China 2019 Zhujiajiao

Our third morning we were picked up at our hotel by our driver for our first "real" Chinese experience.

Arranging private transportation before hand was something I was so happy I had done.  It saved us so much $ in taxis + we were able to go where ever we wanted + were able to store all of our luggage in the van.  It worked perfect.

And of course Shane had fun chatting with our driver the whole day. ;)

We spent most of the day at...

Zhujiajiao Water Town

  

...it was just that, an old town on the water.

Tayler and I had fish pedicures.

(Actually Tayler and Saige were doing it but Saige chickened out after we'd already paid.)

It felt so weird, like your feet and legs were just vibrating.

And guess what, for real, my feet never felt softer. haha

We took a water taxi... well actually 2 haha

He's her favorite.

See that nice rice hat hanging up?

Most of the guys wore those... except our guy had a baseball cap. hahaha

We walked around, bought souvenirs... waited for Kenna to shop at every shop ;););)

Lydia didn't like the smell apparently...

and... ????

We bought random treats...

but we did not buy any of these...

the boys were much more brave with the "samples" than we were.

This kind of stuff they were brave with though. ;)

Lydia wanted one of these as her only souvenir.

 Our driver then took us to downtown Shanghai.

Shanghai is HUGE.

Here are some fun facts.

There are over 24 MILLION people living in Shanghai.

Shanghai covers 2400 square miles

With over 10,000 people per square mile in urban Shanghai.

It's crowded...

Long story short there is a lot of driving in between sites. haha

Our driver took us to a mall for dinner.

We still ate pretty americanized... but the spaghetti was disgusting. haha

We then drove by the "Bund" and saw the Pearl Tower.

Hindsight... we had PLENTY of time, we should have stopped and got out like our driver suggested but nope.

We headed to the train station.

None of us knew what to expect so we wanted to get there early.

No need for that... it was crowded and filthy and loud.

This was an hour before our train when it was super empty.

Everyone all around us was eating stinky food and just throwing their leftovers all over on the ground.  It was the only time I thought I had REALLY made a big mistake having us taking the train! The way the trains work it that they called your train number, you had about 3 minutes to get in line.  The announced the train was loading.  Then everyone just pushed and shoved like a mob to get through the gate.  I swear they got everyone through in less than 3 minutes... then just closed the doors, if you were late too bad.

We saw lots of people miss their train while we were waiting.

But we made it!

We were all very happy to find that the sleeper trains were pretty nice.

The bedding "seemed" clean.

It was crowded in our rooms but not TOO cramped.

And at least we had 4 of us in 2 rooms and we didn't have to have a random stranger with us!

The public bathrooms were pretty sketchy... other than that it was great.

I slept fantastic actually.

We got on at 11 PM and arrived in Beijing around 9 AM... traveling 800 miles.

It was an adventure for sure!!

Our hotel was RIGHT across the street from the train station.

So we pulled our luggage up and over the sky bridge.

Beijing was where the photography of my family picked up.

People could not believe that Lydia and Jadyn were pulling their own luggage/backpack.

Maybe it was that we were Americans? or there were so many of us? Or that we're just attractive? ;)  I'm not sure.

But they were stopping and pointing and taking pictures.

O, and offering to help us with our luggage... which I did not like.

But Shane thought it was fine, until a poor old man rolled one of our suitcases down the stairs on accident and he fell behind it.  I thought he might die right there!

Lydia did NOT like the paparazzi... she kept saying, "mom, why is everyone staring at me??!!"

We got checked into our Beijing hotel and headed out on another adventure...