Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

We arrived in Shanghai without a hitch. It was definitely the most enjoyable train experience we’ve had and we found our hostel easily. We had only been in the city an hour when we realized this was going to be awesome.

We unloaded our stuff at the hostel and set out to explore. Our hostel is just west of the northern end of the bund so we decided to take a look. Today was the first day we have seen truly blue sky in at least a month if not longer and the big puffy white clouds against the bright blue made the Shanghai skyline more impressive than I was expecting. The city is modern, clean, busy and exciting. It’s a whole new side of China than what we’ve been seeing.

Walking along the river or the bund as it’s more well known is spectacular. As you walk from North to South you have on your right a skyline that looks like it’s from a hundred years in the future as opposed to now and on your left you have beautiful old stone buildings from a hundres years in the past. Each of the buildings has a Chinese flag flying from the top for as far as you can see.

We are both getting a little tired of our rather limited wardrobes so we figured the shopping mecca of China might be a good place to pick up a few things. We went to a huge 4 floor shoppers paradise where every brand name imaginable is being hawked at seriously marked down prices. It’s most likely that the Prada bags are fake but the majority of the other stuff comes from the same factories it just has some small invisible defect. You have to work for your bargains but bartering is half the fun. Jacob was even told in classic Russell Peters style to “be a man.”

We took the same route home as we walked in the daytime to appreciate the lights. The river is lit by the many nighttime cruise ships and of course all of the skyscrapers give off a good glow. Even the old buildings partook in the lift show each one giving off a classy yellow glow.