Day Six

Our second full day in Shanghai began with a superb breakfast at the Four Seasons. Following breakfast we loaded onto our private bus and headed off to the Shanghai "Children's Palace." The name can be a bit misleading - a Children's Palace is actually a school for young kids (ages 5-8) who are especially gifted in the musical and visual arts. Not only did we see some surprisingly well done artwork, but we also were fortune enough to get to watch a small concert put on by a few of the students. It was quite interesting to see such small children play complex music on the piano, the Chinese violin, and several other instruments.

After the Children's palace we ventured to one of Shanghai's premier silk factories. The factory itself housed every portion of the silk production process - from raising silk worms to the processing of fine silk carpets. It was fascinating to watch the process with which skillful carpet weavers slowly crafted each carpet. According to the local factory manager - some of the finest carpets can take up to 14 months of work to complete. It was also fascinating to see how the factory took vast quantities of silk worms and turned their cocoons into the final silk product. While I don't personally consider silk carpets particularly interesting, the quality of many of these carpets was astounding. The carpets are so finely crafted that they will be completely different colors if you look at the carpet from opposite angles. It could be white from one angle and blue or black from another!

From the silk factory we ventured to the Temple of the Jade Buddha - one of the most famous temples in China. The temple itself was filled with the smells of incense and the quiet chants of monks. While I would certainly like to share some pictures of the temple with y'all - I wasn't allowed to take any pictures in the temple.

Our lunch was fantastic - perhaps the best food we've had in China so far - we ate at a local Shanghai restaurant named "Mei Long Zhen." It was possibly the best Chinese food I've had in my entire life! My personal favorite was the mooshoo pork.

Our afternoon featured a lengthy drive to the countryside, to visit a local township and take a sampan (remember your vocab lesson from an earlier entry?) ride. The town itself was starkly different from the hustle and bustle of the Shanghai metropolis. While it was certainly beautiful, the town was a bit dirty, but most likely a much more accurate representation of an average lifestyle in China than Shanghai. While our sampan ride was enjoyable and the town itself quaint, the highlight of our visit to the township had little to do with China.

We met another American walking around the city, and he introduced himself to us, saying that he was from L.A. After parting ways with him I had the feeling that I had seen him before or that he looked eerily familiar. Unfortunately, he vanished amidst the maze of waterways and old buildings. After finally deciding to ask him if I knew him from somewhere, and having the good fortune of running into him at the township's ancient post office, I asked him if he was, perhaps, famous. It turned out that we had run into Nathan Fillion. While not an A-List actor by any means, he was a star in the TV show "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" and is the lead actor in the upcoming movie "Waitress" (comes out summer 2007, I told him I would plug it).

Despite the fact that we had an adventure-filled day, the best part was yet to come. In the evening we attended the Shanghai Acrobatic Circus. While I have seen my fair share of circuses and acrobatic shows (I've even seen a bear that can walk on two legs) this show was especially remarkable. I cannot even convey the ridiculous and incredible feats that these truly talented acrobats performed - including knife throwing, fire balancing, a five person high tower of people standing on each other's shoulders, someone being catapulted by a see-saw while wearing stilts, 8 ball juggling, and clay pot tossing. Take for example this photo - the women are balancing themselves completely on these chairs - which are not connected to anything and are merely balanced on top of the chair below. We concluded our evening with a late dinner at "M on the Bund" - a world renowned restaurant in Shanghai with a spectacular view of the city. After that it was off to bed, we travel to Li Jiang, a rural town in the southwest Chinese mountains, early tomorrow morning!