China Trip - Shanghai

As our time in China was winding down, we began thinking of our return trip.  Did we really want a two to three hour drive to the airport and then a 13 hours flight? We decided to leave Nantong a few days early to spend a little time in Shanghai. This opened up the opportunity for Weina to do a little shopping and then ship stuff home. We also thought it would be fun if Haini and Rei Rei came with us. So, we used Haini's computer to book hotel rooms for two nights.

Our hotel was right in the middle of the biggest shopping district in the world.  In fact, our hotel was actually in a shopping mall, complete with Starbucks. Every building within a three block radius was a different shopping mall. Having all this retail around us, did NOT help Weina find the perfect tea set she was looking for.  However, we did find a small park not far from our hotel.

The park had a great kid play area. There was a slide, jungle gym and teeter totter.  Rei Rei was thinking about going down the slide, but decided it was too scary.  Hao Hao went down three times before we got too tired helping him up the stairs and down the slide.

Haini and Rei Rei went home a day early. This was Rei Rei's first overnight away and he cried all night keeping Hao Hao and Weina up all night.  Since we had a 13 hour flight ahead of us, it was decided that Haini and Rei Rei would head home late that day rather than stay over one more night.

Having extra time in Shanghai, also gave us a chance to catch up with some of Matt's peers. Here we are having dinner with Jeffrey and Cynthia. Jeffrey had lived in China for a number of years as a tour guide before joining the Foreign Service.  For Cynthia, this was her first trip to China. We really enjoyed getting to know them and sharing our experiences with them. Jeffrey took us to this tiny little restaurant (actually someone's home) where we had the best meatballs ever!

Before heading to the airport, we spent one last morning at the park, exchanged our currency and had one last authentic Chinese lunch. Check-in went smoothly, but we learned our flight was to be delayed at least an hour. This gave Weina time to shop and she found not one, but two tea sets she really liked.  After a little back and forth with the salesperson, Weina finally had her tea set.

By the time we landed in Toronto, we knew we missed our connecting flight to JFK. Once we gathered our bags, we went to the Air Canada desk. They had already had us booked in a hotel with flights the next morning. The only problem, the flight they put us on would arrive AFTER our flight back to Portland, Maine. The woman said, not a problem, we can put you on a direct flight to Portland. Only, it leaves in 10 minutes so you will have to run. We said a quick goodbye to Weina and William and ran to the gate.

We arrived in Portland by 10:30 p.m., got a hotel room at the airport and had a good sleep-in.  We picked up our RV Thursday morning and went grocery shopping that afternoon.  Six loads of laundry later, everything was put away.  The cats arrived back home Friday morning.

And, so ended our adventures in China.