Rain and Sickness

Sunday, May 16, 2010--Side Trip to Xidi   We were lucky with the weather this morning.  We awoke to sunshine.  The rain has held off for a while.  All the forecasts say its coming, however, giving 80-100% chances!  That means we won't be able to go to Huangshan Mountain in the next couple of days as we had planned.   Breakfast at the hotel was more authentic than previous ones.  Our boiled eggs had been boiled in 5-Spice and had been cracked so the seasoning could get into the eggs after they were boiled.  We were offered menu choices that were all Chinese.  Mine was steamed pork with dark, chopped vegetables.  Wes' was sticky rice with chicken.  They came from the kitchen in small steamer boxes.  Mine had more flavor.  Wes' was a bit bland.    With the sun still shining, we headed for the bus station and caught a bus to take us to Xidi, a World Heritage Site village which is where part of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was made.  We had to go first to a bigger town where we changed buses.  By the time we got to the first bus station, Wes was feeling sick.  He rushed to the toilet taking a packet of tissues with him (since paper is not provided in public toilets here).  Only squat toilets were available as expected.  He had both diarrhea and vomiting and looked quite pale.  There are a couple of possible causes.  It was exactly 3 hours after we had breakfast, so something he ate was probably a factor in the diarrhea.  But we had been traveling behind a truck producing massive amounts of smoke and fumes and our bus had been twisting and winding on the roadway.  Therefore, motion sickness and or the fumes could have also been a factor.  Anyway, he came out of the toilet before our mini-bus left, so we headed on to Xidi.   We had an interesting experience taking the mini-bus.  As usual, several people read the Chinese letters in my guidebook for Xidi and made sure we were getting the right bus.  After we were on it, I decided I should check with passengers to know the "local" price to assure we were not charged too much.  I turned to a lady beside me.  She was quite elderly, and when I showed her the Chinese letters, she made a face and motioned, "No, no," with her hand.  The lady behind me who was also elderly, did the same.  Apparently neither of them could read.  However, when I pulled out my money and pointed to myself, they quickly understood.  The first lady held up 2 fingers indicating 2 yuan.  Then the second lady tapped me on the shoulder and pointed first to Wes and then to me and held up 4 fingers indicating that it would be 4 yuan for both of us.    Xidi is set in the mountains with pine trees and tall bamboo all around.  The town itself consists of white structures with dark roof tiles.  It was a wealthy town at one time, so many of the homes are large with multiple rooms.  They all feature fancy doorways and large rooms designed with roof openings to let in light and air.  We toured a few of the old homes, but mostly we just wandered the narrow, winding streets.  The buildings in the first few blocks were filled with shops whose owners called to us as we passed.  But we got beyond that where we could walk in peace and could see glimpses of local life.  There were many students making paintings of the village in various forms--water colors, oils, etc.  We often communicated briefly with them and even had our photos taken with the teacher and a few of the students.  We left the village and walked up the side of a hill to a pagoda to get an overview of the village.  A young man and two young women joined us.  The young man talked to us and took photos with us.    We left Xidi hoping to go to another World Heritage Site village, but we discovered the next bus to there would be too late (14:00) for us to guarantee that we would get back to the hotel in Tunxi (since the last bus to Tunxi was scheduled to leave at 17:00).  We just waited until 13:30 and took a direct bus back to Tunxi.  That was a good plan, because the rain started just about an hour later.   Wes remained well for the rest of the day.  We stopped to buy instant noodles and stayed inside the room rather than go out in the rain.  We went through the guidebooks searching for alternative places to visit if the rain developed as expected.    Monday, May 17, 2010--Tunxi   As expected, the rain came down hard during the night and into the morning.  It confirmed to us that we needed to make alternative plans for the next few days.  There would be no pleasure in climbing a mountain in the rain, and the steepness of the trails would make it dangerous.  However, Huangshan Mountain would have been a wonderful one to experience.   We considered going to Yangzhou just north of Nanjing for a couple of days.  But when we checked train times, it was not going to work out well.  The only direct train to there would leave here at 3:45 in the morning.  No trains worked for connecting to there through Nanjing without an overnight stay.  Therefore, we decided just to go to Nanjing and stay 5 nights/4 days rather than the 3 nights/2 days we had in our original plan.  Fortunately, Nanjing is just north of the line for the heavy rain, so we should be fine other than the fact that more rain is expected near the weekend.   After making those decisions, we started working on a booking for a hotel in Nanjing for the first 2 nights.  We thought it would be interesting to stay in two places rather than just try to extend our reservation where we will be the last 3 nights.  Unfortunately, our first choice for a hotel did not work; it was already fully booked for the two days.  We have now sent a request for another hotel.  We'll keep trying until we find one.    The rain comes and goes.  We were able to walk for a while this morning in sunshine before it returned again.  We are now waiting for another clearing or light spell so that we can go to the train station and try to buy tickets for one of the trains tomorrow morning for Nanjing.  Will update the blog again later with information about how it all works out.

