Okay, so shanghai part two.

The hostel I was in for the first night filled up so I left early in the morning to meet Wang Yan (a friend of sean and nicole's) with everything I came with on my back (to be fair, this is my normal school backpack full to bursting and a purse). She insisted on me coming home to stay with her and her family, which turned out to be the most amazing plan ever. We saw the painting and jade exhibits in the Shanghai museum, stood in line for almost an hour to eat the most famous Xiaolunbao in Shanghai at the yuyuan gardens (which in my opinion were inferior to the awesome xiaolunbao place by our house in taibei, to say nothing of ding tai fun), looked at a whole lot of cool architecture and chatted a lot. She told me a ton about the history of the city, and about the context in which the paiting exhibits existed in. Traveling through Shanghai with a scholar who was born there is a fantastic experience, I highly recommend it. 

Shanghai is in the midst currently of cleaning itself up in time for the world expo, so everything is in the process of being cleaned or torn up an rebuilt. In addition there are little propaganda signs everywhere trying to convince people not to spit any and everywhere that they like, or to shove people out of the way and cut in lines, especially around the subway ticket booth, good luck! Seeing these teeny little grammas elbowing past you is a fairly common sight.

Another completely random factoid about shanghai: it's known for having some of the best dressed girls in china, which as far as I can see is entirely true. Fashion is a big thing there, and everyone dresses to a T, very fashionable and cute...with me in smelly traveling gear I felt a bit outclassed, but I took notes, they have some very cute ideas. I was also totally impressed to the amount of walking that these women can do in teensy high heels! I prefer my hiking shoes thanks..they may not be too stylish, but they're a whole lot more comfortable. I took a walk down  their shopping district my first night there, it is a blaze of neon and shops, kind of like Kowloon in Hong Kong, but more condensed.

Anyways, I got to meet Wang Yan's family, play with her adorable and feisty little girl YueYue and meet Wang Yan's husband. They fed me full to bursting on really good shanghainese food, and before putting me on a train Wang Yan's husband made me dumplings, mmmm. So tasty. I then climbed into another little 6 bunks to a room train and slept until we reached Wuhan. More on that later.