Some relief from the humidity today

Last night after the rain stopped it started to feel a little cooler and less humid, this morning the temperature is a very pleasant 72F 22C, with hardly any noticeable humidity. A very welcome relief.

amyfamily1

Meeting Amy's family at the very famous Tang Dynasty Restaurant in Shanghai (Pudong), her brother Wang Jing Wei is Dean of the Shanghai Secondary Poly Technology university and her sister in law Xu Jin Qiu is a research fellow at the same university and their son Wang Bai Shi is still at high school. Amy's brother & sister in law both specialize in environmental research.

Amy on Nanjing Lu

Amy taken on Nanjing Rd

littlesheep1

Enjoying a traditional hot pot meal at the Little Sheep (Xiao Fei Yang) hot pot restaurant, with Amy, Rob, Irene and some friends from the HP office in Shanghai.

Nanjing Lu

Nanjing Lu is a famous shopping area in Shanghai, it stretches for approximately 5.5 km in the heart of the city.

Day 11 or 12 perhaps

Unfortunately I had have had some major PC issues for the last few days and have only now resolved them. So I'm going to try to catch up in one post the most recent chunk of this vacation. The weather has remained hot and steamy and you'll notice a sort of poached look to my complexion in the photos :-) For the most part the temperature has hovered somewhere around 98F with about 70-80 % humidity. It’s certainly not unusual to have change my shirt 2-3 times a day. Transport here is a breeze, I have a transport card, which contains an RFI chip and allows me to use, taxis, the metro and buses all without any need for cash. At many of the metro stations and other locations, its really easy to top up the card. Taxis are plentiful except for those times that the heavens open and it rains for maybe an hour or two, then it can take a while to find one.

The sheer scale of the city is such that getting around is most effectively done in either a taxi, (convenient) or metro, cheaper but you have to cope with hundreds of bodies compacted into a subway carriage with poor ventilation. Watching the drivers in Shanghai can be amusing and at times a little scary... most drivers alternate between the gas pedal & the horn. Pedestrians are moving targets, even on the pedestrian crossings. The car, scooter and pedal bike have the right of way, no matter what. That even includes the walkways, which also double as smaller roads for the scooters and bikes. There are obviously 3 colors on the traffic lights, but it appears the only colors that the drivers recognize are green & amber, and they appear to have the same meaning, sort of like the start of a drag race at Firebird, but with one huge difference, there can be cars coming from as many a four or five different directions, plus pedestrians!

The variety of different Chinese restaurants is staggering, everyone represents a different province in China and each province has its own distinct culinary style. Add to that the equally large volume of Western style restaurants that are also available and it would take many months of eating at a different place each night to even make a dent in what's available. There is no tipping at restaurants, even if you try to leave a tip there's very little guarantee it'll go to the intended recipient.

Been having real problems getting this blogsite to except my photos directly, so going to use Flikr.com to post the additional pictures... see above.