Free Day hanging out in Shopping center in down town Shanghai

The picture on the right above is the entrance to our room. This was a relaxing morning, we had a day to do what we wanted.  Derek had a client he had to go meet with, so we just slept until we woke up.  We didn't go to breakfast until about 9:30.  You see the nice breakfast area in the photo above.  John got on the computer when we came back.  Rita and I washed some clothes in our room was a little washing machine.  



Derek got back about 1 p.m.  Above he is looking at the map to see where we want to go.  We wanted to go back to the Yu Garden, where we were yesterday and visit the big shopping area there.  Derek got us all in a taxi and off we went.  It had been raining all morning.  As you can see from above everyone had their umbrella.  I love the lions in front of most places, so have my picture taken with them.   I also think the big red lantern are so festive.




These pots caught Rita's eye, she loves to buy one from every county she visits.  I thought this one really represented China, and so that was the one she picked.   She got home with  without it being broken.




Rita was intrigued by some embroidery pictures, she wanted to frame it when she got home.  While her and Derek were looking at those,  John went with me to find a dragon to buy.  When we got back they were looking all over for us.  Derek and John decided to go shopping on their own.   Rita looked at Kimonos  this is where she brought her little grand daughter one.  We saw these beautiful butterfly kites, and Rita wanted to buy some, but didn't think they would survive the trip home without getting all broken up.   Here is the picture of the Dragon I brought isn't he a dandy.




The beautiful fans called to us, but we didn't buy any.  Food looked good, but we had eaten a good breakfast, then we went into this jewelery store.  We couldn't resist getting this Jade necklace and ear ring set, we each got one. 




We told Derek and John we would meet them at Star Buck at a certain time. After working around and buying some magnets of Shanghai and the great Wall of China, we took a little tour again in the Yu Garden, it was peaceful and away from the crowd.  We just wanted to enjoy it again.




We were on our way to meet Derek and John and I took these pictures, here's me under the feet of a Tiger.  We sat awhile in the place where we thought we were to met them.  They never came, so we thought we would walk around another area, and here we found them waiting by another Star Buck place.  That was lucky for both of us, as they didn't move and we did.  By then it was 4 p.m. so we caught a taxi and went back to our hotel.  It seemed a lot shorter way then the taxi driver took us this morning, I think he was trying to run his fare up as much as he could, from those dumb American's, us.  We needed  to rest up and get ready for Elaine to come get us and take us to the place down town to the Shanghai Center theater.  We were going to have dinner at the hotel but they were open until 6 p.m. and we had to leave before then, so we ended up going into the lounge and found a little place selling sandwiches, so that's what we had to eat.




Elaine didn't have her driver and so we had to go in two taxi's, as she went with us to show us where this Center Theater was down town.   It was a beautiful area, she had our tickets and helped us find our seats before she left.  We were own getting back to our hotel.




We had good seats close up in this Huge Theater.  It was so funny, Derek let us all in and we took our seats, and his was on the outer row, and when he sat down he sank down real low.   He had to go find someone to report his seat was broken.  So they came and took Derek and Rita closer up to the stage on another row.  So John and I stayed where we were.  The show started at 7 p.m and lasted until 9 p.m.  They had some pretty amazing acts.  One women came on with a card in her hand, and during her act, cards just came flying out of hands, we never saw her put her hands in her pocket or any thing.  It was just amazing.  I wish I could have taken a movie of it.  But they discouraged anyone from taking pictures.




Toward the end, people were taking pictures not using their flash so I took a few.  These kids in the picture were real entertaining.  At the end all the performers came on stage, so I got that.  We enjoyed the show very much.   When we got back to the hotel, Rita went down to lobby of the hotel to use the Internet.  I was still awake when she came back up.   I slept to long this morning so wasn't sleepy.   We have to be up at 5 a.m in the morning to fly to Xian, it is a city with an incredible history.   Look forward to that adventure.