Mostly Walking....

We set out after breakfast yesterday to take a leisurely walk around the sites of interest around the neighborhood, and ended up walking right across Shanghai. We started by taking a closer look at the "French Concession" district where our hotel is located, taking in sites of local interest. We came upon a community park, Fuxing Park and going to see it was quite an experience. Many people there singing, dancing, playing badminton, sitting drinking tea, playing cards....

Many people would speak to us, or at least try to speak to us, with us trying to understand. One guy came up to Gaffer and started singing Auld Lang Syne, apparently his favorite song. Going to this park was a great experience. We continued on, in general making our way from this park toward the river and the Bund. It was great because we really didn't have an agenda, just kept walking and walking. We went through several shopping malls, checking out the goods. We went through some very small side streets, where little old women would walk down the street carrying big fish in each hand. Where exotic, middle-eastern type people sold loaves of flat bread in stalls and where very poor old blind men would play violin-like instruments and beg for money. It's funny how you can encounter a very peasant population on one side of the street, and yuppy, middle class latte drinkers on the other side of the street.

We eventually decided to take a taxi under the river tunnel and check out the Hyatt in Pudong. Wow!!! We had lunch on the 56th floor....the lobby of the hotel is on the 56th floor of this place. Pudong is quite a place to see. I'm sure it must be the heart of all of the wealth of China. It is huge, impressive and like nothing else I have ever seen. The amount of money and wealth passing through must be huge. It is almost frightening to think of the potential wealth there is in this country, and a visit to Pudong will convince anyone of this.

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