Next Shanghai

Shanghai is about 1,000 miles south of Beijing. It is also about 20 degrees warmer. It was nice to get a break from the colder weather of Beijing. Shanghai is a contradiction in a way. First, it is an amazing city of many views clouded by some serious smog. I mean serious stuff that smog is. What also is noticeable in the two cities we visited in China is the size and scope of their airports. I've never seen larger airports in all my travels.

We were met at the airport by William Chen's dad, Victor. Victor was our host, chauffeur, translator, and tour guide during our two day stay. That's Victor and me with the only temple in the city of Shanghai in the background. It is an awesome structure. What is also impressive about Shanghai is the shopping. The shopping centers are packed and people are leaving with large shopping bags of purchases. Every top end product is for sale here. And the cars are all new and mostly Lexuses, BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, etc.

In the evening, after dinner with Victor and his wife Lucy, we went down to the Huangpu River for coffee and the sights. A beautiful view of the city.

Next day brought about our meetings with the families of our Shanghai students. After the meetings we headed to a dinner of jelly fish, octopus, pig tongue, and more shark fin soup.

That's the Shanghai parents behind Raylene and me at the restaurant.

Our China visit was fun. The parents truly appreciated us visiting with them.

I would like to thank Raylene Davis for the use of some of her photos here in my blog.

Our journey together has really been a team effort.

With Taiwan next I cannot say enough about all our Asian parents and their true love of their children and their desire that they do well.