Shanghai (day 3)

June 1^st

Today is our last day in Shanghai. In the morning, we headed to Suzhou. It is known as the “Venice of the Orient”. When we heard that it was kind of a no brainer to take the tour. The main street of the town is really cute. Lots of shops and restaurants everywhere. It was Children’s Day in China so the kids were getting out of school early and the parents were all lined up waiting to take their kids to do something to celebrate. There were parents and kids everywhere. It was a lot of fun to see. The English names of some of the restaurants made all of us laugh, The Drunken Clam & Mr. Stupid Ox. I hate that I didn’t get a pictures of them.

Our first stop in town was the Garden of the “Master of Nets”. It was really pretty but nothing like what we would think a garden would be. There was so much more. I enjoyed seeing all the living areas, artwork and architecture of the property. There were some great photo opportunities in the garden. 

After we left the Garden, we walked by some small shops and did a little a little shopping. It was my best haggling of the trip and I was so excited. She was so mad to sell me that watch for that price. Hope you enjoy the watch, Ben. I almost wanted to keep it just cause of the story behind it.

Time flew by and it was lunch time. We ate by the main canal of the city. It was a fun experience. Jed freaked everyone out by eating an entire fried shrimp and a fish head. It was so fun! 

After lunch we headed over the canal and hopped on a boat. 

The boats were really low and we had to keep our windows closed so we didn’t end up getting a lot of water in the boat. 

We road down the main canal area and were about to see parks, restaurants and homes of all the locals. They were not in the best shape and it was so humbling to listen to how they live there. They do not have running water in these homes. It is amazing all the things you need water for and all the hiccups you run into if you don’t have any. The older generations still love it here and have no desire to leave or change anything. The younger generations seem to be heading out of this area and moving into larger cities. It would be very sad to see this historical area disappear. I am so thankful to have been. I wish we should have had more time to explore some of the alleyways by foot and see more of what this area has to offer but they loaded us up on the bus and we headed back to the hotel hoping to avoid the worst of the evening traffic.

 Once we got back, Team Adventure headed to the subway and out to dinner in the French Concession area. We decided on a super spicy restaurant, Sichuan Citizen. On our way to the subway, we walked by a movie shoot, tv shoot or commercial shoot. It was cool to see.

The restaurant was so much fun! The food was so spicy and good and the crowd of people was so diverse. It was a very popular place. We tried a lot of great food.

After dinner we went walking around the area to find a shopping area near by. On the way, there was a small park where they had music and dancing. Gina & Dave are competitive dancers so we had the really cool opportunity to watch the two of them dance for a song. It was so fun!

As we were walking to the shopping area, it started to rain. We did make it down to the alley's of shopping but we didn't last long with the weather and a lot of the shops were closing.

We ended our night early enough to catch the last subway home. It was so funny running from train to train with a large group of other people trying to get to there final destination. It was so funny! We got back to the hotel pretty early but we weren't ready to head up to our rooms to back up and go to sleep yet. So we hit the karaoke bar in the hotel. Miranda was brave enough to get up on stage and sing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. 

Steve and Anita came and joined us when they got back to the hotel and we closed down the bar. It was so fun to end our trip to China.