Heading to Huangshan

Friday, May 14, 2010--Hangzhou   We've run into problems with the weather. There have been floods in southern China. Well rain is now in the area where we are. Yesterday, there was light rain much of the day. And the forecast is for rain for the next several days. Since we are supposed to leave tomorrow for Huang Shan where we have planned to climb the mountain, we pulled out the guidebooks and looked for alternative plans. However, nothing seemed obvious. Therefore, we are just going to continue to that area and see what develops. We got online and made a hotel reservation in Tunxi for the first nights in that area. There are old towns to visit that will be okay to see even if it is raining. As the days pass, we will decide whether to continue to the mountain or not.   After leaving the hotel, we spent part of the day investigating how to get to Tunxi tomorrow. There is no train to there, so we had to figure out how to get to the Western Bus Station to catch a bus. We tried to go to a tourist office, but it wasn't a REAL tourist information place; it was a travel bureau wanting to sell package tours. So we walked to the train station where we knew there was a helpful tourist desk. The woman there told us that we should take Bus 49 from the train station. But that location is a long walk from our hotel and is in the opposite direction from where we need to head. Therefore, we walked following the 49 route until we found a stop near our hotel. It's only about 3 blocks away instead of 10-12 blocks to the train station.   By the time we finished all of that, we were surprised to note that it had remained cloudy without any rain starting. We decided to spend the rest of the day further exploring the lake area. We walked completely around the lake following the shore and a couple of causeways. The route is lined with nice shade trees, has wonderful views of the city and the mountains, has beautiful spots with colorful flower gardens, and has nice statues along it. By the time we returned to the room and checked the distance on the map, we had walked 15 km (9 miles). We were so tired that we ate a freshly-made pancake made at a sidewalk stall and then just stayed inside and had instant noodles again for dinner.     Sat., May 15, 2010--Hangzhou to Tunxi   We were pleasantly surprised to see that it was not raining yet this morning. The skies were cloudy, but otherwise it was fine. After having breakfast earlier than usual, we checked out of the hotel (having to wait first for the usual problem of a Chinese person pushing ahead of us). We headed for the nearby bus stop where a 49 bus immediately arrived. Fortunately, there was room for us and our luggage without inconveniencing others. We arrived at the bus station 45 minutes later and were able to buy a ticket for a bus to Tunxi leaving 55 minutes later. Because it was dry and rather warm, we folded up our coats and put them away in our luggage.   The bus trip was a pleasant surprise in two ways. The guidebook had said it was a 6-hour trip from Hangzhou to Tunxi, but it proved to be only a 3-hour trip. And second, not only did the rain not come, but the sun even came partially out among the clouds.   Coming into Tunxi, I saw the International Hotel which we had seen while researching hotels yesterday. That gave me some bearings for knowing where we were. I'm glad, because the bus did not go to the station that was marked on our map. We followed the signs to turn right as we left the station, and we stopped at a hotel to ask further directions. Then we saw a sign for the International Hotel. That's when it became clear where we were and how we needed to go to get to our hotel. Then it became a nice stroll along the river the rest of the way without worries about where we were.   We are staying at the Old Street Hotel. Tunxi has an old shopping street that is a major tourist draw. Our hotel is at one of the entrances to this street and is built in the old style. The facilities seem similar to all the other hotels where we have stayed so far. All are 3- or 3 1/2-star places. But this time there are wooden floors. That relieves us of the strange problem of dirty carpeting we have had elsewhere. I don't know if vacuum cleaners are ever used here in China. The floors don't look like it. Apparently the carpets are never shampooed. It is strange for a hotel room to be nice while having dirty carpeting.   