Zai jian Shanghai

20 August 2005

It's Saturday morning here in Shanghai and this afternoon we catch our 2-day train to Kunming, Yunnan. From there we'll get a ride or catch a bus for the last 6 hours up to Lijiang. After three weeks in steamy, frenetic, crowded Shanghai we're excited to get out and see something beyond the forest of apartment buildings and skyscrapers. We head into the outback with but a pound of Illi coffee, purchased at a western grocery to replace the two pounds of ground coffee we brought from the States. If you don't hear from us again, we're out of coffee, unable to wake up and stored in a lost luggage room somewhere in Central China.

I'm not certain when we'll be connected again--I imagine not until we get settled in Lijiang next week sometime. I'll post up a few final photos from our last few days here--the obligatory group photos and some others. I can't say that I'll miss Shanghai but the time here has been great and it was a good way to start our year.

I passed this window display across from Shanghai University every day on my way to the subway. Marriage anyone??



Speaking of the subway--here's my view of a typical ride.



Here's our group photo from the high school where we taught.



And here's the teaching group after our final banquet and before we scatter across China.



These are a few more photos from around Shanghai--street shots and some shots from the Jade Buddha Temple.

Car seats are considered less necessary here than they are in the U.S.



Here's Bei at the Jade Buddha Temple with her mistress, Megan. Megan decided to fly to her school instead of taking the train with us and Bei was crushed. She cried for 40 minutes.



This photo is of rooftops at the Jade Buddha Temple--looking out the window in the previous photo.



Here's a bike that was parked near our hotel/dorm here.



We'll post again when we can!