thunder and lightning in shanghai

thankfully it was quite overcast today in shanghai, which made our 5 hour walk of the city a lot cooler. but the heavens broke and thunder and lightning accompanied some rain. all the ponchos came out for the (motor)cyclists and it was amazing to see the colour of it all.

 

our city walk included a market selling crickets, kittens, dogs, turtles, fish, birds (even ones that talk chinese!). we also had a lightning visit of the shanghai museum and saw a coin with genghis khan on it.

 

tonight we're off to see the famous shanghai acrobatics. then in the afternoon we take the 23 hour train trip to yangshou, whose mountains feature on the RMB20 note.

 

watch for future updates delivered via sms and mum! (thanks mum!) :)

 

-- the last photo is the view of shanghai from the tower we climbed last night.

another test by Mum

will this one work too.

**********************************************
Hugh and Dorothy Prentice
23 Bundoran Parade, MONT ALBERT NORTH, VIC 3129, Australia
Phone: (03) 9014 0968
Hugh's mobile: 0432 761 837; Dorothy's mobile: 0431 772 661

blogging from behind the firewall

Just managed to add dad and mum as editors to our blog. Now more frequent updates wired directly to you all via SMS! Luke....from shanghai

test post 1

--
Luke Prentice  |  eCommerce Consultant
lprentice@gmail.com  |  0401 157 339

nestorians in china

yesterday jane and i visited the xian museum of steles in which we saw the nestorian tablet. it's an account of nestorian missionaries who came to china around 635AD. interesting history.

 

xi'an to shanghai

jumped on a train in xi'an at 7:40pm yesterday and arrived at 12:30pm today in shanghai. a city full of rich history and bursting with capitalist boom! the building goes on day and night - there are cement trucks pouring fresh concrete, men up tall half-finished sky-scrapers welding things and diggers digging things up.

 

on arrival we spent a few hours resting in our hotel before heading out for some local dinner (dumplings and chopped rice cake in soup). then our little group of 11 (including michael our leader) set out to explore town a bit. we headed to the jinmao tower, and from it's observation deck we could look over the whole of shanghai.

 

got some great pics... until our camera ran out of battery. :(  and i would upload some photos here, but the staff at the internet cafe are finding it hard to get me access to the USB port (hidden behind a locked metal cabinet). oh well, perhaps another time.

 

here's something from jane too: in Shanghai after a very long train trip from Xi'an... the weather is nice and cool, the towers look very pretty at night, and she rode the elevator of the Jin Mao tower to floor 88 in 45 seconds... 340 metres up!

more pics

see this link for more pics ... http://picasaweb.google.com/lukeprentice/China?authkey=Gv1sRgCPX19o79o6DaEw#

duff on the wall

as promised... duff on the great wall of china! :)

the wall

the great wall is indeed HUGE and inspiring!!

 

we hiked for 5 hours along the great wall with a guide a few days ago... very hot but really amazing scenery and history and engineering. :) our guide was called "dragon". it was a welcome relief to find a farmer selling ice-creams and cold beer in a rather remote section of our trek. and our group was so happy to get to the guest house and a warm shower. (although the beds were little more than hard plywood covered in a doona.)

 

back to beijing to do some shopping, then jumped on the overnight train to xi'an (she-uhn) for the 11 hour trip. 6 people to a birth (2 x tripple bunks) with not enough vertical room even to sit up. it was fun though, and we got a few hours sleep.