We went walking to the train station to get information about going to Nanjing from here and to a special office for getting permits to go to the World Heritage Site ancient villages in the area. A young agricultural student accompanied us part of the way to the train station. When we got to the PSB to get a permit, however, it was closed. Fortunately, a policeman was parked outside and spoke English. He took us inside the building and called a man outside. The man looked at our passports and told us that we did not have to have a special permit due to having our passports with our visas in them. That was important for us, because we wanted to go tomorrow and were afraid to go without the permit that the guidebook had said would be required.   After thanking the men who helped us, we explored the Old Town on our way back to the hotel. It is a nice one and a large one. It is similar to the one in Hangzhou, but the street seems more authentic. It is paved with huge, old stones rather than modernized with new pavers. And the buildings have nice shops in them while looking definitely old.   The clouds have returned, but there still is no rain. We plan to take each day as it comes and see what we can do. We would like to climb the mountain on Tuesday if possible. In the meantime, we will go out for dinner tonight and will try to go visit the nearby ancient cities tomorrow. The mountains and the ancient cities should be beautiful. This is the area where the popular film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed.

Side Trip to Wuzhen

Wed., May 12, 2010--Hangzhou (Continued)   Wes napped while I updated the blog in the late afternoon. Then we returned to the lakeside. We wandered for about 1 1/2 hours watching people and enjoying the view. Then we watched a musical fountains show at 20:00. I was standing behind a young boy who looked Indian. I asked if he was from India, and he was. He said he is from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and I told him I had been there. He's in the 8th Standard in school and math is his favorite subject. He was a nice kid, and his parents seemed happy that I was visiting with him. His mother asked what I thought of Obama and responded positively when I said that I liked him. So many people from other countries look more positively on America because of the election of Obama.   We ate street food for dinner. We got pancakes that were filled with vegetables and seasoned with chile sauce and another dark brown sauce. They were a bit plain, but they were fine.     Thurs., May 13, 2010--Hangzhou and Wuzhen   We almost missed breakfast this morning. We got there at 8:30, and at 9:00 they were closing down the buffet. We'll have to be earlier in the future.   We decided to go to Wuzhen, an old canal town outside of Hangzhou today. It became more of an effort and more expensive than we had expected. First, the bus to go there leaves from the East Bus Station which is FAR from downtown. We had to try to find a bus to there. The first young man who tried to help us obviously wasn't sure where it was. A young couple came up, and they were headed to Wuzhen also. So they figured out what bus to take and we were off. Unfortunately, however, that bus route had been changed and the driver told them that we would have to change to another bus at a point in the route. We did that. But by the time we got to the East Bus Station, we had been traveling 2 hours!! Then we had a 55 minute wait for the bus to Wuzhen. The bus to Wuzhen took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there. We didn't arrive in the old town until about 5 hours after we had left!   The Old Town was much smaller than I had hoped. The admission charge was $14 each, so we felt it was a bit overpriced for what there was to see and do. One of the most special things to do there is to see a puppet show, and it wasn't being performed due to the show being moved to the World Expo in Shanghai for the next 6 months. We did see several exhibits and museums. Among the more interesting were a winery using very old techniques and equipment and a bed museum featuring various large framed beds. We were lucky enough to get back from Wuzhen in about 2 1/2 hours. We were tired and it was raining. Therefore, we just bought some instant noodles and prepared them in our room for dinner.

