Zujiajiao Water Village & Shanghai at Night

We began our day with a brisk walk into Shangai in search of lunch. Despite the look on Barek's face, all five of us loved our noodle bowls in this tiny restaurant filled with locals only.


We traveled with a Semester at Sea group to the Zujiajiao Water Village about 45 minutes outside of Shanghai. Known as the "Venice of China", this beautiful village was filled with waterways and a lovely park. The boy in the first picture is selling sugar cane juice.

The highlight of the trip was a boat ride, powered by one man utilizing a pole and a pedal. A cute gal waved hello to us from the bank.

Shops lined the canals. We bought some pictures for the cousins in this first shop and a musical instrument called the Hulus, from the girl above and her mother in their musical instrument shop. She played the Hulus well--and we hope to learn how to play, too.

In Zujiajiao, there were food stalls of all sorts. And everything was colorful--perhaps especially so since this is Chinese New Year, a celebration that lasts a week and is also known as Spring Festival. Everyone is off work for the week and the mood is festive everywhere we go.

Back in Shanghai, we headed for the underground passage to Pudong, the modern side of town across the river. Lots of families were there for the holidays. At times, our kids were treated like rock stars! Everyone stared and smiled and many families wanted to take their picture with our kids. We went to the Oriental Pearl Tower.


We went up to the second "pearl" of the tower and saw amazing views of the city.

Our ship is at the port in the photo above. A family wants Charis to be in a photo. The little boy in his dad's arms later gave her a kiss on the cheek! After the tower, we went through the Chinese history museum downstairs in the Pearl Tower.

We were hungry and stopped in one of the many Shanghai malls(!) for some pizza in the fanciest Pizza Hut we've ever seen. We took the train trip back under the river with a Semester at Sea friend and enjoyed the light show. All in all a terrific day in Shanghai.