Our Travels in a Nutshell: Shanghai

Sunday, August 3

Following the full day of wedding events yesterday everyone appreciated a sleep in and a later start to today's activities. We left for lunch about 11:30am to go to a restaurant near Karen's parents place, and the Walker Family was joined by the extended Qin family so we had a private room in a huge restaurant complex. The banquet was about 30 courses of cold, hot and sweet dishes, but they were shared plates so you didn't have to have more than a mouthful or two of each dish (fortunately)!

Sunday lunch with our Chinese family, the Qins

After lunch we went to Karen's parents (John and Judy) apartment for tea, and with so many people it was standing room only! Their apartment is only about 3 years old and was part of a multi block complex like most of the accommodation here in Shanghai. We met some of Karen's relatives who had flown in from Paris (where they live), and it was good to feel part of an extended family in another country.

The building where John and Judy live

Karen's cousin Anne from Paris

We were then driven to East Nanjing Road for some shopping, as we had 2 hours before we had to leave for our evening boat cruise and another banquet meal. It was very hot and humid, and Al's mum and sister Heather don't cope well in these conditions so we chose the air conditioned malls as much as possible. There were heaps of people out and about and it was quite hectic, so after a while we decided to cool off with an iced coffee until it was time to head to the boat.

We arrived at the boat about 6pm, but it didn't leave until 7, so dinner was served before we left. This meal, another 30 course banquet, included some dishes we've had before on this trip but also some new ones like abalone, jellyfish, tripe, braised silverside, Shanghai buns, codfish soup, coconut creme buns, and a few others but we can't remember their names. By the time we got through this meal the boat had started to move as evening was setting in and the lights were getting brighter.

Boarding our boat for the dinner cruise

Working our way through another banquet

We moved from our private dining compartment to the outside deck to take in the glorious sight of Shanghai by night from the Huangpu River. Building after building was lit up in all the colours of the rainbow, many with advertisements on the sides of the buildings and others with changing colour displays and lots of twinkling lights. Lots of photos and videos were taken, but only a few could be included here!