Expo 2010 and Hangzhou

First, let me begin by stating that I cannot access my blog from China.  The government here apparently has a block on it.  That may be due to the fact that Blogger is owned by Google, and I am sure you have read about the conflict between that company and this country.  It may also be due to the fact that they search for entries about China and have found that I am not always positive in what I say.  Either way, I just have to trust that sending my entries by e-mail will get them posted.  This is my second entry to send this way on this trip.   Monday, May 10, 2010--Shanghai   Wes and I returned to McDonalds early in the morning to try again to use the wi-fi from there.   I had saved my entry on a thumbnail drive so that I could copy it into his account, since the guest account on his computer did not allow any Internet connection.  However, we found we could not get the free wi-fi at McDonalds because it is limited to those persons who can provide local ID information--a part of the Chinese government's way of controlling what people see and do on the Internet.  I believe I wrote a reference to this in my e-mailed post that has already been published (I hope).   After that, we took the computer back to the hotel and headed for the World Expo 2010.  I am not a big fan of World's Fairs.  I think they were probably great back in the 1800s and maybe in the early 1900s before radio/TV/Internet when people lived their lives not knowing much about the rest of the world.  They could be amazed by the sights they saw from other countries.  Today, however, it is difficult to give people anything new at a World's Fair.  Most in the past 80 years have been financial failures for this reason.  The one here in China only has a chance to succeed, I think, due to the fact that the country has a billion people who have been kept in the dark to a great extent about the rest of the world.  They may still find it fascinating to learn about things that had been kept a secret from them.  In that respect, other countries that might be able to have a successful World's Fair would be North Korea and, to a certain extent, Iran.   We went to a "back" gate via the metro to enter and were lucky.  The lines were short and we had no problem entering quickly.  That gate put us into the area for exhibits from the Pacific and from the Americas.  Because I had lived in the Philippines and their exhibit was the first we saw, we entered it.  It was a complete dud.  There was nothing of interest to see or learn.  Mostlty, they were selling products to visitors.    Next, we went to the exhibit for Australia.  It was a bit better.  Still, it did not excite us much.  We kept wishing we had read a review or two which would guide us to some of the better exhibits.    During the day, we went to about 20 exhibits.  Fortunately, the U.S. was one of the better ones due to a film they showed that was not political and fit the theme of the fair well (Better Cities Better Neighborhoods, or something like that).  The film showed a small girl looking out on a corner lot in her urban neighborhood that was trashed.  She imagined a nice flower garden there.  She took a plant and planted it as neighbors watched.  The net day, someone had stolen it.  She repeated it another day as the skeptical neighbors watched again.  It was stolen again.  But on the 3rd day, a neighbor gave her another plant to put in the garden.  Then, one after another, all the neighbors came to help.  When it was finished, it was beautiful, but that night a major storm came.  (Loud thunder and sprinkling water in the theater surprised those in attendance and even caused some of the women to briefly open their umbrellas!)  The garden was damaged, but the community came together and make it fresh again.  The film ended showing new gardens on rooftops and in small areas spreading from that spot across the city as a result of the influence of the first park on the people.  Everyone had a positive attitude when the film ended I think.  And that was aided by a previous film they had seen in which both Hillary Clinton and President Obama addressed the audience in non-political ways.    Other pavilions we liked were:  Mexico with paintings by famous artists, artifacts from previous cultures, and demonstrations of the making of Mexican products (such as a man making a sombrero).  Mongolia with an exhibit of the skeletonbs of two dinosaurs to died as a result of fighting each other in the Gobi desert.  Venezuela with a permanant troup of entertainers in costume to draw people into their exhibits which included a courtyard with lots of hanging hammocks (representing the styles of various parts of the country) which guests could use.  Seimens Corporation showing products in production that will change our lives--product design and development by people in various places who come together via the Internet, families conferencing regularly via the Internet no matter where each member lives, 3-D TV, etc.  