Day two arrival.

I'll answer the question of where we went in just a minute, first let me explain that because of the distance and direction traveled, we lost one day going so Day 1 (that was in Los Angelas at the LA International Airport) was Monday, but Day 2 was Wednesday.

 This is Sam. He was our National Tour Guide. We went on a Friendly Planet Tour, "Taste of China".

We flew into Beijing, where Sam rounded us up and put us on a flight to Shanghai.

 Air China Beijing to Shanghai.

This is one of the first signs that you are in another world. The coffee was great, but look at the packaging. I don't know if you can see it, but they put a lot of sugar in those packs too. By this time, we needed the coffee. 

Me, enjoying that coffee. 

This is Alan, he was our city guide for Shanghai. He took us to the Yu Yuan Gardens near the Yu Bazzar after lunch. His hand is on one of the many Imperial Lions that we saw on the trip. This one is male, he has a ball in his paw. Females have cubs.  

 Yu Yuan or Yu Gardens

 Chinese Kitty high on the roof.

 The Chinese gardens that we saw all feature interesting rock formations as well as graceful trees and water.

This one also included a couple of cute locals.

This is one of my favorite things in the garden, the dragon wall. 

Garden here, includes the buildings where the family who owned it all lived.  

My Sweet Husband takes the crooked bridge across the pond.

The bridge was built crooked to confuse ghosts.

After we toured the gardens, we checked into our hotel, then set out to explore a little on our own.

Sweet indulgences. This is probably the fanciest ice cream I have ever had.

It is from Hagen Daz on Nanjing Lu. Quite the place.

We had a great view from our table and the ice cream really was delicious.

Nanjing Lu is the traditional big road of commerce in Shanghai. This is a great place to wander in the evening. It is all lit up.

Nanjing Lu at night. 

 More Shanghai at night.

This is the area known as the bund. See the building with the two round spheres? That is the Pearl Tower.

I went up there to take pictures. The brightly lit triangular structure is a communist memorial. I will show you pictures of that too.

This is all an easy walk across from our hotel.

This was our hotel in Shanghai.

Broadway Mansions Hotel.
The hotel was part of the Friendly Planet package and it is quite a nice one. The breakfast buffet is huge!
I was introduced to, among other things, "Festival Fruit". One of the ladies who was on the tour with us told me it was called Lychee fruit. They are tasty. They had a selection of American, British and Chinese breakfast items and very good coffee.
The best part of the breakfast was the view, we looked out over the Huangpu River and the bund.
Day two was great!
Cheers,
Kat