Shanghai Visit

Saturday, we walked more than 20 miles around Shanghai. It was pretty cool. We looked for the former president of China's, Sun Yatsen, house for about three hours. He was really the leader of the destruction of the Qing Dynasty, but was offically only president for a brief time. We also walked around the bund and the French Quarter. I argued with street venders who were offering DVDs, watches, and whatever. I would yell at any vender who yelled at me, or give them the look if they grabbed me, or just argue with them in English that they couldn't understand. We ate McDonald's twice on Saturday. Then, exhausted I watched the last two minutes of the Game 1 of the NBA Finals on replay. Thanks for the analysis Mike.

Sunday, I woke up to loud banging on my door. Some lady was screaming at me in Chinese. Then she got a woman who only spoke a bit on English to try and translate. They asked me where was the girl that sat next to Sherkhan on the bus (lets call her ginsu) and I said that I didn't know. (Are you confused? You should be.) Then my "translator" called the girl who sat next to me on the bus (Cici). Her English is very good. She told me not to worry.

Then that girl came back and so did Sherkhan about two hours after the ordeal began. We walked across the street and called Cici again. Ginsu speaks no English, so Cici translated for me. Evidently, the hostel that we were staying at did not house foreigners. This was odd, because they decided that was the case after we had stayed there for two nights.

So we took a bus down to Shanghai's bund by the river. We walked all the way to the Jade Buddha Temple, eventually dropping no-English Ginsu along the way. Then we were supposed to meet Cici at the giant Dong Fang tower at 6pm. Six came and no Cici to be found. Sherkhan stopped a girl and borrowed her cell phone at around 7pm. About 30 minutes later, that girl and her friend took us on the subway to People's park where Cici was waiting. Then they took a picture of us. That's what happens when you shit like money.

Later that night, Sherkhan and I were walking up Nanjing Road, a very touristy area. Two girls said hello, Sherkhan stopped and started talking to them. Soon, these two girls were leading us to a bar. The girl with me had her hands all over me and then grabbed my hand and we walked holding hands. We sat down and saw the menu. Let's just say 40 yuan for an orange juice is outrageous. It's equivalent to $5, which is unbelievably high for America, but China is much cheaper to start with. So this was beyond belief. Then we left and the girls got mad.

Basically what happened, was these two girls tried to scam some foreigners into buying an extremely expensive meal for them and then having sex with them. Cici's words of "Be careful," were quite prophetic.

Walking away from that situation, we were exhausted and starving. Then every street vender walked up to us and said, "Ladies? DVD? Watch?" Some whispered, "Hashish?"

Now I write to you from Ginsu's friend's apartment. Tomorrow we go back to Lianyungong. Who knows what's in store for us there.