I overslept my alarm and barely got out of bed in time to check out. But for 5.5 hours of drunken slumber, I didn't feel too bad.
We got on a huge Contiki-style coach for the 2-hour ride to Shanghai. On the way out of Suzhou we saw Hot Doggie Action taking place on a street corner. Some little dynamo was giving it to this bitch doggystyle. Very hot. We must have been in the red light district.
Shanghai? They oughta call it Shaghai. On account of all the shagging going on. I didn't see any, I'm just assuming.
View from our room at the Nanjing Hotel. This is looking west. Just to the left (less than a block) is the east-west promenade Nanjing Street.
At the restaurant for lunch they had some kind of Chinese Idol-style show on TV. But in addition to singing, the contestants had to work out on a rowing machine and bounce around on a bike. Seems like if they put McPhee on the rowing machine, she'd be our American Idol instead.
We all went to the Shanghai Museum. I prefer museums that have at least one signature piece, like the Rosetta Stone or the Mona Lisa, so this one wasn't very captivating. I did like the Chinese Minority Nationalities' Art Gallery that had a bunch of regional outfits that I'd like to wear to work, or for a saunter. Unfortunately the Chinese Coin Gallery was closed; I was looking forward to it because I thought the coins at the British Museum were cool.
By this time the Chicken Dance had been replaced in my head by "China Girl". When I saw Bowie at the Greek Theatre (Theater?) a few years ago that was the only song he did from Let's Dance.
Afterwards we had some free time. I walked around a bit with Anne Marie, finally bought a Mountain Dew (Shanghai seems to be more of a Pepsi town) and went into the mall. Wait, I went shopping with a girl? Just like on the Southeast Asia tour, my manhood evidently started to diminish near the end. Buck up!
On the way back to the hotel we saw this mean guy blowing sax on a balcony. Very New Orleans. This was at 3:00pm so maybe he comes out every hour like a cuckoo clock.
Walking Nanjing Street as white people, we were repeatedly sought out by shady types offering foot massage (or "foos" massage) and watches. Cheapah!
There may have been a miscommunication about dinner, as only MJ, Terence and I went. We ate at a Yoshinoya-style Japanese place. Ironically, the only fried rice I had in China was at a Japanese restaurant. And it was salmon fried rice, with little bits of salmon just big enough to enflavor. This was better than the bacon fried rice in Bangkok, and yet I will not be satisfied until I've tasted pussy fried rice. Or until I've seen Chris Rock flash his teeth while doing my PFR bit. Just kidding; I'll be the one doing the bit, as soon as I start my Chinese Democracy of a standup act.
After dinner on the way back to the hotel I took a few photos of Nanjing Street lit up at night:
I wanted to go into that building on the right and gamble. That sign reminds me of the Flamingo Hilton.
I think this is looking west.
Father down.
Pepsi town indeed. The bottle fills up and I snapped this at it fullest. Terence suggested I take a video, which is a coincidence because the only video I've taken overseas with my still camera was the Heineken glasses filling up next to Leidseplein in Amsterdam.
The foot-massage guys were even more aggressive with me and Terence. One guy followed us and wouldn't leave, even after I told him no, and then more strongly instructed him to stop following us and turn around and walk the other way. Finally I used the old reliable "fuck off", which again succeeded.
We all went for a cruise along the Huangpu river to see the buildings of the Pudong Special Economic Zone lit up at night. We did quite a bit of walking because MJ couldn't find the place to catch the cruise. He said the bus usually drops the group off in the right spot.
A little blurry, but my camera did surprisingly well from a moving boat in dim light. Awesome skyline.
That Aurora building sign sometimes said "welcome to Shanghai" but I didn't get a pic.
The Oriental Pearl Tower. Tallest tower in Asia, 3rd-tallest in the world (1535 feet). I think I saw the TV tower in Moscow (#2) and I've been to the observation deck of the CN Tower in Toronto (#1).
I don't know if it was the light, but my camera display started showing this strange line pattern.
Nice.
Across the street from the hotel I bought a Coke and two waters, but was confused by the label and realized I'd bought a Vanilla Coke. And they didn't have real Coke to exchange. It actually tasted like Coke at first, but with a vanilla aftertaste.
I was in bed before midnight. I was tired and my legs were exhausted.