BoBo King's Shanghai Exerience

Sorry haven't written in a while . Met some great people and taking tons of photos, which have to be edited down and uploaded at some point. Going to keep this short. melora is going to an offsite in Tonglu, where I'll be sightseeing. Love to all and will be more forthecoming on adventures and photos soon. This weeks Itinerary below (sounds pretty cool): Tonglu One Day Tour: Aug 22nd: "After the breakfast, the tour bus will take us to the precious Lin fairyland -- the ornamental limestone cave landscape, known as “the top tourist site of limestone cave landscape in China” and among the best 40 tourism sites in China. It would be around 30 minutes bus driving for the trip, and around 2 hours tour. After the lunch on the site, the group will take the Dragon Boat for the day drifting along the rive. After that, we will reach the Eastern Han Dynasty historical site -- Yan Ziling, the fishing post. At the same time, we will have the chance to explore the Small Three Gorges on Fuchun River, one of the four most beautiful landscapes in China. After those activities, we will set off to Hotel with tour bus provided." Sounds fun, huh? Lots of photos... peace out-MG

We had quite a weekend last week that I will never forget. Several People were in town for Microsoft. Marcella from Redmond, Reiko and Kenji From Tokyo, and Maggie from Beijing. Our friend Zero, who works in the Shanghai office planned and organized 2 great days of sightseeing. The places we went on Saturday were The Shanghai Museum: http://www.shanghaimuseum.net/, located in the People’s Square & amp; Oriental Pearl TV Tower http://www.opg.cn/ Located in Lujiazui, Pudong (This is Where the big action scenes in MI3 were filmed, btw). We saw incredible paintings and artifacts in our quick run through the museum, and plan on going back to make a more leisurely visit. Sunday we went to this beautiful city/village south of here on the river that was 1700 years old. Its name is Zhujiajiao. there were tributaries and canals running through this still vibrant city that are used for transportation. For more info Its home page is: http://www.zhujiajiao.com/ The photos and snapshots of our trip should tell a better story.

I was just sitting on our balcony, in our shiny skyscraper overlooking the Shanghai skyline. Cool drink in my hand, menthol smoke in my lungs and blasting X on the ipod boombox. Waxing nostalgic. For those of you who are too young or don't know any better, X was and is the greatest American rock band of all time. I downloaded their song "4th of July", and 16 other X songs in honor of our nations birthday. The ironies abound. At least that's something no other nation or people can export as good as the ol' USA! Happy 4th!

Well folks, The last 2 days have been interesting. No deep insights here, but pure visceral experience. Yesterday we went to the outdoor open market (the fake market), which has been described as a sport. More like a contact sport fun but exhausting. More on that later. Across the street was an action figure shop- spawn toys & and custom figures. A 3 foot tall Hellboy in the window -pure heaven! The Cable King was around the corner. all kinds of elecrtric cables, including custum audio and guitar cables, very cool. Today we got our residence visas -so I guess oour health and criminal backgrounds were checked out. Our liason Jill was an invaluable help. She lived in London for 8 years and speaks flawless English with the English accent. Very sweet and cute -see photo above. Now we are home after eating at one of the finest Mexican restaurants we've ever been to. Not Tex-Mex or any american taco/burrito hybrid joint (which I also love-including Taco Bell), but real Central Mexico cuisine, ending with a flawless flan. Just ask Melora. Pictures above. Until next time, Take care people. Michael