Our journey from Houston was a long one, and we arrived in Shanghai in early evening, tired but excited. First impressions are these: the people are friendly and helpful; everything is well organized and efficient; Shanghai is beautiful and huge and there is no visible bureaucratic overreach. We got a great night’s sleep and arose in the morning to explore our surroundings.

Our hotel is located in “the Bund” waterfront district–the heart of Shanghai and the financial and commercial center/hub of China. The Bund runs along the Huangpu River and features European colonial style buildings from the past on one side and striking modern skyscrapers on the other. Right out the door of the hotel was an alley that led directly to the old Shanghai shopping market. The architecture was everything one imagines China to be: narrow passageways and intricately carved wooden buildings with pagoda styled roofs and red Chinese paper lanterns adorning the shops. It was fascinating.

We walked the promenade along the Huangpu River and enjoyed watching the ships gliding by the amazing architecture of the city. We noticed that, in spite of its immense size, Shanghai is dotted with parks, and streets are lined with trees–many stately sycamore with white pealing bark. We walked through one park with topiaries, flower plantings and expansive green lawns. On one side, under the trees, Chinese music wafted through the air and people were dancing in the middle of the day. It was delightful.

We ate in a Dim Sum restaurant for lunch. I followed the instructions of the server and picked two “small” portions from each category. Oh my! Overall, I picked foods I have never eaten, i.e., dates in plum sauce with water chestnuts, Chinese congee with ham, crayfish in chili sauce with ? (I have no idea, but it was crunchy). It was all very tasty, but it just kept coming and I could not eat all the food on the plates. At the seventh course they brought a bowl of vegetable fried rice. I was maxed out and this bowl was anything but small. Literally, it could have fed three people for lunch by itself. I felt so guilty leaving so much food behind on the plates–think of the irony of it all–my mom telling me to clean my plate as a kid because of all the starving children in China! Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money to buy Kathy any food, so she just watched me eat. She said the wonderful smells soothed her hunger. (She ordered fried seafood with cheese and avocado.)

It was a relaxing first day and we are super excited for the ones to follow. WEG