So today was my first real day exploring China. Started the day out getting some brunch at a shopping center. It was a huge mall that had so many American stores in it I bet someone could go in there and not even realize they were in China! Except, I guess all the Asians would have given it away... The most surprising store to me was Coldstone! Apparently its quite popular here and I saw several more throughout the day.

My "uncle" had a business conference that he had to attend in an area of Shanghai called The Bund. And since I had nothing else to do except sit in an empty apartment by myself, I decided to tag along and do some exploring. The Bund is a small area of Shanghai that is on the western bank of the Huangpu River. It is the most historical area of Shanghai and has many buildings with European influenced architechture.

Shanghai is a really crazy city and I say that because its really a HUGE city made up nearly entirely of skyscrapers. You can see one view of Shanghai and think, "oh this must to be the main skyline!", but then you turn and see 360 degrees of skylines of equally cool and gianormous buildings. Shanghai as a city has an incredibly belittling persona and The Bund is a great place to experience this.

Anyways, I walked around in The Bund for a little while, got some Starbucks (what can I say, I'm a Seattlite, I couldn't resist) where I had a slightly embarassing experience. I pulled out my cash to pay and the girl at the cash register took one look at my money and basically gasped. Aparently, the money that my mom gave me to start off with was so old that stores are actually allowed to not accept it anymore! She kindly told me that she could not accept it and that I would have to go to a bank to exchange it for more current currency. I ended up just using my debit card to pay because I wasn't sure if any of the money I had was current enough.

So after walking along the water for a bit, I headed to Nanjing Road. This is one of the most populated areas of Shanghai and is a major tourist trap. Nanjin Road is littered with huge malls each with like 6-8 floors of stores. I thought it was absolutely crazy. And at night, all the stores turn on their neon lights and it kind of becomes like NYC's Times Square. I met up with my cousin Kevin on Nanjing Road and just walked around and hung out for a bit. It was nice to see him even if he now has a huge Buddha belly...

For dinner I met back up with my Uncle and went to a little ziaozi (potsticker) place close to his apartment. I don't want to call them potstickers because they were boiled, not pan fried, so no potsticking occurred. They were super delicious and made to order. You could see a three person assembly line where the cooks were hand making all the ziaozi behind a glass window. China definietly has the BEST food. :)

Interesting Shanghai Fact:

- The most popular shoe that I have seen......Crocs. haha