northeast from here. Then we head to Guilin; on the way we might stop on some other places to visit some sights of the communist party and army. But we'll let you know as soon as we know ourselves.

By for then

Erika