Saturday, Shanghai (10/29/11)

Our flights to Chicago and then to Shanghai went fine - we weren't too jetlagged! Arrived at our hostel by cab - too tired to deal with public transport. 3 of us ended up in bunkbeds because they screwed up our reservation but it's okay. Tomorrow we move to our twin rooms. Yesterday we walked down to the Bund along the Huangpo River which looks very British (this was the British concession area). Walked through the Art Deco Peace Hotel that has recently been refurbished. Elegant! Walked back along the pedestrian Mall of Nanjing Lu (Rd.).   Ate at a local place with a beef and rice dish. We couldn't figure out how to get a table in this restaurant and this lovely family tried to tell us and just got up and gave us their table! So nice! We've had several incidences already of the Chinese helpfulness and generosity. Slept pretty well and headed out to meet our tour guide for our Backstreet tour. Rode the subway - able to figure it out! Discovered 100 yuan notes aren't too accepted places so found a bank where we all got change. It was pretty funny to see these 2 bank tellers watched by two guards all busy changing to smaller bills for us. Janny was a terrific guide and took us places we'd never have seen on our own. Into 3 or 4 different houses in the backstreets of an area I'd never been. One 80 year old woman lived in one house where she raised her 4 kids who were now living in big homes in Shanghai. But she doesn't want to leave her friends and neighborhood so she stays and they visit her. There were only the 4 of us and Vincent who is from Chicago via S. AFrica on business here. He bought us all drinks as he needed something - he had been out doing shots the night before with chinese colleagues who had expense money to spend. He had a terrible hangover! Very nice guy! Can't speak highly enough of Janny and this backstreet tour. We'll be sure to recommend her on Trip Adviser so she gets more business. Then we cabbed to the French Concession area and wandered around the leafy (they imported plane trees from France) streets and found the RuiJin Hotel, which used to be some wealthy family's home. Two or three wedding receptions were being set up for. Then found a place for our foot massage!  Heavenly!  60 minutes for about $15! What a treat!  Hopped a bus - too much walking - down to the Bund to ride the night boat cruise to see all the lights. About 50 minutes and packed!! Oh, I forgot our lovely lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the SoHo type area - delicious! Pat guided us as she had been to Japan a couple of times! In for the night! Very tired! S.