8 Days in Shanghai and Beijing

Just setting up the new site for our next little adventure in Asia. Stay tuned ...

Brunch at the Phoenix. Last minute luggage check. (I forgot to pack eight days of unmentionables. Bob found them neatly folded on a chair next to the suitcase. My suitcase did feel lighter ...)

Bob grows weary of the solo snapshots. Rare pic showing both Bob and I in Hong Kong.

I love checking in at the Hong Kong MTR, dumping off the luggage and napping for 30 minutes or so. Only thing missing? Bar car.

... are pretty much the same thing. The official currency of the People's Republic of China. Renminbi means "people's money" but on Wall Street it just means "undervalued currency" and at 14- or 15-cents a US buck, I'd say that's pretty accurate.

The ¥ has Chairman Mao on it, the other stuff is Hong Kong dollars.

Mmmm, ramen. Bob got dodgy soy chicken and fried rice. A lesson to all: when in doubt, always go with the Japanese ramen chain.

Welcome to Pudong International Airport.

We grabbed a cab at the airport because the legendary Maglev train stops running at 9 p.m. and our flight was three hours late. No problem, caught a cab pronto and drove into the big smoke in a little over 30 minutes.

Weirdly enough, both Bob and I found the drive into Shanghai very reminiscent of driving from the Detroit airport to his son's home in Birmingham -- wide highways, some marginally elevated above the ground. Also, as Shanghai is on a river and a flood plain, the landscape is similar to the greater Detroit area.

However, driving into the city, especially coming down Nanjing Xi Lu was very much like driving down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, complete with impressive Beaux Art buildings, modern skyscrapers and the prerequisite luxury mall.

We're staying at the JC Mandarin. We were told it was "tired", but we think it got a face lift for the Expo because it seems like someone dabbed a fresh coat of paint here and there. More tomorrow. Tired.

It's kitty-corner to the hotel. It's obvious they've taken the whole capitalism thing to heart and chucked collectivism out the window in some parts of the country.

Outside of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank on The Bund. There are two bronze lions on either side of the main entrance. Their noses and paws are shiny from people rubbing them for good luck.