Day 59: Shanghai and Hangzhou (上海﹐杭州)

Last day of shopping
We realized that we had bought too much and needed to get new luggage for all the stuff we have bought, so we headed back to the shopping market, we also picked up some things that friends requested.

Shanghai Confucian Temple(上海城隍廟) and Park (豫園)
After shopping we headed to the temple in downtown Shanghai and then headed to a park that is located next to the temple.  The park(豫園) were built in the rich Ming dynasty officials between 1559 and 1577.  They were then destroyed during the Opium War and again later by the French.  They have been restored to represent a the Ming dynasty.  The Shanghai Chenghuang Temple(上海城隍廟) is a Taoist temple and was first constructed during the Yongle (永樂) reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  We then picked up some soup dumplings on the food street and a McFlurry from McDonalds

From 77 Days in China

Outside the temple

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In the temple as prayers were going on

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Charlotte sitting in the park

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They liked round doors in their parks

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A kid was feeding these fish and they were going crazy

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Another interesting door

Train to Hangzhou (杭州)
After we finished with the tourist sites, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Hangzhou.  The train started off being uneventful, there was a woman in the seat next to me and she was holding her 4 year old, but both fell asleep.  About about 30 minutes before our train got in though they woke up, I was looking the other way talking with Charlotte and when i turned around I was surprised to see the woman had pulled down her sons pants and was getting him to pee into a cup (the bathroom was 2 rows of seats in front of us and no line).  After he was done she put the cup in a plastic bag with her empty food containers and left it on the fold down table in front of her when she left the train.  Although public urination is not a new scene to us in China, we were surprised because this was on the fastest, newest and fanciest train departing from the biggest city in China.

Getting a cab in Hangzhou
The cab scene outside the train station was crazy, you just had to see a cab with people getting let off and judge when it would stop and try to get in.  We got 1 cab, but he wanted to pull over further, when he stopped some other westerners basically pushed Charlotte out of the way and the cab driver told them they could have the car if they paid ~$9.  We got mad at the other westerners, but they refused to admit any wrong doing.  We got the very next cab and it only cost us $2 to go across town, so I guess it worked out better for us.

Hangzhou
After we checked in we went to get some food, Charlotte got some Duck tongue, intestines and stomach.  I got some duck wings and potato chips.