Shanghai-Day 2

These are a little out of order, apologies. We finally found the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. It is hilarious and a must do. It takes you from the Bund to the Pudong side in a little train car. While you travel, lights flash and an overhead voice comes on to explain what you are seeing, shouting things like: HEAVEN and HELL! NASCENT MAGMA!

We headed over to Old Town, which I was so excited about. It turns out they rebuilt all the old buildings (A favorite of Shanghai architectural style is to tear down a building and then rebuild it exactly how it existed before..) and it was absolutely packed with tourists. In some places we could hardly move. There was supposed to be a beautiful garden, but unfortunately it was closed for the new year.

We did get some fun street food out of it, though. Here's Jacquie with a drinkable soup dumpling and me with some fried crab.

In our search for Yang's Fried Dumpling's shop we stumbled into the first of many, many construction sites. As you may or may not know, Shanghai is hosting the World Expo this spring. So, as Beijing did for the Olympics, they are trying to clean up the city as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this doesn't just mean forcing it to rain to clear up the air quality. People are being evicted by the neighborhood and old residential buildings demolished. This was by far the most interesting part of Shanghai to me, so you'll forgive the excess of pictures.

Here you can see some of the eviction notices on the doors.






On our way to and from the nearest construction site we were accosted by dragon/lion dancers! They flew out of a nearby shop right into our lap. The old man leading them was handing out red pockets (a traditional gift for children and the unwed during Chinese Lunar New Year) containing 2 (possibly fake) yuen. He handed me one (likely thinking me a child) and patted my cheek.

The dancers paraded into shops, startling shop keepers and customers alike.