Ni Hao, Shanghai!

Well, we made it! Our flight to Beijing was smooth as silk and we were all able to sleep quite a bit, thank goodness! We took off around 2:00 a.m. and oddly enough, they served us a full-on dinner at 2:30 a.m., then fed us another full-on dinner before we landed in Beijing at 5:30 a.m. local time. After a two-hour layover, we took off for Shanghai and were fed again - a full breakfast this time. Two hours later we were in Shanghai, our first stop on our Chinese adventure. Let me tell you, the airport in Shanghai is big. As in seriously huge. We came in at Gate 98 and it was literally almost a mile to the baggage claim. I wish I was kidding. I'm not. Twenty-six hours of travel followed by the Bhutan death march. Once we retrieved our bags, we met up with our China national guide, David, who will be with us for out entire stay in China, and our Shanghai city guide, Alan, and immediately went - wait for it - to lunch! Cue the looks of dismay! The food was very good and there was lots of it. My mom counted 12 different dishes and they even made a couple of special dishes that were gluten free just for me.  

Once we waddled out of the restaurant, our next stop was the Yu Garden. 

What a beautiful place! We walked among the various pavilions and ponds full of koi fish for about 45 minutes while Alan kept us entertained with tidbits of Chinese history.  Oh, yeah.  That sky you're seeing, that gray, blah sky?  That's not just rain clouds, not by a long shot. That's air pollution, my friends, and evidently, it wasn't too bad today. (Read: We didn't have to break out the respirator masks.) Things in the distance look like they do at home when we have light tulle fog. I hope we don't see what it looks like on a bad day. 

Tomorrow we are off to see Suzchou, known as the Venice of the East due to its canals. I'm super excited to see it! For now, hard as it is to believe, we're all getting hungry and we heard a rumor that there's a Haagen Daz down the street.  What?!? It's been at least two hours since our last meal....