Shanghai and Xi'an: 2012

Once we had left Nanjing and Jason had finished his classes we had a mad dash through China to finish our sightseeing.  

The first place we went was Shanghai.  It's hard to describe how puny you feel in the world's largest city, with a population of over 23 million.  The weirdest feeling is when we went up in the skyscrapers and we couldn't even see the edge of the city.  It was an amazing sight and it made you feel so tiny.  

We went up the World Financial Center, which is the 2nd tallest building in the world.  But it has the highest observation tower in the world, which meant that Jason and I had the best view in the world that night we watched the sunset over Shanghai.  I also have to admit that we shared the world's highest kiss.    

Here are some views from the Fincancial Center.

A panoramic view of Shanghai.  

This is what the World Financial Center building looks like.  It's so tall you have to arch your back to see the top, and from the ground you can't see the square hole at the top that makes it look like a bottlecap opener. 



Here is a view of the Financial Center next to the Jinmao Tower next to it.  I love that you can't even see the tops of these building because they are too high. 

We then went to a part of town called "The Bund."  This is right next to the Yangtze River and has a ton of classic European architecture and looks lovely at night.  But I think the main appeal of The Bund is that it looks across the river to downtown Shanghai and it has the best view of these skyscrapers from the ground.  We saw a ton of ads out in China with this background in the pictures.

A view of downtown Shanghai.  Can you see the Financial Center that looks like the bottlecap opener in the middle of the picture? 

Here are some pictures of Shanghai in the daytime.  We were so lucky with the weather here because we were talking with some buisnessmen from Chicago who said that they haven't seen a clear sky in Shanghai for 5 months.  When we got there the smog lifted up and we had a weekend of beautiful skies.  

My smokin hot husband!  

A panoramic view of the Shanghai from The Bund.  

We went to this cool bar called "The Alchemist" where you can buy these crazy cool drinks.  Of course we had  non-alcoholic drinks, but it was still a blast to be with everyone.  

As you can read on the sign behind us, we had some delicious Texas BBQ  in Shanghai.  We can't  even tell you how wonderful it tasted to have some BBQ after weeks of rice and noodles.  

Here is Jason outside of this expensive store.  He is hoping that someday we can go inside it.  

Our next stop was a short flight away in the city of Xi'an.  There really is nothing in Xi'an except for the singular reason we flew there: The Terracotta Warriors.  

A view from our hotel.  Xi'an seemed pretty isolated and very dry, even though there is a river behind Jason.  

Jason Burrows: The missing Terracotta Warrior

All of the original Terracotta Warriors were made out of clay and then cooked to solidify the  material.  Here is an example of how this process was completed, with one of the ovens they used to cook the warriors.  

Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.  We went from pit to pit where the warriors were originally found and where many are still located.  We weren't allowed to get too close, but we enjoyed our view from afar.  

After spending the morning seeing the Terracotta Warriors we had some local lunch.  Xi'an is known for their noodles, which actually tasted pretty good, but we had a ton of noodles by this point.  

We really enjoyed both of these cities, but I think we preferred Shanghai because there is so much to do there and I could definitely see us returning to the skyscraper city.  Seeing the Terracotta warriors was amazing as well, but we were informed by our guide in Xi'an that there is still more to uncover with the warriors, and that they expect to be done with the excavations in 50 years.  So we both looked at our guide and said "Well, then we will see you in 50 years."  

Just a couple more posts about China and then the trip will be officially over!