Shanghai, China's Maximum City

Our family recently reunited in Shanghai, albeit for a few hours while Cameroon-bound Daughter #2 flew through Shanghai after leaving Chengdu, where she was visiting daughter #1.  Shanghai was what you expect it to be:  full of lights, full of people, full of restaurants and shops.  We visited the famous knock-off mall, where I was able to pick up boots, a new billfold, a purse, and a cashmere/wool winter coat tailored just for me for pennies to the dollar.  The rest of the family was able to find items as well, so a good time and hard bargaining was had by all.
We visited many of the sights of Shanghai:  the Bund with its famous skylight starring "the Pearl", the old town alleys, which have mostly been converted into huge tourist "items" venues, and a beautiful central park.  We had the vexing experience of using an app for locating some of our places, only to find once we arrived at the location, it was now a different place, usually a bank.  I believe that quickly changing landscape says a lot about the lightning speed with which China has evolved into a consumer driven society.

Hanging Red Lanterns for National Day

Wednesday began the multiple-day National Day Holidays, and so Tuesday evening at the train station we were one of perhaps 10,000 people who were taking trains to their homes.  Probably more, but the orderliness of the lines and efficiency of moving that many people was impressive.  And a little unnerving, but mostly impressive.  The speed train between Suzhou and Shanghai takes about 23 minutes, and it is very clean and very quiet.  We were glad to get back to relative quiet and calm of Suzhou to relax a few days before beginning work again next week.  Here are some pics of our first Shanghai adventure. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk4DpUBC