Their show ended with a song about bringing us together from all over the world which involved singing avatars with OUR heads which had been photographed as we entered the pavilion.    Russia had a strange exhibit which was a fantasy flower garden land.  We weren't sure how it fit the theme and what it was supposed to teach us.  The Danish exhibit had the Little Mermaid, but the building was so brightly white that I fear they will have bad publicity about people falling from the glare and the steps that are of different depths.  We also visited pavilions of Canada, Brazil, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, the Pacific Islands, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, etc.  There were far too many to try to see them all.  And the lines at some of the more popular ones--Switzerland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, etc., were just too long to consider trying to visit them with our limit of one day.    We stayed into the evening so that we could see the pavilions at night.  Many are beautifully lighted.  In the daytime, Latvia probably had the prettiest.  At night, Taiwan had the prettiest, I think, although there were many more that were special.   By 20:00, we had been there for about 10 hours and were exhausted.  We watched the Disney-like parade featureing Puxi, the mascot of the fair, then we exited and made our way back to our hotel.   Tuesday, May 11, 2010--Shanghai to Hangzhou   As we packed, Wes found a surprise.  There was a computer cable in the desk drawer.  The people at the desk downstairs had responded that there was no wi-fi when we asked.  But they had not told us there was free cable access to the Internet within our room.  We had gone days trying to find a place to be on the computer, and we could have been doing it in our room each day!  We logged on and I sent the first e-mail posting to the blog.  I'm hoping it got posted, since I do not know for sure yet.   Today, we needed to get to Hangzhou, a city not too far from Shanghai.  The guidebook had recommended going to a bus station only 3 stops from where we were staying and said that there were buses every 30 minutes all day to there.  We went to the station only to find there would be NO buses.  Of course, this knowledge created a problem due to language; no one could tell us where else to go!    We returned to the bus station, and there was a young, professionally dressed lady standing outside.  I decided to ask if she spoke English.  She did!!  She insisted that the best way for us to get to Hangzhou was to go to the South Train Station and go by train.  She took us into the station and helped us buy the tickets for the trip to there.   We arrived with no problems at the South Train Station.  We were lucky; the line moved fast, and we had two tickets within 10 minutes. Wes wanted to use the toilet.  When he came back, he reported that they had only squat toilets and no paper, so he decided to wait until we were in our hotel in Hangzhou!   When we tried to enter the large, central waiting area at that point, we were turned back.  We didn't know why.  We walked around to find the Information counter, and no one was there.  A policeman, however, looked at our tickets and pointed to a door.  We had first class tickets and had to wait in a special waiting room.  When time came to board the train, they announced it and then escorted us down to the train platform to board the cars before the other people from the regular waiting room were allowed to enter.     It was a clean, fast train.  (But nearby, we could see the columns for the new high-speed train they are building to go even faster between the two cities.)  It took us 1 hour, 20 minutes to get to Hangzhou non-stop.  It was Wes' first time to see the countryside here in China.  He was most amazed, I think, by all the huge construction projects in the suburban areas.  Some apartment developments invove maybe 20 buildings that are each 15 stories high.  It's just unbelievable to see the changes that are taking place in this country physically.   We had no problem finding the St. Rich Hotel where we had a reservation.  It is a modern highrise hotel.  The quality level is probably a bit nicer than the Villas where we stayed in Shanghai.  Both of them suffer from the fact that they could use a good carpet cleaning throughout, however.    At 5:30, we walked the 5 blocks from our hotel to the West Lake.  It is the prime attraction in Hangzhou and the centerpiece of a large park system that also includes mountains and villages in the area.  Many people were at the lake to watch the sunset.  We joined them, walking and watching both the people and the progress of the sun.  We got nice photos of the layers of mountains in the distance, the boats on the lake, the pagodas on tops of the mountains, etc.    