Last excursion

Good morning,
In a few hours we will be transferred to the Pudong International Airport where the kids will board the American Airline flight bound for US. Yesterday we spent the whole day scouting various spots of Shanghai on an one-day subway pass. Destinations included the old market near Yuyuan Garden, the underground market underneath the Science Museum, the Oriental Pearl Tower Observation Deck, and the business district near Nanking Road.
In the process of shopping for themselves and for their loved ones, a few kids have unfortunately overspent their budget, and in most cases with their parents' consent have borrowed cash from Mr. Yu. Each of the students will get a note indicating how much they have borrowed.
Thanks!

Today, the group is visiting the Summer Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Flickr is a great place to view photos of just about any travel destination you can imagine. Out of respect for the photographers, I'll post links to their images rather than post the images themselves here (unless they are licensed by Creative Commons giving permission for reproduction), but I encourage you to click through to see some magnificent images.
Daniel Schwabe has a set of photos of Beijing that is stunning. He has an amazing eye.
Sanchu has a mouth-watering collection of images of food taken at a restaurant at the Summer Palace.

Riding the bullet train

Au revoir, Shanghai.

Tonight, we will collect our darling children from the airport, weather gods permitting (knock on wood!)
I have it on good authority that my daughter is returning from China with 2000+ photos! I'm hoping for 2000+ stories as well. May all of our travelers share their stories and pictures with their families.

Here are some links to a blog in which *Jeanne Lawrence shares some of her hundreds of thousands of photos of Shanghai:
June 21's post contrasts the old and the new, with glorious photos of markets.
Her June 29 post documents a visit by a group from the San Francisco Museum of Asian Art to the Shanghai Museum and artists' studios, and gives us a glimpse of their fancy hotel.

In her July 7 post, the SF group takes a day trip on the bullet train to Huangzho, visiting a calligraphy studio as well as other art venues.

If you want to a fantasy trip to Shanghai, I recommend clicking on these links!

*Urbanite Jeanne Lawrence reports on lifestyle and travel from her homes in San Francisco, Shanghai, and New York, and wherever else she finds a good story.

Other stories of China travel

In 2004, NPR' China reporter Rob Gifford did a fascinating series;

"In a seven-part series on Morning Edition, NPR's Rob Gifford sets out on a 3,000-mile, 14-day trek across China, and discovers just how far the world's most populous nation has to go to catch up with its potential."

You can still listen to the whole series archived here.
In 2008, Gifford published a book called China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power based on this series, and I was able to find it in the Hennepin County Library.

For more ideas about books on China, check out the "Good Reads" website's China page.

Shanghai Acrobats

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Hangzhou highlights

Highlihghts of Hangzhou:

The group visited the famous "West Lake" or Xi Hu 西湖
The "Ten Famous Scenes of West Lake" explained as an artistic tradition in China:


Dragon Well Tea (Xi Hu (西湖) Longjing) from Hangzhou is one of China's Ten Famous Teas