Hi...Tonights blog won't be like the previous blogs. The main reason, is that Tony isn't writing it, I am. (Claudia) Tony retains everything. I hear it, think it's interesting and then I can't remember a quarter of what Tony does. He's up in the room with his dad. Big Tony cut his finger while getting off an escalator tonight and it's pretty deep. I don't think he needs stitches. I bandaged him up, and Tony's keeping an eye on him for me. :). So, I'll give you a quick overview of today, and he can edit this blog when he gets back home. He has been very precise on his facts and I don't want to get it wrong.

We started the day off, by going to the Yu Garden. (I'm going to quote the brochure now :)). The Yu Garden was built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559) as the private garden of Pan Yunduan. The garden is famous for a number of architectural marvels. One thing I do remember, is there is a rock formation on display. The rock was taken from a local lake 3,000 years ago. The parents of the Emperor's wife, gave it to the Emperor when he married their daughter. There is also a rock to the left which represents the Emperor's wife, and a rock to the right, which represents his concubine. The middle rock is quite pretty, the other rocks - not so much.

After we left the gardens, we headed for an area of Shanghai that is very cosmopolitan and has a lot of shopping. One area is called the Shangai Yu Yuan Souvenier Center. We went to a pearl shop there, where my sweet son surprised me by buying me a black pearl necklace and earrings with his own money. They're just beautiful. He was bargaining for awhile. I will cherish them always. When we left the pearl place, Tony, Tony and I walked around for awhile. We came to a man who was playing some sort of instrument and he asked us where we were from. We told him America and he started playing some song that I know, but don't know the name of. Anyways, he wanted me dance, so I did for a little while. I would have never done it, if I thought I'd ever see any of the people again. It was fun. Tony got a Dairy Queen cone for about 35 cents and a little while after that, we headed to a restaurant for lunch. We have all had so much bok choy and green leafy vegetables this trip, that I'm surprised we're not turning green. It's working for the people here. Virtually no one is overweight. They are all tiny; it's amazing.

I did notice one thing today and I asked our guide, George, about it. I was mentioning that I never see women smoking, only men. He said that only unhappy women smoke. All of the other women think that it's not good for their skin, so they don't smoke. That was interesting. I can't remember if Tony mentioned this in an earlier blog, but just in case he didn't, I will. Different parts of China have different views of what men and women should do. In one city, (I can't spell it without Tony) the women do everything and the men gamble. In Shanghai, the men do everything - cook, clean, change the baby, etc. and the women just spend money. At least that's what George says. I find that interesting too.

After lunch, we went to the Shanghai museum. The Shanghai museum was built in 1952 and has a lot of Chinese Art in it. There is a collection of 120,000 pieces of Chinese cultural relics in twenty one categories, including bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, painting, sculpture, etc. (Again I'm quoting a brochure) :). There was also an exhibit donated from Russia about Catherine I. That was interesting. Different groups of people wanted to take pictures with both Tonýs. Big Tony for his height. Medium Tony, because of his hair color, his cuteness and his ability to speak Mandarin. I've become the resident photographer of all of these photo ops. The people just love them. We're taking lots of pictures of the Chinese children. They are very beautiful; they are also very shy. Some will let you; others run away.

Tonight before we went to the acrobatic show. We went exploring around Shanghai a little. We found an Italian pizza place that uses San Marzano tomatoes on their pizza. Anyone who knows the Tonys, knows I had to drag them out of there, because we were supposed to be leaving for dinner. We might go there tomorrow. We need a little food variety. Anyways, the acrobatic show was spectacular. It's hard to explain, but what they did is pretty unreal. We'll tell you about it when we talk to you.

Well... it's getting late. We are supposed to go to the World Expo tomorrow, but we may not. Today, there were over 600,000 people there before noon. I guess it's almost impossible to see even one exhibit unless you want to wait hours. We'll see how Tony's finger is feeling in the morning. I haven't heard an update on Typhoon Megi. Hopefully, she's not headed for Hong Kong. Thanks for reading. We miss you! Claudia