Shanghai

Hong Kong to Shanghai: This was a very quiet week. We had the memorial service and then had two days of classes before arriving in Shanghai. Word is that we may never get any closure on the cause of death of our student because Vietnam does not require an autopsy. The Administration has been doing drug testing for most of the week, so it is supposed that they think it was a drug overdose.

Shanghai:

It is much colder here than anywhere we have been for sometime. Coat and jacket weather. Our first day here was like last year. I stayed in my cabin trying to get rid of an impending cold. The second day I went on the SAS city tour. We drove through the new part of the city. The buildings are all new. having been built since 1995. They are extremely modern looking, in many weird shapes and very tall . Quite impressive. The Bundt, the main thoroughfare of the city. is lined on one side with old buildings from the English and French colonial times and contains every upscale store you have ever heard of. On the other side is the river are all the new skyscrapers. We went to a garden in the middle of the old quarter with a palace. I can't remember its name. This was a very tranquil and beautiful place even though it was crowded with tourists. After lunch we visited the Shanghai Art Museum and a Buddhist Temple. Then dinner and a chinese acrobatic show. On the way we got caught in a traffic jam caused by a huge fire which apparently killed a lot of people and was on the US news ..Shanghai has just closed a World Trade Exhibition and the decorations and lights for this are still up, making the city at night very colorful. One more very impressive and beautiful city which .rivals or surpasses anything in the US.