Our trip home, Hangzhou/Shanghai

Mr. Zhang and us

June 24 - 29, 2009: Hangzhou and Shanghai

Mr. Zhang, the taxi man, came to pick us up at 2 PM to Jinan airport. Mrs. Chen, the lady who helps us clean once a week came to work that day. She was a tremendous help. Being a Christian, who goes to a local Christian Church, we gave her whatever we wanted to leave with her. It was hard to say goodbye to these two people who helped us during our time in Jinan. Then, some neighbors started coming out. The neighbor upstairs came with a bowl of "jiano tzes" for lunch and to say goodbye. The neighbors downstairs all came out to say goodbye. We gave the old grandpa a BYU alumni t-shirt and the granddaughter a can of hot chocolate. They were so gracious.

Mrs. Chen and me

Our neighbors

We had two 23-kg medium size suitcases, plus each of us has 2 carry-on bags. Elwin has a backpack full of students' autobiographies which didn't make the shipment, plus his computer bag. I had a small suitcase with my mac and books, plus my big purse. All were carefully planned as we had some domestic flights that only allowed one check-in suitcase per person. Still, it was a lot of luggage to travel with. At Jinan airport they told us the weight was fine. We pray that it would stay that way until we leave to go back to the States as we would be allowed to check in two bags each. Sadly, at Pudong Airport, they told me each bag weighted in at 26 kgs and I ended up had to pay for overweight cost of around 25 USD. But the same bag weighted in at 23 kg again in Macau making one wonder if the scale in Shanghai was rigged.

We arrived in Shanghai at 5:45 PM and took a long distance bus to Hangzhou. It was a two-hour ride. The saying goes: heavens up above, Hangzhou and Suzhou down below. We looked forward to spending two days there. We stayed at a Home Inn which our agent Marvin reserved for us. We took an all day tour with a Chinese group. The tour guide was very enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable about the West Lake and the city. It was a fun tour and we visited 6 or 7 sites. What a beautiful city Hangzhou is! Hope y'all have a chance to visit there someday. Enjoy the slideshow below.

We took a bullet train from Hangzhou to Shanghai on day 2. It took only an hour to get there vs. 2 by bus. We visited with my cousin Mali's husband, Li Hai Sheng. He is a business man working in Shanghai. He took us to a famous "dim sum" restaurant and it was fabulous. It was located at the Cheng Huang Miao (temple) district. It was a big giant shopper's dreamland. Elwin and I spent 5 hours there. It was a record for Elwin. They have everything under the sun. We bought more ties, more shoes, more of everything. :-)

On Sunday we attended church with some BYU China teachers, the Rasmussen's and the Sullivan's. It was good to see them and they were also leaving China to go back to the States in a few days. We visited the unusual "Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum" Sunday afternoon. The Russian Jews were driven out of Russia during WW IIand went to Japan during Hitler's rampage in Russia. They were not welcomed in Japan. The KMT's Chinese Government welcomed them to Shanghai. They were there until well after WW II. The memorial was built to remember the goodness of the Chinese.

The next day we took a subway train (by then, we were very good at riding on the subway) to the shopping center by Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. We were there about 4 months ago. So, we knew where to do some shopping. Then, it was time to take off to Pudong Airport to go to Macau. The fun thing we'll remember was the ride from the subway station to the hotel. There were rickshaws in the small alleyways to take people to wherever they needed to go. They were also motorcycles with the motor running to give you a ride to wherever you need to go too. We took the rickshaw and the cost of 5 RMB or 75 cents. It was quite a ride.
It was a fun 3-day stay in Shanghai. We would do it again.

We took a taxi instead of "mag lev" to Pudong airport as it was raining cats and dogs and it didn't cost too much more than taxi. Over all, it was a fun 5-day stay in Hangzhou and Shanghai. We'd recommend it to anyone who might be interested in touring China.