Friday 9/9/05

• My suitemate Lea and I go to dragonfly to get shiatsu massages and manicures. Dragonfly is a really zen looking establishment with dim lighting, fragrant candles, a really chill soundtrack and of course, a really professional staff. For a one hour shiatsu massage, we only paid Y120, which is around $15USD. The manicure was the same price, which made it pretty expensive compared to another Chinese nail salon in New York City. But ehh, you only live once.
  

Saturday 9/10/05

• Eric, Lisa and I went around the city to do the scavenger hunt that I suspect only like 10 people are doing. Mike couldn’t come because he was feeling really sick and after going to the doctor, found out that he had strep throat. Yikes!
• The Jin An Si, which according to Lonely Planet, was erected in the third century and was has lost its appeal after it was destroyed in the nineteenth century and then robbed of its Buddhist statues during the Cultural Revolution. It still looks pretty nice though

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• When I was outside the temple, I asked a man if there was admission to the place and he said yes but he’d rather me get my fortune read before I go in. which took me a long time to understand that he was trying to sell me something. Chinese people are too good at selling you things because I almost got my fortune read since he was so persistent. Haha.
• Century Park, I would say, is the Shanghai equivalent to New York’s Central Park. Its pretty huge, compared to other parks in Shanghai. Admission was Y10, which isn’t so bad. Outside the park were vendors selling some sort of meat on kebabs. Eric and I wanted to try them so we bought some for Y2 each. They were really flavorful but that is because they were 100% fat. The spices made it extra tasty but we couldn’t really eat it since it was just fat. Yuck.

• At Century Park, you can ride bikes (Y30-Y80)
  

and boats (Y30-Y50)

• Check out this sprite, its Minty

• We ate at, literally, a hole in the wall. What you did was select everything you wanted on your noodles and then someone would cook it for you. The food came in a plastic back over a bowl, which is ingenious cuz after you’re done with the noodles, you can just throw out the bag and still have the bowl. Chinese people and economical thinking, wow.
• Here are some more pictures of the Shanghai skyline. It was nicer today because it wasn’t as cloudy.