Eventually, after the sun had set, we went inland.  We came to a large park that is a neighborhood gathering area.  Many people were doing dance exercises together.  Young children were taking inline skating lessons.  Elderly men were flying kites.  We relaxed and enjoyed watching all of these activities, then we progressed further down the street to the Night Market.   It was fun to see all the products for sale at the Night Market.  Some were just trinkets--junk for the children of families who come here for their vacations.  But many had high quality products for sale.  We stopped in an old pharmacy (from the 1600s) and had a glass of hot tea.  But mostly, we just strolled and watched the people.   On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a very popular local place for dinner.  There was no English menu, so i walked around to see what others were eating.  We ended up ordering the same two dishes that a couple near us were having--chicken wings with ketchup (fried chicken being a very popular food in Asia) and hotpot.  Hotpot is a steaming bowl of soup over flames.  This one included pieces of beef, potato, noodles, and various vegetables.  It came with a bowl of rice.  Besides the heat from the fire, it was also hot with peppers.  It was delicious.    Wed., May 12, 2010--Hangzhou   The hotel had a nice variety of food at its breakfast buffet this morning--a combination of both western and eastern dishes.  We tried several new things liking some and disliking others.  So far, our breakfasts have filled us enough to need nothing else until the end of the day.   We had trouble with our toilet last night.  It stuck in running mode.  I tried to explain the problem at the front desk, but they apparently didn't understand.  This morning, I drew pictures--a toilet and an egg which had broken open.  I went to the desk and explained with the drawings and while making a whooshing sound to indicate that the water would not stop running.  Apparently they understood this time, because the toilet was repaired when we returned to the room this afternoon.   In the meantime, we went exploring the West Lake area.  We walked about halfway around the lake, we went up trails on the mountain behind the lake seeing a pagoda, a couple of caves where Buddhist figures are located, a sunrise point, etc.  We walso walked a causeway and explored an island inside the lake.  The weather was perfect--sunny with maybe 78 degrees F (24 degrees C).  We stopped often to watch people and to rest up from the effort it took to climb in the mountains.  People we encountered were all friendly.  We were the only westerners on the mountain trails, however.  Our entire outing was about 5 hours.  Wes is now napping while I type this to update the blog.  We will go out again soon for the sunset again today.

Days in Shanghai

May 6-7, 2010, San Antonio to Shanghai   We were up too, too early this morning. Wes' flight was at 5:35, so we were up around 2:45. Early morning is a horrible time to fly. But we got ready and left for the airport. I dropped Wes off at his terminal and then went to park the car, since I had more time before my flight at 6:25. I have gotten so used to all the automatic features on my car that I couldn't figure out how to get his key out of the lock! Finally, I realized that I had not put the transmission in PARK. I'm a bit worried about his car. One of the lots is being stripped, and there is a sign saying that cars will be towed if left there. Being gone for 3 weeks, I fear that the lot where I parked will also be stripped before Wes returns to get the car. Hope not.   My flights included going through Chicago. I was lucky. My connecting gate was close, and there was a mailbox there so that I could send back my parking tag I had to take with me after getting into the parking lot.   I had a horrible seatmate on the 13 1/2 hour flight from Chicago to Shanghai! He stank. I think it was a combination of bad teeth and being a heavy smoker. Whatever it was, I had to try to stay turned away. Also, he was an intruder expecting his elbow to be perfectly fine across the armrest and poking me. I quickly solved that problem by putting my pillow between my body and the armrest so that he was restricted to invading no more than my half of the armrest.   I was a bit shocked by the service from United Airlines. It was the worst I have ever had. The plane seemed old and worn. The meals were smaller and planer. It makes me glad that this is my last around-the-world travel. I would not want another flight that is so long with such poor service. It makes me worry about Continental and its service now that they are merging.   The flight was too, too long. I watched four films and parts of another two that I had previously seen in the theaters. I was so glad to touch down in Shanghai. Fortunately, I could stay in the baggage claim area (behind customs) until Wes' flight arrived about an hour later. My bag was one of the last ones off, and there were some maps and some literature I could read while waiting. Unfortunately, Wes' bag did not arrive with him.   We took the maglev (magnetic levitation) train to come into town. It was not operating yet when I arrived here before. It was FAST. We were passing cars on the expressway that looked like they were barely moving. However, there was a roughness to the ride I did not expect. I had always read that maglev trains would be smooth since they are going over a thin cushion of air. It's necessary to transfer to the metro for the last section of the trip into the center of the city (6 stops away). We did so easily without the car being too packed. I got a place with my bag right next to an exit door. By the time we got to town, the car was packed and I warned Wes ahead of time that we would get off at the next stop. He didn't seem to understand the urgency for getting closer to the door. I pushed my way out as others came in. I turned around and there was no Wes. He was behind 2-3 people and could not get out. I used a technique I've seen before. I reached inside, grabbed this arm, and pulled him through the crowd and out of the car. Everyone smiled. I assumed they were impressed that I knew what to do!! I guess i would have waited for Wes to take a train back and find me if I hadn't been able to get him off.   We were so tired that we went to bed at 7:30 p.m. We slept well until about 5:00 a.m. Then we got up and slowly got ready for our first day in Shanghai.     Sat., May 8, Shanghai   Breakfast here at the hotel is a combination of western and Chinese with more of an emphasis on the latter. We had noodles, rice, soups, boiled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast. There was no jam, no chile sauce, and no salt, so it was a bit bland. But it was better than some of the breakfasts I have had in Chinese hotels before.   We spent the morning at the Shanghai Museum which is now free. That's nice. We saw sculptures, porcelain, furniture, costumes, jade, etc. There were special exhibits from the Uffizi Galleries in Italy and about the Portuguese man who first came to China and influenced its future.   From there, we walked to the French Concession--the part of town where the French were restricted to live in the early part of the 1900s. It is a tree-lined area with old mansions and is now a rather trendy part of town.   Being tired, we returned to the room to rest in the afternoon. Then we went out again in the early evening to walk down the Shopping Street which is a pedestrian area with lots of lights and many people. We tired out again quickly, though, and returned to the hotel and went to bed again at 7:30 p.m. for the second night in a row.   Around 10:00 p.m., the doorbell rang. It was Wes' bag, although he slept through it all and didn't know it had arrived until I announced in the morning that Santa Claus had arrived overnight!     Sunday, May 9, 2010--Shanghai   Drizzle today! We were up early as usual and had breakfast when the restaurant opened. But we came back to the room and watched the news and napped until almost noon. The weather wasn't improving, so we dropped our plans. We did decide to take the metro across the river and go to a shopping mall in Pudong, the modern part of Shanghai.   The mall was big and almost half of it was taken up by restaurants doing a good business. We spent a couple of hours just wandering through it. Wes bought an umbrella since we couldn't find his when we unpacked his suitcase. We aren't sure what happened to it. We thought we packed it. Could someone at one of the airports have decided to remove it because of bad weather along the way? Otherwise, it should be in my guest bedroom when I get back. But both of us checked the room without seeing it. When we came out, the drizzle had stopped temporarily, so we walked to the riverfront to see the view toward the Bund. The drizzle began again, so we headed back to the hotel and watched a film on TV.   We stopped for information while out. The weather tomorrow should be better. That's good, because we hope to visit the Expo 2010.   Note:  It is now Tuesday and we are headed to Hangzhou.  We were at the Expo yesterday.  Unfortunately, we have not been able to be on the Internet until now because of poor communication.  The hotel doesn't have wi-fi.  But they failed to tell us that they have cable Internet.  We discovered it this morning as Wes checked our room to make sure we were not leaving anything.  He found a computer cable in the drawer!!  We tried McDonalds, but it only allows residents to use its wi-fi (so that the Chinese government can follow what EVERYONE is doing)!  We looked for cyber cafes, but we never found one.  Anyway, if our hotel in Hangzhou has either wi-fi or cable, we will update later today or tomorrow.